During my visit, we spent half the time in the classroom, helping the children to make decorations for their Halloween party which was happening the following weekend at the school. We encouraged them to be creative during this activity and tried to teach them some new English words, such as ‘pumpkin’ and ‘ghost’! They seemed really pleased to see all of us and some of the more advanced students were happy to try and talk to us and ask us questions. We were split up into small groups within the classroom so that we could get work closely with the children and try and get to know them better. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and we were able to make loads of great decorations – a joint effort as some of the interns got really involved !
My friend Laura making friends with one of the children
After the arts and crafts session, we all headed outside to the playground to play some games with the children. Most of the boys went off to play football and the male interns joined them immediately, no communication needed! Some of the boys also went to play basketball or table tennis with some of the volunteers and got into some heated competitions!
The boys playing football
An exciting game of table tennis
The rest of the interns started a skipping rope game with the other children, we split into groups so that everyone could get involved, even the interns!
Playing a game of jump rope
The interns getting involved with the skipping!
It was a great atmosphere to be a part of as all the children were involved in one game or another and were so happy to be playing outside with their friends, with no cares in the world. The games they played were not that different from the games we remembered from our childhood and so everyone was able to enjoy themselves and have a great morning. Unfortunately at 12pm the fun had to stop as the children lined up for their snacks and got ready to go back home to their families, although we did have time for a big group picture fashioning the Halloween decorations we had all made!
It really was a worthwhile experience to be able to help out at one of these schools and although we only spent a few hours with the children, we were still able to get a feel for the positive and loving environment found in the school and to see how much the children loved being there. If you are coming to live in Beijing or even visiting for a few weeks, I would highly recommend getting in touch with this charity, whether you are interested in doing an organized volunteer program or just helping out occasionnally. The MCF have also launched a new ‘Beijing Buddies’ drop in volunteer project where you can visit the schools once, once a week, once a month and so on, so you can get involved even if you are only in the city for a short amount of time.
For more ideas on how to spend your time in Beijing, check out Beijing Tours.
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