School is where the home is

DONGXIANG, Gansu When she arrived at Zhaojia Elementary School on a recent rainy Sunday, Ma Lan apologized for wearing a pair of muddy boots.

It took her one-and-half hours to traverse a 7-kilometer dirt road from Gantugou, where she works at a community school for 82 children from the village and its vicinity.

"You can imagine how much longer it would have taken for a child to come to attend the Zhaojia school, the only learning facility for children at Gantugou and three other villages before 2003," the 38-year-old teacher said.