GeJiu Service Trip-Part 2: The Adults
The Kunming International Academy annual spring service trip, a
chance for our high school students to obtain service hours (a
requirement for graduation), took us to an orphanage outside the city of
GeJiu, about a five-hour bus ride south-southeast of Kunming. This is
the second installment in a series of picture about that trip. This
particular set of photos looks at the adults of the orphanage and how
KIA's students served them during our trip.
When one hears the word orphanage, one usually thinks of abandoned children--children who, for one reason or another, find themselves without parents or a home. However, in GeJiu, the term takes on new meaning when one encounters a community of abandoned elderly--adults who, for one reason or another, have found themselves without a family to take care of them or home in which to live. Some of these adults have been living here for years, even decades, many with very few, if any, visits from their immediate family members. Once again, the staff of this facility have worked hard to provide these older members of society with a comfortable place to live, in the face of the absence of a home.
Lois, KIA's high school math teacher, joins the elderly members of the orphanage in performing the hand motions to a song the students were teaching everyone. While these older men and women have the opportunity to get out during the day (much like their infant and toddler counterparts), the rarely have more than each other to encourage activity that brings regular smiles (much like their infant and toddler counterparts). The orphanage workers do a wonderful job of trying to keep these adults active, but once again, the number of workers compared to the number of members in the community simply makes this task difficult. With the arrival of the KIA students, our high schoolers provided four days of singing and dancing and other activities to eliminate some of the daily monotony.
In this photo, Esther (grade 11, Korea) dances with one of the men of the community. Too often we forget that our cultures' elderly were once young like us, so we also lose sight of the fact that they love to sing and dance and simply be active. Seeing their eyes light up at being encouraged to be young again, our students learned what it means to be forever a child at heart.
These men clap along to a song the students played on their guitars and sang for the elderly. Much like the infants and toddlers, these older men and women love the power of music to drive away boredom. Many times, when our students had nothing else planned to do with the elderly, just pulling out the guitar and singing was activity enough to bring smiles.
KIA's Korean students are masters of games that involve clapping and chanting. In this photo, Chae Rin (far left, grade 9, Korea), Grace (middle, grade 11, Korea), and Peter (far right, grade 11, USA) play a game that encourages hand clapping with one's neighbor. Watching them play, the game's rhythm sounded and felt like the beat of friendship.
Because Yunnan Province is home to no less than 56 minority people groups, it came as no surprise that some of the children and adults at the orphanage are members of a minority group. This woman is a member of one of the Miao (pronounced meow) minorities. She graciously lent her minority clothing to--from left to right--Leah (grade 11, USA), Grace, Esther, and Alyssa (grade 11, USA).
On my first morning at the orphanage, I met a young man who was at least mostly blind (it was difficult to tell if he could see blurry shapes or not). He said that he did not know his name, but that he had lived at the orphanage for twelve years, and that he is 33 years old. He has a slight cleft in his palate, and he may be slightly developmentally challenged. I shared half my apple with him. Watching him eat was difficult because he only had about five or six upper teeth and a few more than that on the bottom. Even so, his smile at receiving the apple, and another smile at receiving a pat on the back as I stood saying, "Zai jian" were enough to let me know that he had been served. The strange thing about service is this: When you are certain you have truly served someone, you also become certain that you have truly been served.
When one hears the word orphanage, one usually thinks of abandoned children--children who, for one reason or another, find themselves without parents or a home. However, in GeJiu, the term takes on new meaning when one encounters a community of abandoned elderly--adults who, for one reason or another, have found themselves without a family to take care of them or home in which to live. Some of these adults have been living here for years, even decades, many with very few, if any, visits from their immediate family members. Once again, the staff of this facility have worked hard to provide these older members of society with a comfortable place to live, in the face of the absence of a home.
Because Yunnan Province is home to no less than 56 minority people groups, it came as no surprise that some of the children and adults at the orphanage are members of a minority group. This woman is a member of one of the Miao (pronounced meow) minorities. She graciously lent her minority clothing to--from left to right--Leah (grade 11, USA), Grace, Esther, and Alyssa (grade 11, USA).
On my first morning at the orphanage, I met a young man who was at least mostly blind (it was difficult to tell if he could see blurry shapes or not). He said that he did not know his name, but that he had lived at the orphanage for twelve years, and that he is 33 years old. He has a slight cleft in his palate, and he may be slightly developmentally challenged. I shared half my apple with him. Watching him eat was difficult because he only had about five or six upper teeth and a few more than that on the bottom. Even so, his smile at receiving the apple, and another smile at receiving a pat on the back as I stood saying, "Zai jian" were enough to let me know that he had been served. The strange thing about service is this: When you are certain you have truly served someone, you also become certain that you have truly been served.
posted by Roland at 8:34 PM
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