Hope School Visit

November 2006, for me, it is an unforgettable journey to Guangdong...

I volunteered to participate in one of my company's social community programme called -> Hope School Project.

A troop of 10 peoples (they are from Australia, Guangzhou & Singapore) were selected to be involved in this project. The place we have visited is (we practically passed by all the small towns before reaching the place) ->

Hekuo town, Luhe county, Shanwei city, Guangdong, Guangzhou, China~

In total, we have full 5 days spent in Heyuan and 2 days in Guangzhou. We did not forget to do sightseeing... Some of them have also visited textile & the famous "jade" factory.

All the us came far away even carried with us all the cutie soft toys, books, encyclopeadia, world maps, donation funds, beautiful gifts and decoration stuff...

There are also 2 vans for 2 drivers arranged for us - transporting us from one place to another. It is also our sleeping beg where we can sleep and rest when we are tired!

There are 10 teachers (1 of them is a headmaster) and 330 students awaited for our arrival....wow auuu!

Is there some kind of mission we need to accomplish? Hmmm.......

What are we supposed to do there?

Bingo! A sudden change, we are the teachers of Xihu Hope School now...

Teaching the childrens in english and mandarin, dancing and singing, drawing and playing games. Most of them speaks Hakka and with sirname of "Chu". In fact, most of them are Mr & Mrs Chu, Chu boy and Chu girl :-)

Actually, there were whole lots of programmes planned for them before we arrived. We also took this opportunity to interact as well as teaches them arts and crafts. They were so excited!!

They were really happy to see us - not sure to see our presents or our "presents". They likes posting "with a rabbit sign" and all were very photogenic he he! Some of them are really chatties and talkatives...

When you see this photo, it means we are leaving the place already. It was the last group photo taken with them (be it with teachers or childrens). Hai, time to say goodbye! Well, only memories and photos are with me now...

Wrapping up: With the donation funds collected, we have reconnected the school's electricity supplies, paid for their eye tests and spectacles, fixed their classrooms' chairs and tables, paid school fees till the childrens complete their grade 6 (based on identified poor childrens only), paid tuition fees for the teachers and reserved some funds for childrens' future scholarships.

This was a very meaningful and fruitful trip to me. Not only have the chance of becoming primary school teacher but also exposed to their cultures and living patterns. One thing however, we have all agreed is that, we are yet to get used to their "natural" cuisines. Thank goodness, we have been taken good care of (in terms of food) when we returned to Guangzhou. No wonder people said "Eat in Guangzhou" - Chir Jia Guangzhou!~