A visit to Yan Ci Children's Home

This was the first time I visited a children's home.

The children there we in Yan Ci Children's Home are mostly addmitted because of domestic problems. And the home is aimed at providing them caring and helping them grow until their independence.

What we wanted to bring them by our visit were a happy weekend afternoon, some simple gifts, concern and love from university students and hopefully some encouragement that could inspire them.

These were all our beautiful wishes. But we did not expect was an experience where we were kept being challenged by mischief, rebellion and frankness of those children.

There was a session during which we were divided into groups of HC students and children to have some talks together.

I asked the three girls grouped with me, "What do you think about today's games? Intersting?"
"Can we first of all give some comments?" Asked by one of the three and, before my saying anything, continued," Could you add more entertainment and creativity to your design of games. I have been playing these games for three years. They can just bore me."

I did not know how to response for a while, because I was totally astonished by her words.

It was already hard to organize the whole activity, design all the games and play with handful children.

But in the end, what we got were not their favor and joy, but dislike.

Thanks to the frankness of these children, I was challenged again but also learned that we could not design something for them just from our understandings of them and without practically knowing them more.

Fortunately, they are children. After all, games, no matter how boring, are children's favorite and can alwayse make them relaxed and happy.

At a moment, I felt a sense of gratification. I saw that these children in front of me are all smart, active, happy and having their own thoughts and the confidence to express their thoughts. They may somewhere in their lives encounter some adversities, but they are now living lives meaningfully.

There was a girl named Ceci in my group surprising me a lot. During the talk, she suddenly asked me for a peice of paper and a pen and said, "What about we playing some mathematical games?"

"What? What does it mean by mathematical games?"

"Some calculation."

"Calculation? So is it really counted as a game?"

"You first give me a problem." She did not even take my question.

I figured out one for her. She solved with apparent ease. When I was about to give a harder one, she grabbed the paper and said,
"Well, it is my turn!"
She then wrote down a problem without any thinking. It was at least ten times harder than the one I gave and took me minutes to work out the answer.

She could not wait to ask me how to get it. But before any of my explanation, she asked,"Is it that you...." She described what exactly i did.

It was amazing, wasn't it? This primary grade-5 girl liked calculation more than games and showed a great talent. It seemed that I could see her bright future after she left this children's home.

It was a great visit, even though we should have designed something more entertaining and more creative to bring them more joy.

I really hope that someday I can do more for them.