We recently visited a city about an hour away from our
school. We had a blast as we got to do
so many things! We met a friend by the name of Mr. Li and he showed us around
Julong and around the school he works at. Julong is beautiful! There were
flowers everywhere and man made lakes and mountains in the background. It was
nice to take a break, get out of the city, and enjoy some fresh air. We walked
around a beautiful park and saw lots of lilies! I have always wanted to see
lilies as big as they were in the park, so it was breathtaking. It also rained
quite a bit, which made me miss and think of home.
We had a meal with a friend
that we made while traveling and I got quite daring! I had Pig intestine that
day! It was not super yummy, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I tried
some of their native dishes and enjoyed the sweet ice cream afterwards. Chinese
people love to put random things on top of ice cream. Sometimes you get
tomatoes on top of your ice cream, beans, or in this case, watermelon. Always
interesting to try something new!
Chinese Chess
Typical sidewalks--the Chinese believe that walking on these stones is good for your feet.
I saw this sweet scene in Hulong. :)
While on this journey there have been times when I would
feel as though I was not making a difference in any of my student’s lives while
teaching them. I would ask myself-are they really learning any English from me?
Have I inspired them at all? Just what was I thinking signing up for a trip to
China?? I put pictures of North Carolina on my wall in my classroom so that
whenever I would feel a moment of weakness, I would look up to those pictures
and just think, I’ll be home soon! There
were days when I would just take a deep breath, look at those pictures, and
simply do what I could to get through the day.
Always, always when I would feel a moment of weakness I
would be given a tender moment with a child that would put a smile on my face
and give me the strength to keep going. I look forward to those moments. I
understand what it means to be a teacher now. Everyday will not be a success
story, but in between the horrible “I’m going to strangle you” days with the
kids, there are moments when you have tears in your eyes due to their kindness
and love towards you. I would like to share one of those many precious moments
with you.
It was a free day
with the kids, and I decided to have them make cards for the other teachers to
carry back to America with them. I had them sign their English and Chinese name
and write that they loved their teacher. As you can imagine, you have to watch
the kids like a hawk to make sure no one draws something inappropriate or
doesn’t do as they are told. I gave the other kids play dough to play with
while I was doing this. One of my students, Sam, was playing with his play dough
in the corner and I was not paying attention to him, as I was trying to get
everyone to sign the card in the short amount of time that we had. At the very
end of class, I hear his little voice call out my name. “Teacha Ambah, look!” I
walked over to his corner and was brought to tears as he wrote I love you on
his desk out of play dough for me. I
quickly grabbed my camera and took a picture of him as he had worked on it the
entire class period.
Small, precious moments like that with the children make
me realize that I am making a difference. Even if I am doing nothing more than
simply loving them, I know I am making a difference. I will never regret my
decision to come to China, it has been the best decision I have ever made. These children are etched across my heart
forever, I will miss them so much when I say goodbye to them. I thank God for
these small precious moments, where
would we be in life without them?
-Amber Toy
