Show Choir Domestic Helper Open Day - January 18, 2015

This has been one of the most meaningful and enjoyable services I have ever participated in. I heard that a domestic helper received a new phone in a lucky draw, and it was her birthday! :)  I originally signed up to help at the "vintage shop". But in the end, I ended up doing many different roles. I was also a food server, an usher, and I helped at other booths too. It didn't matter. When the "vintage shop" was open (basically a free clothes station), all the domestic helpers rushed in and took the clothing. In 10-15 minutes, 95% of the clothing was gone. I helped to advertise the card-making booth and passed out free cards. I gave directions and help to those who needed it. When the event was over, I was part of the "tear-down crew" and removed posters and decorations.

I loved serving the domestic helpers. Domestic helpers sacrifice a lot to come to Hong Kong to serve us, so serving them was a nice change. It brought warmth to my heart when I saw the joy in their faces.

SWD Meeting (Reflection) - December 31

We had a meeting to reflect on our service and to discuss what we wanted to do next.

MAD Update (January 27, 2015)

So yesterday, I continued to help Mrs. Wilson for my MAD project. This time, I helped her organize links, mainly videos, into the correct folder on Schoology. I helped to organize around 4-5 mathematics chapters. Personally, I love to order things and make sure that things are neat and orderly. I enjoyed doing this kind of service.

Tutoring Every Wednesday

Every Wednesday for one hour, I help to tutor a middle schooler with her Chinese. I mostly work with her on vocabulary and sentence structure. As she practices her vocabulary, I am able to see improvement.

before

after

MAD Update (January 19, 2015)

Today, Victoria and I had our first real MAD service. We helped Mrs. Wilson do two main things - enter grades into the grade book and find pictures or cartoons about the future math units they will be doing. I would read the grades out loud, and Victoria will type it into the computer. It was more difficult if the names were not in order. When that happened, we had to search for the name. We found cartoons about absolute values, inequalities, and systems of equations. I found some quite interesting cartoons.

I could tell that Mrs. Wilson was glad that we helped her. She said that she had a lot of grading to do, and that we helped remove hours of work for her. Overall, it was a great first service. I look forward to the next one. :)

MAD Update (January 16, 2015)

We intended to start our MAD service project on Tuesday. Rachel and I went to help Mrs. Hunter on Tuesday. However, we didn't know that another MAD group was helping Mrs. Hunter too. So, I went to help Mrs. Wilson instead to even out the number of helpers per teacher. But, we had a few miscommunications and Mrs. WIlson forgot that we were helping on Tuesday. So, we weren't able to help that day.

We're making some changes to our plan. Starting next week, we're helping only Mrs. Wilson every week on Mondays and Tuesdays afterschool. So, two people will be going on Monday and two on Tuesday. We haven't really decided who will go on which day because it depends on who is available.

To improve what we are currently doing, we should communicate better with Mrs. WIlson.

Food Angel - December 30

I went with a few other students to help at a Food Angel in Sham Shui Po. I was under 16, so I couldn't help in the kitchen. I was fine with it because that meant that I could interact with the elderly more. Before the elderly came for lunch, we had to do some preparation work. Some people generously donated numerous boxes of kiwis. We sorted the kiwis and thew away the bad or moldy ones. When the elderly came, I helped them get their name tags and helped them to find a seat. Before we served them their food, another student and I walked around and chatted with the elderly. I could tell that a lot of them were pleased that we came. After we were introduced, we began to serve them. I served them tea or water, depending on their request. I passed out plates of food. Some of the elderly had specific requests for their food, such as having less rice and more vegetables. So, I had to remember those requests and relayed the message to the cooks. I also helped pass out refills to those who wanted it. When I didn't have much to do, I would walk around and chat with the elderly. They are really kind and welcoming.

Overall, this service took around 2 hours. However, time flew by as I served them. I was serving them, but in the end, they were the ones that served me too. They gave me joy and satisfaction. The other students and I even thought about staying and helping with the dinner shift. I would love to come here to serve the elderly again.

(Pictures will be up soon)

Christmas Fun Day at Heng On Community Center - December 13

On December 13, I went with other people from the GIN Education for All group and helped host a fun Christmas day for members of the Heng On community. In total, we had two booths with games. One of the games was to pick up marbles using chopsticks. The other game was to sort candies by their color. It was difficult to find games that would fit young children and elderly. The participants had to meet a requirement in order to receive a stamp from us. When they received all six stamps from the different booths, they could receive a prize.

I was warned that the event would be chaotic, but I didn't expect it to be that chaotic. Once the doors were opened, families rushed in and started line up for our booths. I was in charge of the "sort the candies by their color" booth. Originally, I had set the time for 45 seconds. However, the line was moving too slowly, so we opened another line and lowered the time and expectations for the participants. I timed them as they played and gave almost everyone a stamp. This went on for around 1 and a half hours.

After this entire event, I was exhausted from the people and the noises. But, I enjoyed serving the Heng On Community and knowing that I brought joy to the families. Christmas is a time for giving. This service embodied Christmas's meaning.