Besides refunding tuition， buying needed equipment for theschools， and letting each student and teacher celebrate Teacher’s Dayor International Children’s Day， David has also， for the last three winterholidays， taken teachers to Guangdong’s Enyi Schools for training，exchange of ideas and even a chance to see the ocean.xMa Xiaohong is a teacher at Machang Enyi School. This SpringFestival she and five other Dongxiang teachers， led by David， togethertraveled two days and two nights on hard seat trains to Guangdong’
s Chaoyang Enyi School. Previous to this trip， Ma Xiaohong hadnever been to Lanzhou or been on a train. “Getting to see the ocean，my goodness， it was like forgetting all my troubles.” As she spoke hergreat excitement about the trip was still clearly visible.
David was especially proud of the fact that， although he wastaking six people on a train journey during the Spring Festival， andhad to change trains twice， he was still able to ensure each person aseat and only spent 143 yuan per person from Lanzhou to Guangzhou.
“How did you manage that?” I asked in disbelief.
He then took out a beat-up， dog-eared national train schedulebook and explained how to buy “through tickets”， how to pick trainsthat aren’t expresses and have no air-conditioning （for a lower price），and then how to arrange with train conductors and station masters toboard trains first and use his tall body to hold seats.
“The whole trip was a learning experience for these teachers， claimed David.
After returning to Dongxiang he collected all the tickets and receiptsfor the trip. These were used to verify how much money wasused and for what purposes. They are sent along with explanatorythank-you letters mailed to the donors.
David writes such letters for all uses of money， not just for travelprojects. The records are also kept in triplicate， one for himself， onefor the schools and one for the education commission.
“No one requires you to do this. Why create so much troublefor yourself?” I asked while flipping through his ledger， which documentedeverything from construction fees totaling tens of thousands totelephone fees of a few yuan.
“How could I not do it? People donate their money to me. It’s theleast I can do to be responsible.” This is said slightly louder than normal，he is seemingly a little angry with me.
Possibly because of his way of “being responsible”， many donorscontinue to send money， with one individual having donated ninetimes already.
David’s meticulousness and diligence can be seen in many otherthings he does.
At Qiya School he made sure to point out an old style amplifierto me. He claims to have found it at the Lanzhou second hand market.
“It’s a 1973 model， but it’s just like new because it was never used; itwas probably stored in some warehouse and forgotten. It’s top qualityand only 80 yuan.” He has also bought bookshelves from the usedfurniture market and bargained with an Internet bar to buy their oldcomputer desks.
306 In 2002， an insurance firm in Shanghai donated six of their obsoletecomputers for Dongxiang through David. Truly a good thing forDongxiang， right? Again， David couldn’t refuse the responsibility.
In July， the six computers arrived in Lanzhou， and David headachebegan.
By the time the verification had arrived in Dongxiang， the goodshad waited past the normal pick-up period. Just to retrieve them fromthe station， David had to pay an extra handling charge. But by thattime the Dongxiang schools were already on summer holiday. It wouldbe unwise to leave the computers in the schools unsupervised for thebreak. The two crates full of six computers thus occupied a place inthe home of David’s friends in Lanzhou for the summer.
He made use of each visit to Lanzhou to locate cheap computerdesks from Internet bars. The Qiya School had been constructed onlya short time earlier; the school was still without electricity. The othertwo schools’ power supplies were far too unstable for computer use.
With power outages common， each school would need a transformeror UPS. Power strips， electric cords， even dust cloths to protect theequipment from Dongxiang sand and dirt all had to be bought.
In October the insurance company called David to request a fewphotos of the students using the computers. David had to apologeticallyadmit that the computers were not quite in use yet. The dissatisfieddonors asked David if he couldn’t possibly “find a little bit of timeto attend to this matter”。
A little later David was finally able to rent a truck and move thecomputers and desks into the places prepared for them： three at Machang，two in Baoling and one at Qiya.
The desks had to be disassembled for the trip so David put themtogether one at a time. The schools’ teachers were all computer illiterate，not even knowing how to turn one on. David had to teach themone by one.
None of these schools has a telephone. Without a phone line，using the internet is out of the question. The computers are used forlearning typing and using some educational software.
Yet there was still a problem： two of the computers had had theirWindows system softwareerased. What could be donewith a ’96 computer usingDOS， without even a CD-Romto install anything?
In the end David calculatedthat he had had to spend2，500 yuan on the computers，not counting the value of all histime and effort.
Another time， 1，000 yuanhad been given to David. Hetold the donating party that heplanned to use the money tobuy some plastic water pipingto bring water to the BaolingSchool. The donor requestedthat， for accounting purposes，David send the official receipt of the purchase along with a certification，verified by the township and county governments！
“We’re in the backwaters. Much of what goes on here is not donethe way it is elsewhere.” But the donor is always right， right? Whatcan you do but just accept some hassles for the sake of the cause?
