Kate Chodzko

“LAOSHI (teacher), laoshi, for you!” exclaimed Chenglei, extending his arm and offering me a fresh batch of mollusk shells of different shapes and sizes. We were hunting seashells by Egong Bay, on Pearl Island in Nan’ao, eastern Shenzhen. The group included 45 other kids just like Chenglei, who live all throughout China while one or both of their parents work in Shenzhen, trying to provide a better standard of living for their families. It was day two of our weekend getaway organized by Futian District Government, aiming to let these kids visit Shenzhen and enjoy some attractions that may not be as readily available back home.

We started out on a Thursday morning at the Futian government headquarters, where the kids were given T-shirts and lunch bags and informed of the rules and agenda for the upcoming event. From there we headed to the Xiangmihu Safety Education Center, where we got to experience a mock earthquake and learned how to act in the event of a real one, learned how to perform CPR, walked through a room filled with smoke and even voluntarily “got stuck” in an elevator, all to learn how to cope with emergencies in case they arise in real life.

Next came every child’s favorite: a theme park. Even though it was a wet afternoon, the kids were mesmerized by the speeding water rides, the hair-raising ghost ride and the captivating 3-D movie at the theater in Happy Valley. More than a bit besprinkled, we hopped on the bus singing “99 bottles of ... milk on the wall” to make the time go faster on our way to Pearl Island.

The evening and the events of the next day were filled with training sessions, as well as games and activities for kids, some of which were organized in the form of an English Corner by myself and some fellow volunteers. We split the group into three and played different games at each point, including

“Heads Up, Seven Up,” “What Time Is It Mr. Wolf?” and “Telephone.” The kids walked away much more eager to speak English and quite bubbly, probably because of the activities — or maybe from the sugar rush they got from all the candy they won as prizes. Rain called that session to an end a bit early, but the skies cleared up soon enough for us to enjoy a lunch filled with local seafood delicacies, followed by the seashell hunt to complete the trip.

Sometimes I glance at my seashell collection at home in Futian and think of what these shells must have felt like while they served as homes to the mollusks who lived in them. Did they keep them cozy and safe? And what about the homes of left-behind kids like Chenglei? Are their homes cozy and safe? Their parents are surely trying their best to ensure a brighter future for their kids by working in up-and-coming places like Futian, even if that means having to be really far away from home for the duration of their employment.

Shenzhen is known to be the No. 1 richest city per capita in China. It is also the No. 1 city in terms of the number of migrant workers. This means more has to be done to improve the well-being of migrant workers who face a range of challenges including low income, loneliness and having to leave their children in distant hometowns.

The Futian Volunteers program brings together local and foreign volunteers like myself to help migrant children and others in need. I’m proud to be part of Futian’s team of expatriate volunteers, which was established in March this year as Shenzhen’s first such team. We will continue holding sessions like the one I participated in this summer and, hopefully, many more soon after.

A member of the Futian expatriate volunteer team, Kate Chodzko is an English teacher at Baihua Primary School in Futian. A native of Poland, she also grew up in Libya and North America, where she went to school and university. She’s let Futian become her new “seashell” and is happy to have made a home for herself here, along with her adopted cat, Mia. She enjoys working with children, jogging and trying to get better at Chinese.