An unforgettable experience

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An Unforgettable Experience The lovely red cap has been a forever memory reminding me of that meaningful experience now and then. In the freshman winter vacation, I participated in an activity organized by a community from Henan University to visit the poor old people and do some researches about the rural areas. It was a special experience which gave me a new impression on the reality of our country’s rural society.

Most students went home as soon as the final exam was over. But we, these volunteers, stayed at school for another two days to receive an orientation so that we could complete our task excellently. Then we set out on a cold winter morning with heavy luggage. We also held a starting ceremony for the activity in front of the auditorium in our university. In the chilling wind, everyone stood straight listening to the teachers’ instructions, with a red cap on his head and a solemn expression on his face. All the volunteers were divided into five groups and each had a different destination. I along with other 17 friends was distributed to Batou, a small village subordinate to Kaifeng.

Since we had never had such experience before, we were quite excited on the bus anticipating the beautiful country view, the kind-hearted people there and the different life we would have during the following days. We couldn’t help sing songs all the way. The exciting sound made us feel more enthusiastic. I made up my mind dumbly that I would spare every effort to accomplish my responsibility. After three hours’ journey, we arrived at our destination. Getting off the bus, I was astonished by that desolate and bleak picture: the narrow, muddy road with scattered rubbish ran through the village; the yellow earth was dotted with old and shabby brick houses; the wild wind shook leaves off trees; no person came into sight. I had thought that my hometown was poor enough to live in until I saw this scene. I stood still for a while to adapt to the environment. Then the village head led us to a deserted house with a yard almost covered with weeds. The rooms were really a gmass. Odds and ends covered with thick dust piled up inside. Without a word, we looked at each other for an instant and immediately started working together---sweeping, washing, wiping and arranging. Finally our temporary home came into being. We got two bedrooms( one is for boys and the other for girls ) and a living room. Looking around the house, I felt bitterly proud.

After that, the 18 persons in our team were subdivided into three smaller groups. One group was responsible for teaching local pupils some extracurricular knowledge and helping their growth by communicating with them heart to heart; one was assigned to talk with the chief officials of the village and also consult some villagers, mainly middle-aged peasants who we thought knew the rural better, in order to research the economic, political and cultural conditions as well as the influence of government’s policies on the rural area and people’s living levels; another group including me was responsible for visiting poor old people who lived alone and helping them as possible as we could.

We actually began to work from the next day. To some degree, we lived a quite regular life in those seven days. Every day we got up before dawn and took morning exercise. After breakfast, we went out to find some” target people “ to accomplish each group’s task of that day. In the afternoon, we did similar jobs. In the evening, after supper, we gathered in a circle and shared with each other the achievements, problems and affections during the day’s work. Usually we would discuss from 7 o’clock to 12 o’clock, or even later. At dead of night, only the dim night inside and the bright moon outside companied us. However, we didn’t feel lonely because we were a team and we helped each other. Besides, I knew that’s a good chance to improve myself especially strengthen my will. So I treated my responsibility positively and tried my best to bring happiness to those pitiful people against the difficulties of speaking that dialect and the torment of cold weather in northern areas. At first, the things developed smoothly and I felt satisfied with our work. I thought we could help the villagers a lot. Then an incident which happened pulled me to the cruel reality that as college students, we were too negligible to change the lives of those poor people.