(L06, L07)
On our first two days of the trip, we worked with New Hope foundation. Compared to the services at school, we actually spent a whole day at the foundation itself. Since the global concern at school has been working with them for a while, we were vaguely familiar with their intentions, purpose, and more aware of the implications of our actions. Although we had planned activities prior to the visit, such as musical games and simple origami, we did not execute any of them since they were quite young (almost all below five years of age) and we pretty much just played with the toys there. We learnt that at this age, pretty much just giving them your attention and ‘playing’ with them, simply by interacting is all they want and need. For example, one of the children could not walk without support due to some disability so I often would support him and walk around the room. Whenever he wanted to walk, he would raise his hands towards me and I would assist him. We had to be careful of our actions at times because it may put the child in danger, for example, not putting the children on rather high places, even though they would cry and whine, we had to make sure that did not happen. Our decisions on what to do with the children were mostly based on what the children wanted, but at times we had to take charge, or find toys (or giving them more attention) that they can interact and play with since they was only a few of us taking care of several children.
Apart from that, we also interviewed the nurses there with the questions we prepared. We asked them a bit about their personal lives and working at New Hope, why they do their job and how it is done. Even when getting footage of the children, we made sure the nurses were fine with us filming the children. Through these interviews, we also gained a better understanding of New Hope as a whole and the people working there. I think we all felt more motivated to work with these people, as a global concern in UWCSEA and whilst there. We formed a stronger emotional bridge with them by learning about the individuals that work at New Hope, and the issue we are supporting of caring for the children with surgically correctable needs, raising these children until they can be adopted and have a better future.
Great wall of China hike
Apart from service, we also hiked the great wall of china for almost an entire day. The hike up was somewhat tiring but also rewarding, I mean, the view was really nice up there!
On our last day, we were to a Hutong in China (main image of the post), a narrow street filled with various shops of local brands and cultural food. Our intention was to explore the chinese culture more and learn about it, trying various local foods and desserts, learning the names and history behind it. It was also interesting to see how globalisation has affected this, some shops having a modern fusion of chinese and other cultural foods, such as the drinks and teas being sold there.
