On Sunday, my mom asked me to watch a Chinese TV show with her. This show happened in real life about a month ago. The show was about 15 college students from all over the world who came to live with a poor Chinese farmer family for 2 Days. Each of the family has one kid age from 7-11.
In these families, the kids live at home alone or some of them live with their grandparents. Their parents are all working on a temporary job in the city for minimum wage. From 7 years old those kids start doing everything by themselves: making fire, cooking meals, washing clothes with hands, taking care of siblings, even taking care of old sick grandparents.
Every day they get up at 5:00am, make a fire, and then cook breakfast. At 6:00am they wake up their guests while they’re still sleeping. The family cannot afford a stove so the kids have to make the fire every meal in order to cook food. Their breakfast consists of mostly vegetables and rice; rarely do they have eggs or meat.
During the visit these college students learned so much from these little kids; they learned how to make a fire, how to cook Chinese food, how to hand wash clothes, but most importantly, how to be happy all the time. They are so surprised to see how much these little kids can do.
After breakfast and the house chores the child has to get ready for school. School starts at 8:00am. They need to leave the house at 7:00am because they have to walk in horrible conditions for an HOUR!!!!!!!! Even the guest said he got tired in the middle of the walk. The walk is like navigating through a forest and a rocky mountain. There’s no road at all.
The schools in China are not bad. They offer free lunch which also consists of rice and vegetables. However, at recess there isn’t much to do except dance around, play ping pong, and spin little wooden tops. After school they have to walk home for an hour again.
When they get time off, there’s nothing much for them to do. The kids would be lucky to have just one toy. "In the TV show, there was a boy who was very shy. He ignored his guest until the guest gave him a soccer ball, then they became best friends. All of the kids are thankful that they get a toy.
The college students learned so much from these little kids for only two days. The kids were thankful to have the company and to have fun. They were thankful for every little thing they got. That’s the reason they are always happy, because they don’t expect much.
I learned so much after watching that TV show. These kids have nearly nothing but they’re happy all the time. People in America have so much, yet they are not happy. These kids are role models for everyone including me.
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