Service at the Bethel Orphanage

We started off our day with our usual breakfast of toast, eggs, sausage, and ham. Following that, we started our bus ride to Bethel, where we would volunteer for half the day. Before we started to work, we spoke to Anna, who gave us a brief introduction of the history of Bethel. It was founded by two French musicians who noticed the lack of education for the visually impaired in average orphanages. They began to take some blind children in to see if their education would help. They quickly noticed results and were asked to bring in more and more children. Upon noticing this, they opened their first orphanage. After the introduction, we separated into three groups: the Tree Huggers, the Another One Bites the Dust Squad, and the Ballers.

The Tree Huggers were sent to a field where they were told a short history about how the owners planted partial tree limbs in the ground. They did this in an attempt to receive reimbursement from the government, who were asking for them to change locations to aid in the urbanization of China. However, the government eventually allowed Bethel to stay where they were. Following this, the tree limbs became an issue, as they want to reuse the fields to grow other useful things, like fruit trees.  The Tree Huggers were asked to do the labor intensive job of removing all the limbs, which were surrounded by plants and other “trees.”

The Another One Bites the Dust Squad spent their time cleaning the playgrounds on the property. Everything was layered with a covering of smog residue, which felt similar to dust. It took many wipes with disinfectant and water to finally rid the playgrounds of the dirt. Then they went and cleaned some of the children’s toys so they would be nice for their playtime. The whole group worked hard to refill water buckets, wipe down playground sets, and keep the environment for the children safe and clean.

The Ballers had a very time consuming task. Their job was to clean all of the balls from the ball pit and other toys laying around the play area. There must have been about 2,000 balls, and without the teamwork, their task would have taken days. They made a system where a few people would toss the balls into a big bowl. From there, people would scoop the balls into tubs of disinfectant to make sure they were clean for the kids. Next they would throw the balls into the dryers’s tub so that the balls could be dried before being thrown back into the pit. This tough task took a lot of concentration and great form. All were encouraged to try out for the MFS Basketball team next year.

After this, we were given our second chance to go shopping. We were set loose to shop in resident stores, rather than the “panda stores” aimed at tourists. After this, we were sent to dinner, where we ate a selection of different foods, ranging from pineapple rice to chicken wings. When we finished eating, we walked to an alleyway market, where we were given an hour and a half to shop. When we finished shopping, we went back to the hotel to pack and sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s flight.