Chao, Yi-Ching's Volunteer Journals

9/6

Today is our first day. We went to Class Love and know students and I was assigned to Grade One Class Love.

9/7

Today I assisted a student in washing his face and hanging the towel. His name is Hung. He is smart and will say hi to us.

9/10

I arrived the classroom earlier. Students finished their lunch. I took care of Hsiang to brush teeth, wash his face and take him to toilet.

9/11

Although we do the same things everyday, sometimes there are different things happened. When I was helping Cheng to wash the face and brush teeth, he not only resisted but also swallowed the water after he rinsed the mouth. Then I went to tell his teacher what happened and the teacher said, ‘If you see that he swallows again, you will need to push his head forward to let the water come out of the mouth.’

9/12

Today we asked Chun, ‘What is your name?’ He answered, ‘Chun, here!’ Then Lee, Shu-Mei asked him, ‘What is my name?’ He answered, ‘Name!’ Three volunteers asked the same question and he all answered, ‘Name.’ He thinks that everyone's name is Name. After we came back to computer classroom, the director blamed us because we are too noisy.

9/13

Today Cheng kept beating himself and then he started to cry. I was shocked. Then his teacher told me, ‘When he feels uncomfortable, he will act like this. He likes others to massage his head. After massaging, he will be better.’ Therefore, I tried to massage his head and he calmed down.

9/14

Today I helped Cheng to brush teeth and wash the face by following the steps which teacher taught me. He did not resist and let me brush teeth. Two students were playing while others were taking a nap.

9/17

I arrived at the classroom earlier and they were eating lunch. Later, I helped Hsiang to brush teeth and wash the face. I always encourage him by telling him that he is excellent in washing the face. Teacher told me that Hsiang usually doesn't take his medicine, today he did because we are here.

9/18

Today is rainy day. Because we didn't want them to get wet, we only wipe their faces. Hsiang took his medicine.

9/19

I was late to be the classroom and when I hurried to the classroom, they already finished lunch.

9/20

I did not know JoJo is suffering from Down's syndrome. He likes to play before taking a nap. I always play with him before he takes a nap after lunch. We all have fun.

9/21

Today students of Class Love made moon cakes and we can have one for each person. Those moon cakes are delicious and smell good. However, my moon cake fell on the ground because of one student. There are five more days to serve in the class. I feel a little sad.

9/27

Today something fun happened. Fu said, ‘Lee, Shu-Mei is ugly.’ After I heard this, I said, ‘Fu is ugly.’ Then he repeated this to me. Besides, we wrote cards for Teacher's day tomorrow.

9/28

Today students from 4^th grade came to learn how to do volunteer work. I told them what they should notice and characteristics of each student in order to let them know what they need to do. After they left, we continued to do what we haven't done.

9/29

Today is the last day. We had a ‘Passing on volunteer work’ event. Everyone shared feelings with new volunteers. I think that what we need to have while we take care of students of Class Love is your heart. You need to treat them with your heart and they can be taken care well. While taking care of them, we have to understand their habits and needs and then give them help. After the event, everyone did not want to say goodbye to those students. Some of us took pictures with them. I felt sad when I thought that we cannot meet them everyday.

It is not easy to brush other’s teeth

Please don't swallow the water

Please don't move. I am almost done.

 Let us dry the towel

He is good at puzzle. Amazing!

They are so cute while sleeping

Chao, Yi-Ching's attainment

　　Before we serve in the Class Love, we must understand that they are different from others and needed to be taken care with patience and love. During the 30 days, I learned how to get along with mentally or physically disabled children and understood that their teachers are tired and hard-working. Although we don't understand those students much, if they play with you, you will feel happy. Moreover, they will imitate others' words or behaviors, so don't have bad behaviors in front of them.

　　Although we did the same works everyday, including helping them to brush their teeth and wash their faces and sometimes we felt frustrated and did not know what to do, we still tried our best to overcome difficulty with patience.

　　Being a volunteer in Class Love lets me feel happy. I hope that I can have the opportunity to serve mentally or physically disabled children.