Time flies. I am almost half-way through the course. This whole week has been spent preparing for the regional visit trip. In the team, each member takes charge of coordinating with the schools that he or she has established contacts with. For me, I am coordinating City University and Fresh Fish Traders School. The latter one is really the school that I am looking forward to.
One question I ask myself before I fly off is this -"What exactly do I want to achieve in this trip ? Is it just merely going to listen to some presentations, looking at facilities , interacting with organizational leaders and staff etc?
I was quite inspired by Mr Chua's account of his Cambodia trip last year. For our new colleagues, during his Sabbatical, Mr Chua went to Siam Reap to help build bio sand water filter systems for the villages. If you are interested to find out more, you can access the set of slides in the new shared drive (ICT folder-> P's Sabbatical Trip_Siam Reap).
So, I told myself -" Let's do something more and make it a truly worthwhile experience". At the same time, I am also pondering - "How do we as a school community be forces of good in the world ?" If we expect our pupils to espouse the school mission, then we ourselves should walk the talk.
Now, here comes the meat. In preparation for the trip, I chanced upon this movie - " A simple life" (桃姐).Directed by well known director Ann Hui, this movie is adapted from a real life story that actually happened in Hong Kong. This movie is rich in social values and is definitely worth watching this coming March holidays.
(Source : http://cinebel.dhnet.be/nl/film/1008698/A%20simple%20life)
桃姐 ( Ah Tao played by Deanie Ip) is a maid who has served 3 decades for a wealthy family in Hong Kong. The family eventually migrated to US except for Roger (played by Andy Lau), a member of the family who remains behind.
Roger is a young, successful and busy film producer. He stays at a modest apartment with Ah Tao who continues to take care of her young master and the daily house chores. Things change when Ah Tao suffers a stroke and decides to check herself into a nursing home. Ah Tao has to adjust to a totally new environment. Roger then takes it upon himself to find Ah Tao a decent home. In one scene, he is seen questioning the nursing home staff asking about the kind of facilities, the kind of staff that they have. He also takes care of the monthly fees for Ah Tao's stay there.
The movie gives an interesting and unapologetic glimpse of what life is inside a nursing home-There are many feeble and immobile residents needing assistance to be fed and in moving around. There is this man who like to show off his tango moves to the residents and tries to borrow money from people he befriends and he would later spend the money on whores. Then, there is this elderly woman who cries pitifully every night and another who begs to return to her village home, until the "tango" man comes and and walk her in circles, pretending to take her home. Despite all these, Ah Tao manages to integrate well into the community.
Despite Roger's busy schedule travelling between Beijing and Hong Kong for his filming assignments, he made it a point to visit Ah Tao whenever he is back. He would bring her for a walk in the park or bring her to eat her favourite dim sum. Despite the movie depicting Roger as a cold and seemingly " care-less" person, he is actually a very filial man who shows gratitude and care to Ah Tao, whom he affectionately calls his "godmother". There are many light-hearted moments in the scenes such as Roger teasing Ah Tao why she did not get married. Ah Tao replied her suitors all have "fishy smell on them". There is another scene whereby Ah Tao reminded Roger that she used to carry him (when he still an infant) in a beautifully embroidered sling. And then, there is this scene where Roger's family (based in US) exchange CNY greetings with Ah Tao. Roger's mother returns to Hong Kong and the first thing she does is to visit Ah Tao at the home bringing her bird nests. Roger even takes Ah Tao to a film premier to meet famous film personalities and readily introduces to everyone that Ah Tao is his godmother.
You can watch the movie here (Cantonese with English Subtitles)-Use Chrome to watch
or click on the following link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsnCcfrkzsc
It is a great movie- a simple story with so much emotional breadth and depth. You may ask, why on earth do I devote almost a page on writing about a movie. I believe that Education is a noble profession, beyond our educational objectives, Educators need to embrace a strong human spirit and a soul where we can care for the underprivileged , the poor, the homeless and the hungry .
Back to my regional visit , I have made a request to the P of Fresh Fish Traders School to allow me to visit 2-3 families living in caged homes during my extended stay in Hong Kong. In case you are not aware of what a caged home looks like.
(Source :http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/hong-kong-poor-cages_n_2638068.html)
Caged homes are very common in Hong Kong. The poor people stay in them and in a room, there can be many of such cages. Living conditions are bad. I would like to present the selected families with some groceries and perhaps if time permits to talk to the children, encouraging them to study hard and break out of the poverty cycle.
My team has bought 300+ stationery set for the children in Fresh Fish Traders' School. This is a modest gift from every team member and this is the least we can do for them.
In conclusion, let us always always remember that school is not merely a place to get knowledge, it is also a place where the human spirit and soul is nurtured. To end, I like to reproduce a FB quote that Melanie has put up recently, it goes something like this:
“How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young,
compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the
weak and the strong, because someday in your life, you will have been all of
these.”
George Washington Carver | botanist, agricultural chemist, inventor,
educator
Thanks Meow for the permission to reproduce the quote from your FB page.
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