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Most of us are extremely fortunate because we have access to our basic rights. However, there are some who don't have adequate standards of living, and I was able to experience this first-handedly.
In November, I went to Cebu as part of a school’s project, to interact with the street children living there. Over the week, we spent the days at a local school teaching English to the children, and we spent the nights visiting areas of extreme poverty, playing and handing out food to the children. This blog post will describe my experience there, and what I learnt from the trip.
Enthusiasm
What made the trip so memorable was the children’s constant enthusiasm. They were constantly joyful and hyper and leaping onto your back and playfully fighting each other and grabbing your hand and hugging you. They laughed as if they didn't have a care in the world, and held onto you as if you were their favorite person.
Students laughing at a funny joke in the classroom (NDarling-061117)
Intelligence
I was amazed at how intelligent the children were, and how resourceful they could be. With the limited amount of resources they had, they made a jianzi out of a candy wrapper and a coin. It was no larger than the size of my thumb. Despite this they could kick it continuously for ages. This embarrassed me as I had an actual jianzi yet was unable to kick it at all. The children were amazing at basketball. They had a small court and a lopsided hoop, yet they could dribble expertly around you and had shots accurate beyond words. In a friendly tournament against our school, they pummelled us.
Learning and playing games with the class of students (NDarling-071117)
Creativity
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Lyrics of a song they wrote (TChung-101117) |
The children were extremely creative. In class one day, a teenager showed me a love poem he wrote. Whilst refusing to reveal the mysterious identity of the poem, the stanzas were beautifully written and extremely adorable.
I smiled at his willingness to share his work, and how he wasn't humiliated in the slightest when there was the occasional snicker.
One night, the children gathered around us in the school park and sang us a song they wrote themselves. One strummed a guitar while the rest chorused together. The children of Cebu all had beautiful voices, and of course this triggered jealousy in the HK group. However the main point is how warm we felt that night, and how closely we bonded together through the music.
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What I Learned
These children didn’t have the highest quality of education
- But they were still full of life, curious to learn, and bouncing with bright ideas
- If they only had more opportunities, who knows what they could become in the future. Singers? Designers? Or simply a great leader that could contribute to shaping our world?
Feedings
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A street child standing on muddy ground in the drizzling night (NDarling-081117) |
During the nighttime 'feedings', we journeyed to ridiculously filthy areas, and at first I was not pleased when a child, stinking of dirt and covered in mud ran up to me and hugged my legs. He proceeded to look up and reach out his arms to me, and I knew very well that he wanted me to carry him. I pretended not to understand, but he didn't give up trying to communicate what he wanted, using various body gestures. Eventually, I gave in with a sigh and lifted him up. As the night deepened, I warmed to that child. The fun-loving, energetic little beast never gave you a break. One minute he'd be begging you to spin him around, next he'd be clinging on to your back shrieking at you to chase after his friend in an epic round of tag. Sweat poured down my temples but I found that I no longer cared. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed myself until the night had passed. |
Thoughts
- Is it ethical for a child to live this way?
- Living in such areas will surely limit their development
- But the children are so joyous and energetic, you wouldn’t have guessed that they came from such poor backgrounds
- What is there that we can do to help them?
The children had extremely strong faith in their Lord Jesus. Every night during feedings, they would sing songs of grace, praising their Lord. They sang and danced with such hope and passion that it moved me to tears. They had such faith that God would provide them with better days. This made me look at myself, really think back to my life in HK, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with a wave of gratitude. I am such a lucky person, and how rarely I appreciate what I have.
Well this was my trip to Cebu. Those were merely a handful of the unforgettable memories that made my trip what it was. After returning to HK, I saw the world through a new set of eyes. I am grateful for this trip, for bettering me as a person, and allowing me to to pursue a passion to promote children's rights. Children, they are the future of our world. Yet, more than a billion children in our world live in poverty. All children have so much to offer, if only they had more opportunities they could contribute so much to the planet.
Heaps of rubbish by the houses of the children (NDarling-081117)
Solutions?
As citizens of HK, there is not much we can do to help these children in developing countries around the world. But what we can do, is to spread the message, and to educate ourselves so that in the future we can make informed decisions. If in the future there are more teachers and businessmen, then we may be able to branch out around the world and offer help to those in need. Who knows, one day, some of us may become great leaders and make decisions that affect a great number of us. We may be able to become role models and inspire and influence others. Together, we can help shape our world.
A playful young boy (NDarling-091117)
