They are happy depsite having nothing!

Today is my third day of the Qinghai English Summer Camp!!! We are so lucky to be blessed with beautiful sunshine everyday! I have 2 classes - my main class B2 and a secondary teaching class B1.

My B2 class has 15 students between the ages of 13-15. They are all from Huangyuang and live within 15 meters of the No.3 Huangyuang Middle School where our team is teaching! My team was organized through the Beijing International Christian Fellowship (www.bicf.org).

To break the ice on the first day I decided to introduce myself in Chinese! Are you curious as to what I said?? Here goes:

"Da jia hao! Wo jiao Jennifer! Wo lai zi Jia na da. Wo de fu mu shi Xiang Gang ren. WO zai Jia na da chu sheng. Wo de fu mu jiao wo shuo yueyu danshi wo feichang xiang xue pu tung hua. Nimen de yingwen xhuiping yiding bi wo de zhongwen hao. Suoyi zai jiexialai de jitien zhong nimen kuyi jiao wo pu tung hua!"

On the first day I asked them to introduce themselves and they told me their Chinese names, their age, and their favorite food, animals, and color. They said that they did not have English names but would love to have one! So I worked with my AMAZING counsellor/translator, Jolly, to come up with English names for them. While I would love to see little Beyonce's and Mariah's running around Qinghai, I decided to stick with more traditional and easier names such as Lisa, Matthew, Mark, Julia, etc. They were very excited to receive their English names and have learned to spell them. My students are very bright, creative, and happy! They understand English quite well and are able to communicate with me, with some help from Jolly.

The students are very beautiful - they have big eyes, darker skin, and the most wonderful rosy cheeks! I recently learned that these students walk 2 hours to school one way and only eat breakfast and dinner. I was really sad to learn this as the children are outdoors for 2.5 hours during lunch period but they are actually not eating anything but playing in the hot sun. There are also no water fountains but just a tap in the middle of the trees which pumps spring water from the mountains. This is really the only tap that the students have access to drink water, wash their hands, play, etc.

The amazing thing is how happy they are depsite having nothing! Many of their families work hard as farmers or workers. I realize that many of them have never seen an airplane or train, they have little clothing and toys, and they have never seen a hamburger or hot dog but know how to say them from their English books.

Every afternoon I get a short one-on-one time with them to give them the chance to speak English with a native speaker. I decided to ask them about their families and what makes them happy and sad. Their responses were so innocent and touching! What makes them happy are their parents, sisters and brothers. What makes them sad are things like not doing well at school, one girl lost her grandfather, and another girl lost her yellow cat. While these things may seem small to us, having a cat is the world to them and I could see in their eyes how sad these things made them feel. I almost wanted to cry when I listened to them. They are also so grateful that our team has come to provide them with a free summer camp! One girl, who I named Stephanie, told me that she likes to sing and wants to become an actress. After our one-on-one she came up to me and whispered in my ear "I love you very much teacher!" It was so incredibly sweet and it appears that I am actually the one getting more out of this camp! I realize that although these children have nothing they are happy and I need to use this opportunity to learn about their town's development and politics so I can bring this back with me to UNICEF/Columbia/LSE and understand how to better assist people like them in rural western China.

I've only been here for a few days but I already don't want to leave. I came to China to have my heart broken, in order to realize what area of international development I want to serve. Well... my heart has already been broken and I don't think I can leave Qinghai without promising to myself that I will do whatever I can to help them! The issues in western rural China and of migrant workers are sad and a reality for many Chinese people. I hope that everyone reading this will want to learn more about these issues with me!

Qinghai English Summer Camp

I have finally made it to Huangyuan, Qinghai - the northwestern region of China! I am here to be a teacher for the Qinghai English Summer Camp at a middle school for 200 students aged 10-15. They are from a poor and rural region of China where some travel as far as 15km to school - a 2 hour walk! I am here with 8 foreigner teachers and 8 local Beijing university students as translaters! I arrived from Beijing by train which should have taken 24 hours but due to a landslide took 33 hours. We rode in a hard sleeper, which means there are 6 bunk beds in one cluster with multiple clusters on a train carriage. Before this train ride the only exposure I had to trains was watching them on Harry Potter! Although the ride was long it was wonderful because I was with a great group of people and got to practice my Mandarin with the people around me! We played games, prepared for camp, chatted about our lives, ate TONS of snacks, read, wrote in our journals, and took lots of naps! Everyone is constantly eating on the train - now I know why everyone had a huge sack of snacks at the train station.

We arrived in Xining which is the capital of Qinghai. The town is beautiful and prosperous. The city has a Muslim influence so there are people wearing Muslim clothing. The Chinese people here are also more tanned, tall, and have these wonderful rosy cheeks! No need for blush here :) Everyone is also very friendly and there are children playing everywhere! Meals here include a lot of noodles, mutton (lamb!), fresh mountain vegetables, and grain which can only be grown about 2000 meters. I hear that we will get to try yak when we make our trip to Qinghai Lake next week!

Our school is about 2700 meters and although I was originally worried about altitude sickness it hasn't been a problem! The environment is beautiful here! We're surrounded by mountains, lush grasslands, wild flowers, and rich vegetation where muttons and cows roam the land. It's amazing to see how people live their lives here!!!

More about our school! We are staying in the school dormitories and the only source of water here is a tap in the middle of the grass areas which pumps spring water from the mountains. The washrooms are... well.. let's just say unless you've been to rural countrysides I'll save you from the visuals. There are no showering facilities so we have to travel into town to pay 7RMB to shower in a showering facility located in the back of a hair salon. My first and only shower so far has been glorious!!!

Our first day of camp is tomorrow and I can't wait to meet all of the kids! I've been preparing my introduction in Mandarin and really hope to bond with my students!!!