Blue sky days

Today is a blue sky day in Beijing! This means the sky was clear and we could see the sun, blue sky, and white clouds! Whenever a day like today occurs everyone appears to be extra happy and comments on the beautiful sky! During my entire time here in Beijing we have had a handful of blue sky days but they are not often. Why? Because often the sky is blanketed by the pollution and smog, creating a haze throughout the city. There are mornings when I wake up and look out my window and I cannot tell if it is foggy and about to rain or if it is just the smog. Therefore, I always take my umbrella just in case! Beijing has responded to this smog by limiting the days which cars can drive on the road. Depending on the ending digit of their license plates, cars must be left parked at home one day a week. Locals have complained about the inconvenience this brings to their daily commutes but I believe that everyone would like more blue sky days! Either way Beijing is still a wonderful city filled with exciting people, places, and culture! I hope my last few days are filled with more blue sky days!

My visit to an orphanage in Xining, Qinghai

One of the highlights of my trip to Qinghai happened at the very end - the opportunity to visit a local orphanage. I've read stories about orphanages in southern China so my head was already filled with heart-wrenching visuals of what I thought I would see. Instead I saw the opposite - upon arrival a bright flower garden filled with snap dragons and sunflowers greeted us as we approached a large, white building. As we passed through the building's entrance, paper cut-outs of smiling animals and flowers in every color of the rainbow were splashed against the walls, creating a feeling of happiness and safety. The reason that this orphanage was built was because the orphans were previously housed in a nearby building which also served as a senior citizens home and mental institution. Realizing that this was not a suitable environment from growing children, a joint initiative was created to build this orphanage between a Hong Kong Christian organization and the Qinghai government.

To provide some context, this orphanage houses around 150 children, of which 95% have some sort of mental and/or physical disability and the remaining 5% are healthy children. Most children were abandoned by their parents and some as young as 5 years old were found wandering the streets on their own. As street children are susceptible to being taken in by gangs, the police or social workers will bring the children to the orphanage. About 1-2 children get adopted each month but my guess is that the healthy 5% of children are the ones to go first.

On our tour of the building's five floors we were greeted by children from newborn to early teens. There were children everywhere - sitting in wheelchairs or stools in the hallways, sleeping in baby chairs, running around, or playing in the rooms. There were even some children I saw sitting in the corners with their hands and legs bound with fabric, rocking and forth, unable to move or say anything. When we inquired what was going on, the nurse replied that these children were being disciplined for their naughty behaviour. It was a hard sight to see. I saw another boy holding a balloon of China's favorite cartoon lamb, Mei Yang-Yang, and strapped to a vertical board as part of his daily one-hour lesson to learn to stand. This child, along with the 15 others in the room, had a severe mental disability which prevented him from talking, standing, or performing basic human functions. Although many kids could not speak due to their mental disabilities the social worker said that the kids could hear us. Using my limited Chinese and English I spoke to a few children and was able to see their eyes move and smiles, and they also reached for our hands. Between 4:30 to 5:30 is the children's dinner so we were able to help feed them.

I spent the most time with this boy who appeared to be 5 years old. He was confined to a wheelchair, could not speak, and had limited body movements with his head and hands. I spoke to him and held his hand, wheeled him around to different windows and explained what I saw outside, freshened him up with a clean towel, gave him a toy car to hold onto, and shook some musical bells with him. As I spent time with this boy, amidst the room of 10 other similar children, I was saddened by thoughts that it is highly unlikely that he will ever escape this lifestyle. It is also highly unlikely that he will get the hugs, smiles, and attention that he, and every child, rightfully deserves from his or her parents/caregivers. This boy was so precious and no amount of hugs I gave him that day would ever be enough for his lifetime ahead.

My heart was completely broken into two as our time came to say goodbye..So what happens next? What can I do about the heartache that has grown within me?

Our trip to Qinghai Lake!

This picture was taken on top of the endless sand dunes of Qinghai. The sand was very fine and soft - perfect for sledding down on toboggans for 5 kuai!


Jennifer + baby lamb!


Jennifer + baby lamb!


This is a photo of our driver's daughter against the fields of yellow flowers! These flowers are used to produce oil and are also used by beekeepers to produce Qinghai's famous hunny!


Here is a photo of one of Qinghai's famous yaks! This one is particularly special because it is white. Typically yaks are found grazing the lush green land to feed on grass but this one has been set up for tourism and pictures.. which I clearly participated in! :)

Huangyuan County Third Middle School

This was the only source of running water at our school which we used for washing, drinking, bathing, and cooking. We would fill buckets with water and carry them to our rooms each night. This mountain spring water was incredibly refreshing!


The dormitory bedrooms with our the wooden plank beds.


Table tennis anyone? The building behind are the older classrooms and male dormitories.


Children walking home through the wheat fields.


This is a common dinner which was served in the canteen: noodles made of potato starch, local vegetables, mutton, and tomatoes. It's served with vinegar and chili sauce.

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!!!