蛇蝎美人第二季
From 5,000 USD to 50,000 trees: an American teacher and a Chinese woman's efforts to green a desert_我的网站
一 |
"I knew you would come early and sit here until four o'clock and then knock on my door," Sakolsky told Xinhua reporters with a grin. "That's why I was outside." It was, he said, just the way he remembered Chinese people doing things.
His waiting outside was a small gesture of thoughtfulness, one that hinted at a friendship forged nearly three decades earlier between a veteran middle school world history teacher from Plum, a leafy suburb east of Pittsburgh, and a rural Chinese woman who devoted decades to holding back the shifting sands of the Mu Us Desert.
In 1999, while working as an English teacher in China, Sakolsky was moved to tears by a TV report about Yin Yuzhen, a rural Chinese woman who was trying to hold back the shifting sands of the Mu Us Desert in northern China by planting trees. He spent two months raising 5,000 U.S. dollars to help Yin, then a stranger.
Now 69, Sakolsky will return to China this month for his third visit, traveling from Beijing to Luoyang and finally to the Mu Us Desert. He looks forward to reuniting with Yin, giving her a big hug and planting another tree beside her, where shifting sands have given way to a forest roughly 50,000 trees strong.
"It's a miracle," he told Xinhua recently. "There's no other word than it's a miracle."
A JOURNEY HE NEVER PLANNED
Sakolsky's modest two-story home in Plum is not where one might expect an international story to begin. He bought it 32 years ago and raised his family there with Barbara, his wife of 46 years. They have four children and eight grandchildren.
High on one living room wall, "The Sakolskys," in large letters, crowns a display of framed family photos surrounding the words: "Family is where our story begins. Life takes us to unexpected places. Love brings us home."
Asked to sum up his worldview in three words, Sakolsky answered without hesitation: family, respect, kindness -- the values that have anchored his life.
"Family first," he said. "I'm a family man."
That makes what he did in 1999 all the more striking. In his forties, in a doctor's waiting room, he spotted a tiny magazine advertisement recruiting Americans to teach English in China. Without hesitation, he applied, flew to New York for an interview, and was offered the position.
His parents were stunned and came all the way from Florida to talk him out of it: He had four children and a stable teaching career. His oldest daughter was a high school senior, while his youngest son was entering elementary school. But his daughters supported him.
"My dad said, 'You're crazy. How are you going to go away for a year? You have four children, a wife and a house to take care of.' Then he looked at my girls and said to them, 'Are you going to let your dad go to China for that long?'"
"And my girls looked at their grandfather, and I'll never forget this. They said to him, "Whatever dad wants to do, we support him."
With his family's blessing, Sakolsky left for Beijing, then traveled by train to Luoyang three days later. When he arrived at about 9 p.m. that night, the platform was almost empty and dimly lit. For a moment, he felt uneasy until he spotted two Chinese teachers holding up a piece of cardboard with his name written across it.
Teaching at Luoyang Foreign Language School was only one part of Sakolsky's life in China. One of the earliest "lessons" he learned came from watching children kick an empty Coca-Cola bottle between two stones serving as goalposts.
At first, he was puzzled by how they could play without a real soccer ball. "Then I realized it didn't matter to them," Sakolsky said.
"They could play the game, laugh and have fun with a plastic bottle," he said. "So China taught me to appreciate the simple things in life. You don't have to have a lot of money, you don't have to have a big car and a fancy house, and you can still be happy. That was a big lesson that I learned right away."
Beyond the classroom, Sakolsky often volunteered at nearby schools and villages and traveled with Chinese colleagues during school holidays, sharing modest guesthouses, simple meals and long train rides.
Sakolsky told Xinhua such experiences helped him break the ice with his Chinese colleagues, who eventually treated him just like one of them. "That's what I wanted," he said.
Sakolsky also told Xinhua that shortly after he arrived in China, his hosts gave him a Chinese name, Long Fu, or "Happy Dragon."
"I like dragons," he said, laughing, "and I laugh a lot."
A MIRACLE HE NEVER IMAGINED
Every evening in Luoyang, Sakolsky watched a half-hour English news broadcast before heading downstairs to practice tai chi with elderly neighbors.
Then, on an autumn evening in 1999, a brief TV report caught his eye. On the screen was Yin, planting trees by hand with her husband to push back the advancing sands of the Mu Us Desert, he remembered.
The story stayed with him. "I was so touched in the heart, I started to cry," he recalled nearly 30 years later. "I honestly cannot tell you why. Something just happened to me. I just felt like I needed to help."
Over the next two months, Sakolsky spent his evenings contacting more than a dozen organizations across the United States, determined to help the woman he knew only from that five-minute broadcast. After a series of setbacks, a Boston-based charity agreed to provide a 5,000-U.S. dollar grant with no strings attached.
He then spent weeks helping coordinate the cross-border paperwork and communications. By the end of December, word finally came that the money had reached China and was on its way to Yin.
"I expected nothing," he said. "You don't give something expecting something in return. I wanted to thank China and help her make China more beautiful. That was all. I didn't need a thank-you or anything else."
He heard nothing more about the donation until the following May, when the school told him he needed to take a week off for a trip. When he asked his Chinese colleague, Bai Fan, and the New York-based coordinator of the exchange program where he was going, both gave the same reply: "I know, but I cannot tell you, you will cry."
He was flown to Hohhot, the regional capital. At dinner, as Sakolsky sat facing the door, it swung open, and in walked a woman in a pink jacket.
"That's the lady from television!" he recalled. "I jumped out of my seat, and I ran up to Ms. Yin and gave her a big hug."
The next morning, before an audience of about 500 people, Sakolsky was asked to give an impromptu speech. He remembers little of the 20-minute address except its core message: Americans and Chinese "must focus on our similarities and not on our differences," and can work together to plant a forest in the desert.
Afterward, they drove for four hours. "No roads, no timber, no houses," he recalled. "We were just driving over sand dunes in the desert."
When the vehicle finally stopped, there was nothing but sand stretching to the horizon. Then Yin emerged from a hollow in the dunes, where she had been digging for water to irrigate her young trees.
Yin showed him how to plant the trees, which he thought would grow only about knee-high to hold back the sand. "I never thought that it was going to be a 50,000-tree forest," he said. "Back then, I said this was impossible (turning this desert into a forest), but she did it, she and her helpers."
That night, Yin and her husband welcomed him into their home. Nearly three decades later, he still remembers the homemade noodles Yin cooked for him. "Delicious," he recalled softly.
Earlier this year, Yin launched an online search for the American teacher who had helped her plant the first trees. The story eventually reached Sakolsky, who was stunned to learn that the forest had grown to roughly 50,000 trees.
"Fifty thousand trees!" he exclaimed. "I cannot believe it."
Then came photos showing a building and a road where there had been nothing but sand in 1999. "When I go back, I will be amazed," he said. "It's a miracle. There's no other word for it."
Sakolsky insisted that Yin was the real hero. "I'm not the hero of this story," he said. "Ms. Yin is the hero. I just helped."
"Since she was a child, she always wanted to beautify China. It was a lifetime dream of hers, and she has accomplished her dream," he said.
A REUNION HE NEVER EXPECTED
For more than two decades, Sakolsky and Yin lost touch, but China never really left him. His home is filled with reminders of those years: a Year of the Dragon card, a calligraphy scroll, paintings of peonies and pandas, a wooden dragon made by his children, and even a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his first dinner in Luoyang, kept as reminders of Chinese hospitality, though he has never smoked.
Downstairs, in the basement, stands a nearly six-foot replica of a Terracotta Army general, a gift he received after returning to teach in Luoyang in 2004. It stood in his classroom for 17 years before he brought it home upon retiring. Now, he hopes his youngest son, also an educator, will one day give it a place in his own office.
Based on his experience in China, Sakolsky summed up his impression of the Chinese people in three words: respect, simplicity and patriotism. He called China's decades-long fight against desertification remarkable in terms of both scale and dedication.
"China also, with what Ms. Yin did with the forest, taught me how much love the Chinese have for their country," he said. "She was making like no money and still planting the trees. That's what got to my heart."
"The fact that Chinese people are willing to sacrifice and give back because they love their motherland is awesome," he added.
In June, while traveling in Australia, Sakolsky was recognized by a woman from Singapore who had seen a video about his story.
"She was like, 'Oh my god, there are millions of people who have watched this video!'" he recalled, still astonished.
"I'm just a simple teacher," he said. "I live a simple life ... I have four fantastic children and eight fabulous grandchildren, and that's what I love. I never thought anything like this was ever going to happen."
Sakolsky is set to travel to China for a trip late this week.
Asked what he wants to do first when he sees Yin again, he didn't hesitate: "Give her a big hug."
He also hopes they can plant trees side by side once more. For Sakolsky, the reunion holds great significance.
"We're all humans. We all love our families, we all love life, we all love the Earth. We all want peace," he said.
He suggested that everyone can work together to create a peaceful world. "It's not an easy thing, and not a quick thing. It will take time, but it can be done."
"(If) the goal is strong enough, and you don't quit every time you face an obstacle, (if) you keep going, (then) you'll reach the goal. That's what Ms. Yin did."
。 新加坡这么小的地方，还是有人要将新加坡人按照住址区分开来。
二 | （OneMap截图） 作者 许耀泉一般来说，任何国家都要幅员相当广阔，人们才会按地区和习俗来区分彼此。
三 | 但新加坡人即使住在这个弹丸小国上，还会在自己人当中为一件事争得面红耳赤：是East side best side还是West side best side? 东部西部，孰劣孰优？别笑话了，乘搭地铁一个多小时就能从新加坡的一端到达另一端，还硬要分东西？ 但新加坡人为了这个话题甚至还会“选边站”，给自己冠上Easties（东边人）和Westies（西边人）的名称。在学者看来，这不是笑话，反而显示了新加坡人的国家身份认同正日益加强。但是我们先看看新加坡东西部居民之间这场没完没了的争执。
四 | 东部两大王牌：东海岸公园、樟宜机场 东海岸公园既是广受新加坡人欢迎的沙滩公园，还让周围的住宅摇身一变成为濒水住宅。
五 | （海峡时报）综合网上的讨论和平时与东西部居民的交谈所闻，住在新加坡1东部隐约给人一种“高人一等”的感觉，主要的原因跟地理位置有关：新加坡最受欢迎的东海岸公园，就在东部。关键倒不在东海岸公园本身，而是公园附近的居民基本上都住在濒水住宅嘛，谁人不爱？ 东部居民的另一个杀手锏就更厉害了，那就是樟宜机场。
六 | 樟宜机场除了是新加坡人出国回国的必经之地，本身也是个景点，但它还给东部带来另一个好处，那就是限制了新加坡东部多个地区的建筑高度。因此，当地跟新加坡其他高楼林立的地区就变得不太相同，辨识度也立刻提高了。能说“世界最高的室内瀑布，就在我家附近”，应该只有新加坡东部居民吧？（海峡时报）美食也是东部居民喜欢挂在嘴边的另一个卖点，君不见如切一带，一排排翻新得美轮美奂的旧店屋里头，满是一家家售卖各色佳肴美馔的餐馆？就算要比小贩中心，东部的勿洛85小贩中心和樟宜村小贩中心，就足以令不少新加坡人称羡了。就连新加坡女艺人庄米雪也忍不住在一段视频中调侃道：西部在裕廊飞禽公园搬走之后，还剩下什么？果然是名副其实鸟不生蛋的地方！ 新加坡东部的种种优势，甚至有其历史根源。国立大学政策研究所研究员Melvin Tay和Mathew Mathews在5月初刊登于《海峡时报》的一篇联名评论中指出，根据新加坡1957年人口普查，新加坡东部的人口密度已经高于西部，城市化的速度也更快。其中，芽笼士乃、勿洛和实乞纳这些组屋区当时已经开始建设，为东部居民的社区认同感奠下基础。相比之下，新加坡西部地区在同一个时期以农业和工业活动为主，居民所居住的甘榜也相隔较远。西部两大卖点：大自然风貌、高等学府住在西部的蚁粉现在是不是想拍案而起，列举当地的一些优点？ 这不是其他国家，而是新加坡铁道走廊的一部分噢。（市区重建局提供）Westies会说，相对于东部大片大片的水泥森林，真正的绿意要在西部才找得到，毕竟，新加坡大部分自然保护区、裕华园与星和园这两座老牌公园、近年落成的裕廊湖公园，加上郁郁葱葱的铁道走廊（Rail Corridor），都在西部。新加坡不少名校、理工学院，和两所世界排名名列前茅的大学都在哪里？没错，就在西部。
七 | 西部也不乏美食，文礼的椰浆饭、达曼裕廊小贩中心，都是西部居民的心头好。新加坡好几所高等学府和名校都坐落在西部，如图中的国立大学。（海峡时报）公说公有理，婆说婆有理，虽然开车不到半小时就能往返新加坡的东部和西部，还是有新加坡人硬要把新加坡人划分为东部和西部居民，在Melvin Tay和Mathew Mathews看来，这种区域性的身份认同对人们来说还是现实存在的，还会随着新加坡日后的发展和蜕变，继续生存也演变下去。因此，即使一些东部居民出于某种优越感不愿意搬迁到新加坡西部，这种身份认同仍印证了新加坡在打造家园这方面的成功。
八 | 既是如此，欢迎Easties和Westies继续争辩下去，红蚂蚁就当一次吃瓜群众好了。
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