At the Nolita Branch YMCA of Beijing

This section of my blog may be of specific interest to YMCA people.

Day 1

My volunteer assignment is located at the Nolita YMCA a branch of the Beijing YMCA. I began my first day on Monday morning. The first order of business was to register with the local police department. When we got there, we were told the person in charge of registering foreigners would not be there until Wednesday. This seems to be pretty typical here. The police station was a dismal place, poorly lit and seemingly poorly equipped.

Finally, on to the YMCA. There I was introduced to the staff and given a tour of the facility. The staff had all assumed English names so that I would be able to remember them. This was a relief as I was anticipating having to learn and pronounce their Chinese names which I feared I would badly mangle. The facility is located within a gated community of new high-rise apartment buildings. It is about one year old and has a beautiful swimming pool, a small fitness facility, a couple of aerobics studios. I saw a class of women taking Chinese dance. Every time I visit a YMCA, whether a familiar one or a new one,I feel that I have "come home." There is something quite universal about the facilities no matter where they are in the world -- the smell of the pool, the sounds of the children, and the friendliness of the staff.

After the tour, I met Mr. Lu, the General Manager. Mr. Lu has limited English but with Mr. Song's help, we managed to communicate quite well. He seems like a typical young YMCA executive and Mr. Song is the typical program director, working long hours and always with enthusiasm. Well, after our meeting, we were off to lunch at a local restaurant. This also seems universal to the Y, at least for the professional staff. Meetings, then lunch, then more meetings. But hey, who am I to turn down a free lunch?

Back to the Y where we met with some program staff specifically about how to build the membership and program participants, how to get the word out to the community about the Y, and how to structure the English program. Since the Y is new to the community of Nolita and also new to mainland China, it is not recognizable to the general population the way it is in most countries around the world. While we could not solve these problems in one meeting, I at least got a fundamental idea of the challenges the Y faces. I also learned (surprise, surprise) that I would be overseeing 4 or 5 other teachers. These are part-time paid staff, one from Australia and three from Canada. We also think we will have two volunteers to help out.

About 4 pm (1600 hours), we began registration for the English classes. This registration period will go on for the rest of the week. I am interviewing every registrant to determine their level of English so that we can place them in the proper class. This is not as easy as it sounds, as the registrants range in age from 3 years old to 60 years old.

There is a lovely young woman named "Laura", who is helping me with the registrations. We took a break and went out to eat at a Korean barbecue restaurant. I finally left the Y at about 8:30 pm. Whew! It was a long day and, again, typical for the Y. You always stay and work longer than you think you will. Anyway, after this week things will settle down and I will have a regular schedule from Monday to Friday 4 or 5 pm to 8 or 9pm with weekends off.

Day 2

I received a call early in the morning that I would be picked up at 11 am and taken to lunch to meet Mr. Cai Kui, who is the General Secretary of the YMCA of Beijing. Attending were Mr. and Mrs. Fung, volunteers originally from Hong Kong, Mr. Song, Mr. Lu, Mr Cai, Zhu Qi, Executive Secretary and an excellent translator, and myself. We sat in a private room with a/c. In typical Chinese fashion, (after two days I'm learning what's typical) dish after dish of food was served, veggies, chicken, beef, fish and the main entree Beijing Duck. We talked of YMCA experiences. Some of the staff are going to Hong Kong this weekend for the 105th anniversary of the Hong Kong YMCA. That is a pretty big deal! Also, our General Manager, Mr. Lu, is going to the United States at the end of the month for 29 days to learn about American YMCAs and their programs. He is going to Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and a few other places. It should be exciting for him and I hope he comes back with lots of new ideas for our Y.

Later in the day I was given a student to teach one-on-one for an hour every day for two weeks which be quite a challenge. His name is Eric and he is 7 years old. He speaks and understands English quite well but his mother wants him to have more practice. The people here place a high value on learning English and on education in general. Some of the children I have met attend an international school where they place a high emphasis on learning English and their English vocabulary and pronounciation are quite good. The children begin learning English in nursery school. I'm learning the children have very long days. They are also very scheduled with activities planned for most of their free time. No TV or video games to idle away their time here. Eric told me he gets up at 6 am and gets ready for school which starts at about 7 or 7:30 am. Normally he gets out of school at about 5 pm which I'm sure includes after school care. These two weeks he is getting out early which is why his mother placed him in the program. The other children registering for the program have similar school schedules and yet they will be coming to this program every evening. I hope to make it fun and stimulating for them.

I hope I didn't go on too long but I wanted people to get an idea of the daily life here.