As a volunteer teacher, I traveled a long way to a small village school in Longzhou, Guangxi. On my way there, I thought about the village, the school, and the children there. However, my heart sank when I arrived there. It was out of what I had expected. It didn’t look like a school at all! The school had only three rooms. One was for Grades l, 2 and 3, one was for Grades 4, 5 and 6, and the third one was for me.

The children welcomed me warmly (热情地) on my first day. They asked me a lot of questions, and I told them stories about myself and my life in Shanghai. The next day, I gave them a test to find out their level (水平). To my surprise, though the test was very easy, over half of the students failed, yet they all wanted to learn new things. I knew they needed me.

I was busy preparing lessons and reading test papers every night. I enjoyed teaching these lovely and hard-working children, and I could see that they were making progress with my help. I have also learned a lot from them. I understand their lives better, and we are now good friends.

I have worked in Longzhou for a year. I’m very happy and the experience has been very useful to me. I love the small village and the children. In fact, I would like to go on working here.

I’m 17-year-old Nadia Clarke. This summer I got the chance to spend a month helping out in a hospital in Africa as a volunteer. I wanted to study medicine at university, so I thought it was a perfect chance for me to get some experience and to see if I really wanted to be a doctor.

That month changed my life. It introduced me to a world quite different from mine. I was surprised to see how poor and difficult so many local families were. However, I was amazed at the ways that they spent their daily lives positively (乐观地).

I think many people here in the UK haven’t realized how lucky they are. My work in the hospital was hard. I spent a lot of time cleaning floors and changing sheets (床单). In addition, I spent some time looking after the sick. I got the chance to talk to some doctors and ask them about the job. I saw some bad things in the hospital, but none of them changed my mind about being a doctor.

Now, I know exactly what I’m going to do. I want to work for an international organization like the Red Cross or Medecans Frontiers. Many people aren’t so lucky as me in life. I’d like to spend my life helping them, and I can’t wait to get started.