Graduation

It's over.

That year of preparation, those funds acquired, those weeks of teaching. All of it has come to a conclusion at around 10:30 today. That was when my teaching group, after handing out diplomas to each of our students, finished class for the final time. It was a bittersweet moment for me: part of me was happy over what I have done for these kids, and glad that soon I will be with my family and friends once again. But a good part of me is sad that this will be most likely the final time I will see my students, and that my time with my fellow volunteers is quickly coming to an end.

The past few days where mostly focused on preparing for graduation day. Several tasks needed to be completed: the diplomas needed to be finished, and a place to conduct the graduation ceremony needed to be found and prepped. Let's start by talking about the diplomas. Unlike regular school diplomas, which are probably printed electronically, we did not have the necessary resources to mass produce pretty diplomas. Consequently, each teaching group had to create all of the diplomas for their students by hand, which was especially hard for our group, as we had one of the largest groups out of all of them: over 30 children, and we had to make one for each of them. Needless to say, it was a very tedious and tiring task.

Of course, we couldn't have a graduation if we didn't have somewhere to have it. Two days ago, we had a vote on whether to have the ceremony outside under a few nice trees, or inside a dirty, ugly building. As choosing the building would have meant having to clean out the floor, which none of us wanted to do, so we all voted for the outside area. Unfortunately, this was less a real vote and more a simulation on one-party government systems, where you can vote but it really doesn't change the results: as soon as we voted, the coordinators overruled all of us and chose the building. So big dirty room it was!

BTW, the building we were using? It was the bathhouse that was supposed to be finished when we got here, and was never really completed, so there was a ton of building materials we had to get rid of inside. Regardless, we all got to work, and I'll tell you, cleaning up that bathhouse was back-breaking work. We had to scrape off dried cement off of the floor, wash off all the dust and sweep away the junk. Regardless, it was actually a very successful cleaning job, and by the end the floor was revealed to be not a pure cement block but actually nice tile. It would have been a nice bathhouse had it actually been completed. After that, we threw up a few fancy decoration, and were ready for the next day.

Now, I'm not sure if I ever told any of you this, but for the graduation each class was encouraged to prepare a short presentation to show the rest of the people there. Our class had prepared a song "The cup song", also called "When I'm gone". We chose that song because us volunteers had seen "Pitch Perfect" early on in the program, where the song is presented, and it was the first thing that came to mind. I had expected it to come out terribly, but the kids were actually able to pull it off finely, if a little out of rhythm. Other popular acts were renditions of "Gangdam Style" and "Harlem Shake", and everyone had a great time.

To tell you the truth, today wasn't the most important day for me. It was actually yesterday, the final day of actual teaching. On the final period, we had a small goodbye party, and suddenly there was an opportunity for me to say a few parting words to the kids. This actually caught be by surprise, as I had not expected to have to say any final words to the kids, and had not prepared anything. What could I say to them, me who has only been in their lives for a handful of weeks? But I regained my bearings, and, after much thought, I simply told them the truth.

I told them of how honored I felt of having the chance to pass on even just a tiny bit of knowledge to a future generation. I told them of my belief that every human being on the planet, regardless of who they are or where they are born, had the power to do unbelievably great things. I told them that they would carry on the legacy of the species, and that as the future generation, they would have the ability to either turn the Earth into a planet based on coexistence and co-prosperity, or plunge it into a land filled with distrust, apathy, and war, as every generation of humans do. Finally, to end my little speech, I taught them one final word: "Hope". I told them that hope was the single most powerful force that drives the species, and is a defining factor in all of our actions. I told them that they represented the hope not just for their village, their province, or even China, but for the entire world, as they would carry on the birthright of humanity.

I don't know how much of that filtered through the translation the Chinese volunteer gave them. I don't know if they even were able of assimilating anything at all. Perhaps I was over-dramatic, maybe it was to complex. The only thing I hope is that, through our lessons, all the kids here have a new, much more powerful curiosity about the world, and a greater world image. I hope that through our actions, they realize that their lives are not isolated to their small village, and that if they work hard enough, they can achieve anything, even study abroad. And finally, I especially hope that they never give up hope: after coming face to face with all the poverty here, it is no surprise that hope is hard to come by here at times. But it is there, hidden in the most simple of places. In the eyes of the children as they learn a foreign language, in the smile of the parent as they watch their children grow, it can be found everywhere. All you have to do is look.

Thank you all for reading my blog, it has helped me so much knowing you are all there for me.

China Summer Teaching Class of 2013, Dismissed!

Diego Molina