Updated 5 years 11 months ago


Our service learning partner was a kind elderly woman named Yang Fu Lan. We just called her Yang Nai Nai. She is 80 years old and is the mother in law of Mrs. Zhang. A cook that works at the Linden Centre.

What I learned about Yang Nai Nai in this project was that she lived in Xizhou for all of her life. She had faced struggles with the economic status of her family and sometimes had to face her parents working away. But she got through it, she was able to survive the hard times.                                                                                                                                                                                

I learned that things were not as happy as this place seems. Most of the people who lived here had economic struggles along with their parents going away. They also believed that the small bits of rice were a gift from heaven and that they were very lucky. Si Fang Jie's gate was destroyed twice and many other things were to.

I learned some thing about the 20th century China. Most of the families that where very poor and had a weak economic status were thankful to Mao Ze Dong. Because during liberation they got to have small parts of house and for that they were very thankful. Other things that I learned was that some parts of the Xizhou village were destroyed thanks to some parts of the cultural revolution.

When Mrs. Zhang came to Yang Zhuo Ran to watch our service learning video I was very nervous. I was worried that our audience would not like our video. I thought that they might hate it. So when the clock turned to three o'clock and all the their students with their service learning partners came in I was very very nervous.

When our video started to play I was watching the audience while they were watching our project. Most of the time they were focusing on the video and watching every thing. Some people looked like they were bored and others looked like they were confused. When we got to the part were we misunderstood four for ten every one started to laugh. Later I think that every one was more engaged after that part. Then when she said that she was most grateful for Chairman Mao every except the elders had a look of surprise on their faces. Over all I think that every one in my group which consisted of Charissa Annelise and Jackie was happy with the outcome and will treasure this for the rest of their lives.

I would recommend for students for work well with their group, and split the work load. That way not only is one person doing all the work, others can help out to. Also I would recommended that have multiple back up plans. Have each student have 10 back up plans so in case their plan A person does not want to participate they can have multiple back up plans. Lastly I would recommend some people to ask deeper questions. When the person seems to show emotion, ask follow up questions so you can better understand the story they have to tell.


Great Final Product

I just had time this morning to your watch your video, I am very proud of you and your team.  I felt touched because I can see the Yang Nai Nai went through a lot but yet she still happy and healthy. Simple lives, and growing crops to feed the family was the most important things she could remember. I am proud of your final product!, treasure it !! 

Hi my name is Vincent. I am 13 years old, and I am from Nashville, Tennessee. I was in Xizhou and was studying Healthcare/Wellness. I also learned about what the villagers do every day and what kinds of things that we can learn from them. I was excited to be in Xizhou and it is was wonderful learning experience.