Perspective….

On a daily basis we see the poorest of poor and the richest of rich. Last week I saw a news show talking about the “Bling Dynasty” in China. China now has 1.5 million millionaires and is about to surpass all other countries for their total of billionaires. This country is experiencing people with new money and lots of it, but on any given turn in this city you are in an extremely poor neighborhood, or walking down the sidewalk with the people who live in those neighborhoods. Millions of migrant workers are in the city trying desperately to make money for their families in the countryside. CQ isn’t like most American towns and cities where the poor neighborhoods may tend to be in the same area, (I can hear friends talking about what side of the tracks they lived on growing up) the poor live up against the Gucci store and live in tents in the grassy area behind the Hilton. Beyond the cities filled with the high end stores lives thousands of village people trying to figure out how to make money. Over 60% of the people in this country live on one dollar a day or less. There isn’t a person in America who only has $365 dollars a year. So when we first moved here and I joined the CQ International Woman’s Group I was happy to learn that they sponsored milk programs in poor village schools. This year the CQIWG had a new president take the reins and there has been a shift to actually sponsor students. The program launched this year as a pilot, but the (expat) community came forward and sponsored over 80 students from two schools. There were two previous trips to village schools earlier this year, but both times I was working so I was happy to be able to go on the last school visit this year. I decided it was important to take Will and Ella out of school so they could see first hand who we were sponsoring and why. It took about two hours to arrive at the school. Starting from when we exited off the highway the kids’ understanding of where we were headed was growing. We were in the middle of nowhere. We have traveled all over this country and we have certainly been in different areas identical to this one, but we were always passing through, not looking for our final destination. We had obtained information in advance about our student, number 28, Au Jian Chen. He was a 7 year old boy who lived very far from the school. His parents were both uneducated, and they were in CQ city trying to make a living (who knows how often this little boy sees his mom and dad). Au Jian and his six year old sister were being raised by their sickly grandparents. Au Jian is one of the millions of kids in this country with the same story. As we drove though the countryside we pass landslides where half of the road has been washed away,

My friend Rachel drove to the school with the kids and myself and during this stretch of road we were both thankful to my driver Xie Bo. We were both repeating Kuai dian, quickly quickly!

we passed though decrepit areas where homes looked uninhabitable and local towns that were filled with mostly scooters or large truck traffic. The only high end cars were the seven cars we were all in (embarrassing) that became quite a spectacle. We were sponsoring two schools so at a fork in the road we stopped to make sure we had the right amount of gift bags going to the two schools and to confirm everyone was in the right cars headed to the school their sponsored student was in. Here are a few pics from our stopping point and traffic jam we caused!

This guy never woke up with the seven out of place cars parked in front of him!

The older people here have stories to tell. I would love to talk to them all! This guy cut his way around the cars and kept on going.

We arrived at the school to be greeted by the most beautiful and at first scared little faces. This school had over 200 students. The principal identified 30 of the poorest. I can’t imagine what the criteria was for this decision. The first group that was brought out were the 30 kids who were being sponsored. After the red envelopes were handed out and the gift bags given, the rest of the kids were allowed to come and hang out with us. They were just gorgeous. Kids are kids no matter what culture, background or wealth. They were goofy and silly. This was the first time ever they had ever seen a “wai gou ren” or Westerner. Once the ice was broken they crowded around us. A couple little girls kept getting close to Ella to accidentally bump into her or push a friend into her. They wanted to touch her. They wanted to ask us questions or listen to us try to talk Chinese. They wanted attention! What 6 to 12 year old doesn’t!! When Ella got overwhelmed at one point she got into the car and an entire line of kids stepped up on a ledge and stared into the car until she got out again.
Our principal’s wife got a group to sing and play and the smiles were contagious! The teachers were so excited to talk to us, but we were in awe of them. Some of them commute long distances to teach these kids. Their hearts are in the right place! These kids have a tough life and these teachers were wonderful. The visit could have been two different groups meeting for the first time at any Londonderry school, except it was a world away, but the interactions were the same, curiosity, excitement, interest, and fun. I’m sure the major difference would be how the two groups felt once they separated again. We imagine the dinner conversation that night with these kids and their families. It was an exciting day for all of them even if they were not on the sponsored list.

Bringing lunch.

We of course had a very long talk over dinner that night. Our kids (from their own mouths) said how they have nothing to complain about. They talked about observations such as the kids being dirty or the conditions of the school. They also saw how happy the kids seemed and how they seemed like normal kids. We had a long talk about what really makes a person happy and friends and family do not cost any money! Sadly, the child we sponsored wasn’t in school that day. We learned that it takes him four hours to go one way to school. One of the things we brought to give Au Jian was the bike Will had outgrown. We can only hope that he gets it and it somehow helps him get to school. My heart was broken, but I’m so happy that the CQIWG have had great success with the the start of this program and I hope next year they are able to sponsor even more students. I will leave money to sponsor number 28 next year and hope the little boy we were unable to meet is as happy as his classmates.