By: Ryan Smith
This past week in Shangri-La, we held an English/sports camp for the local kids in the village. Though what appeared to be many differences, we connected with the kids through many smiles, laughs, and broken (very broken) Mandarin phrases. For me, the highlight of the camp wasn’t actually the camp itself, but afterwards when we all took a visit to the village and got to see inside the homes of some of the kids that had been apart of our camp.
As we walked up to one of the kids’ houses, Eric, I saw his face light up with a huge smile. He ran ahead to let his parents know of our arrival, and as we approached the gate to the inner courtyard, his parents appeared on the porch waving for us to come in.
Though I had felt that our relationships with the kids had grown much over the course of the camp days, by being invited so warmly into their house, I realized how much we had impacted these kids. Regardless of the cultural, linguistic, and even physical differences, we were able to form a relationship that would last with us each of us forever.
This past week in Shangri-La, we held an English/sports camp for the local kids in the village. Though what appeared to be many differences, we connected with the kids through many smiles, laughs, and broken (very broken) Mandarin phrases. For me, the highlight of the camp wasn’t actually the camp itself, but afterwards when we all took a visit to the village and got to see inside the homes of some of the kids that had been apart of our camp.
As we walked up to one of the kids’ houses, Eric, I saw his face light up with a huge smile. He ran ahead to let his parents know of our arrival, and as we approached the gate to the inner courtyard, his parents appeared on the porch waving for us to come in.
Though I had felt that our relationships with the kids had grown much over the course of the camp days, by being invited so warmly into their house, I realized how much we had impacted these kids. Regardless of the cultural, linguistic, and even physical differences, we were able to form a relationship that would last with us each of us forever.