Chapter 22: A Poor Mountain Village!

After strapping his things to the motorcycle, Daniel set off. He rode for over an hour, bumping and stumbling along the way, and still hadn’t arrived. He vaguely remembered his father saying that it would take at least a day to walk to the remote village deep in the mountains! It seemed this village was indeed terrifyingly remote. At this rate, it would take at least three hours to get there, Daniel cursed as he drove. He endured the rugged mountain road, a series of potholes within potholes, a truly treacherous ride. The swaying sensation was worse than riding a roller coaster.

The further in he went, the narrower the road became. Although the scenery was lush and green everywhere, Daniel cursed inwardly, wondering why there wasn’t a single person to ask for directions. After riding for another half hour, he finally saw a man chopping wood by the roadside. After asking him carefully, he continued on his way. After a while, he vaguely saw Kaseri Village. It looked as if it had just been swept away by a flood. The houses were all dilapidated mud-brick houses. During the day, everyone was working in the fields, so the village seemed rather deserted.

Seeing a national flag floating in the distance on an open field, Daniel immediately headed towards it. However, a small river blocked his path. He glanced at the water; it wasn’t deep, but a motorcycle wouldn’t make it across. Just as he was wondering what to do, a thin old man came along on a bamboo raft and asked,

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Daniel thought that this small village was probably too remote and no one usually came here, so the boatman found it strange that a stranger had come. He quickly said, “I’m here to see my aunt. She teaches here! Her name is Grace.”

The old man laughed immediately upon hearing this, and after pushing the bamboo raft over, he helped Daniel carry his things onto it: “Our village can’t be crossed by bike, so I’ll give you a ride! Teacher Miller is a good person. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t know where our children would be going. You’re the first person to visit her in all these years, she’ll definitely be very happy. Just leave the bike here, I’ll watch it for you.”

After Daniel carried the things upstairs, the old man kept talking about how good his aunt was and how the people in his village had wronged her.

After reaching the other side, the old man found another donkey cart to help Daniel move his things. He patted Daniel and said, “Don’t worry, kid. Stay here and keep Teacher Miller company. If anyone dares to touch this cart, I’ll strangle them.”

After thanking the man, Daniel chatted with the man pulling the donkey cart. He learned that Kaseri Village was much poorer than he had imagined. Although every household had a lot of land, they couldn’t harvest their grain at the end of the year. Their meager earnings were only enough to buy seeds, not fertilizer, so crop yields kept declining. This cycle only led to further poverty. The children in the mountains had to walk for more than ten hours to reach the nearest primary school.

Later, the village built a simple school, but the village head went to the town to hire teachers. Each teacher they hired couldn’t stay more than two days before quitting due to the hardship and lack of pay. Then, the young woman resolutely stayed to teach the children, working diligently even when she was sick, making everyone in the village feel indebted to this young teacher.