Volunteer's Story: Hanneke, 64, Holland  

On arriving at Shanghai Airport I was heartily welcomed by Jessie who gave me immediately a safe feeling as she guided me through the first confusing day so well. Jessie foresaw anything I might have questions about. After an intensive course of Mandarin amongst other things, we set out for Chang Xing Island. We being Sarah, a Dutch girl of 19 years and me, Hanneke, 64 years.

Chang Xing Island, about an hour by from Shanghai, was renowned for its pure air, pure soil and pure water. There is green agriculture and plenty of orange tree plantations. A lot of it still remains, though development also takes place on the island. Huge ship wharfs have developed down, bringing quite some prosperity.

The Headmaster and Staff of the Primary School, with 680 students, received us with great warmth. To both of us a guiding teacher was assigned to help us, which proofed to be a very good concept as they helped us whenever they could and were our contacts in case of questions.

School habits differ quite some from what we are used to in the Netherlands. A roll-call of all students on the school square with speeches on subjects like ecology, followed by a ceremonious hoisting of the flag and singing the national anthem forms the start of the week. In disciplined rows the students move to the classes, to lunch, etc. In the morning all students apply collectively eye and face massages, very relaxing I can assure you. In the afternoon collective physical exercise is done. The 680 students lunch flawlessly at the same time a hot Chinese meal eaten with chopsticks of course. I was continuously amazed by these orderly procedures.

Teaching these young Chinese children, between 7-11 years was a delight. They are very motivated and enthusiastic to learn English. Their education in English is very thorough, however what they lack is the opportunity to talk in English and that is what I was there for, to stimulate them to talk in English. I used PowerPoint presentations with plenty of pictures and lots of games which they all loved. As I had 7 lessons a week, plus 4 'English Corners' a week for the advanced students, I had plenty of time to prepare lessons.

Soon I felt very much at home on the island because of the friendliness of the people. We were invited to the homes of our 'colleagues' for dinner, colleagues either native from the island or from far away provinces like Inner Mongolia, which were very nice occasions as it gave the opportunity to learn more in-depth about Chinese life and culture, and I made some very good friends. We also became acquainted with the people living around us, around the school, at our local restaurant, at the local 'pancake' , squid and fruit stalls. Visiting the local market is quite an experience, as turtles, enormous frogs, chicken toes, ducks complete with heads, snakes and all kinds of food completely unfamiliar to me are sold.

In the weekends we went to Shanghai, a city full of interesting places to visit, amongst others the world famous Shanghai museum and Yu gardens. We visited Hang Zhou and Su Zhou, cities loaded with history, culture and beauty.

A subject which came up from time to time is whether young and old volunteers would match sufficiently. As Sarah and I differed by 45 years in age this was a good test. We both agreed that we got along very well, possibly because we did exactly the same job and because it appeared that we shared the same interests, not unsurprisingly because we both choose to be a volunteer in China. Of course there were some differences between us, also not to our surprise in view of the age difference, for example on how to spend some free time, which are easy topics to resolve.

All in all, volunteering in China was a great experience which I will remember all my life. And, don’t forget to visit Jessie’s hairdresser, it is a real treat!

Hanneke's Photo Gallery                  Email Hanneke