Isabel Brough, the School Community Liaison over at Chengdu EtonHouse International School, has kindly provided her own take on their recent Chengdu Sports Aid trip, along with two of the accounts that the children wrote.
On Sunday 1st November, children and staff from EtonHouse International School joined up with Chengdu Sports Aid for a trip to the Quake Zone. Prior to the visit, the children (aged between six and eleven) had talked about the Earthquake in class and what effect it had had on the communities and people in the affected area. They reflected on their own privileged lives and the comparative hardship experienced by those whose lives changed so suddenly.
The roads outside Chengdu were unpredictable and several road blocks, broken-down trucks and tailbacks meant a diversion from the intended destination of Mianzhu to Xiaoyudong, a small village tucked under snow-topped mountains. Time was limited due to the diversion, however the children had time to play a few games, sing some songs and donate their toys, clothes and books which they, along with other children from EtonHouse, had collected.
At school the next day, the children were asked to write an account of the trip.
Our Trip by Amelie Parish (UK), aged 6
We set off to the Bookworm at 7.45 and got there at about 7.50. I waited for my friends and then the bus came. I sat next to Carolina and we took turns to play my DS. It took a long time to get there because on one way the road was blocked and the other way a bus broke down. Finally when we got there we didn’t end up where we were supposed to but we got somewhere in the end. The children were having lunch so we played. We continued to play when they came out and 20 minutes later we gave out the toys and clothes we brought for them. We could see a snow mountain and a piece of mountain that fell off and if anyone lived underneath they would have died. After we went for lunch but before we did we went to see the school and did a race. For lunch I had a bowl of chicken noodles and some of my Mum’s beef noodles. When we had finished we got back on the bus. The children’s houses fell down and they built new plastic ones. When we got off the bus we sang Dancing Queen and Twinkle Twinkle in English and Chinese. After we did that we got back on the bus. For a 3 hour journey me and my friends played on my DS. When we got back to the bookworm we had some drinks and food. In the end I went home. What a busy day! I had a lot of fun!
Our Trip by Jenny Ong (Singapore), aged 8
It was awful in the toilet but it was wonderful playing and sharing our things and toys to the Quake zone kids yesterday. We sat on the bus for nearly four hours. It was boring. My grandmother went with me too. Ms. Celi, Mr. Huw, Ms Jo, Ms. Penny, Ms. Elise… and lots of other teachers, boyfriends and friends went with us. Some of the kids there are rude to us, but some are gentle and kind. I don’t know why some of the babies have holes on their bottoms. Why do their parents cut their pants? The quake zone that we should go was blocked, because a bus have broken on that road so we couldn’t go through it. Then we ended up going to another quake zone. I told you about it just now. They brought us to their school also, the school was destroyed in the earthquake so they need to build another one. Then we had one race with the kids. Carolina the cheetah won the race, I was a little bit jealous of her. A lady told us that they are building a kindergarten too. Soon the teachers brought some noodles for lunch. It was delicious but Carolina didn’t like it so I needed to eat the left-overs of it. Ms. Elise said I am not picky at all. It is easy to feed me up. I asked her why did she think I was not picky. She said that because I can eat the vegetables that other people don’t like. Later when I finished my noodles Ms. Elise and my grandmother brought us to look at some of the chicks, ducks and a puppy. The puppy was so scared when it saw us. Last we sat on the bus to go back to Chengdu. When Mr. Huw was asleep he opened his mouth and tried to snore. Ms. Celi asked me to throw something inside his mouth. A few hours later, the Bookworm gave us some drinks and food. 20 minutes later my Dad arrived and took me home. What a happy and busy day I had. I also slept well last night.
