Students in the lower grades were watering seedlings and potted plants under their teachers' guidance. Inside the classrooms, teachers were leading group activities or introducing students to the new environment around them. Outside, mothers were leaning on windowsills and contentedly watching what was going on in the classrooms...

I first visited the Tzu Chi Elementary School and Tzu Chi Junior High School in Indonesia 25 days before the opening of the schools. Newly recruited teachers were undergoing a series of intensive training courses in a room on the third floor of a school building. When the schools opened 25 days later, more than 400 students gathered in a brand-new environment to receive a brand-new education.

The schools were new, the students were new, and so were the teachers. Behind the newness of it all was the sanguine expectation of a better future.

The Tzu Chi elementary and junior high schools sit to the left of the main entrance to the Great Love Village. Almost all the students come from the village. The building that houses the schools is a three-story L-shaped structure that can accommodate 1,000 students (each school occupies a wing of the building). Aside from 36 classrooms, there is a cafeteria, a library, an activity center, and a music classroom. The junior high school also has a laboratory, a computer classroom, and a basketball court.

"Many schools in Indonesia are small," said Liu Su-mei, CEO of the Tzu Chi Indonesia branch office. "Sometimes a school has just five or six classrooms. There are no facilities to speak of. Some schools in the countryside even have holes in the roofs." Therefore, the Tzu Chi elementary and junior high schools, with their larger size and better facilities, rank among the better schools.

In a big classroom, some administrative staff workers were engrossed in typing on their computers. Nearly 40 newly recruited teachers were busily flipping through books, devising their teaching plans.

There I met Thomas Tukij, the principal of the elementary school, and Hudson Pardede, the principal of the junior high school. Both were local Indonesians.

Born in northern Sumatra, Pardede, who majored in English, is a Christian. He believes that all religions share a common goal--the pursuit of peace and a better life for human beings. So when he learned that Tzu Chi was a Buddhist organization, he did not change his mind about contributing his expertise to the new school.

"If the teachers here can cooperate closely and plan out the best teaching methods for the students, the future of our school will be more than promising." Facing a completely new school, Pardede was full of optimism. "I am confident I will do a good job. I believe more and more people will send their children to our school in the future."

Indonesia is a multiethnic country, and it takes love to maintain harmony. Pardede said, "Tzu Chi volunteers always wear a smile when they help others, and they even say thank you to those they lend a hand to. This special Tzu Chi culture is really worth learning from."

Compared with the staid, dignified Pardede, Tukij, the elementary school principal, was simple and ingenuous. He lived near the Great Love Village. Although he was a Catholic, he appreciated the ideals of Tzu Chi's humanistic education. He said he would do his best to direct the school.

A kingdom of smiles

In Indonesia, a teacher with ten years of experience can only earn one million rupiahs (US$114) per month. Low wages and poor benefits make it hard for schools to find teachers. That was why the Tzu Chi schools wanted to express their gratitude to the teachers who were willing to come by providing them with a good teaching environment, dormitories, and group insurance.

The training courses offered before the opening of the schools were intended to deepen the teachers' understanding of the humanistic culture, charitable ideals, and Great Love spirit of Tzu Chi. At the same time, it aimed to reassure the staff that Tzu Chi established schools not to preach religion, but to impart knowledge and spread love.

The curricula for the elementary school include religious education, citizenship, Indonesian language, mathematics, science, social science, art, crafts, music, and physical education. In addition to these, the junior high school also offers computer engineering, laboratory research, Chinese language, and Tzu Chi humanities courses (the latter two were sanctioned by the Education Bureau of the Indonesian government).

Although 85 percent of Indonesians are Muslims, the elementary and secondary schools in the country teach a great variety of religions to their students, including Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and others. "The Indonesian government promotes equality of all religions," Liu Su-mei explained, "and therefore it expects all students to receive a broad religious education."

Some of the female teachers at the Tzu Chi elementary and junior high schools wore headscarves--a sure indication that they were Muslims. One of them, Helmi Neltis, would be teaching Islam at the junior high school.

Neltis, who always wore a smile, said that she had read the newspaper advertisement for a teaching position at the junior high school. She did not know that the school was established by a Buddhist organization until she began taking the training courses. But she had once read in a magazine about Master Cheng Yen being given an international award. Neltis was touched by the love and philanthropic deeds of Tzu Chi people.

After a couple of days of intensive training, Neltis was tired but happy. "I never expected to work in such a nice environment. The scriptures I read have taught me that giving smiles is like giving alms. I did not believe it before. Now, at Tzu Chi, I seem to have come to a kingdom of smiles."

An affordable education for the poor

In Indonesia, elementary school education is compulsory. First and second graders attend school at 7 a.m. and are dismissed at 10; students from grades three to six leave school at 11. "The average school day is short. Nothing much can be taught in a semester. Students are often at loose ends after school," Teacher Ida Bagus voiced his opinion about the current educational situation in Indonesia.

Yet an even bigger problem in education is that many children are too poor to go to school. In order to receive an education, a child has to contribute 30,000 to over 100,000 rupiahs (US$3-11) towards school funds alone, not including monthly tuition and money for textbooks, uniforms, exams, report cards, and graduation certificates. These constitute a heavy burden on most financially strained families, and even more so for the villagers who originally lived on the banks of the Angke River and make their living by running little food stands, doing odd jobs, or collecting garbage.

Usually only private schools have environments and facilities as good as those provided by the Tzu Chi elementary and junior high schools. But private schools are far too expensive for most local people to afford. Children living in the Great Love Village are fortunate--they only have to pay a small amount of money for tuition if they come to study at the Tzu Chi schools. Everything else is free. "Children who study here are really lucky," said Neltis. "I will encourage them to seize the opportunity to work hard so that they will become useful people in the future."

In the 1960s, in the aftermath of an alleged Communist coup, the Indonesian government began restricting the use of the Chinese language; all Chinese books were banned, not to mention the teaching of Chinese at schools. Yet times have changed, and the ban has been lifted. Schools are now permitted to teach Chinese.

Principal Pardede introduced me to the only teacher who would teach Chinese at the elementary and junior high schools. Yun Tuo was born in Indonesia; his ancestors came from Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, mainland China. In explaining the Chinese language courses he was going to teach, he said, "I plan on starting with the Chinese phonetic symbols. Like telling a story, I will lead my students into the Chinese world step by step. My short-term goal will be to enable them to speak Chinese and to understand spoken Chinese in three years." He was proud of being able to teach Chinese to children who lived in the Great Love Village. "Chinese is a language widely used in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It will surely help our children to find decent jobs if they learn to speak and write it."

To welcome the students, the schools asked the teachers to cover the students' textbooks with plastic film. The teachers assembled in a classroom, cut the film into the required sizes, and pasted it onto the textbook covers. The new books looked even more shiny and beautiful. Neltis told me that in her seven years as a teacher, this was the first time she had ever covered textbooks for her students.

With the preparatory work finished, it was time for students to register. They had to hand in photographs, birth certificates, previous school records, and graduation certificates to be reviewed by teachers.

Lin Rusmini, wearing a white dress and a headscarf, nestled against her father while a teacher reviewed her documents. She had an innocent face and clever-looking eyes. About to enter seventh grade at the junior high school, she said with a smile, "I don't know anything about the Tzu Chi school, nor do I know what I will be learning in the future." Her family had just moved into the Great Love Village the day before, so she was still nervous about the new life facing her. Despite her nervousness, she responded to Tzu Chi volunteers' questions with smiles and friendly answers.

New uniforms bring joy to students

Before opening, the schools held an orientation to acquaint students with the new campus environment, their new schoolmates, and new teachers. In the square, lower grade students watered seedlings and potted plants under their teachers' guidance. Inside the classrooms, teachers introduced the school's new environment or led students in group activities while the students swung their arms around and shook their bodies. Outside, mothers leaned on windowsills and contentedly observed what was going on inside the classrooms.

As the opening day of school approached, the campus atmosphere became more and more vibrant. On that day, uniforms and school supplies were to be handed out to students. Tzu Chi volunteers gathered in a classroom early in the morning to pack the items. Each packaged set consisted of a schoolbag, two sets of uniforms, an athletic uniform, a hat, and a pair of shoes. Liu Su-mei, who also helped out at the site, said that all the items had been donated by local entrepreneurs. Some people would also provide free bread and milk for students so they could enjoy nutritious breakfasts every morning.

Some of the children who had just received their supplies immediately put their schoolbags on their backs. Some began to toy with each school item, and some were so overjoyed that they began to sing.

First-grader Emil Salim was the first to put on his uniform. He clapped his hands happily, wagged his head and sang, "Rainbow, rainbow, God created a beautiful world."

When Abdul Malik, who was entering seventh grade, saw Tzu Chi volunteers, he immediately held out his hands to shake theirs. "I'm so happy to receive the brand-new school supplies!"

Umah, a twelve-year old with beautiful, big eyes, was also entering junior high school. "The last school I went to didn't hand out schoolbags and uniforms to us, and there were very few activities. But the Tzu Chi school is so big, beautiful, and quiet."

A school constructed with love

Opening day finally arrived. Students sporting new uniforms, shoes, schoolbags, and hats walked at a leisurely pace into the classrooms. In the school playground, I saw Rusmini wearing her school hat. Under her hat she still had on her headscarf. She repeatedly practiced marching up and down the platform because she was the student representative who would read the school regulations during the opening ceremony.

The two principals led the students of both schools and the Tzu Chi volunteers to participate in the ceremony. Teacher Neltis, holding a microphone in her hand, was the emcee.

The ceremony proceeded in due order under Neltis's guidance. Three students carrying a national flag goose-stepped into the meeting place. The flag was then hoisted into the sky accompanied by the solemn strains of the national anthem:

Indonesia, our native country,
Our birthplace,
Where we all arise to stand guard
Over this our Motherland:
Indonesia our nationality,
Our people and our country.
Come then, let us all exclaim
Indonesia united.

As soon as the students finished singing the national anthem, Rusmini went up onto the platform to read the school regulations. Neltis held the microphone for her. Undaunted by the presence of the large assembly of people, Rusmini read the statutes fluently. One could not help but admire her for her unencumbered performance.

Then principal Pardede gave a speech. He encouraged the students to study hard, to be respectful towards their parents, and to be good to their friends. He also reminded them to help keep the campus in orderly condition so that their younger brothers and sisters could later enjoy the same good environment and facilities.

Huang Jung-nien, vice CEO of the Tzu Chi Indonesia branch office, told the children, "The schools were built with love. Although they cannot compare with other top-notch schools, we have very good teachers and we aim to give our students a better future."

Forty children then appeared on the stage to perform the Tzu Chi sign language song, "Gratitude to Heaven, Gratitude to Earth." They expressed their heartfelt appreciation through graceful hand and arm movements.

When the ceremony came to a close, the principals and faculty members shook hands with the volunteers. This was a joyous moment. A whole year's diligent efforts had finally born fruit. I was greatly moved by the festive atmosphere. Neltis walked towards me to hold my hand, her face showing gratitude and contentment, as if she were saying, "The schools have really opened..."

The schools had finally opened and begun to operate smoothly. Children scribbling on blackboards, practicing writing their names in notebooks, and answering teachers' questions about what they wanted to do in the future--these images reverberated in my mind.

When the airplane flew over the equator and took me back to Taiwan, Neltis, Rusmini, and I would be far apart, they in the Southern Hemisphere and I in the Northern Hemisphere. But I believed Neltis would be holding a crayon and diligently teaching her students, and Rusmini would be assiduously learning her lessons.

I remembered that Eko Raharjo, the citizenship teacher, once said, "Communication, union, respect, understanding--these are all traits stressed in our traditional Indonesian culture. Tzu Chi's educational ideals are helping us to recover the essential qualities of our culture."

During the opening ceremony, when the red festoon that hung on top of the three-story school building was being unfastened, a corner of it floated cheerfully in the sky. It seemed to signify that the tenacious life force of the Tzu Chi elementary and junior high schools would forever brave the wind and fly high in the sky.