The Mothers’ Bridge of Love
www.mothersbridge.org
Charity Registration No. 1105543
[email protected]
First Meeting
My first encounter with Angelina was during my first
breakfast with the family. Although she was a bit shy at first,
I slowly tested her on her English vocabulary by pointing at
various objects on the table including toast and jam…both in
which she smartly answered back with clear pronunciation.
After the English vocabulary test Angelina amazed me with
her GuZheng (a Chinese string instrument) skills. I was
incredibly amazed at how a 10 year old could play such a
complicated instrument!
Throughout my whole trip, Angelina never failed to
surprise and delight me with her intelligence and bright
personality. Even during our English lessons she would
clearly pronounce the word and when she doesn’t know a word she would
persistently try until she got it right. After breaking through the language barrier I
became closer to Angelina and after a few days, I felt as if she was my long lost
sister!
Mr. Pan’s conversation lessons
On the first day of my trip I clearly remember Mr.
Pan taking me to see the old ruins of the Nanjing
Imperial Palace that was just ten minutes away
from the house. As we walked Mr. Pan asked me
about my favorite fruit and since I’ve been
studying Chinese for four years, thankfully I gave
him a whole list of fruits in Chinese that would
have made my Mandarin teachers proud. Mr. Pan
even told me an unforgettable story about how it
was actually the Nanjing roast duck that came before the famous Beijing roast duck.
The story ended with Mr. Pan concluding that Nanjing roast duck is much better
than the Beijing roast duck and he even went out to buy me one in order to convert
me into loving his hometown’s roast duck!
As we continued our conversation my panic level slowly increased as I realized how
much Chinese I didn’t know. Words such as “community”, “refurbished” and
“municipal government” caused Mr. Pan to chuck out his phone for the online
dictionary countless times in order to make me understand. Throughout my stay in
Nanjing, one of the things that I was incredibly grateful for was the creation of the
online Chinese dictionary app on mobile phones
Dinner at grandma’s
During my stay in Nanjing, one of the things
that I look forward to every day would have to be
dinner and Zhuli’s parents house almost every
evening. They were incredibly kind to me and played
a huge part in making me gain weight during my stay!
My distinct memory of Zhuli’s dad turning up in short
green hot pants always makes me smile and miss the
warm atmosphere in their house. The food was so
homey and mouthwatering that I always had to go up
for seconds.
Especially when Zhuli’s mom discovered that I
loved to eat 西红柿炒鸡蛋 (fried tomatoes with eggs)
just as the previous volunteer, Lily, did they
consistently fed me the dish almost every night! I
never got bored of it and still miss it until this day.
End of the day midnight feast
Although I said Zhuli’s mom was
responsible for me gaining weight, to
completely blame her would be
incredibly wrong seeing as her daughter
played an even greater role in
constantly feeding me! Every night after
dinner we would all sit down in the
living room and completely relax. This
involved watching The Voice China
whilst eating watermelon, prawn
crackers, sunflower seeds and durian ice
cream (no wonder I gained weight). No matter what time of the day, Zhuli would
always offer me a durian ice cream, slices of watermelon, or even both! One night Mr.
Pan even finished half a watermelon all by himself using just one spoon! Whilst
sitting down with the family doing normal activities such as these I felt so at home
that I even felt like I was one of their family members. Each of them were so friendly
and caring that homesickness was almost nonexistent!
Breakfast
As you can probably tell by now, food
played a huge part during my stay in
Nanjing. It was what kept me going and
happy throughout my trip! I am so thankful
to Mr. Pan for introducing me to 煎饼
(Chinese pancake with different sauces and
yummy savory stuff inside!), 南京烤鸭
(Nanjing roast duck), 鸭血粉丝 (duck
noodles)and the most delicious 小笼包
(soup dumplings) I’ve ever tasted! Going by
the motto of YOLO (you only live once), I decided to
have 11 of those dumplings.
One morning when Mr. Pan took Angelina and I
to our favorite dumpling shop across the street, I heard
a grandma ask Angelina in Chinese if I was her sister.
This made me think that if I really was Angelina’s sister,
I would be very lucky to have such a lovely younger
sister.
Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall
Out of the many distinct memories
during my trip in Nanjing, one of the strongest
and unforgettable memory would be my
experience through the Nanjing Massacre
Memorial Hall. Before I entered the solemn
black stone building I had no idea what the
Massacre was or how important it was to the
people of Nanjing. However when I came out,
the impact was so great that I felt immense
sadness and a turmoil of emotions. Inside this
great hall that was more like a journey than a
museum, I sensed great distress and emotion as I learnt that the victims from this
massacre lead up to 300,000. As I walked past black and white pictures of the
suffering victims I came to an understanding of how much the citizens of Nanjing
suffered in 1937 during the Sino-Japanese war.
MBL Culture Centre (part of Baixia
Children’s Palace)
Every morning I’d wake up at around 8:00 in
order to be ready by 8:30 to get on the bus to
make my way to Baixia, the MBL Culture Centre
that I would be volunteering in. I’d have my 2
yuan ready so that when I got on the train I could
easily drop the coins into the box and be on my
way. I really enjoyed these morning trips where I observed daily life in China on the
streets and the polite habit of the Chinese to jump off a seat in order to allow either
a pregnant woman or the elderly to take their place.
Since I did my volunteering during the summer, I had
a completely different experience to Lily who
previously visited the Centre last winter. Instead of
teaching the teachers English, I was put in charge of
translating books and acting as an assistant in some
of the classes. Most of the time I sat with one of the
teachers Ms Ji, whom I quickly developed a close
friendship with since we were always translating
books together. We would spend our time in the MBL
workshop and chat in Chinese which improved my
Chinese greatly. Most of our conversation topics
would be about Vampire Diaries, Twilight, 王力宏
(most famous Chinese singer), Chinese food,
travelling and taking selfies on iPhones.
Sometimes when I’m not doing translation or talking to Ji I’d help some of the
teachers in their lessons. Although my Chinese was limited and communicating with
the enthusiastic and fast speaking children was quite challenging, I enjoyed being
useful and learning about the Chinese education system. The lessons and workshops
include sushi making, tie dying, karate, drawing, calligraphy, tango, ballet and many
many more. All of the students were so enthusiastic and talented that I wish I had
suhi lessons when I was young!
Calligraphy
It was in Nanjing that I developed a strong
passion for the art of calligraphy. At first it was
Mr. Pan who taught me the smooth basic
strokes… which ended up in a great inky mess on
the dinner table.
However I slowly learnt how to control
the ancient art and had a lot of practice when
I participated in the same calligraphy classes
with Angelina. I was taught by a great master
of calligraphy who was so supportive and
encouraging that I even decided to continue
practicing calligraphy after I arrived back in
Thailand! Before I left Nanjing he even gave
me a calligraphy paintbrush and a scroll of
paper with his outstanding handwriting on it
as a souvenir of his inspiring lessons.
History lessons with Pan Lao Shi (Teacher Pan)
With my strong interest in Chinese
history combined with Mr. Pan’s
insightful knowledge about China’s rich
history, this resulted in beneficial history
lessons after dinner. Once again the
Chinese dictionary saved my life and
allowed me to understand the content of
Mr. Pan’s Chinese history and language
lessons.
Not only were those Chinese
lessons for me, they also ended up being
English lessons for Mr. Pan. I successfully
converted Mr. Pan to saying “North” and “South” instead of “Norse” and “Souse”
which made my day. These lessons sparked great curiosity from me and also infused
enthusiasm towards the subject. We went back to over a thousand years and by the
end of each lesson not only did my Chinese speaking skills improved, I also learnt
enormous amounts about what shaped China to be as it is today.
Cooking classes
Not only was Mr. Pan my Chinese history and
language teacher, he also turned into my cooking
instructor. On nights when we didn’t have dinner
at Zhuli’s parents house Mr. Pan would cook us a
delicious meal full of wonderful flavors. One night
we had a cooking lesson and he even taught me
how to cook 西红柿炒鸡蛋 so that I could return
home and cook it for my
family. During one of the
lessons Mr. Pan suddenly exclaimed “OMG” which
immediately caught my attention and provoked much
laughter from Angelina and I. Afterwards I realized that
what he was trying to say was that God had destined Mr.
Pan to cook delicious food for his family. I deeply enjoyed
these fun cooking lessons full of laughter and I also enjoyed
digging into Mr. Pan’s amazingly cooked meals.
Modern Nanjing
After experiencing many ancient historical sites, Ji
decided to take me to the center of Nanjing where
modernization occurred and where the youngsters
hung out. We went to a famous Nanjing restaurant that
was traditional in style and consisted of an enormous
selection of delicious food. After an amazing and
satisfying meal we
ventured around
the shopping mall
and Ji showed me
many of the pretty
modern shops in
the mall. It was
there that I discovered that they had familiar
shops such as H&M, Uniqlo, Sephora and Zara! I
was so shocked that China’s old capital had such modern shops that even Thailand,
where I come from, doesn’t even have! The contrast between traditional and
modern Nanjing excited me and made me love Nanjing even more.
Mr. Lu’s lantern factory
During a hot afternoon, Jenny (Zhuli’s colleague
and tour guide) took me to see Mr. Lu’s lantern
factory, which was an amazing delight. I helped
the people fold lantern pieces to punch patterns in
them which resulted in them telling me to stay as
one of their assistants.By visiting the lantern
factory I learnt that each lantern has been made
with special care and that the culture of lantern
making has still survived until today. I was so
interested to see so many colours and shapes in
the factory and each of the staff’s hard work made
me admire their outcome even more.
However, this lantern factory turned out
to be a salon instead when Mrs. Lu decided that
it was too hot for my hair to be down so she
decided to plait my hair into a beautiful braid
instead. Mr. Lu and Mrs. Lu was so kind and
welcoming that they even gave me a charming
little lotus lantern to take back which I quickly
hung up when I got home.
Car ride rave
On the days where I didn’t have to take the bus back
to Zhuli’s house Mr. Pan would come pick Angelina
and I up in his car after lessons. It was during these
short car trips that I remember many fun memories
with the cute father and child. One time on the way
back Mr. Pan started playing Gangnam Style and Call
Me Maybe in the car which got all three of us singing
and dancing in the car. Another time after the
calligraphy lesson I decided to take selfies with
Angelina on my iPhone where Mr. Pan even joined in
to make silly faces. We danced a lot, sang a lot and
laughed even more.
Purple mountain outing
On my second last day, Zhuli and
her family took me out to the park near
Nanjing’s famous Purple Mountain to
enjoy the sunshine and relax. Although at
first the activity of kite flying went
incredibly smoothly where Mr. Pan
launched up his kite over 400 meters
above the ground, this quickly ended after
another kite flyer accidently cut the string
of the kite with his kite resulting in the
kite disappearing. However this sad event
did not stop us from having fun and whilst
Angelina and I concluded to rock climbing near the river, Zhuli enjoyed sipping tea
under the big tree where we picnicked.
After the trip to Purple Mountain the family had a surprise for me and I only
knew where we were heading when we
arrived at the great 10 Dynasties Museum.
Since they knew I loved Chinese history,
they took me around the museum and
translated everything that I asked them
about. After this enriching experience we
had lunch by the Moon Lake where Mr. Pan
drew a half moon in the sweet and sour
pork dish in order to explain to me the
story of the Moon Lake. Lunch was so
entertaining and delicious that we basically
had to carry our stomachs to the car.
After Angelina’s GuZheng lesson we all headed to the enormous supermarket
to prepare for my Thai dinner. Since it was the second last night, Zhuli gave me the
chance to decide what to cook and for me to cook it all by myself (in the end Mr. Pan
ended up doing most of it to make sure the food was edible)! We went to the
supermarket to buy ingredients for the Thai dinner I had planned for them and
came back with more snacks and ice cream.
That night we all enjoyed a night full of flavors and Mr. Pan made his own
Thai prawn curry which was just as delicious as the ones in Thailand!
Happy ending
My last day in Nanjing was more than
perfect. The breakfast that Mr. Pan woke up
early just to buy for me which nearly brought
me to tears was a wonderful start to the day. I
found the delicious 煎饼 (pancakes) and soup
dumplings waiting for me on the breakfast table
that morning with Zhuli happily smiling telling
me to quickly eat before the food gets cold. I
clearly remember Mr. Pan asking me what I
wanted to eat for my last breakfast and I did
give him the exact answer that was waiting for
me on the table. However I really had no idea
that he would wake up early just to buy me my
perfect breakfast. Small things like this made
me know how lovely and caring this family was
during my stay and made leaving even more
difficult.
After the delightful breakfast I headed out with Jenny to the Nanjing city wall
located in the older part of Nanjing. After enjoying an ice cream on top of the city
wall Jenny and I went into the city center to see Ji and ShiuShiu (another staff from
Baixia). After a fun lunch and shopping spree, it was time to say bye to Ji and
ShiuShiu. I am incredibly grateful to have met such nice people during my trip and
to have made such wonderful friends. They always made me laugh and smile and
kept on updating me about life in Nanjing for young people, they will definitely be
missed.
My last dinner in Nanjing was so special in that I watched Mr. Pan make all
the dishes whilst talking to him in Chinese. We even ended dinner by talking in
Chinese where Mr. Pan tried to teach me the difference between the local language
and the normal mandarin language I speak. That night I taught Zhuli how to braid
Angelina’s hair and gave each of them a farewell gift. It was quite an emotional night
because I had become very attached to the family and knew that I would miss each
of them very much after I left.
We had so many great memories together and I’m sure I’ll still remember
them even after many years have passed. Not only have they taught me about
Chinese culture and Chinese daily life, they’ve also provided me with a lovely place
to stay in and made this trip incredibly enjoyable and beneficial. They treated me
just as one of their family members and for that I am so happy to have been part of
this amazing experience.
Fye Tavinee Maithai
A student from Cheltenham Ladies College