One pleasant result of my trip to Dazhai, Yunnan, last week was meeting the Teach for China fellows there. River and Richard and Tom and Gareth, a nice crew:

It seems that Tom and Gareth blog about their experiences, and some of their stories are quite revealing of life in a rural Chinese middle school.

One post by Gareth is especially moving:

I'm writing this post with a particularly heavy heart. Forgive me if this post seems too emotional or is difficult to read, but blogging seems as good an outlet as any to channel sorrow. Yesterday, I learned of an awful tragedy. I have a student whose father recently passed away. His name is Jake. Jake is a quiet boy who doesn't do so well in school, but tries hard and is rarely naughty. He hasn't been at school much for the last couple of weeks and I just learned the reason; his family is coping with this tremendous loss. The circumstances of Jake's father's death are not very pleasant, but bear telling because we're talking about one of my students–whom I'm collectively beginning to love just as I hope to love my own children someday–and the challenges that he is facing during these difficult weeks, and will continue to face for the rest of his life, when his family calls upon him to provide for them in ways that his father will never be able to again, now that he, just 12 years old, is the only "man" left in his household….

Read the whole thing…

Tom's writing tends to the lighter side; here's an amusing story of a love note:

My kids love writing notes, and some are nicer than others. I never understood how my teacher knew I was up to no good, but now I know it's probably because I had an undeniable look of "I'm doing something wrong" on my face. I know that look very well now because of my students….

Love and death and everything in between: that's what these guys are living in Dazhai.  Check out their blogs:

This is China

糟糕

Their kids are great: