CIP at 沙河

Community service at Sahe was a great experience for all the High Flyers. A week before the service, the boys were divided into groups. My assignment was they find a nursery rhyme, teach it and teach a moral attached to it. Boys who were confident of the various levels were put together to work. It was very interesting to watch how they all came together to work. These groups are made up of students from different programmes but because they have studied and lived together over the past one month, it has become easier for them to collaborate. They seemed to know which buttons not to push and which buttons they could push in order to get a laugh. All in all it was fun to watch them put to use their english skills. I tipped them about how to reward for good behaviour and what to reward.

The night before, they went to 物美 to buy the presents for their lessons. One group bought 30 eggs to "unegg". They were going to teach Humpty Dumpty. I fried all the eggs up and this group made many people happy because breakfast was different that morning. The early birds got the omelettes.

Once lesson was over at 1200, they went back to their dorms and got ready for lunch. We boarded the bus at 1300 and arrived Sahe around 1330. On the way there, three students decided to get off the bus because they heard "沙河到了". The bus conductor was kind to alert me with a loud yell across to the front where I was and told me to get off. If not for her, I would have left three of them down the bus. But they came up very quickly upon realizing they were wrong and so I have all 30 sheep.

Then the lesson began. Some of the boys had to work with American students while some actually held onto their own. I walked into the Pre primary class with a camera and I got their attention. It was easy to ask them to sit down because they were ready for a photo shoot. I did take a few shots. After which I was in the Primary two class. This time I had a packet of 汪汪 rice crackers and immediately got the attention of all the children. I told them to pay attention to my students because we will give them some rice crackers if they behaved. As I walked around, I heard laughter. Some had a little difficulty teaching the children but most were holding it out on their own.

On the whole the boys liked the experience. The American students found our help important. This was because we could communicate in both Mandarin and English. Please allow me to share some photos with all of you.

Here's Esther signing out.