First Secretary Ma Maomao does not act as a passerby, but genuinely does practical things for the villagers

Does not act as a passerby, genuinely does practical things for the villagers

-- A profile of Ma Maomao, First Secretary of Futou Village, Nancun Town, Zezhou County

????Ma Maomao chats with villager Yuan Xianguo, looking at Yuan Xianguo's family photo together. Photo by Guan Yun, reporter of this newspaper

In the southwest of Nancun Town, Zezhou County, there is a small mountain village called Futou Village, where the well water is sweet, the environment is beautiful, and the local people are honest and simple. The elderly left behind in the village live simple lives, while young people who go out to work leave and return, return and leave again. No one pays attention to the mountains and rivers here, and Futou Village's impoverished appearance has not changed much for many years.

In August 2015, Ma Maomao, who worked at the Zezhou County Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, went to Futou Village to serve as First Secretary. When she first arrived in the village, she was attracted by the beautiful mountain scenery, which gave her a bigger idea: develop tourism in Futou Village and make the people rich. As a result, the still waters of Futou Village rippled, and gratifying changes took place.

A family photo opened the hearts of the villagers

On July 13, the reporter walked into Futou Village. Meeting Ma Maomao for the first time, this post-1985 First Secretary was lively and generous. Although she is small in stature, her past military career has given her a backbone of fortitude and tenacity. When asked why she gave up an office job to become a First Secretary in the countryside, her answer was very certain: to change her work environment and make her life richer and more colorful.

From a familiar environment to an unfamiliar one, the biggest difficulty is "communication." From an office with comfortable working conditions to the grassroots level, which is poorer in every respect, the most practical issue is "adaptation." Ma Maomao also encountered such problems. The party branch secretary of Futou Village is in his 50s, while she is post-1985, so a generation gap inevitably emerged. She wanted to communicate deeply with the village cadres, but did not know how to put things into words, and this problem kept troubling her.

After Ma Maomao took office, the first thing she wanted to do was quickly become one with the people here, so that the villagers would understand her and accept this "outsider."

But things were not that simple. Ma Maomao found that Futou Village had more than 40 households and 170 people, but only about 30 permanent residents, all elderly people left behind. The old people said behind her back: "This girl from the city has just come to our village to get some experience and relax, and then she will go back." When the villagers saw her, they would do no more than greet her symbolically, and no one took this First Secretary seriously.

Ma Maomao did not become discouraged, still less did she think of backing out. She made small cards with her name and phone number and gave them to these elderly people, repeatedly telling them that they could look for her no matter what happened. After work, she would also take the initiative to chat with the elderly and do whatever physical work she could. Over time, Ma Maomao discovered that the children of these elderly people worked elsewhere and their grandchildren studied elsewhere, and what they missed most was still their own relatives. Thinking of this, an idea popped into her mind: take a family photo for these elderly people so that when they missed their relatives they could take it out and look at it.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2016, Ma Maomao brought a group from the Zezhou County Photographers Association and went door to door taking family photos for the villagers. When the photos were delivered to everyone's hands, many elderly people were very moved and hung them one after another in the most conspicuous places at home. The reporter came to the home of the elderly Wei Xiaoxiang and Yuan Xianguo, and the couple smilingly took out their family photo. Yuan Xianguo said: "This girl is really thoughtful. We have lived so long and never had a family photo taken, and it is even 20 inches large."

In order to communicate promptly with the young people working elsewhere, Ma Maomao set up a WeChat group, posted some village matters in the group, and often talked in the group about the elderly people's recent lives. As time went by, everyone gradually accepted this young First Secretary.

One photo warmed the whole village, and one WeChat group brought everyone's hearts closer. The reporter followed Ma Maomao on a walk around the village, and all along the way there was everyone's care and greetings: "Girl, come home for lunch at noon!" "It has been damp these days, remember to take the quilt out to dry!" Now, Ma Maomao has truly become a person of Futou Village.

One hike, one mountain climb to explore the route

When she went to the village as First Secretary, Ma Maomao initially did not dare expect to achieve much. As long as she could ensure that she did not hold back the work or cause trouble for the village, she would feel at ease. But in practice, when she mentioned Futou Village to friends, none of them knew this village, and even some people who had once worked in Nancun Town did not know it. This deeply touched Ma Maomao, and she decided to make Futou Village famous.

According to what the villagers said, Futou Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides. In particular, Fotou Mountain by the village has a good environment and a high vegetation coverage rate. Every summer, a cool breeze blows, making it a good place to escape the summer heat. Locally, there is a saying, "If you want to be cool, go up Fotou." There are also many scenic spots on the mountain, each with its own story. For example, there is a temple on Fotou Mountain, and trenches left by the Japanese invaders during the war of aggression against China remain. Shenxian Seat is said to be where Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, and his attendants rested. Even more amazing is that this village has as many as 7 pairs of twins. Calculated by population ratio, this is even more than Lu Village, and the villagers all say it is related to the well water here. Futou Village has the resources to develop rural tourism, so why not make something of this?

Ma Maomao talked about her idea with village party branch secretary Wei Jiwang, but unexpectedly had cold water poured on it. Wei Jiwang said to her: "Developing rural tourism requires large investment and brings slow results. Our village is poor and blank. What do we have to develop tourism? You should just work steadily."

Ma Maomao is a stubborn girl. Once she has made up her mind about something, she never gives up easily. Through two things, she won the support of Wei Jiwang and the villagers. The first thing was a hike. How far the village is from the urban area and how long it takes to get there by car were things the villagers could only say roughly, and no one could say precisely. To grasp first-hand information, she had to go and see the actual route. For this reason, without telling anyone in advance, she made a more than 4-hour hiking "trip" from the urban area to the village. As soon as she arrived in the village, she found Wei Jiwang and told him about her experience: "From the western section of Fengtai Street in the urban area to the village, it is 18.3 kilometers in total, requiring 27,000 steps and 4 hours on foot, and more than 20 minutes by car. This is the exact distance. It is very fast and convenient for city people to come to the village!"