In the span of only two days, I went from living alone in a six person room, with no other English speakers in sight, to a full house. I now have three Harvard students, one boy and two girls, under my wing along with a 21-year-old Chinese girl who just started working at the orphanage.
But let us start from the beginning, or should I say the end of last week….
Thursday and Friday were spent on the fifth floor, teaching the kids. I finally get to teach the kids!! I felt like I was finally doing what I was suppose to.
The older kids knew a fair amount, the younger kids could recite to 5. The younger kid’s attention span was also a lot smaller than the older kids.
I also get to teach music and art with them. They don’t know how to read music, and only know this weird number system that I’ve never encountered before. I’m going to try and teach them real music notation, but I don’t know if they’ll get it.
Art is fun because they love arts and crafts so much. I have so many ideas for art projects!!
Sunday was the day of the week where I get to hang out with the tenth floor kids. An Australian, named Flick, came to help out. Apparently, she got here around Christmas time (probably right when I left for Beijing) and she would stay here till February. I was excited to have an English speaker to talk to.
In the morning, Louhuan thought it would be nice to take the children out. So she designated the morning for the younger kids and the afternoon for the older kids. I was sent with an ayi, six younger kids and two older kids (they helped us watch the younger kids) to a park. We took the van half way there, and then hopped on a bus.
At the park, the kids kept wandering off; I felt like a sheep dog. Also, Tianxi, one of the boys, was causing trouble. He pooped in a public area, had a temper tantrum near the monkey exhibit, and refused to budge near the end of our trip. I ended up having to carry him the rest of the way. (He’s around eight and kind of heavy).
However, I felt that it was all worth it, because the children rarely get to go outside and explore.
In the afternoon, I stayed home with the younger kids while Flick and Louhuan took the older kids out. This time, Tianxi, Youpeng, and Guoce kept rough housing and causing trouble. At supper time, Tianxi had another fit and Youpeng started throwing food.
By the end of the day I was exhausted. It was a difficult day, but I didn’t really mind. Sometimes, kids have bad days, but it doesn’t mean they’re bad kids. Later, Louhuan kept apologizing, but I really didn’t mind the hard work. That’s what I’m here for.
On Monday morning, Liuting arrived. She was to live with me in my room. For the rest of the day, I showed her around and helped her out. It was weird that I was helping someone else out, when usually it’s the other way around.
Around seven, Laura, one of the Harvard kids, arrived. She also had one and a half years of Chinese under her belt. Our fluency level is about the same. Now I had two people to talk to who were my age!
In the morning, Sabrina arrived. That left only one Harvard student, Josh. No one knew when he would arrive, and no one know how to contact him. In the evening, we all started to worry. We met up with the director and assistant director at the bus stop for three hours but he never came.
The director brought his little boy with him while we were waiting for Josh. (I think the boy is adopted) He was so cute!! The director wanted to have a picture with all of us, and the boy LOVED the camera
We kept trying to make phone calls to different people and tried to figure out where he went, but in the end we went back to the orphanage and just hoped that he’d arrive in the morning or contact us somehow. At one in the morning, I got a call from him saying he had arrived.
The next morning, I had to pick him up. Now there were three. The funny thing was, I was in charge of helping the orphanage pick up all of the Harvard kids, and now I was in charge of getting them settled in. When did I become in charge of everything?! It seemed only yesterday I felt like I couldn’t even figure out my own way around this place, let alone help others.
Since everyone was here, I decided that we would celebrate and go out to eat.
Our first meal out with the Harvard kids
Afterwards, we went to the supermarket. They were so excited about all the Chinese snacks and their new surroundings.
KFC by the supermarket
Candy!!
Which fruit to buy?......
Also, Sabrina loves to take pictures, so I stole her pictures (with her permission, of course.)
This is what I do at the orphanage:
The lobby of the orphanage
Josh with Guoce
Laura and Xialan
Guoce got a hold of the flashcards...
One of the therapy rooms. No idea what it's used for
Me making a prototype mask for our arts project
Xiali writing on the board during English class
Me feeding Ajia
Me pushing Ajia and Huajie on the swing
The front of the orphanage
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