After the first Service Club trip, I was left feeling quite uncomfortable and utterly shocked, and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. In the immediate aftermath, I doubted if I ever wanted to return, and momentarily regretted having agreed to lead the Service Club. But soon enough, the next Service Club day rolled around, and we went again. And again. And the gears began churning. And I became attached.
By the end of the Jishou summer, it was one particular baby that I absolutely fell in love with. Although she has some kind of muscular dystrophy, her muscles are quite functional at this point. Perhaps she will get worse as she grows older, but right now she is a strong girl. What a sweet baby! I’m not sure how or why, but I have so much love for this baby. She loves music, especially Jason Mraz, apparently. I don’t know how many times I’ve sang I’m Yours over the past month and a half. This girl is an incredibly happy baby when she gets hugs and kisses, but the ladies at the orphanage pay almost no attention to her.
It was emotional (to say the very least) having to say goodbye to this baby and everyone else at the home for the last time today. This orphanage took me by surprise. It somehow grabbed my heart and I don’t think it will ever let go. It was difficult telling some of them that today would be the last day I’d be coming to see them. When preparing for a summer of teaching English, I never would have expected Service Club to be a point of the trip that would affect me this much. Having this experience has changed me, and helped me to realize how much I still have left to learn. There are so many people out there whose experiences I can’t even begin to imagine. I’m yearning to learn more about the lives of children like the ones at this orphanage. There is so much more to know.
By some unknowable force, I have been given this beautiful life that somehow brought here this summer. However far life takes me from Jishou, part of me will remain where the children forever are, standing at the gate, smiling, waving “buhbye, buhbye, buhbye…”