(562) Fruit from an earlier investment of time

I met up with a previous child I helped thirteen years ago. She is twenty five years old now. I am pleased to note that she chose to teach in a city with little or no help for special children. Although she could cross the border and teach in another city that would pay her more than twice what she is getting now, she felt strongly that her place is in her home town where those suffering children need her.

It is a wonderful feeling to see that a "gamble" I took years ago bore fruits. I visited her family and noted that she was being treated differently by her mum and siblings. As she lives a few hundred miles from me, there is little I could do for her. Her family is Mandarin speaking. I offered to take her home to teach her English. Actually the real aim is to change her reactions to the shabby treatment she received at home.

During the three weeks she was with me, I showered her with lots of attention and filled the days with new experience and fun. We went swimming, we took walks in the park, we visited libraries and shopping centres, we went to see shows, and she met many families we are close to. Whenever I was alone with her, I would talk  and get her to open up and tell me things that bothered her.

The main thing that gave her a patient suffering look in her eyes was the fact that she was being treated as an unpaid work horse at home. While she was the eldest and had to help with chores from a very young age, all the younger ones tend to escape scot free. It took me quite a while for me to convince her that she was being well trained for life while her brothers and sisters are really being short changed. She was twelve and I explained that she may come out to work at age eighteen. By being compliant and obedient for another six years, she would at least not be beaten and sent to solitary confinement in her bedroom. I impressed upon her that education is her only way out of this domestic drudgery. She promised me that she would work hard in Mathematics and Chinese language, subjects she likes. I made sure she understood the need to pass other subjects too in order to get a presentable certificate for the job search after leaving high school.

She has been working in private kindergartens. Lately she was being promoted to become the Assistant Principal. She has found a loyal boy friend who supports her goals in life. She has even completed a Diploma related to her field of work. I congratulated her on all her achievements. She has come a long way from the waif who looked pitiful. The only thing that I could see her improve on is her relationship with her family members. Overall I told her that she out performed what I hoped for. For an eleven year old who had to bite her arm to remind herself which one is her right hand, she has done excellently.