On November 13, on the occasion of his state visit to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, President Xi Jinping published a signed article entitled "Jointly Building a Community of Shared Future with China and Laos with Strategic Significance" on three media in Laos, in which he specifically mentioned that nearly 100 young people from Shanghai, China, had come to Laos to volunteer. At the beginning of September this year, the reporter of Youth Daily followed the Shanghai delegation to Laos to participate in the "2017 China Laos Youth Basketball Friendship Match". He was lucky to spend more than ten days with eight Chinese Shanghai volunteers who were volunteering in Laos. Today, their volunteer service experience in Laos for more than half a year is always moving in retrospect. When you are in a foreign country, acclimatization, poor language communication, and adaptation to the huge cultural differences between the two countries, you will understand how difficult it is to adapt to these.
He didn't charge a penny for being the head coach of Laos men's basketball team
On November 13, on the occasion of his state visit to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, President Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, published a signed article entitled "Work Together to Build a Strategic Community of Shared Future between China and Laos" in the Lao People's Daily, the Batliao Daily and the Vientiane Times. In the paragraph about "China Laos people to people and cultural exchanges are increasingly active", the article specifically mentioned that "nearly 100 young volunteers from Shanghai, China have gone to Laos to engage in network technology, sports teaching and other work, and one of them has been the head coach of the Lao national men's basketball team." The volunteer in the article is Sun Wei, a teacher from Shanghai Institute of Physical Education.
Sun Wei, who was called "Lao Sun" by his colleagues, is the oldest of the eight volunteers from Shanghai. At the age of 40, he heard the news that Shanghai would recruit a group of volunteers to serve in Laos more than half a year ago, so he thought of going to Laos. However, when the eight year old child just started primary school, his wife and parents were not in good health, and even the house had not been decorated. It was more than half a year since he left, which made him hesitate. To his surprise, his family fully supported his idea. His wife said to him at that time, "Don't worry, leave it to me at home, and you can go to Laos in peace." This made Sun Weiche determined to go to Laos.
After going to Laos, Sun Wei, as an athlete and coach with professional basketball background, made the Lao Basketball Association hand over the Lao National Men's Basketball Youth Team to him soon. Then, at the Laos national championship at the end of July, Sun Wei led the youth team to the fourth place in the country, and only lost by one point against the final champion team. Such a good performance made the Lao Basketball Association decide to hand over the national team of men's basketball to him. Sun Wei also lived up to expectations. At the ASEAN Games in late August, he led the Lao national men's basketball team to defeat the Myanmar national men's basketball team, which not only achieved the first victory in the history of the Lao national men's basketball team in this event, but also made this team enter the top eight of the ASEAN men's basketball team for the first time, and the ranking of the International Basketball Association rose accordingly.
Interestingly, from beginning to end, Sun Wei never received a penny of salary. The head coach not only did not receive salary, but also often paid his own money to invite the team members to dinner. In this regard, Sun Wei once said: "I am here to volunteer. I am a volunteer from Shanghai, China. I am here to pass on the friendship between China and Laos. Volunteer service is a dedication without seeking return, which cannot be measured by money. If I do these things from the perspective of a basketball player, it is also a belief in basketball."
In recent days, many domestic media have reported the story of Sun Wei, which makes him known by more people. In response, Sun said, "Thank you very much. I'm just a volunteer. I should do all this."
Medical volunteers rushed to the hospital at 2:00 a.m. to help save people
After years of development, the medical conditions in Laos have been greatly improved. However, due to the relatively weak foundation at the beginning, they still have a big gap compared with China. As two medical volunteers of the Shanghai Volunteer Team in China, Jin Jiabin from Shanghai Ruijin Hospital and Li Zhenyuan from Shanghai Renji Hospital share this feeling. They are eager to see it, but after all, their personal strength is really small. What they can do is to pay all their efforts to be on standby 24 hours a day, even if it rains at 2:00 in the morning to rush to the hospital.
It was two o'clock in the morning on a day in Laos, when it was raining heavily in Vientiane, the capital, and a local secondary hospital received a seriously ill patient. At that time, the patient's blood pressure was extremely low, and his body was severely dehydrated. His life was in danger. The local doctors were a little confused, so they remembered two friends from China. "What can I say? When the phone call came, we turned over and got up." This is what Jin Jiabin and Li Zhenyuan said when they recalled more than two months ago in Laos. At that time, they put on their clothes and went downstairs. In the storm, they rode to the hospital on their bicycles. Fortunately, after more than two hours of treatment, the seriously ill patient was successfully snatched back from the hands of the god of death.
They have experienced many similar things in Laos. Because of their volunteer status, they could not go to the operating table as the attending doctors. Even though their clinical experience exceeded many local doctors, they could help from the side, which was also allowed by the local hospital. Throughout the volunteer service cycle, they "assisted" too many times. As the volunteer service is coming to an end, the two of them said that they would still keep in touch with their counterparts in Laos even after returning home. "We have added contact information to each other, and they can contact us at any time if they have any problems."
There is also Ren Hyatt, the only one recruited from the society, and Zhao Shizhan from Minhang District Civil Affairs Bureau. They are mainly responsible for teaching young cadres and local children in the Lao Youth League Center to learn Chinese. However, to some extent, the burden on their shoulders is heavier. They should let the younger generation of Laos know about China and Chinese traditional culture. In order to complete such volunteer work, they spent all their efforts to come up with such ideas as teaching students to draw facial makeup of Peking Opera characters. "In addition to volunteering, it is also an important task for us to pass on the friendship between China and Laos," every volunteer said at that time.
In addition to Sun Wei and medical volunteers, volunteers from Shanghai have also done a lot of work for Laos in Chinese education, Chinese broadcasting, IT technology and other aspects. Zhang Zihao from China Telecom works in the Central IT Center of the Lao Youth League. Every day, he needs to carry out network testing, machine room maintenance, office software upgrading, and other basic network construction. Zhu Li Beibei, a member of the Party branch of Xinhua Villagers' Committee in Zhuangxing Town, Fengxian District, works in the Chinese language group of Lao National Radio. She writes more than ten press releases every day, and it takes her eight to ten minutes to read each one carefully. In addition, we need to modify the smoothness of sentences, correct pronunciation and so on. "This process will take us more than four hours."
Watch the live broadcast of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and aspire to contribute to the "Belt and Road"
On October 18, all members of the Chinese young volunteers' service team to Laos also watched the live broadcast of the opening ceremony of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and listened carefully to the important report made by General Secretary Xi Jinping. In his report, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward new requirements for the young generation. Young people should be firm in their ideals and beliefs, ambitious, down-to-earth, and brave to be trendsetters of the times. All the team members are deeply aware of the glorious mission and are determined to do a good job in volunteering according to the requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping for the young generation.
General Secretary Xi Jinping mentioned the "Belt and Road" in his report, which aroused strong resonance among all members. Laos is an important country along the "Belt and Road". Through in-depth contact with ordinary people in Laos in various fields, the team members deeply realized that the Lao people were very welcome to the "Belt and Road" cooperation project, and were very willing to take a ride on China's development and pursue a better life in the good cooperation between China and Laos. Each team member told the Youth Daily reporter that during the volunteer service period in Laos, we should not only do a good job in volunteer service and complete various tasks, but also study and implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, carefully study the newly revised Party Constitution, deeply understand Xi Jinping's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, and aspire to sow friendship and contribute youth on the "Belt and Road".
Liu Yong, the leader of the Chinese young volunteers' service team to Laos, believes that young volunteers are carriers of folk diplomacy and bridges of folk friendship, playing the role of "ambassadors of folk friendship". Under the careful guidance and support of the Communist Youth League Central Committee, the Ministry of Commerce and the Shanghai Communist Youth League Municipal Committee, volunteers to Laos have always taken the promotion of people to people connectivity and the service of the "Belt and Road" as the direction of their efforts, giving play to the "soft power" in sports, culture, language, education, medical care and other fields, and providing tangible services close to life, grassroots and the masses for the Lao people, Help Lao people from all walks of life to improve their knowledge and skills, improve their health level, and enhance their sense of happiness, so that ordinary Lao people can feel that "China and Laos are good friends, beside me", turn the friendly relationship between the two countries into a deep friendship between Chinese young volunteers and Lao people, and make the service to Laos a stage for Chinese young people to shine in life. (Reporter Yang Xianzhi)
