Today is the fourth day of volunteering. Every day has been really great. Here's what I've done so far:
7:10 AM woke up! Never woke up that early so far. Last night, another volunteer arrived, so we talked with her for a while after breakfast. Her name is Christine and she is a music teacher from Long Island. She will be so good for the kids since they all love to sing. Anyway, after breakfast we talked about Chinese, Taiwanese, Cantonese, and ABCs (American Born Chinese). We happened to have one woman from each category. Li Xue-Chinese, Christine-Taiwanese, Elisa-Cantonese, me-ABC. Christine said a lot of people in Taiwan call ABC's "bananas." w00t.
8:30 AM English class for preschoolers begins. We sat in a big room on the first floor with about 9 kids. Some of the kids have attention problems and learn slowly, but others learn quickly. We have three little boys, Li Long, Xia Bao, and Zhi Wei. I realized that Li Long is the name of a Soul Blade character (Soul Blade was the precursor to the game Soul Calibur), but no one else knows what I'm talking about (only Andrew and Lynn probably would). Zhi Wei is extra tiny because he was malnourished for the first two years of his life. When he arrived at Bethel his face was disfigured, but now he has filled out somewhat and looks very cute. His voice is really high-pitched. Today we walked in a circle while holding onto whoever was in front of us, and said, "we are walking" over and over to teach them words. The girl in front of Zhi Wei wouldn't let him hold onto her shoulders, so he got angry and refused to sing afterwards. He just kept repeating “她不让我拉她!” in a voice that's as high-pitched as the egg song or Alvin and the Chipmunks.
9:00 - 10:00 AM Sitting in the office reading and writing emails, editing essays for my online job.
10:00 - 11:00 AM Translating for Sarah's anatomy class, this time for the older children. Yesterday I translated for the young kids. Sarah taught them about parts of the eye (cornea, retina, iris, etc.). It was interesting to learn the terms for those in Chinese (角膜，视网膜，虹膜，etc.). Yesterday with the little kids, we used lychee (荔枝) as eyeballs for them to feel with their hands, and they knew right away that the "eyeballs" were just fruit, I guess because they are used to the feel of things with their hands. But today two of the older kids were afraid to touch the "eyeballs."
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Talking with other volunteers, editing more essays. Showed Justin and Christian (Elisa and Wei's children) some Teen Girl Squad episodes.
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch at house #22 where we live with the other volunteers. Nine of us were at the table, and Teresa was upstairs sleeping. Food is delivered from a local restaurant. It's almost always vegetable dishes accompanied by white rice and bread.
1:15 - 2:15 PM Translating for English class for the older students (first time doing that on my own for the most part). Not bad! Teresa is the teacher and is really patient. Li Xue is also a great help. I'm glad that she let me do it, actually, although I was hesitant at first, because she is leaving this weekend and I will have to take over translation next week. We reviewed "I/you/he/she" and "we/you/they." We sang a round with "Row row row your boat" and then practiced the recorder. Teresa brought a recorder for each student.
2:15 - 3:00 PM Piano lesson with Chun Bin. She's 7 or 8, I think. Her fingers are really stiff when she plays, so I tried to make a "petting the cat" analogy with how to touch the keys. There are actually two cats that live in the bathroom next to the piano room, so the kids are all familiar with cats.
3:00 - now Sitting in the office talking with other volunteers, making notes about the piano students, got a weekly schedule from Delphine, showed some more Teen Girl Squad episodes to Christian and Justin.
I will be teaching piano again in half an hour, and then we'll all go back to our house and wait for dinner to arrive. Still no Internet in the house yet.
7:10 AM woke up! Never woke up that early so far. Last night, another volunteer arrived, so we talked with her for a while after breakfast. Her name is Christine and she is a music teacher from Long Island. She will be so good for the kids since they all love to sing. Anyway, after breakfast we talked about Chinese, Taiwanese, Cantonese, and ABCs (American Born Chinese). We happened to have one woman from each category. Li Xue-Chinese, Christine-Taiwanese, Elisa-Cantonese, me-ABC. Christine said a lot of people in Taiwan call ABC's "bananas." w00t.
8:30 AM English class for preschoolers begins. We sat in a big room on the first floor with about 9 kids. Some of the kids have attention problems and learn slowly, but others learn quickly. We have three little boys, Li Long, Xia Bao, and Zhi Wei. I realized that Li Long is the name of a Soul Blade character (Soul Blade was the precursor to the game Soul Calibur), but no one else knows what I'm talking about (only Andrew and Lynn probably would). Zhi Wei is extra tiny because he was malnourished for the first two years of his life. When he arrived at Bethel his face was disfigured, but now he has filled out somewhat and looks very cute. His voice is really high-pitched. Today we walked in a circle while holding onto whoever was in front of us, and said, "we are walking" over and over to teach them words. The girl in front of Zhi Wei wouldn't let him hold onto her shoulders, so he got angry and refused to sing afterwards. He just kept repeating “她不让我拉她!” in a voice that's as high-pitched as the egg song or Alvin and the Chipmunks.
9:00 - 10:00 AM Sitting in the office reading and writing emails, editing essays for my online job.
10:00 - 11:00 AM Translating for Sarah's anatomy class, this time for the older children. Yesterday I translated for the young kids. Sarah taught them about parts of the eye (cornea, retina, iris, etc.). It was interesting to learn the terms for those in Chinese (角膜，视网膜，虹膜，etc.). Yesterday with the little kids, we used lychee (荔枝) as eyeballs for them to feel with their hands, and they knew right away that the "eyeballs" were just fruit, I guess because they are used to the feel of things with their hands. But today two of the older kids were afraid to touch the "eyeballs."
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Talking with other volunteers, editing more essays. Showed Justin and Christian (Elisa and Wei's children) some Teen Girl Squad episodes.
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch at house #22 where we live with the other volunteers. Nine of us were at the table, and Teresa was upstairs sleeping. Food is delivered from a local restaurant. It's almost always vegetable dishes accompanied by white rice and bread.
1:15 - 2:15 PM Translating for English class for the older students (first time doing that on my own for the most part). Not bad! Teresa is the teacher and is really patient. Li Xue is also a great help. I'm glad that she let me do it, actually, although I was hesitant at first, because she is leaving this weekend and I will have to take over translation next week. We reviewed "I/you/he/she" and "we/you/they." We sang a round with "Row row row your boat" and then practiced the recorder. Teresa brought a recorder for each student.
2:15 - 3:00 PM Piano lesson with Chun Bin. She's 7 or 8, I think. Her fingers are really stiff when she plays, so I tried to make a "petting the cat" analogy with how to touch the keys. There are actually two cats that live in the bathroom next to the piano room, so the kids are all familiar with cats.
3:00 - now Sitting in the office talking with other volunteers, making notes about the piano students, got a weekly schedule from Delphine, showed some more Teen Girl Squad episodes to Christian and Justin.
I will be teaching piano again in half an hour, and then we'll all go back to our house and wait for dinner to arrive. Still no Internet in the house yet.
posted by Ann Chao at 12:41 AM
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