As I’m writing today’s blog entry , the lyrics in the title still echo loudly in my head. This song was specially performed by the youth to thank everyone for their hospitality during their stay here. It’s so hard for me to believe that today was the second last day of the Chengdu trip… All the words, laughs, inside jokes, bonds that we share are irreplaceable! Even the days that I am not volunteering it feels like I never left, my new friends would play out all the highlights of their conversations, keeping me up to date with all their new inside jokes because I am their “兄妹” (Sister). It really does feel like a small family to me, our ‘brotherly’ greetings, our ‘family pictures’. Looking back I have only spent 4 days with these youth, yet I see them in the morning and we feel like old friends. This feeling really is remarkable, words simply cannot do it justice.
Today we began our day with visiting CBC, touring the different studios and broadcasting stations. We got hands on experience with the recording equipment where most of us got to say our names into the mics and have it recorded! I had fun taking pictures with my new friends as we sat in newscasters seats and in front of the green screen. It was especially funny because most of the volunteers were wearing lime green t shirts in a shade almost identical to the one on the screen, so we theorized if we tried to put on a background in place of the green, the whole person’s body would disappear with it! As we walked out of city center mall, a lady handed out copies of the metro, my buddy recognized pictures of lady gaga splashed on its cover at once! The newspaper went into details about her coming to Edmonton; my friend went crazy wishing she could see this concert. Its incredible how even people halfway across the globe share similar pop culture as us!
Our next stop was at city hall. We got a brief tour of city hall, people kindly took us around and showed us where Edmonton’s councillors and mayor works. We even got to see a meeting in session and go into the mayor’s private office. I bet the favourite part of the tour for most of the youth, especially the younger ones was when they got to take gum out of the candy dispenser shaped picture frame! (First time I’ve seem it too!) After, we went back outside to take some pictures by the fountain and waited for them to call us in again. While we were waiting we saw people on boards in the fountains which looked like a lot of fun, but I wasn’t willing to risk falling into the ice cold water! While this was happening, my buddy borrowed a phone with internet browsing to check her QQ account (Chinese version of face book and msn). While she was on she showed me pictures of her friends back home and messages that her friends left her while she was gone. But the thing that I will always remember was one blog entry she showed me. It dated back to over 2 years ago, not too long after the earthquake happened. It was a freestyle poem that she wrote about the treacherous earthquake , the loneliness she felt and a last goodbye to her parents. It was written amazingly, I could almost feel an ache in my heart for her. The reality of what these youth had been though because of the earthquake, never hit me so hard as it did then. The part of the poem that stood out was where she wrote ‘never again will I see you, mother, waiting for me with warm supper’. Its so impactful because I look at my own life and these simple things that I take for granted, these same things mean so much to kids that were unfortunate enough to lose these chances.
Soon after, we were asked to go inside again. Performance time! I was anxious to see what kind of performance they had ready for us, as I heard the youth and teachers stayed up till 2 rehearsing for today. I was definitely not disappointed when I saw the sign language performance they organized to the song “真心英雄“ (True hero). The tune has been stuck in my head all day, and just now I decided to find the lyrics to reminisce:
真心英雄 True Hero
曲：李宗盛 词：李宗盛
Composed and lyrics by Jonathan Lee
周:在我心中 曾经有一个梦
Emil: zai wo xin zhong zeng jing you yi ge meng
Emil: In my heart there was once a dream
要用歌声让你忘了所有的痛
yao yong ge sheng rang ni wang le suo you de tong
to use songs to make you forget all your pain
成:灿烂星空 谁是真的英雄
Jackie: cheng can lan xing kong shei shi zhen de ying xiong
Jackie: Among the starry skies, who is the true hero
平凡的人们给我最多感动
ping fan de ren men ji wo zui duo gan dong
common people move me the most
黄:再没有恨 也没有了痛
Anthony: zai mei you hen ye mei you le tong
Anthony: No more hate, and no more pain
但愿人间处处都有爱的影踪
dan yuan ren jian chu chu dou you ai de ying zong
May there be traces of love in every part of our life
李:用我们的歌 换你真心笑容
Jonathan: rong wo men de ge huan ni zhen xin xiao rong
Jonathan: Using our song to exchange for your true smiles
祝福你的人生从此与众不同
zhu fu ni de ren sheng cong ci yu zhong bu tong
Wishing the best for you, may your life be unique
把握生命里的每一分钟
ba wo sheng ming li de mei yi fen zhong
take charge of life’s every second
全力以赴我们心中的梦
quan li yi fu wo men xin zhong de meng
do our best to work towards our dreams
不经历风雨 怎么见彩虹
bu jing li feng yu zen me jian cai hong
without wind and rain, how would we see the rainbow
没有人能随随便便成功
mei you ren neng sui sui bian bian cheng gong
nobody could succeed just by being lacksadaisical
*把握生命里每一次感动
ba wo sheng ming li mei yi ci gan dong
take charge of life’s every second
和心爱的朋友热情相拥
he xin ai de peng you re qing xiang yong
with your best loved friends, get along well and hug
让真心的话 和开心的泪
rang zhen xin de hua he kai xin de lei
may the true words and happy tears
在你我的心里流动
zai ni wo xin li liu dong
move in your and my heart
The lyrics are so nice, and to watch the smiling faces of the youth as they sign makes me feel like we really do make a difference in their lives. Following this performance was one done by Zhang Sen (nicknames by us as Johnson) where he performed kung fu to the song in Kung Fu Panda, the move that I have never seen anyone else perform before was one where he did the bridge right in the middle! It was quite funny to see this boy that could barely sit still look so intensely focused for once! Last but not least one of the teachers, Ms Tang performed a beautiful Tibetan dance for us, even though she wasn’t wearing a traditional costume, her dancing abilities made up for it! After the performances came lunchtime! The food was great, much thanks to our Mayor Mandel for organizing it, Many sandwiches and wraps of all colors and sizes were organized into many platters. But the part that was most anticipated had to be the ice cream! There was a table set aside with assorted toppings and syrups, my friend put in a bit of everything, though it was a bit messy looking, he claimed it was delicious! Mayor Mandel prepared little gifts for everyone. When he gave my buddy one, she coincidentally was practicing her English in a small notepad, she ripped out the page she had just written with the words: “Thank you, I love you!” written on it and gave it to the mayor!
After city hall we went to the book depository. Because all the books are in English, the buddies had to help recommend books for their buddies to take home! I didn’t just give out advice, but I got lots of recommendations as to the books that I should read soon too! All the youth came out with a big bag of heavy books (have fun carry them home!), and it was interesting to see what some of them chose. My buddy chose a few sketching books because she was starting to learn to draw, and some kids came out with dictionaries because they were that determined to learn English. Some of them took thick novels and said the thick books will remind them to study English really hard, and come to Edmonton again one day.
Our next destination was Kingsway mall! My group and I went to Purdy’s, and lots of thanks to Carmen who bought a box of hedgehogs to share with everyone, they were so yummy! My buddy and I walked twice our normal speed to make sure she could buy all her presents before we had to leave as this was our last shopping opportunity. Though we were the last to meet the group at leaving time, at least all her presents were bought!
Our last stop tonight was at Dynasty Century Palace, a Chinese restaurant where we had a special ECBEA dinner with our Chengdu friends. Many of my new friends got on stage to talk about how meaningful this trip has been and expressed their gratitude to all the people that have made this small miracle possible. Many Edmonton students also went to give small speeches about how significant and fun this volunteering experience has been for them. I couldn’t agree more! Afterwards a slideshow of pictures taken in the last week was shown. Seeing all the times we shared and with a farewell just around the corner, I couldn’t help but start tearing up. We ended the evening by singing karaoke, me and my ‘brothers’ sang ‘JiangNan” together, though it was less singing and more yelling into the mic, it was a lot of fun and something to remember. At some point in the evening a crowd suddenly merged to the TV outside. It turns out mayor madel spoke on OMNI today about the ChengDu visit, and showed the camera the note that my buddy wrote for him. For the rest of the evening everyone kept reminding her that her ‘情書’ (love letter) was made public! Everyone wanted to continue singing unfortunately it was time to end this day.
Tomorrow awaits, though it’ll be hard to put our sad feelings of goodbye aside, I hope we can make the most of the limited time we have together.
A quote for tomorrow:
“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”
~Dr. Seuss
Hylann
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