Service is what you make it.
Over the past year, I have not been consistent. Instead, I was facing some difficulties of my own.
However, over the summer, I have had the honour of working with CUHK, or the Chinese University of Hong Kong. My mother is a professor in the university, and it was simple for her to set me up. It was easy to set up and get going.
The program I selected was a children English teaching course. It was to help low income families and their children to spark an interest unlearning English.
As I walked into the classroom, heads turned. The staff were already gathered, a group of college sophomores from the university itself. They had a lot of respect for my mother, and I was intimidated by the standard she set.
We gathered around and started talking about the schedule. ON our first day, there were around 20 students that needed to be tended to. "This is not a tutoring class," said Jessica, the leader of the group. "The main purpose is to spark an interest in these kids to learn English. This is why we have kids from age 5 to 9."
When the kids were assembled downstairs, they were brought up to the classroom and were promptly put into groups.
I was paired with a girl named Candace, a year one student who has a great sense of leadership and a lot of patience. We were put with a group of what was meant to be four children but ended up being three.
There was a green booklet on the desk with simple Chinese and English on it. We were to learn to write and spell directory terms. There were sheets with the children's names on them that had a colourful array of stickers on them, and they accounted for points to redeem minor gifts like notebooks and pens, or a sheet of stickers.
The simplicity of children confused me. As a kid, I was not the popular type. Seeing a mass of children bond together confused me. For the first few minutes, I had three quiet children not doing much, as I just observed how others do it.
Other volunteers were ushering them to their seats, asking for their names, commenting on their clothing, showing them pictures on their phones, etc. I was anxious, I was extremely disabled in small talk, it was virtually impossible for me. I just went into the booklet pragmatically.
So it stunned me when I was the first to complete the booklet. I felt anxious afterward, when the kid I was tending to, Abigail, stared at me. I gave her a couple of stickers and she started laughing and teasing with the other kids.
I was never particularly good with children. Who I am disables me.
When I was on a service trip to Cambodia in my eight grade WWW, I told the children exactly what colour to fill in to the English workbooks. They coloured the grass green, the sky blue, the tiger orange. There were leeway with the flowers and clothes, but the trees had to be brown.
One of my friends glanced over and said, "You don't have to tell them exactly what colour to colour in, just let them do what they want." I didn't want to be the bossy one, so I stopped commanding the kids what to colour. It pained me to see them colour in the clouds green and the sun purple, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Now with the children at Shining Love, I was hesitant to do much. I didn't know what to do, although having a younger brother at around the same age. There was not much I could talk about, and I felt a little uncomfortable.
However, the children were friendly, and offered up topics. I forced myself to comply and followed Candace's lead.
The children had snack time, and we played a bunch of matching and direction games. It was lighthearted, and I strained myself to keep it as so.
After pretending to feel comfortable for a bit, I loosened up. I started responding, and shared some pictures with the children. I taught them how to do a disappearing coin trick with a faulty origami envelope, and they taught me how to make an origami rabbit.
It was new, and I wasn't used to it. I was learning as much as they were, if not more. A class of students have never been so earnest and eager.
I felt like I was doing something meaningful, and so I kept on with the motions.
By the end of the service, I had gotten to know two of the children particularly well. Abigail and Polly. 9 and 5. I decided to go to the graduation to help out with the program grand finale, and meet up with the families of such children.
I was handed a Tshirt that I was to wear tomorrow, and I helped usher the kids home. Some even lived as far away as Shek Kip Mei or Quarry Bay.
I felt exhausted after the event, but I also felt refreshed.
I've done something, and have bound myself to new people. I don't know what will become of them, but I've done something in their wake. So that's something.
There's always something peculiar in children and elderly.
I guess my spectrum was broader, and I could only wait till the next day to see them again.
And that's exactly what I did.
(Part Two under editing)
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