Some of you may be wondering, why VoluntEAR? To be honest, I first thought it was VolunTEARS-- like, you bring tears to other people's eyes by doing something special for them. Hahaha! But it's actually because we come with invisible Mickey Ears! This would probably be the most appropriate Walt Disney quote to explain it:
"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."
Christmas of 2013 is the first holiday that I ever spent away from Manila and on my own, and what better way to celebrate than to voluntEAR to spread the holiday spirit in one of the migrant schools in China. I did my research and, apparently, Chinese migrants are citizens that come from the rural parts of China; they earn very low income and are troubled by poverty and discrimination.
The Christmas VoluntEAR event was announced a week before, and we all generally knew that we will be doing story-telling, games and arts and crafts for the kids, but we didn't really have any concrete plan. We didn't know the age range of the kids, what materials we were to use, how we will be grouped and how many kids there will be. It was only when we set foot inside the campus that we grouped ourselves and were given boxes of materials that we were to choose from. At this point, we still didn't know how many kids would be under our care, so we were unsure if the materials that we got would be enough.
Into the classrooms we went! And we discovered that there are around 30 kids, probably ranging from 9 to 10 years old. They were so excited when we came in! That really pumped our group up and, despite time constraints and lack of preparation, we brought so much fun into the classroom by teaching them how to sing a Christmas tree song (ahem, thank you, CPC!) and allowing the kids to make their own Christmas tree. It was so cute because they don't speak English but they were so game and really tried to sing along, plus they took their sweet time in decorating their artwork.
Amidst the hustle bustle, a big box of goodies came in, and their eyes lit up when we started distributing sets of Mickey and Minnie Mouse school supplies. Santa came in, too, and they couldn't help but squeal and crowd around him.
It was such a heart-warming experience. We were together for only an hour but it really made my Christmas day, and seemingly, everyone else's, too! :)
(To see more photos from my Disney holiday, click here)
