Hello everyone, I prefer to make entries into my journal so these blogs will show up later than when originally written.
At 12 pm today my friend and I traveled about 30 minutes from Tsinghua University, where I am currently studying, to the Beijing Airport. There we excitedly waited to see our Destination China (DC) team members once again, thus setting off DC’s second summer. Once our 7 waiguoren (foreigner) friends finally strode out, we made our way to Shahe, a migrant community on the outskirts of Beijing by way of bus and taxi. Driving through Beijing, one can clearly see the rapid development which currently characterizes much of China. Even in Shahe I was amazed to find buildings, albeit empty ones, that did not exist a year before. Despite these changes, however, much, such as strange and often disgusting smells, litter throughout the streets, men with their shirts rolled half-way up (which we now call Beijing air-conditioning), remained the same. Instead of being disgusted, however, I realized that I had missed Shahe, and was excited to be back. I was also excited to once again see the members of the Zigen Fund, our parent organization, who I had known from last year. And being my typical-self(an “old-soul” as I have often been called), I happily ate lunch and engaged in conversation with our Zigen Fund parents while my team members settled into their new migrant home and ate together. Because I wish to one day study and work in China,while continuing to volunteer and learn about the migrant community,I know that such relationships will be extremely beneficial.
The Migrant Center
Hey Mariangela, hope your trip is going well! I was in Beijing last summer and met some people on Destination China–is Alex still involved with DC?
I am interested in hearing about you guys going back to Shahe this time– are a lot of migrant workers in the community where you are working familiar with you guys, since you were there last year?
Hello Austin! Alex graduated last year so he had passed the trip on to me and Bernice Chu, but he still helps as much as possible! We met with a lot of the same people from the parent organization, the Zigen Fund, but only saw maybe a handful of the same migrants. After a few years or so many migrants tend to go back to their home towns only to come back to the city later.