Volunteer Work at Dandelion School

Sunday: 15th March 2009
Venue:蒲公英中学, Dandelion School
Event: 沟通心连心关爱你我他
Time: 7.50am - 5.30pm

The School

We spent our Sunday in Dandelion School doing our volunteer work for L.E.A.R.N. To be honest, I wasn't actually very keen on doing the volunteer work initially. When the event kick-started on Sunday morning, I was still quite skeptical about the entire thing and my sacrifice of waking up early on Sunday, especially so when I have been waking up super early everyday of the week. Before the event started, there was supposed to be a "disco" session, when I was dragged into the hall, what greeted me was surprising. Disco to them was.... Dancing in a circular formation and they went in circles and circles. Thereafter, they broke into a train formation with everyone lining up behind one another. That was interesting to me as somehow, all of them looked extremly happy despite the simple dance and music that they were supposed to follow. Question that came to me was: What's clubbing when people over here seem more happy?? Then again, its a different ball game altogether. Different leagues that cannot be compared, they are like 2 parallel lines.

Group 1 and 2 volunteers (we made some friends with students from the local uni)

The morning events did no justice to what followed in the afternoon though. Sadly, it was slightly mundane for me as my group didn't have sufficient interaction between the members; Group Leader, Assistant Group Leader, Teachers, Parents, Children and us, volunteers. I shall not elaborate on the morning activities as they involve some ice-breaking games which involving passing of the orange and apples, passing hula hops in some very challenging positions, piecing of jigsaw puzzles from random pieces as well as finding people who have the same interests as you. The morning activities emphasised the importance of inter-personal communication; to get things done successfully, communication is essential.

Lunch time!
This is what was for lunch

It only started getting interesting from the afternoon, for me at least. That was when I started really interacting with the children from the school itself. Through the conversations, I found that some were really mature in their thoughts; there was a particular boy 刘宽（Liu Kuan）who was telling me how the medium in China is changing so rapidly that children are exposed to the evils of the world such as pornography. Imagine, what were you discussing at the tender age of 13 or 14?? He told me of how it was evil and quoted me an example on how he had a friend who knew what blue-films are when he was 4 years old. Oh man. What's the world coming to? There was another girl who I address as 龙导（her surname+director.. as she brought us through our performance segment) who somehow was so quiet during the morning session but came to life after lunch, she showed initiative despite her age in leading the team with her invention of the group name and tagline/cheer. However, she sures loves to complain and compete. She said with full confidence that I wouldn't know where she's from. She's from 贵州(Guizhou) and I hate to admit it. She's right that I didn't know what that is. Haha. Its not that other kids are not interesting but I just can't really remember their names. There was one boy, 张鹏(Zhang Peng) who told me that his dream is to become a star, a singer to be exact. It reminds me of what I harboured when I was young too. However, he didn't seem very comfortable with the idea of discussing about his dreams, I wonder why. 仁祥 (Ren Xiang) is a super active boy who can't sit still for a moment but he's quite funny. There were 2 other girls who were very quiet and always sitting together, it was hard to get them involved or engaged in conversations.
Overall, the kids were very interesting to talk to. They were very interested in me being a Singaporean and asked me tons of questions, such as what language we learn our subjects in.

刘宽（Liu Kuan）and 仁祥 (Ren Xiang)

The afternoon activities consisted of parents and child working together hand in hand to cross obstacles. The parents were blindfolded and their child had to lead them through obstacles such as staircase. Thereafter, a reflection session was conducted and messages reflecting to parents on how their children are grown-up and can now take full responsibility for themselves as well as how as children we should understand that our parents have been though harshship to bring their children up were conducted. Thereafter, both parents and child were blindfolded and were separated. They had to find each other when blindfolded and many were jumping in joy when they finally achieved that. Another reflection was done but this time it involved emphasising the importance of family ties between the parents and child. There were some emotional talks during the 2 reflection sessions where participants actively voluntered to go on stage to share their thoughts, experience and lessons learnt from the activities. The main message I took home at the end is that both parents and children should maintain a open channel of commuication, it will be difficult for both parties if either one decides to close the door on the other. After that, banners were drawn and decorated by all participants on what their aspirations are for the future, their dreams and hopes. The banners were collected at the end and were given to the principal as the event gift.

My portion of the banner

During the closing ceremony, a blue ribbon story was told where it laid the foundations of the activities that would be done thereafter. Firstly, teachers from the school were made to stand in the centre in a circle with the rest surrounding them along the perimeter of the hall. Blue ribbons were distributed to the children and they could show their appreciation to their teachers by tying it on their teachers. This process was repeated 4 more times with the following group standing in the middle in this order; children, parents, volunteers, main organising committee and school principal.

I DIDN'T TAKE PHOTOS WITH MY GROUP'S CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!
I told them to wait for me at the end of the event but the main organiser chased the parents and children out of the event ground! In the end, they dispersed before I had a chance to thank them for bringing me some wonderful memories as well as bringing me back to my childhood somehow. I'm beginning to miss them somehow. Regret!

I've been reminded of how lucky I am to be able to be enjoying the privilges that I take for granted. Going to the school has reminded me on how simplicity can actually bring about happiness. Seeing the faces and smiles on the faces of the children, it has lifted up my spirits by a far margin. The school's main hall is run-down without even the presence of a electric fan, why should we argue and complain about installing air-cons inside ours then? You can argue the case that Beijing has 4 seasons and now is Spring which is cool. Then what about summer? I wouldn't know. Neither would you. The simple things that have put me to shame reminds me of how blessed I am to be able to enjoy the luxury items which are necessities to some. We should really be happy that we have more than what we can stomach and the quality of our lives.

During the blue ribbon presenation to the children, 龙导 asked me if I would be going back to their school for any other events.

The blue ribbon presentation

I could see the sincerity in the eyes of the children, I know it sounds corny but its true. I wasn't able to give her an answer. She said if I was going back, I must remember to look for her and the others (they are all from the same class). I wanted so much as to tell her yes but I remembered that we should never make empty promises. I can feel that some of the children wanted to get to know me more as much as I want to. Now I want to speak to them so much once more; the adorable kids - so young and innocent. It brings me back to reality of - the simple life.