Amity Foundation in China

Another week gone… we’ve finished teaching at Amity’s Home of Blessings last Friday. Another bittersweet moment as we said our goodbye’s to one another. Reflecting upon “teaching” at the Home of Blessings, I find that my time was much more of a learning experience. We taught English in the mornings for about an hour. And then we did arts and crafts with the students where we learned how to make flowers from beads. We also did a small presentation on American culture, and afterwards the students talked to us about aspects of Chinese culture. Mutual exchange…. I remember how during orientation Ms. Carino, one of the Amity staff, talked about how at the core of peace is trust. I’m beginning to really see the truth in that statement. It’s really once you enter into a person’s life, see their humanity, and understand one another, that’s where you find the beginnings of peace. There’s no substitute for meeting a person in order to genuinely know someone. However, when we choose ignorance, when we choose to see someone as less than human, that’s when the depravity of the human race becomes most apparent. A little tangent back to the Nanjing Massacre, when Japanese soldiers were asked how they were able to commit the atrocities that they did, many said that they had to view the Chinese as less than human. Thus that’s why for peace to be possible people truly have to understand and trust one another, to see that other people are human beings as well. Then once that realization occurs you can begin to genuinely care for someone.