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From Chapin to China
By Andrew Seguin
 “My Chinese name meant ‘Ray of Sunlight,’” Chapin senior Kiran Gandhi told her fellow students. “At least I hope it did,” she added, joking about the language barrier she encountered during her trip to China this past July. Regardless of her inability to speak Mandarin, Kiran was a light for children in Zhangjiakou, a town several hours outside of Beijing; in Gansu province, an area of northwestern China that was once a part of the Silk Road; and at the Shaolin orphanage in Henan province. She worked with Free the Children, an organization started in 1995 by a young Canadian man to help students in foreign countries gain access to better education. Free the Children carries out its mission by building schools and sending supplies and volunteers to its sites. Kiran was a member of the organization’s first trip to China, and the trip was, as she said, “amazing.”
Kiran spoke at both Upper School and Middle School News this month, sharing anecdotes and photographs of both the places she went and the people she met. Her work included delivering backpacks and pens, as well as building a hopscotch course and teaching English. “The students were bright-eyed and ready to learn,” she mentioned, going on to explain some of her lessons, which covered songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and vocabulary about animals and families. One photograph showed one student’s drawings; another depicted a dilapidated classroom that Free the Children later fixed up. Kiran mentioned that the teacher had to stand outside because the classroom was so small. She felt fortunate to be able to stand inside with her students.
While Kiran found the work rewarding, it was the personal connections she made that she found the most moving. “Little Tiger,” her host family’s son in Zhangjiakou, became a dear friend; they exchanged bracelets, one of which came from Chapin’s School Fair. At the Shaolin orphanage, Kiran had the opportunity to eat lunch with one of the boys and asked him, through an interpreter, what he liked to study. “Science,” he replied. She then mentioned that she also liked science, and “this is what he told me: I want to build a boat to take people to the moon.” Fascinated by his imagination, she asked how she could help, and he responded that she could be his family.
Kiran knew that she couldn’t become his family, but she did know that she was able to help in other ways, and that working with Free the Children was one of them. She urged her fellow classmates to be aware of what is happening in the world, and to travel abroad to open their eyes to other cultures and other ways of getting to the moon.
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