“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”
                                                                                    – James Barrie, Novelist

在今年暑假，康橋有五位小朋友參加華人磐石領袖協會的海外學習服務，前往印度新德里貧民窟教育中心服務，提供11天兒童英語夏令營，讓貧民窟的孩子可以有機會上課學習、認識英文。
    在這整個活動中，他們用心去體驗、去分享、去學習，雖然只有短短的幾天，可卻在他們心上都留下了深刻的回憶，也改變了他們。

謝儁 Judy Hsieh

        This summer is probably the most unforgettable summer I’ve ever had. Volunteering in India seems to be a bit too challenging for most people. When we first arrived there it was about two in the morning and the temperature was “37Calsius” in the middle of the night. Everyone was exhausted because of the long flight, but I was abnormally awake. I couldn’t get used to the climate there, the air that we breathed in was filling with dust and seemed like the every breath we took would harm our bodies little by little. The garbage was everywhere, and the smell was so awful I literally felt that my nose was paralyzed by the smell or I would just die on the road when I walked pass mountains and mountains of garbage. I immediately realized that India is seriously the most impoverished country in the world.

        I felt like I was basically “suffering” for the first week. I was homesick so badly and even wanted to cry my heart out when I thought of myself being in such an unfamiliar country. Things got better after we started our teaching, and I went from wanted to go home to want to stay longer in this full of happiness country. On the first day of teaching we met the children for the first time. Everyone seemed a bit shy, but after we started our camp song the atmosphere got really cordial, and later on we even needed to ask them to quiet down. I think the most memorable thing that I experienced there was that although the people, especially the kids, had very less thing comparing to ourselves; they got more happiness than we do.

        They were willing to give and share everything they had to us without stinginess. I really learned a lot from those kids, for example, we have much more resources than they do, but we tend to have more and more demands for the things we don’t have instead of cherish what we already have. Kids from India thought me that it is not how much we have but how much we enjoy. 

        I then realized that instead of coming to India to serve these kids, they thought me more than I did, I received the most unforgettable thing other than the memories-contentment. I saw simply happiness whenever I looked at their innocence faces. They would always give me big smiles as if they were the most plentiful people on earth. This trip made me see another world that is completely different from ours. Although their lives may seemed miserable, their hearts were much richer than any of us. “Happiness…consists in giving and in serving others.” is the most significant thing I had learned during this trip in India.