YMCA Street Feeding- Day 2
Today was my second time volunteering at YMCA. I did the same thing as the last time, helping to prepare and serve the food, but I had new experiences which led to more observations.
I sang a song! This was something new for me, as I am normally not comfortable singing in front of others. However, as I was serving the food, I was suddenly asked by the music team whether I wanted to sing a song. I think they were running out of songs to sing, as I was pressured into singing a song.
I was panicking, and the only song that I could remember clearly was Jesus Loves Me, as I recently sang that. Even though it was a Sunday School song, and I thought that I would be laughed at for singing such a simple song, it was surprisingly well received.
I could see smiles on the street people's faces, and some of them were even singing along. I could see that all of them enjoyed it. Sadly, I could not think of any other songs once I was done, so I got back to serving the food.
This experience reinforced my observation that the street people should not be ostracized. They are people, who enjoy social interaction and entertainment as well.
The next new experience was conversing with one of the street people. I chatted with a young Chinese man, who I did not get the name of, in Mandarin. This is something frightening for me, as my Mandarin is terrible. I do not even know enough Mandarin to hold a conversation. Yet somehow, this man and I managed to chat anyway.
Even after I told him about my poor Mandarin, which I hoped would scare him away, he still insisted on chatting with me. We had a long conversation, with a lot of gesturing from me. I even used several English words, which he understood. We chatted about which college I was from, what was I studying and where was I from. We talked about the other volunteers, my classmates and why was I volunteering at YMCA.
After my conversation with him, I feel that the street people are too used to being ostracized. The man that I chatted with was mostly interested in me, and how my life is like. He was especially focused on college and the people that I interact with on a daily basis.
The street people want to be "normal". They want people to talk to, people who won't ignore them or run away from them. They want people who won't treat them like a disease. This observation shows how prideful humans can be. Why is there a distinction of "normal" and "not normal" people? Whether poor or wealthy, nicely dressed or not, healthy or blind, all of us are humans. There is no "normal" human.
I sang a song! This was something new for me, as I am normally not comfortable singing in front of others. However, as I was serving the food, I was suddenly asked by the music team whether I wanted to sing a song. I think they were running out of songs to sing, as I was pressured into singing a song.
I was panicking, and the only song that I could remember clearly was Jesus Loves Me, as I recently sang that. Even though it was a Sunday School song, and I thought that I would be laughed at for singing such a simple song, it was surprisingly well received.
I could see smiles on the street people's faces, and some of them were even singing along. I could see that all of them enjoyed it. Sadly, I could not think of any other songs once I was done, so I got back to serving the food.
This experience reinforced my observation that the street people should not be ostracized. They are people, who enjoy social interaction and entertainment as well.
The next new experience was conversing with one of the street people. I chatted with a young Chinese man, who I did not get the name of, in Mandarin. This is something frightening for me, as my Mandarin is terrible. I do not even know enough Mandarin to hold a conversation. Yet somehow, this man and I managed to chat anyway.
Even after I told him about my poor Mandarin, which I hoped would scare him away, he still insisted on chatting with me. We had a long conversation, with a lot of gesturing from me. I even used several English words, which he understood. We chatted about which college I was from, what was I studying and where was I from. We talked about the other volunteers, my classmates and why was I volunteering at YMCA.
After my conversation with him, I feel that the street people are too used to being ostracized. The man that I chatted with was mostly interested in me, and how my life is like. He was especially focused on college and the people that I interact with on a daily basis.
The street people want to be "normal". They want people to talk to, people who won't ignore them or run away from them. They want people who won't treat them like a disease. This observation shows how prideful humans can be. Why is there a distinction of "normal" and "not normal" people? Whether poor or wealthy, nicely dressed or not, healthy or blind, all of us are humans. There is no "normal" human.
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