Hello, everyone, my name
is Shawn. It might seem ironic to many
of you but I am not a guy. As of
December 2012, while I am writing this, I am 19 years old and still doing my
A-Levels as a JPA scholar.
First, let me start by
telling all of you how I got acquainted with AIESEC UPM. Back in January 2011, while waiting for my
SPM results, I got the chance to attend two workshops organised by myHarapan
Youth Trust Foundation. It was during
these workshops that I met AIESECers who got me interested in their activities,
especially the exchange programme, or more formally known as the Global
Community Development Programme (GCDP).
However, it was only in
January 2012 that I got in touch with AIESEC and was referred to Evelyn Yee of
AIESEC UPM. Thinking back right now, I
think I was trying to combine my love for travel and the desire to get involved
in the real world and humanity but most importantly, I wanted to do my tiny bit
in making the world a better place.
Well, that was how my journey with AIESEC started.
Throughout the course of a
few months before my trip, I liaised with Evelyn who guided me through all the
paperwork and preparation needed prior to departure. With the flight ticket booked and the Visa
done, all I needed to do was to make sure that I studied for my end-of-semester
examinations and off I went to Beijing, China.
It seems that I was very excited for my stint right? Yes and no.
I was looking forward to it, initially, but only when I was at the
airport that it dawned on me that it would be the first time that I would be
travelling alone, away from my family for 6 whole weeks! I knew that if I allowed myself to cry, my
parents would simply say that it was my own decision to go on this exchange. No, don’t get me wrong, my parents were fully
supportive of my decision to go on this exchange but they left the ultimate
decision to me. I tried to stay strong
in front of my parents and siblings but at the departure gate, the tears flowed
anyway.
What have I got myself
into? This was the exact thought that
went through my mind when I found myself all alone waiting to go through the
immigration at the Beijing Capital International Airport. That was not all. When I was brought to the place that I was
staying for the next one and a half-month, I was almost in tears again. It was definitely not ideal but despite that,
I knew that I was prepared to face something like this. Somewhere deep down, I knew that it was
something that could made my experience even more meaningful and I would come
out of this stronger, more matured and more ready to face anything that come my
way in the future. Well, it was
true. So, there I was sharing the room with
three other young Chinese teachers of the school.
I am sorry I have totally
forgotten to introduce the project that I have participated in. Basically, I was an assistant teacher in the
Shaliwen Bilinguistic Learning Centre located in the outskirts of Beijing. It is a rehabilitation school for deaf
children, mostly under the age of six. I
was tasked to help the teachers to teach the children who have recently got
hearing aids, to listen and speak. This
is besides the daily job of having to take care of the basic needs of the
children, some of them who are staying full time in the school. Imagine children as young as two years old
staying away from their parents! I was
told that some of them could not recognise their parents after being apart for
a period of time.
I must say that my
experience of being a teacher for these special kids was really a fulfilling
one. First of all, the children are
simply adorable, almost all of them at least.
There is this particular boy who doesn’t seem to sit still even for one
second, practically went against all my instructions and even fooled me around! But somehow I felt that he was just craving
for attention and that was the only way he was going to get any from me as
there were too many kids to care for!
They love me and I love them back likewise. Right now, I really miss them and also the
time when I sang and danced with them for a whole 30 minutes every single day. I miss Xin Hai, the little boy who called me
‘mummy’, Hong Zhou who would give me a big wet kiss whenever he saw me, Shi Qi
who was the polite and clever one and the blue-eye boy (yes,he has one blue eye
and the other black in colour due to a medical condition), Guan Cheng who would
imitate me scolding the other kids, in fact sometimes doing it for me. All of them made my life at Shaliwen a very
memorable one.
I realised that life for
the kids and teachers at Shaliwen is not an easy one. The kids wake up at around 6 am every day and
school goes on from 8 am to 5 pm. In
between classes and therapy, there’s also play time, meal time, bath time and
also the time to watch Sponge Bob Square Pants.
The children had to undergo intense therapy session (even though
sometimes unwillingly) so that they are able to catch up with other children of
the same age. The limited number of
teachers in the school means that the young teachers had to take turns to take
care of the kids at night and during the weekends. Due to the distance, time and cost, many of
the teachers can only go back once-a-year during Chinese New Year. Not only that, by the end of the day,
everyone would be so tired that all of us just wanted to go back to our dorms and
rest. When I was there, by 10pm,
everyone would be sound asleep.
Well, after a long week in
the school, the weekends were the time that we really enjoyed ourselves. I used ‘we’ here because I have made two good
Singaporean friends, Li Xuan and Chor Yen who were also at Shaliwen under
AIESEC. They arrived a few days after me
but I must say that we hit it off right away.
We made plans for all our six weekends, making sure that we covered all
the must-see places in Beijing. In the
end, we managed to cover The Great Wall, Summer Palace, Forbidden City,
Tiananmen, Wang Fu Jing and we even took a bullet train to Tianjin and spent a
night at a luxurious yet cheap hostel over there. Thanks to our friends and buddies at the University
of International Business and Economics (UIBE) who accompanied us on many of
those trips and made sure that all our needs were taken care of. I even celebrated my birthday with my Chinese
friends as well as EPs from Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.
In conclusion, I came out
of this experience as a better if not more matured and independent person. Words cannot describe the impact that my
short stint in China has on my life. Shall
I start by sharing my experience of my narrow escape after my hand was grabbed
by a stranger while out jogging in the early hours of the morning? Well, that’s a whole different story,
fortunately nothing happened and it was entirely my fault. No time for that now! Or shall I relate my experience of having to
stay overnight in the AIESEC office of UIBE after Li Xuan and me failed to
sneak into the girl’s dormitory despite our buddies doing whatever they can to
bring us in for the night (we just came back from the Great Wall)?
Throughout my trip, I have
done things that I have not dreamed of doing, ever. I have stepped out of my comfort zone and
faced my fears and insecurities. I
forged new friendships that I am sure that would last a lifetime. I am now more confident, independent,
matured, determined and the list goes on and on…
However, most of all, I am more confident in moving on with my life. I have found my passion. I have found what I want to achieve in life. I have found more of myself.
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| The kid that changed my life. |
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