Dressed in a black cotton coat, 9-year-old Yongden Ram ran back and forth in the green space in front of her home, a golden football circling under her feet.
On the plateau at an altitude of 4,000 meters, the sky is as blue as a jewel, and the playground in front of the mountains is like a short blanket of greenery. The mountains are far away, and the eyes are empty, only the cement house behind them, which is the only building in this grassland.
Playing football for 2 years, from a shy, little girl who doesn't talk much, to the sonorous roses that run all over the field and dare to fight and grab, football has made this child grow a lot.
Embrace Demram on the green field. Courtesy of respondents
Kids who don't love sports
Seda, a hilly plateau in the northwest of Sichuan, is a hilly plateau with alpine folds, and most of the territory is above 4,000 meters above sea level, and the average annual temperature is below 0 °C. People who come here from the plains will encounter the dilemma of lack of oxygen, and the children who grow up on this plateau may be drunk with oxygen when they first arrive in the plains.
In 2020, Sang Cheng, a physical education teacher who has been working for 10 years, came here for the first time to teach, and in 2 years, he built a women's football team here, and now there are more than 80 players. Sang Cheng told reporters that his first impression of the children there was shy, did not like to talk, did not exercise much, boys are better, can play basketball, but the girls basically have no sports, he thought, should add some sports to the girls.
Volunteer teacher Sang Cheng led the children to train. Courtesy of respondents
Football is the project chosen by Sang to become the girls who go to school here, and at the beginning, Sang Cheng went to visit the homes of each student to persuade the parents of the children to let the children join the team, but in the end, more than 100 children, only about 30 joined.
Yongden Ram was one of the first players to join the team, but it didn't take long to quit.
Among the players, Yongden Ram is not very old, not tall, but her feet are very flexible, Sang Cheng feels that she has a lot of potential, and, in this environment where girls play very little sports, he does not want to give up any of the team members.
Sang Cheng didn't know why she didn't practice, the shy personality of the children made it difficult for him to understand what they were thinking, but after more than 10 years as a teacher, he had some of his own ways, he found Yong Deng Ram, let her return to the team, often praised her, gave her confidence, and in the end, Yong Deng Ram stayed.
Sang Cheng and the children. Courtesy of respondents
Finding a piece of hardened ground is not easy
The hilly plateau, full of natural meadows, green playgrounds, seems to be suitable for playing football everywhere, but the opposite is true. The naturally formed meadows are not flat, and pits hidden under the herbs may appear everywhere. It's not easy for soccer teams to find a suitable training ground, and Sang Cheng mostly attends classes on plastic playgrounds or hardened fields.
Seda is sparsely populated, and herders are scattered in the mountains, 20 or 30 kilometers away from the school, and it takes more than 1 hour to drive. The children in the school are basically day school and come home after school, so there is not much time to train. Not every child has the conditions to practice at home.
Kang Tso, who is 1 year younger than Yongden Ram, is also a shy child, she is physically better, can run, 8-year-old children can run all over the field, but do not like to communicate, which brings a lot of difficulties to training.
Kangcuo's home is far from the school, about 20 kilometers away, and when he returns home, he does not have much time to train to help the family herd their cattle. Sang Cheng once visited her home, and Sang Cheng told reporters that Kang Tso's parents are very protective of their children, worried that their children will be injured in training, and they are also worried that training will delay learning.
Kantso (dressed in black on the left) with his family. Courtesy of respondents
Eventually, Sang-sung persuaded Kang's parents to let her stay on the team and give her more training time. "The children are very strong, can endure hardships, and are very hard at the game." Sang Cheng said that he lamented the spirit of the children and hoped that they could get better development and enter a broader world, so for two years, he has been thinking of finding more opportunities for the children.
Kangcheng came to Seda in August 2020, and in December of that year, he found his first opportunity to exchange and study in The Wenjiang District of Chengdu, where he supported Seda, and that time, together with other teachers, he brought 19 students.
Children out of the plateau
The exchange and learning in Wenjiang is the first public welfare activity after the establishment of the football team, and it is also the first time that the children have stepped out of Seda. The reason why they are not bringing more children is because many parents are not at ease with their young children going far away.
The Seda women's football team exchanged in Wenjiang. Courtesy of respondents
Also 9-year-old YongZhongchemei participated in the event, her parents work in the government, better understand the outside world, but also more supportive of children's dreams, not only that, when going out to exchange, her parents sometimes follow the team, acting as life teachers.
Chung Chung Chee Mei (center) is training. Courtesy of respondents
For children who have never stepped out of the plateau, the first difficulty of going down the mountain is not transportation, nor funds, but drunken oxygen, Sang Cheng told reporters, from Sedan to Chengdu, the bus takes 14 hours, some children are drunk, motion sickness, several of their teachers and parents, are the whole process of taking care of those children who are not adapted, until they adapt to the environment.
Compared with hypoxia, the symptoms of drunken oxygen are much lighter and the recovery is faster. After resting, Sang Cheng took the children to the school where he used to work, felt the atmosphere of the city school, and communicated with the school team. They also take their children to amusement parks and zoos, play games that are not available on the plateau, and see animals that cannot be seen on the plateau.
For the 19 children, yamashita's world is novel and fun, and before they go home, they hope to come again, but they don't know if there is a chance to come back.
Sang Cheng is also thinking about this problem, "Children should understand the outside world and should have more opportunities to go farther, which can make them have higher ideals." ”
After joining the team and walking out of the plateau, the girls who play football do have different ideals, some children want to play in the national team, some children want to become the same football coach as Sang Cheng, but Sang Cheng feels that football should not only bring them, but also have richer and more colorful dreams.
Children who participate in the football team, some of the academic performance is not high, Sang Cheng feels that football should not be their only dream, but should become a medium to motivate their dreams, for this reason, they use football as an incentive, let the children not put down the school curriculum, he told the children, the academic performance is good, in order to continue to play football, in order to play the ball better, if the results are not good, it may reduce training, until the results improve before they can recover.
Children who dare to fight should have a better future
After the first outing, the effect quickly appeared, Sang Cheng cut the children's activities in the city into a short film, and after returning to show the parents, more parents began to trust them and agreed to the children to join the team. The team's staff quickly increased, and now there are more than 80 people.
Yongden Ram did not participate in the first trip, and her parents were a little uneasy. But by the second time, they handed the child over to the teacher.
In July 2021, Chengdu Wenjiang held a youth football invitational tournament, and Sang Cheng took the children to sign up.
The 8-year-old Kang Tso, like a hunter galloping on the plateau, runs fast on the field, fiercely steals, embraces the flexibility of Den Ram's feet, and embraces the ball of Loyalty and Beauty, which is very spiritual, and always has a stunning performance.
In the end, the children led by Sang Cheng won the second place in the 7-year-old group and the third place in the 9-year-old group. Since then, they have participated in more competitions and received more honors.
"The children on the plateau are physically fit, hard-working, and more yearning for the world under the mountain, and they deserve a better future." Sang Cheng said.
In just over a year, these children born and raised on the plateau have a completely different experience and see a more colorful world, and Sang Cheng feels that such an experience is precious, whether it is the children or himself. Therefore, after the end of the original 1 year of volunteer teaching, he applied for another 1 year. Continue to help the children at this place, which is 14 hours from Chengdu.
When he first arrived at Seda, Sang Cheng found that the children knew too little about the outside world, many children even did not speak Mandarin, and they were afraid to communicate with strange teachers, and after more than a year, they already had their own dreams, "Teach them football, take them to the farther world, I think, not only for football, what we want is to cultivate better children, so that they can go to the outside world, more able to adapt to the outside world." ”
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huaizong
Edited by Tang Zheng Proofreader Zhao Lin