A life a long way from Shanghai
WE stood outside the school gates, swathes of cloth tucked around our waists and over our shoulders, woven in with patterns of elephants and hooped earrings. The African sun illuminated the hues of pink and orange and blue, and as we studied each other with faint smiles, as a chorus began from the other side — quiet at first, then joyous with the voices of hundreds of children.
Welcome to Ja-ca-ran-da! They sang, their voices clear and strong, clapping to the rhythm. As the song grew louder, the school gates slowly opened, revealing the start of a path, lined on each side by students in their purple uniforms. The line stretched deep into the schoolyard, and the song grew with energy as we stepped into the path, one by one. Malawi was far from Shanghai, but in that instant, it felt as if we had come home.
Twice a year, our school takes a trip to the Jacaranda school, which provides orphans, some of whom have HIV/AIDS, with free education. While others headed off to different corners of the world for their summer holidays, we landed in the center of Blantyre, Malawi, spending our days amongst schoolyards and classrooms, finding happiness and compassion amongst those who were unimaginably different than us.
During one of these days, I found myself in a kindergarten classroom. It’s a room in the old house of Jacaranda’s founder, Marie da Silva, and crammed inside the small space were almost 40 children. As I entered the classroom, the kids at the end eagerly scooted over and made room for me on their benches, waving at me to sit next to them. Some grabbed my arms affectionately as I made my way into the classroom, others shyly peered at me from behind their classmates. As I sat down somewhere in the center of all the kids, they eagerly told me their names, writing them down on my arm with ballpoint pens and markers.
Allotting for this time, the teacher stood up a few minutes later and wrote out a series of addition problems on the blackboard. Soon after he finished, the kids took out their notebooks and began to solve the equations, stealing glances at me that I caught as I turned around, observing the room. Chatter filled the room as some of the kids turned to help their peers, and as they all finished, they raised their hands eagerly, some standing up with enthusiasm, to be called on. Despite their young age, they already had a self-motivated and contagious passion for learning.
I too, was soon called up to the front of the room to solve more equations on the board — as a sophomore, double-digit addition didn’t prove too challenging, yet when I finished, the kids applauded with admiration, letting out a unified chorus of “wows.”
Ultimately, there are very few experiences in our lives that can leave an unfaltering impact on those who’ve experienced it, and sometimes, the most unexpected people have the power to put our lives into perspective. I am very fortunate to have been able to discover Jacaranda so early on — the light of its students shines all over the world within the people that they’ve touched.