Community Service

     Since arriving in Nanjing at the end of August, I have completed 10 hours of community service required by my program. However, I have not completed all of my community service hours at the same place; for the first two hours, I helped out at a Chinese nursing home, for the second two hours I picked up trash on a mountain, and for the last six hours I tutored at an elementary school. 

Melissa Hanging Out

     My least favorite community service experience by far was working at the nursing home. This is because, before going to the nursing home, my friends and I prepared to play various games, such as majiang, with the residents of the nursing home we were about to meet, and have pleasant conversations. However, after arriving, we found out that it was a nursing home for those who needed intensive care, thus most of the residents wanted to do their own thing and needed a lot more individual attention. Although providing these people with companionship was rewarding in its own way, it was very difficult to communicate and care for these people with no prior training.   

(Some of) the trash we picked up!

     Trash picking on one of the various mountain of Nanjing was fun, but we had to climb up a lengthy amount of stairs for about an hour to reach the garbage pile we were looking for.In addition, the trash we had to pick up was very gross (surprise). However, it was a great bonding experience, and I regret not doing it again while the weather was still somewhat warm and sunny (which made the trash stinkier, but what are you gonna do). 

If you look closely, I'm pointing at the word
 "look" while the children were all looking 
(I found this humorous)

Melissa teaching

For the last six hours of my community service, I went to a nearby school to teach English for kids who wanted extra tutoring on Saturdays. In total, I went to this school twice, once for two hours, another for four. The first time I went, I went to various lengths in an effort to teach my student English, from taking him on a walk, pointing out different colors and various items, to writing jargon on a blackboard in an effort to get him to remember anything. However, during the last fifteen minutes of a two hour class, my student whipped out his textbook and started reading about sustainability in English relatively fluently. I was in shock, and was embarrassed that I had spent so much effort trying to create my own curriculum.
The second time I went to tutor at the school, I was not paired up with a single student since there were not enough students for the volunteers. Instead, I sat in on a class of fifth graders learning English, and helped out with their pronunciation and homework. Afterward, we had a wonderful lunch of homemade Chinese food, and then headed home.

Thank you all for reading! Feel free to ask questions and write comments!

Clara playing soccer with the kids!