Sharing: Letter from Sean
How I spent my summer vacation 2009
I joined a 5-day trip organised by a charity organisation called ‘World of Compassion Education Fund Association’ between 9 to 15 of August, 2009. The reason for that was I wanted to test my endurance for hill-walking, heat and poor living conditions, as well as my knowledge on the Chinese language.
We left for Zhangjiajie of Hunan on a Sunday afternoon, travelling first by train to Shenzhen where we met up with everyone who offered to help with the project before catching a plane to Zhangjiajie. We arrived there around midnight as our plane had been delayed. All of us were very tired, due to the lack of sleep and the time we spent on travelling. In Zhangjiajie, we stayed at a hotel where we were able to have a few hours of rest before starting our journey.
On my first full day, we were taken to the Tianmenshan for sight-seeing, which included a trip on a cable car that offered a spectacular view of mountains and valleys. At the summit of the mountain is a Buddhist temple, and there is also a deep cave on one side of the mountain. This was our last opportunity to relax before we visited some villages in Yongshun, a small county in Hunan. Our mission was to distribute donations collected in Hong Kong to a selection of village students whom we felt deserved financial support, enabling them to continue with their education. Without financial assistance, many of these children will end up dropping out from school to work in the fields with their families or begging on the streets. The donations give them the chance to get higher education and hence the opportunity to secure a decent job in future.
Our days in the villages were spent interviewing different students and their families. This meant that we had to do a lot of travelling and walking, going from house to house and village to village. Many of the tracks and paths we had to walk on were very dangerous, including narrow and steep paths on the side of rock faces. You were always worried that you might slip and fall. Our group were split up into teams to enable us to cover more villages.
The trip gave me the opportunity to experience many new things. For example, I witnessed the way in which the villagers had to bathe in a nearby river. I also had to eat the local cuisine, which was very spicy and mostly consisted of little pork and lots of vegetables with bowls of rice. I thought that I would be able to handle the spiciness but unfortunately no one could have warned me about just how hot their dishes were! This was one of the reasons why we all found ourselves drinking gallons of water.
On our final day, we gathered the selected students at a local secondary school where we distributed the donations to them. Some local officials, the principals and the teachers of the schools concerned were also present at the ceremony and thanked us for helping their students. The local officials and the principals took turn to make their short speeches, while I took the opportunity to take pictures of the event.
Overall, I believe I gained a great deal from this trip. It was tough especially when it came to walking for hours, and the poor living conditions in the villages are something that people from Hong Kong could hardly imagine. It is very rewarding to be able to help someone much less fortunate than myself.
Sean Wynell-Mayow