I’m not going to lie…teaching is hard! I heard that it would be, but I completely underestimated how hard it would be to get a group of 3-4 year olds to behave—especially in a language they don’t understand! At the beginning I thought of them as crazy rugrats…then I learned about tucking them in. This is the first year my 3-4 years olds are away from home. They are sent by their parents to come live in this boarding school and they only get to see their families maybe once a week—or for some—only holidays. There are about 2 teachers that are in charge of these 20-30 kids and thus the kids hardly get any personal attention at all. Often, I will visit them at night and find one in the corner, crying for their mom/dad. One of my most treasured memories is when one night I came in to play with the kids and found one of my students crying in his bed. I went over and played with him, trying to cheer him up. Then he leaned forward and gave me a big hug and whispered “Wo ai ni (I love you)” to me. It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt and I realized how much I really did love these kids. For me, it made a huge difference to get to know my students on a more personal level. For my last month I made a goal to go tuck them in every night that I was there. My heart went out to them as I better understood their situations and the things they must be struggling with. And the more time they spent around me—the better they became in class! Spending time with my kids became my favorite thing about my China experience and I can’t express how much these kids mean to me.
When I go, first I say goodnight to the older girls (6-7 year olds). They love singing, playing jump rope, and especially stealing my camera and taking lots of silly pictures with me. The cutest thing about them is how much they love sharing with me! I always leave with a handful of their favorite treats.
Then I go visit my 3-4 year olds! They love dancing, being picked up and spun around, watching TV (and dancing along), sharing their treats (dipping their fingers into the chocolate and trying to stuff it in my mouth—have I mentioned how we have all got sick multiple times from these kids?), fighting over our stuff and attention, and again taking lots of silly pictures.
Something interesting is that often we would visit the kids and find several of them hooked up to IVs. The tradition here is to use IV’s to give medicine…even if it’s just a simple cold.
The students comforting another student and Jenny talking to her mom.
This is Cole. Cole is one of my special buddies. He is the sweetest boy and has completely won over my heart. He always gives me hugs and kisses, holds my hand, and is so fun to play with. This boy figured out that he has me around his finger and every night, he would grab my hand, lead me out of the bedroom (they weren’t a supposed to leave), take me to the classroom, and ask for a piece of candy. I was not allowed to do this…but with a smile like that—how could I say no? I’m going to miss this boy!
And then after making the kids all hyper and excited (with some angry glares from the teachers), we would put the kids in their beds, wrap the blanket around their legs (they always laughed so hard at this), give them a hug and a kiss and then ran away before they could follow us.
