Tsing Yi

This year my employer has launched a new imaging initiative. It includes a name changes and complete rebranding of the firm. Part of this image make over is a new global volunteer program. It's a little bit of a popularity contest with all the MDs in the firm trying to get the most number of volunteers for their planned programs. So far our Hong Kong office has had: Packing freight containers for Africa, Cleaning South Bay and more recently spending a day with the elderly. I helped with the freight containers and decided I would also mingle with the elderly.

The residents here spend their time in shared dorms, some have family, some exhibiting mild senility, a lot however are quite old and too frail to walk. The morning was spent meeting the residents and learning the intricacies of manning a wheelchair. We took them through the Tsing Yi Park and for a sumptuous Yum Cha lunch. Funnily enough, communication wasn't the biggest issue here. My Cantonese is shocking but the hardest challenge was that my lady didn't seem to be in the mood for socialising or eating. The other caretakers explained to me that she was in a grumpy mood and even their attempts to strike up conversation with her were met with the silent treatment. Thankfully I managed to squeeze a smile out of her towards the end and I knew then my efforts weren't completely fruitless.

Boxing Day

The night before we had planned to utilise the amazing rooftop and wake up early for sunrise. At 6:30 the alarm went off, it was still pitch black. Jon rolled over and muttered something, still half asleep, we unanimously agreed that we would skip sunrise and steal a couple extra minutes of sleep. We finally rose at 7:20. Sze Ji needed to be at school by 8 am and seeing that we were just around the corner we left . The house was abuzz, the mother and uncle left for their respective jobs and we said goodbye to the family and headed to school.

The kids had their routine morning exercises which we playfully partcipated in with them. After breakfast we wandered around the corner and must have walked no more than 500 metres before arriving at the Farm. This particular farm specialised in two harvests, sweet potatoes in the Winter and Dragon Fruit in the summer. Lily and gave a quick tutorial in the art of sweet potato harvesting. Hoe and mounds, dig. I can't help but feel we butchered a lot of this season's produce destroying a fair percentage of the crop. Still it was fun way to experience more local life it was nice to be in the sun. It was interesting, a lot of the group had lost interest in digging potatoes and had moved on to the photo taking and modelling. Lily continued to dig.

We arrived back covered in dirt and had another sharing session. It was interesting to hear about the different volunteer's experiences. The level of Cantonese was beyond me so Vincent was able to translate. It was a very moving experience, tears, laughter and prominent moments of silence were shared. We talked about the various distances kids had to travel to school, some leaving the house before sunrise. The different living conditions and varying levels of poverty. One thing that remained constant was the hospitality and generosity of the house holds. It spoke volumes about the simple lives that these people led and despite not having a lot to offer gave up more than was required.

Lunch was in the classroom and afterwards we joined the children during their lunch break. After 2 days interacting with the kids it was clear that they were more comfortable with us around. Punching, hitting, grabbing, hugging, jumping all over you. It was also the first time I interacted with some of the other kids outside of my group. It was obvious that there were varying levels of English, some kids getting stumped at "hello" others able to elicit my name and my age. The day was spent in the warm sun running around with the children - They would pinch and poke and run off, steal my beanie, steal my glasses.During this time, I forgot about all the troubles back home and almost lost track of where I was in my own life. It was just nice seeing the kids run around having fun.

The kids headed back to class and the School Principal addressed us and thanked us for our time and effort. He explained the kids situation and how much this simple 3 day trip would affect them. Our afternoon was spent in the classroom observing their interaction with the teachers. The final school bell sounded for the day and the kids exploded from their classrooms, most of them bee-lining for their bikes, the exit or the waiting relatives at the gates. There were a few who made straight for the bus and the group of volunteers. A small group of the volunteers headed off to one of the hospitals in Guangzhou to visit one of the students with cancer. We said our final goodbyes, photos, high fives, hugs before we finally made our way back onto the bus. The lights were turned off and almost instantly all members drifted off into sleep, it had been an exhausting trip and we started our 5 hour journey back to Hong Kong, a world with public transport, hot water and a sheltered  view of the world around us.

Christmas Day

Past Christmases have generally followed a standard recipe. That is, family and friends gathered together on Christmas Eve accompanied by an assortment of food and the traditional countdown to midnight. The clock would strike twelve, everybody would scream "Merry Christmas", open the gifts and lazily welcome in Christmas Day. The previous day was exhausting and last night's sleep was a welcome luxury, the alarm that broke my sleep was not. I honestly don't remember the last time that I have actually woken up on Christmas Day. It was a deep, re-energizing sleep that I emerged out of - Merry Christmas.

At 7:30 am we checked out of the hotel and lumbered back onto the bus that shuttled us straight to Yawen Primary school. Again we were greeted by waving kids as the bus pulled through the school gates. Pork Congee, Friends noodles and buns were served as breakfast and would serve as fuel for the morning session; I greedily ate as much as I could knowing that I would need the energy.

Today our group was in the Media Room with Millie the English Teacher. Jonathon another volunteer had prepared material and activities briefing the class about Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. The children were engaged and for a moment, I remembered what it was like to be back in primary school. Again, I  assumed the role as Lead Caroler and sang "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer". We went through the lyrics and tried to help the children with their pronunciation. The addition of impromptu gesticulation helped and we had soon coined a dance routine to accompany the lyrics.

The difficult thing I found was communicating with the children, interaction wasn't so bad. But taking away the fundamental interaction like "Do you like singing?" or "What do you like to do?". It was challenging to gain any rapport with the children other than being that enthusiastic English Speaking Chinese guy. The next task for the children was to create a script for an on stage performance - this was to be done all in English. Mandy assisted with the directing and soon our group had a basic script. We had the narrator, played by Jimmy. Santa, played by Wendy. The three Angels: Ainne, Mary, Licy Rudoplh played by Henry. Reindeers played by Karsen, KoKo and Jacky and a invalid played by JoJo. Our story was as follows, Santa is really busy with his reindeers delivering presents and helping people that he has to employ the help of three angels to assist with his philantropy. The story ends with the three angels helping the invalid on Christmas Day. The story was the easy part, getting the kids to memorise the words and their lines was the difficult part!

Proceeding lunch all the groups were pulled into the large room were each group was randomly called out to perform their skit. There was a nervous energy in the air and with 10 minutes to go, not all the members in our group could remember their lines. The group went up and performed, it was shakey and the kids were constantly hiding behind each other as not to be in the public eye, some of the kids handled it better than others. At the end each child was presented with a certificate. We also gave them an opportunity to get them  write cards for us. I recevied a handful of gifts, with most messages written in Chinese the underlying message being "Learn some Chinese, ya bloody Gringo". The afternoon we spent cleaning up the classrooms and meeting the members of our home stay groups.

The sun set over the playground casting an evening tinge over the school. With it the air became cooler as the kids made home either by foot or bicycle. The child whose family we stayed with was Sze Ji, a grade four student. She was nervously waiting for us at the front of the school gates and I'm sure the site of five grown males would have been intimidating. The school had nominated some of the kids to be foster homes for the volunteers with of course the permission of the parents. Sze Ji, out of all the kids lived the closest to the school and after a short 10 minute walk we were at her house. Her Grandmother and brother were waiting for her at the front of her house.

First thoughts, the home was massive! A garage, at least 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, a massive rooftop and plenty of space. It was a liberating sight especially given the meager quarters that I call home in Hong Kong. Despite the size it had a desolate feel to it, perhaps I'm just used to the furnishings and fixtures commonly found in western dwellings.

We were invited in and the mother asked if we would like to stay for dinner. Stay for dinner? There had obviously been some mis communication, we weren't only staying for dinner, we were staying the night! Despite the family only just finding out, their hospitality was supreme. Food was served and the mother rode out to buy extra Chicken for us to eat. We learned that the father lived away from home in one of the factories of the major cities to help support his young family. A banquet was served and I couldn't help but feel that the food that was served was not a regular feature on the dinner table. Fish, Chicken, Tofu, Beans it was a feast.

Immediately after dinner, we presented the family with gifts. This included an assortment of stationery, games and trinkets. Vincent, one of the members helped Sze Ji with her Homework, while Jon taught the brother and cousin the rules of "Snakes and Ladders". Both Derek and Michael sat and chat with the mother. I, well I was preoccupied, deliberating the best way to drop a deuce in rural China. The situation was as such, it was a squatter system bathroom, there was no toilet paper and I really needed to go. Suffice to say, 40 minutes later I emerged from the stall with a better knowledge of the challenges faced when using a squatter toilet.

The grandmother prepared our beds while the auntie boiled water for us to shower. None of us showered that night and we all retired early. It was cold, real cold. We were given a spare room, there was no mattress and my sleeping bag barely kept me warm, thank goodness for that extra blanket that we were given. The sky is incredibly clear and I've not seen so many stars in my life, I contemplate life here in rural China wondering if it's something I could get used to.

Christmas Eve

My previous, albeit brief flirtations as a volunteer had kindled an interest to dedicate some time to philanthropy in Asia. In particular, volunteer work within China. Admittedly, I was resigned to the fact that this experience would probably take place a little later in my life. This was more because I lacked the critical tools to embark on such a program. Namely, a basic grasp of the language and more importantly time to facilitate a stint overseas. This all changed one week ago when I stumbled across House of Learning, a non-profit organisation whose energy is directed at helping the less fortunate in Hong Kong and China. Anita, the Project Organiser graciously invited me along for the trip.

The lead up to my adventure into Qingyuan, China was riddled with problems. I had enlisted three days before the start of the trip and had missed the relevant training sessions leaving me completely in the dark. Worse still, on the night before I was scheduled to depart I discovered at 10 pm that I had accidentally left my passport in the office. The next hour was spent convincing the security guard to let me into the building and trying to figure out the after-hours office door code. It was a great relief to finally have my passport back in my possession.

My six o'clock alarm does not agree with me. I immediately regret going to Lan Kwai Fong the night earlier for those 'Quiet Pre-Christmas Drinks'. Struggling on four hours of sleep, I find my house mate still awake from the night earlier. He still looks drunk, and immediately all inhibitions about forfeiting my Christmas in Hong Kong dissipate. After all, that would have probably would have been me all weekend. I dump a protein shake and make for Lo Wu.

At 7:40 I finally arrive at Lo Wu, I was supposed to meet the rest of the party at 7:30. It should have come as no surprise that I was running late, typical. I had throughout the train ride received multiple calls from the team leaders who were trying to solicit my whereabouts. "I've just arrived. I'll meet you there shortly" I pant as I dart through the early morning platform crowd. 8:00 I'm still lining up at immigration, another phone call."Whereabouts are you?" I hear. "Sorry, I'm almost there, I'm caught up at immigration" I reply. "Immigration? Wait, you've gone to far, you were supposed to meet on the Hong Kong Side of Lo Wu". This was not panning out as I had expected, and I questioned what I was doing at the Chinese border going into a country with complete strangers and zero language skills. I was almost tempted to abort this adventure and just return to Hong Kong with all the other expats and enjoy Christmas eating a truck load of food and getting drunk; then again, that's really just every other weekend in Hong Kong.

It was almost 9 am by the time I finally met the House of Learning group outside the Shangri la Hotel, Shenzhen . I was horribly late and despite not having met a single member of the party I was already infamously known as "Derek, the guy who was late". The first thing that strikes me is the sheer number of volunteers willing to help. Professionals of all ages, students, young families, the odd straggler had all voluntarily decided to forfeit their Christmas in Hong Kong.

I was immediately introduced to my team and for this weekend, Michelle, Mandy, Rachel, Kenny, Manic and myself would be known as 'Group Six'. We boarded the coach that would be our primary mode of transport for the next few days and settled in for the drive from Shenzhen to Quingyuan. Anita introduced the  group leaders and talked us through the upcoming itinerary, this was of course all in Cantonese and I managed to understand the odd sentence here and there but the reality of the language barrier dawned on me. I spent the journey seated next to Pauline, although I wasn't much company as asleep for majority of the four hour commute, occasionally waking up to the sound of chatter and the sound of myself snoring.

I was absolutely starving by the time we arrived at our first stop, Ching Hing Hotel. After we emptied our bladders and then crammed into the dining area of the hotel where lunch was served. The warm food was welcomed by the group and almost immediately we were back on the road. I was well fed and well rested and my attention was drawn to the rural backdrop we were motoring through. Passed through areas of fairly dense vegetation and the simple local abodes we continued along the dusty road for another 10 minutes until the concrete walls of Ya Wen Primary school eventually crept up on us. The children gathered together as the bus slowly pulled through the gates of the school. There were looks of anxiety, curiosity and excitement, from both the children and the volunteers.

The kids were divided into groups and our group, Group Six had their first session with Anita in the Brain Enhancement session up on level four. Up until now, I still wasn't entirely sure what role I would be playing here, I knew there would be English involved but the interaction and contribution that I would be able to bring was still unknown. Anita pulled me aside and asked if I would be able to help with the Christmas Carols, in this case "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". There were no hesitations and I immediately agreed although I would have been lying if I had said I wasn't nervous. I was handed the microphone, the music started and  soon enough I was singing solo in front of 30-40 students in a foreign language that they didn't understand. The only time I sing is when I'm blind drunk - I was completely sober and couldn't help but feel that this performance would end up on the outtake of an American Idol bloopers segment. The next 20 minutes we spent going through the lyrics and dance moves to the song. I would read out a few lines as I paced among the students while Anita explained the story in Cantonese.

After the open mic session I was a little more relaxed and we were given time to go through some activities with the children. The first task was to get the kids to write their name tags in both Chinese and English. The next activity was to help the kids create English sentences with the following prompts: Who, What, When, and What if. To wrap up the day's activities the kids created a Group Six team banner using arts and crafts.

The most challenging thing I found was the inability to communicate with the children. Each time I opened my mouth the children looked at me dumbfounded. The other volunteers were able to interact with Cantonese I found myself constantly muted and having to use basic body language as a form of communication. It was actually quite frustrating as I felt a sense of helplessness trying to find out what the kids were doing and thinking. One of the things that grabbed my attention was the amount of energy they possessed and how fleeting their attention span was at times. They were constantly doing something, one minute working hard, the next minute being distracted by something seemingly insignificant. By the end of the day I was completely exhausted and had a new found respect for primary school teachers.

Our day ended with a candid sharing session about our first day's experiences: the children, the work, their attitudes and the various difficulties and surprises. A delicious dinner was served downstairs and the volunteers again heartily wolfed down the food; famished by a combination of hyperactive children and the cooler than expected climate. Proceeding dinner we prepared the Christmas Bonfire for the ceremonial cooking of the potatoes and the exchange of our gifts. We checked into Ching Hing Hotel and a group of us wandered around town looking for provisions and the odd snack. We stumbled across a restaurant that served dog meat and unanimously continued our search. Buggered, I retired early and practically fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow.

Crisis Christmas 2008

Volunteer work during Christmas. It's something I've always wanted to do but have always had prior arrangements. This time, being in London, without family presented itself as the ideal time to help out the homeless on Christmas. It may not be a lot but I managed to help out at the homeless shelter on Commercial Road - tiring yet so rewarding. Merry Christmas!

More rewarding work

A trip to Brazil would not be complete without flirting with one of the local favelas (or shanty towns). It would be fair to say that exploring Rio de Janeiro without seeing let alone interacting with locals from the favelas would be near impossible. Of the local demographics, approximately 25% of Rio inhabitants live in a favela (Wikipedia)! So after visiting what would be considered one of Rio's least threatening favelas last week today I would be a guest to Tom's Favela; considered to be one of the most dangerous in South America.

Tom, one of the i-to-i volunteers here at Baron Gardens let me tag along to the local project where for the last 5 weeks has been working. Our day started off leaving the house at 9:00 walking down to the Gloria bus stop before catching two buses to our final destination 1.5 hours away. Whilst driving in I was informed that the road we were traveling on was the main road to many of the fevelas are housed. The road was littered with many sand-bag checkpoints; each contained military personnel with automatic rifles and surveillance equipment to ensure that the fevelas are in check.


From what I can tell Brazilian primary education is split up into two sessions, a morning session whereby half the students attend and an afternoon session where the other half attend. In saying that (from what I understand) kids only receive 3-4 hours of education per day, which isn't a terrible amount of learning to be had. The common theme is that the child's grades begin to slide. Soon enough they have to repeat the same grade and in an act to save themselves the embarrassment or shame they simply just drop out of school and turn to the streets (drug dealers, prostitution, etc).

The actual place where the project was held is a small school at the entry of the favela. They offer English as well as basic computer skills to the local community. We arrived just before 11:00 am just in time for the first English lesson. Most of the kids who attend are those who have school during the afternoon. As a visitor to the project my role was minimal at best, but despite having to read a couple of words from the textbook and point out a couple of objects the experience was definitely one of the most rewarding. Some of the kids were definitely making an effort to grasp the words whilst there were some who would have rather be somewhere else.

Lunch was taken at a food bar across the road run who by day plays the consummate host to all patrons of his restaurants but by night is one of the more notorious drug traffickers of the favela. Immediately following lunch was another English lesson this time offered to all ages, this group had a slightly more advanced grasp of English and we were at times able to have basic conversation. Only after trying to devise a crash course English syllabus in my head I came to realise that teaching a language is quite the task!

Our English teaching for the day was over but that was not the end to our efforts at bettering the community. Come mid afternoon we rolled up our sleeves and began our more 'hands on' work. What took place over the next two and a half hours was some hard labour in the yard. With our trusty tools of a hoe, spade and a rake we dug up the weed infested rock garden and planted grass seeds in hope to grow a nice lawn for the school. The day ended at 4:00 and we made our way home with a leisurely stroll through Centro.

For dinner we constructed the most delicious and possibly most square meal ever to come out of Barren Gardens. The ultimate steak sandwich. Words cannot even begin to describe the chemistry exhibited between the steak, egg, onion, tomato, lettuce and ketchup. The evening ended with a group walk down to the shops for a tall glass of cold açaí. Not a bad end to one of the more fulfilling days.

My short time spent at the favela along with the handful of BJJ classes I attended have been more rewarding than the entire Surf Program (No disrespect to the program, just to my experience). Despite having little or no way to communicate with the locals the amount of effort required to flash them a smile is definitely worth the happiness that it brings to them. Have to sleep soon, have a long day planned ahead for tomorrow, just need to book some accommodation for Buenos Aires.

Work experience at a surf school in Rio

So here it is, my assessment on the Volunteer work that I was assigned to. For those not in the know the project (or my excuse) for choosing to spend two weeks in Brazil was Work Experience at a Surf School in Rio. The prerequisite of this project were:

"Basic Brazilian Portuguese and/or Intermediate Spanish is strongly recommended, otherwise volunteers may find communication difficult. Enthusiastic, hardworking and committed volunteers are needed."

It was true, I had (and still have) no Portuguese speaking skills the only thing I was banking on was enthusiasm and a passion to learn surfing. "But how can you teach kids to surf when you yourself don't know how to surf?" was the common cry. The project description then goes onto say:

"It is recommended that you are a reasonable swimmer with a strong interest in surfing!"

So armed with nothing but being able to swim and an interest in surfing I enlisted in this project and soon found myself in Rio de Janeiro working at Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro.

The Surf school is run by a local that goes by the name of Jean (better known as "Shrek"). The aim is to provide Surf school lessons to the local youth as to provide an alternative means to keep them occupied during their time off from school. As many kids are easily influence by gangs and other malicious activities giving them the opportunity to surf is a means of getting them off the street. Each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday they have classes from 8-10 am and 2-4 pm. The role of the volunteer is to support Shrek with board maintenance as well as helping him take the warm ups and support the kids in the ocean.

Sounds good in theory, so here's my take on the project. Like all volunteers I was also given a nickname. Mosquito, I'm not too sure if he has any basis for giving nicknames other than picking words from his limited English vernacular. In any case I can't think of any positive reasons to being called an annoying pest. My first lessons took place one overcast day, I was immediately asked to throw on a wetsuit top that had the words "Professor" scrolled across the chest. What took place was my very first surfing lesson, despite being one of the most tiring activities I did manage to catch a couple of waves in what would be a rewarding experience. It would have helped if I knew some portuguese although the two words that I did manage to pick up were: paddle ("remo") and stand up ("estande"). The thing that humoured me was that most of the kids on that day were better surfers than I. How would I be assisting?

The kids that I was lucky enough to interact with were all male in the age bracket from 8-14. Despite having limited English they appeared to be extremely enthusiastic in the presence of an English speaking volunteer, they constantly tried to speak the language and tried to make jokes each trying to make me laugh to impress me. Of the few that I did speak to, many of them complained of being hungry and having no money to buy food. Some of the kids went around asking the other surfers for food, one even managed to steal some packets of Mayonnaise from a local beach vendor and greedily sucked them down. It does play on your mind and instinctively you want to buy them food although I'm not too sure what they expect from you. I found it easy to just bring a packet of biscuits so that they could share amongst each other after each lesson.

It was a case of being unlucky. I would have to use one word to describe the experience, frustrating. Not because of what I was supposed to do but what I could actually do. Over the course of the 2 weeks I was 'penciled' in to help with 6 days. What wasn't clear to me was that during the 2 weeks that I was here, Rio De Janeiro had 3 public holidays, 2 of which overlapped on my days down at Ipanema. Consequently classes were not on on those days. Perhaps the most annoying thing but most obvious reason for interruption was the weather or surf conditions. Classes aren't held if it's raining or if the water is too rough to surf in, which makes entire sense. Unfortunately for me, this scenario played out more than once.

Of the 2 weeks I was scheduled to help out, I only managed to help one class, my first and only day. I think it's a combination of things which makes it frustrating, waking up early to get to Ipanema by 8 only to be told that classes aren't on then trying to occupy the rest of the day with sightseeing. The other thing is having the intent to help the local community only having it blow up in your face.

The only saving grace is that Rio De Janeiro is a beautiful city with many things to keep the senses occupied and stimulated. My volunteer work has been less than memorable, since extending my South American trip I plan to head to Ipanema once more; hopefully, just hopefully I'll be able to participate in one last class.