Ba Nian School...

Ba Nian School is a school in downtown Beijing for children of migrant workers. Being a migrant worker poses some unique challenges: your children are too far away from their home towns to go to school everyday and not having a Beijing hukou (residence certificate) means you can't attend the Beijing schools. This is where migrant schools come in; these schools are sponsored by various groups.

Ba Nian School is located in a hutong alley neighborhood a little off the beaten path. Once inside the school is bright and modern despite its rather dismal surroundings. There is also the sound of laughter coming from the hallways and an enthusiasm for learning like you have never seen!

I volunteered tonight as an English tutor there. The English program is run by an American lady. We started in one large group where the students sang songs. After that they split up by age group. Myself and Vasmarca (a fellow church member from the island of Fiji) were assigned to a high school class. Under the leadership of their teacher, a Chinese lady who spoke English and Chinese, we began by telling them about ourselves. One student asked if I had been to the Great Wall. I was able to pull up my blog and show them some pictures on the big screen as well as pictures of my dogs, Clark and Chloe. Clark and Chloe are now celebrities in China!

Afterwards the students were divided up into groups to work on their talent acts that they will be presenting in a video conference with a school from Inner Mongolia next week at the American embassy. My group was rehearsing an English drama of the three little pigs. I listened as they read through it, helped with pronunciation, and helped them learn appropriate movements to use on stage. The teacher picked them as best performance of the evening!

I wish I could have been doing this volunteering all along, but otherwise am glad to have had this experience. Hopefully I will get to go back next week. I will save my preaching for another time and just say I hope my American students in Arkansas have half as much enthusiasm for learning as these kids did. (Although I am not holding my breath as my Arkansas students will probably be spoiled Americans like me!)