Voluntary Work in China
Since I got to know how to speak a foreign language, English, I have always wanted to go abroad. Though it seemed impossible for me to go out of this country because of my economic status, I had two opportunities to visit foreign countries. I have visited three, which are the U.S., Guatemala, and China. In the U.S., I visited my friend and stayed at his place for several days; in Guatemala I spent two and a half months studying Spanish; in China, I was a volunteer worker for 10 days.
There was a volunteering program that has constructing facilities and education for poor foreign villages fully sponsored by Hyundai Company in February in 2012. The targeted countries were Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nepal. All the costs were to be paid by Hyudai. I applied for this program because I wanted to go to Africa, a continent that one can hardly visit in his or her lifetime. So I thought this would be a great and right opportunity to put my foot on a new world. I wrote a résumé, which was accepted.
Hyundai company was cooperating with a volunteering organization called Copion. The organization asked me to be interviewed, so I visited their office. There were a lot of people waiting for their interviews. As it was a multi-personal interview, I had to team up with four other people. The interviewers asked some questions and suddenly wanted me to dance salsa, which I wrote on the résumé. I was embarrassed so I said "No way, I need one more person who can dance it" but as they kept asking me to do that, I did it a little bit, adding "If I am admitted, I will show you more." Then, several days after, they sent me a message that I was accepted.
They said I will be sent to China. After that they set up a team of 20 people, 7 boys and 13 girls of my age, whom I had to work with for ten days there. I was disappointed that I should go to China instead of Africa, but my teammates were nice enough to get along with. We took the same flight after days of socializing with drinking and hanging out together.
After we arrived at Winan, a southern region of China, we had to take minivans to get to our final destination. It took us around 3 hours to get there. It was a really small rural village. How small was it? Only in 10 minutes you can finish touring there. The town was totally underdeveloped, so its earth's red sand was blowing all in the air. There was not enough space to stay in, and all our members had to sleep on straw mattresses. It was cold so it was necessary for us to be careful of not catching a cold. Every time we went sleeping we said "It is too cold to sleep"
We had set up our parts before we went there. There were two big parts: education and labor. My part was teaching origami under the education part so I practiced making four different shapes of animals and two of transportation. The animals were a frog, a penguin, a fox, a cat; the transportation included a sailboat and an airplane. Most of the village population including seniors who seemed to be more than 60 gathered in a small room and followed my instruction. I don't speak Chinese, so an interpreter delivered what I said to the people.
When they finished making frogs, I had them be on a race with them; with foxes, I made them howl after me, so we together were like "Awwwwwww~" all the kids liked it so much; of course, with airplanes, they went crazy flying them over the sky. Even though it was hard for me to teach them because not everybody was good at folding and unfolding for the right form, I felt a fresh feeling bursting from my heart. I actually taught people and they love it!
Another work we had to do was building a restroom for them. They had not actually had any kind of toilet anywhere in the village before a previous volunteering team made one with some bricks and a big-sized cloth. So we were working on a decent restroom and paving street. During the labor time we kept carrying bricks, making and spreading cement, and paving roads with little stones under the blazing Sun. Our skin got burnt, our throat got sore and our shoes got worn out but we were happy that we actually were helping people.
After ten days of staying there, our schedule there was over. As we get into the minivans again, some of the girls cried, other were holding the village people's hand. It was harsh for general people to live there under such a harsh weather, where you should breathe the air with sand and sleep under 0 degree Celsius. Physically hard, but mentally soft we were. There were no worries like I do in this urban area. So in the flight back to Korea, I thought the 10 days we can call 'underdeveloped' but not are we able to 'underestimate' the period.
After we arrived at Winan, a southern region of China, we had to take minivans to get to our final destination. It took us around 3 hours to get to the town. It was a really small rural village. How small was it? Only in 10 minutes you can finish touring there. The town was totally underdeveloped, so its earth's red sand was blowing all in the air. There were two small rooms for all of us to stay in, and all our members had to sleep on straw mattresses. The weather gets so hot in the daytime and cold at night, so we need to be careful of neither getting burnt nor catching a cold. Every time we went under the sun we said "The sun is blazing!" and when we went sleeping we said "It is too cold to sleep..."
ReplyDeleteWe had set up our parts before we went there. There were two big parts: education and labor. My part was teaching origami under the education part so I practiced making four different shapes of animals and two of transportation. The animals were a frog, a penguin, a fox, a cat; the transportation included a sailboat and an airplane. Most of the village population, including seniors who seemed to be more than 60 gathered in a small room and followed my instruction. I don't speak Chinese, so an interpreter delivered what I said to the people.
Voluntary Work in China
ReplyDeleteSince I got to know how to speak a foreign language, English, I have always wanted to go abroad. Though it seemed impossible for me to go out of this country because I could not afford it, I had three opportunities to visit foreign countries. I have visited the U.S., Guatemala, and China. In the U.S., I visited my friend and stayed at his place for several days; in Guatemala I spent two and a half months studying Spanish; in China, I was a volunteer worker for 10 days.
There was a volunteering program in which volunteers should construct facilities and educate poor foreign village people, fully sponsored by Hyundai Company in February in 2012. The targeted countries were Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nepal. All the costs were paid by Hyudai. I applied for this program because at first I wanted to go to Africa, a continent that one can hardly visit in his or her lifetime. I thought this would be a great and right opportunity to put my foot on a new world. So I wrote a résumé, which was accepted.
Hyundai company was cooperating with a volunteering organization called Copion. The organization asked me to be interviewed, so I visited their office. There were a lot of people waiting for their interviews. As it was a group interview, I had to team up with four other people. The interviewers asked some questions and suddenly wanted me to dance salsa, which I wrote down on the résumé. I was embarrassed so I said "No way, I need one more person who can dance it" but as they kept asking me to do that, I did it a little bit, adding "If I get admitted, I will show you more." Then, several days after, they sent me a text message that I was accepted.
They said I will be sent to China. After that they set up a team of 20 people, 7 boys and 13 girls of my age, whom I had to work with for ten days there. I was disappointed that I should go to China instead of Africa, but my teammates were nice enough to get along with and the blue feeling fastly went away. We took the same flight after days of hanging out with drinks together.
After we arrived at Winan, a southern region of China, we had to take minivans to get to our final destination. It took us around 3 hours to get to the town. It was a really small rural village. How small was it? Only in 10 minutes you can finish touring there. The town was totally underdeveloped, so its earth's red sand was blowing all in the air. There were two small rooms for all of us to stay in, and all our members had to sleep on straw mattresses. The weather gets so hot in the daytime and cold at night, so we need to be careful of neither getting burnt nor catching a cold. Every time we went under the sun we said "The sun is blazing!" and when we went sleeping we said "It is too cold to sleep..."
We had set up our parts before we went there. There were two big parts: education and labor. My part was teaching origami under the education part so I practiced making four different shapes of animals and two of transportation. The animals were a frog, a penguin, a fox, a cat; the transportation included a sailboat and an airplane. Most of the village population, including seniors who seemed to be more than 60 gathered in a small room and followed my instruction. I don't speak Chinese, so an interpreter delivered what I said to the people.
ReplyDeleteWhen they finished making frogs, I had them be on a race with them; with foxes, I made them howl after me, so we together were like "Awwwwwww~" all the kids kept repeating the sound; of course, with airplanes, they went crazy flying them over the sky. Even though it was hard for me to teach them because not everybody was good at folding and unfolding for the right form, I felt a fresh feeling bursting from my heart. I actually taught people something and they loved it!
Another work we had to do was building a restroom for them. They had not actually had any kind of toilet anywhere in the village before a previous volunteering team made one with some bricks and a big-sized cloth. So we were working on a decent restroom, and we also paved the streets. During the labor time we kept carrying bricks, making and spreading cement, and paving roads with little stones under the blazing Sun. Our skin got burnt, our throat got sore from the gusts with the red sand and our shoes got worn out for the craggy earth, but we were happy that we actually were helping people.
After ten days of staying there, our schedule there was over. As we got into the minivans again, some of the girls cried, other were holding the village people's hands. People who are not from the would find it hard to live there under such a harsh weather, where you should breathe the air with sand and sleep at night under 0 degree Celsius. Physically hard, but mentally soft we were. There were no worries like I have now in this urban area. So in the flight back to Korea, I thought we can call the 10-days period 'underdeveloped', but not are we able to 'underestimate' it.