Category Stories

One Week & Two Days Left in China

Last Monday (7/25) and this Wednesday (8/3) I reached more blocks in my Chinese.  It just made the elderly home a little more difficult.  But I am always able to help and still make them happy anyway.  I found a place to develop…

Birthday and trouble at school

Sunday was my birthday! We went to Cape Town by train which took a little more than an hour. There we did some shopping and I got my dad a present. Then we ate at the food court and I…

Constantly Learning

I just spend over an hour writing on my blog but the internet completely messed up and then it erased my entire blog post 🙁 I already posted it and everything but I looked back and it was completely gone like…

Week 1

It is hard to express this week in words. I’ve written everyday so here’s my week. Pictures will come later 7/16 I could hardly sleep last night. I attempted to go to bed but the combination of a hot room…

Long Week

This Thursday was the hardest day of volunteering yet.  I have had a very busy and long week going to both places to volunteer, waiting really long for extremely crowed buses, long Chinese classes, and studying after it all.   So I was particularly exhausted on Thursday.  My brain just would…

Elderly Home and School for Autistic Children

After conversing with my Chinese teacher about my volunteer work, I have decided to help out both at the Elderly Home and the School for Autistic Children.  Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I will go to the Elderly Home and…

Realizations

After a short time of volunteering at the School for Autistic Children, I realize that this is the wrong place for me to be.  It is a good school with a great purpose, but I am not able to really help…

Pre-Departure Pains

I still feel like I have so many things to do. First off, I’m trying to come back in nine months instead of the year I had orginially planned. Note to any future Lumos awardees: check and double check your…

Street Life and Volunteering

I have begun my volunteer work at the school for autistic children!  I will be there Monday thru Friday for 3 hours each day. It is really going to be difficult work on many levels.  At 1:30pm everyday I will walk to a particular…

Communication with Autistic Children

Below are some questions/phrases that I will use while trying to converse with the autistic children in Kunming, China.  These are only a few out of many phrases that I will prepare.  I know all these sentences by heart, but I wrote the translation below for those who…