Miss Becky's Blog

SUNSHINE PROJECT VISIT -- 2004

SUNSHINE Project Visit – March 13, 2004

Return to China -- In February 2004, Miss Becky and Smiley (Ken) Mitchell returned to China to teach for one semester in Beijing at Peking University. One of the things that make this such a wonderful experience was the opportunity to meet and visit with many of our former students and friends in China.

Visit to Gao Chun School -- The wonderful Nanjing teachers (Hua Wei, Jin Jian, Yang Jinghong, Gao FengHua and student leaders organized a special visit to Gao Chun School in March of 2004. Ken and I took the night train from Beijing to Nanjing and had a wonderful reunion with many special students and friends there. Several helped us prepare materials to take to the deaf students, including puppets and “snowballs.”

Here deaf student shows one of the puppets that the NJU students made and presented to the school.

Here are the 18 students that our project supported this school year -- without the funds we provided, they would not have been able to attend the school this year. Adult and student project leaders are also in the picture.

Note in the picture that many of the students are giving the "sign" for "I Love You". There was lots of LOVE and Sunshine shared that day!!

One of the Teachers demonstrated the projector that our project purchased for the school this year. The teachers all loved it and found it a great teaching tool.

One of the highlights of this visit was getting the school, ONLINE. The NJU computer students got them connected and we paid for DSL service. As you can see here, the students LOVED it. Many of them have continued to communicate via e-mail with their NJU student friends.

(See hand "sign" for "I Love You" on the back wall. Some of the students performed and . . .

The students from a middle school in Nanjing who joined our group performed as well as. This group had raised money and collected clothing to bring to the school.

Everyone liked the performances.

One of our NJU graduate students arranged for a TV station to send a filming crew to cover the story of our visit and the SUNSHINE Project. Here they are interviewing one of the oldest, most talented boys, who is using "sign language" to communicate -- he can speak a little.

This is the entire group of students and visitors.

It was a WONDERFUL day for everyone. We played games, (the students especially liked UNO), did some crafts, played some sports, ate lunch, communicated one on one in writing and made some special friendships. It was the first time for some of the visitors to come to Gaochun school. They were very impressed with the school, especially the children and teachers and many promised to continue to support our project. A special THANKS to all the NJU students and teachers who made this special day possible ... TOGETHER we are able to "make a difference" in the lives of these special children.

Several of the NJU students expressed to me how good it felt to share "sunshine" with others. One of the NJU students who had visited the school the year before, decided to volunteer once a week in Nanjing at a school for deaf students close to her, so it did not take as long to get there. She plays with and "loves" a five year old deaf boy and they have become good friends. She told me, "I feel good when I make someone else happy."

That's the secret of HAPPINESS ... to forget about ourselves and love, serve and care about others ... then HAPPINESS and JOY will come to us!!!