Anxious atmosphere

Nong said he was scared by the anxious atmosphere at the health center when he first arrived in the village.

"The doctors comforted me for a whole day and showed me how to disinfect things. They told me that the students were cured and healthy, and the classroom was inside the health center and under the care of medics," Nong said.

During the first class he taught, the parents stood far away when they sent their children through the doors in case they frightened off the only teacher in the village.

"When I saw that the children were healthy and lively and their eyes were full of eagerness to learn, I could not run away, no matter how scared I was," Nong recalled.

He kept a distance from the 12 children ages 5 to 12 during that class, which was held in a 20-square-meter classroom in a renovated ward. He taught the older students how to hold a pen and they taught the younger children.

He was touched by the students' passion for learning and also relieved that he didn't become infected with any diseases.

Initially, Nong earned 19 yuan a month, but the villagers voluntarily raised a monthly subsidy of 35 yuan.

He was moved when he heard that they had steamed bank notes in a pressure cooker to kill any bacteria before giving them to him. Such repeated acts of kindness gradually made him determined to stay.

"I knew I had to keep my promise: I had to teach the children well and send them out of the village," Nong said.

In 1992, the first batch of students graduated from the primary school and enrolled in secondary schools outside the village. Nong remembers carrying their luggage and walking with them down the mountain for three hours to reach the county seat.