Last summer vacation, I was lucky enough to be selected by the volunteer team which aimed at supporting the remote areas of Northwestern partof our country, especially those of Tibetan.
We have spent a half month in a hard-to-reach village with vast pasture,which later became a golden part of my memory.
Our team was made up of 8 members from different provinces,some of us are undergraduates, and some are studying in graduate school. With different habits and characteristics, we are various in many aspects, however, after these days’ living together in the comparatively poor conditions, we have learned to understand and care each other, and developed a profound friendship.
We hung out after school time.
Enjoyed the fairy sky night.
Too many things impressed me deeply in that tranquil village. Growing up in city, I can rarely be so closed to nature. It was extremely inconvenient to arrived at our destination, some ways even have no public transport. However, when we finally got there, all fatigue gone in no time. Having settled down and arranged things in order, we couldn’t wait to going around and getting familiar with this lovely village. Which we met some of our to be students.
To be honest, it was a little bit out of my expectation, I had thought they may be of less freedom, get tired of endless housework, be tired of this isolated field yet in our eyes, so novelty. I had imagined they longed to get rid of this lacking place and explore to the mysterious world of outside. However, it turns out I had been overthought. Chasing, laughing and shouting all the way, they seemed to be so careless, as if there was no sorrow in the world. But was it a good thing?It may not, when we told them where we came from, they looked puzzled, the only other place they knew of the country is Beijing, capital of our mother land. Which, I dare to say, is the reason when we asked them if they want to travel somewhere else, those who said yes all answered Beijing. They wanted less, since there were less for them to dream to.
That night, we had a long and deep discussion, what could we really bring to them. We knew we cannot make a big difference with thus limited time. At last, we came to an agreement, we would not give classesin the traditionalway, instead, we would concentrate on “edutainment”, we would lead them to things they had seldom reach so as to find their own interest, and try to arouse their passion towards study.
Since I am fond of getting along with yonger children, our leader asked me to be the head teacher of the lower grades, worked with another two companies. By the way, the school we worked for is a primary school and its students were from the five villages nearby. Those villages is of vast land but few people, so our students were not too many, around 60. I was responsible for grade 1 to grade 3. Considering their young age, I tried to think of the easiest and funniest way to give them knowledge, at the same time, passion. I teached them some simple English songs, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And played English game” Bingo”. What’s more, we also learned Chinese song, painting, traditional dance, handmaking…And my partner even painted the map of China and told them some basic geographic information. All of these turned out satisfying, they loved art, and showed great talent on it. I would also learned their folk dance from them after school. We did spent much wonderful time, I cherish all.
They were having photography class.
Painting class. Most of the pictures had been sent to us by them.
We were preparing for our outdoor games.
After class, the natural playground would always be full of joy, some little girls were being my hairstylist.
The village head invited us to his home.
The parting day. But love is a circle, our story continues…
zhenghuiyujackie 