Yesterday I returned from my volunteer work in 绵竹, 九龙村. The experience was eye opening and has deeply affected me in many ways. During my stay there I acted as the homeroom teacher for grade three, additionally I also taught English and Music to other classes.
Firstly a bit of a history/geography lesson. The area that I visited is a two hour drive from 成都, the capital of 四川. Instead of working in the city, most of my work was in the country side; an area that was greatly effected by the quake. During rescue efforts the mayor of 绵竹 thought it was a great idea to let rescue workers think that the village was self sufficient. Bad choice. Because of his actions, many people that would have otherwise been saved died under the rubble. The mayor apparently quit his job soon after. The country side itself is stunningly beautiful, wide open fields with a thunderous mountain range in the distance. It is a place where time simply stops and you stand still feeling the cool wind in your face. The school that I taught at was 红心学校 or Red Heart School, one of the first tent schools to be built after the disaster.
I arrived on a humid Sunday afternoon expecting to see a lot of teachers. I met one. His name was Mr. Luo, a grad student from the Peking University currently studying computer science. He informed me that all the teachers except himself had gone to 成都 for a little break and he had opted to stay behind to take care of the school. Later I would learn that Mr. Luo was and still is an amazing teacher, all his energy is focused in to the children. He would sometimes leave for house visits in the afternoon only to come back late at night, sometimes even after dinner (this somehow became a running joke of how he would bring back breakfast). Compared to him most of us volunteers there (myself included) have not done enough. Learning that I had not had lunch yet we ate together. One bowl of instant noodles between the both of us, I knew times would be tough.
Later in the day I was taken to the tent where I would sleep for the week. Our tent was a simple green tent that could fit aroun 8-10 people if we tried, the beds were merely wooden boards. Every night when I would want to flip, it would hurt as wood hit bone. This was still bearable however, for most of the week the weather was rather humid. This meant that our clothes couldn't dry, our pillows were wet and mold started to creep into our belongings. The hardships aside I had a lot of fun in those tents, every night we would sing songs and pray to the Lord. Many of the conversations that we had in the tent I will never forget.
Around 4 in the afternoon the other teachers came back from their break. I met with: Ms. Guo, a recent graduate from Peking University, Ms. Sun who was in her fourth year at university, Mr. Li doing his graduate at Peking University, Xiao Xiao who was in his second year of high school and Chen hao a university student at Chongqing University. All of the teachers and I hit off to a great start, one of the teachers that arrived a few days later that me was surprised that I was new too, she said we all looked like old friends. That night we had our first meeting, the first of many. We planned what lessons would be taught the next day for each and every class. I volunteered to teach five classes for the day (the maximum amount, which I later found was a very tiring affair). Also during the meeting we decided who would cook breakfast the next day, I decided to volunteer with Tingting (aka Ms. Guo).So, the next morning I work up at 5:45 to get everything ready, looked in the kitchen to find that we only had, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, noodles and a variety of sauces. We decided to make tomato soup noodles and friend potatoes. I made the potatoes which was a mixture of potatoes, garlic, onions, soy sauce, salt and msg. It turned out to be pretty popular at the breakfast table. Around 7:30 a lot of the kids had already started arriving at the school, they crowded around the teachers, their eyes filled with life asking "What are you eating?", "What are we learning today?". I could only smile.
And so throughout the week I taught the children English and music. My JH (Junior High) class were an interesting bunch of kids. Firstly many of them looked like they were way beyond the young age of 13-15. I later found out there were some 16-18 year old people there. In the class there were some boys who were known as the trouble makers of the class. Previously they had brought a knife to school and were promptly expelled for it, recently after pleading to be allowed back they joined us again. I found through talking to each one individually that they were all good kids, it was just that they had lost a lot due to the earthquake...the bad behavior was just a way to channel all that energy. Due to their age range most of the kids are developing feelings for the opposite sex, it was easy to tell as they enjoyed my English lesson on 'How to ask someone to the dance" but at the same time were extremely embarrassed about it. I also suggested we learn some salsa, which earned approval from the girls. The boys rejected the idea at first but slowly, one by one decided to join in the dance. It was great to see the boys and the girls having fun together, not always arguing and hitting each other. Music class was also a very good experience, the children loved singing, hearing their voices together brought a smile to my heart. Sometimes even the villagers would come and sing along with us.
However my deepest and best memories lie with my third grade class. I glad I got to know and understand every single one of them. Being a homeroom teacher gives you a lot more responsibility to handle. Unlike being a normal teacher going from class to class, you spend more time with your homeroom class. I loved teaching this class as they would always welcome me with their laughter or come find me during recess saying "Teacher come play with us!". What touched me most was going to their houses for home visits. All of the children in my class lived in tents as their homes were destroyed by the earthquake, many children have even lost family members. When I arrived at the homes the children's families would greet me with huge smilies, the amount of gratitude that these families had for us teachers was at times hard to handle. I would sometimes cry after leaving their houses. Every single visit was filled with a sad story, one little girl's father died before she was born, when she was two years old her mother passed away as well. The little girl now lives with her grandma, but during the earthquake her grandma broke her leg. Now this eight year old girl must cook, clean, take care of her grandma and go to school. Hearing stories like these really makes you think about the extravagant, wasteful lives that we lead. I couldn't even accept the water they gave me saying "You need it more that I do".
Despite the hard times I've made a lot of great friends on this trip, all the teachers I've met have been extremely supportive of each other. Every night when having dinner we would laugh so hard that we could not eat and even though some times the food was not enough, the good company made it taste that much better. During the night we would sing songs and dance and generally have a great time together.
I thank the Lord for giving me this chance.
