"Dad Cao, Dad Cao, when will you come back?" When the children learned that Cao Xunchang was going back to China, they were most concerned about this.
"But I don't know how to tell the children." When Cao Xunchang, 24, mentioned the students he had been with for a year, he looked like a young father with warm love. On July 23, he was about to board the plane to return home and end his volunteer service in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
One year ago, Cao Xunchang was a graduate student of Xi'an University of Technology majoring in design. He came to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to teach in the Chinese Cultural Center for one year through the Overseas Service Plan for Chinese Youth Volunteers. Although he often participated in volunteer activities before, he was very worried when he came to foreign countries to teach art and Chinese to primary school students, and also worked as a class teacher in grade one.
"Nervous," Cao Xunchang recalled the situation when he first came, "dozens of children were chattering in the classroom. I had never taught such young children before. But the children are very imaginative. All I need to do is tell them how to stimulate their creative desire."
"Chinese and art together, there are an average of four classes every day." Every day, he spent time with Cambodian children. Cao gradually found that sometimes the brush can communicate with children better than language.
In the first grade class, there was a little girl named Manimo, who was like a deer unwilling to be constrained. She always ran around the classroom in class. In order to find out the child's mind, Cao Xunchang asked her to go to the office to see his paintings - famous mountains and rivers in China, mysterious Angkor's historic sites, and Cambodia's pastoral scenery composed of sugar palm trees and buffalo.
"Teacher, you draw very well. Can I follow you to learn painting?"
"In the future, you should obey the classroom discipline. If you do, the teacher will teach you to draw every day!"
Sure enough, Manimo was very serious in the later classes and did not make trouble any more. Cao Xunchang also kept his promise and took her to draw with him every day, teaching her techniques and encouraging her to discover the beauty around her. The lively Manimo became quiet and focused as soon as he picked up the brush.
"One day when I had just finished class, Manimo suddenly hugged me and shouted, 'Dad Cao! Dad Cao!' I was stunned in an instant, and was held by her motionless. Other students came to me and hugged me and called Dad. At that moment, I felt that I had really entered the hearts of children." Cao Xunchang's face was black by the Cambodian sun, There was a sparkle in his eyes.
Cao Xunchang's Chinese (Shaanxi) Youth Volunteers' Assistance to Cambodia Volunteer Service Team also includes Rong Zubang, Guan Qing, Jiang Hui and Zheng Jin, who teach martial arts, music, table tennis and dance in the Chinese Cultural Center. The average age of this team was only 22 when it first arrived in Cambodia, but it won the welcome of Cambodian students and parents with its excellent professionalism and sincere heart.
Today, students of table tennis have not only mastered the techniques of step movement, forehand and backhand conversion, topspin and backspin, but also made props such as scorecards by themselves, and organized decent matches; The students of the elite martial arts team have become little stars, not only popular little actors in local large-scale artistic performances, but also on the international stage of the ASEAN 10+3 International Language and Culture Festival.
The days of the volunteer team in Cambodia were simple and substantial, and it was time to leave in a twinkling.
Cao Xunchang has been looking through the children's painting books these days. In one year, he took the children to draw many themes, from showing Chinese traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival to conveying the concept of environmental protection. "The children have greatly improved their skills, composition and picture integrity. But I hope to plant the seeds of beauty in their hearts, so that they can find the beauty in life and express the beauty in their hearts."
Cao Xunchang was taking the elevator with two primary school students when he saw the reporter off. They didn't speak, but they held Cao Xunchang's hand silently - this is the Cambodian children's trust in Chinese volunteers.
"Spend one year doing unforgettable things, and let one year's efforts change the memories of a lifetime", which is the pledge of the youth volunteer team when they went on the expedition. They used this year's youth to sow new seeds for China Cambodia friendship. (Reporter Mao Pengfei)
