Dear Parents,
I returned from Nanjing early evening yesterday, just in time to meet the children as they got off the tour bus at the end of their day. It was so good to see them again. Alex and Felix ran from the bus to give me hugs; Jessica and Chloe and May and other girls greeted me with such sweet smiles that made me feel that I had come home. You know, I really didn’t expect myself to miss the children (not just my own, truly) so much after having spent merely three weeks with them. It was music to my ears to hear them babbling about the two and a half days while I was gone...
Today after morning exercise and breakfast, we visited Peking University in the morning and the Summer Palace in the afternoon. As Yiran was not well, I stayed with her in the bus while the others toured Peking University. Peking University is not only the Harvard in China, but also Bonnie’s alma mater (we found out that in fact many of our children know someone, either their parents or acquaintances, who attended this university). I heard from Bonnie that the children visited the lake, saw the pagoda, passed by the library, the spontaneously participated in the activities held at an “English Language Corner” on campus. “English Language Corner” is an informal forum for those interested in learning the English language to practice and enhance their skills with someone (usually a volunteer) who is more proficient. Today, our children met a group that was trying to learn how to read aloud a piece of English text. Our children led the reading for the audience to follow. Bonnie used this as an educational moment to show the children how motivated ordinary Chinese are to learn English and how accomplished they are in their English learning. We hope our children would be inspired and encouraged by what they saw.
It is cloudy today, perfect weather for a day out. The Summer Palace was as crowded as ever. But we went prepared, not just in terms of getting organized as usual so that no one gets lost, but also in terms of filling our minds with background information and having read many of the Long Corridor stories (chang2lang2 gu4shi4) beforehand. Once we got to the Long Corridor, the children started working, with clip boards, pens, worksheets, and their own copy of the Long Corridor Stories (a bilingual, illustrated book that all children have been reading for the last three weeks). For this trip, the children received two worksheets, one from me on various aspects of the Summer Palace, the other from Bonnie which focuses on stories from the Long Corridor. They were asked to identify from the actual Long Corridor paintings as many stories as possible based on their readings. And once they identify a story, they put it in writing on the worksheet and have a partner sign off as witness of their sighting. Many children could identify up to a dozen stories! Among all of them, Eddie was perhaps the most prolific. About every other minute, you could hear him say, “Ah, I found another one!”
I would be remiss if I don’t share with you the impact of our children on other visitors to the Summer Palace. I suspect children going on fieldtrips with clip boards and pens and worksheets is not yet a common scene in China. So we drew quite a bit of attention (not just today in the Summer Palace, but everywhere we go). Several people approached us and asked if the children were taking a test. Many people looked curiously at what our children were writing. And then of course, this uncommon phenomenon was made all the more unusual when it was found out that our children were using English to talk and write about Zhang1fei1, Lv3bu4, Tang2seng1, Jia2bao3yu4, Cao2cao1… We may be biased, but we believe that our children were probably the most informed visitors at the Long Corridor! We were proud that other visitors use our children as example to teach their children. We overheard other parents say to their children, “See, look at them! You come here and don’t learn anything!”
After the Long Corridor, we took a big ferry from the Marble Boat and then finally got a chance to row boats with ores (something we had planned to do in Beihai Park but could not). 25 of us (including Gong Laoshi, Tian Laoshi, Bonnie and me) got into 6 boats (1 boat had 5 girls) and we spent one cool hour rowing. I mentioned already that it was cloudy and a bit misty today. So the bridges and their arches and pagodas and the willows all looked dreamy and ethereal. I watched the children row their boats—everything within my vision looked still except for our children and their boats. They brought the picturesque scenery to life.
We returned to dorm before 6pm and had dinner in our regular dining hall. During dinner, Bonnie announced the winner from the 3rd week’s competition. It was Team Dragon (which won the first week’s competition as well); consequently, Team Dragon became the Grand Winner from all three weeks! Tian Laoshi took the team to have ice cream. For those children who are not planning to go to Inner Mongolia during the 5th week, today was their last day with Tian Laoshi. All gave him hugs and several broke down in tears. The bond that has been built between the children and Tian Laoshi is self-evident.
This is the last daily report sent from Si-Zhong, Beijing. Tomorrow we will be heading for Huai2rou2 to join the local children from Beijing; YiB will be working with a different entity called “DongDong”. I expect my wireless online card to continue to work in Huairou, but I cannot be absolutely certain. Should it not work, we will be in touch again as soon as we return to Beijing on August 10th/11th. Needless to say, it is privilege for me to see the fortes and frailties of each and every child and to have shared a fleeting moment of their lives. Thank you for sending your beautiful children to YiB!
From a teacher/parent,
Agnes (aka He laoshi)