Painting with the Colors Given

Joe Chen first learned about the opportunity to serve in an American community when Volunteers in Asia sent a U.S. student to volunteer at GETCH. GETCH is a junior college for students with physical disabilities in China that Joe attends.

When I first saw it –“We will paint our rainbows with the colors we are given” – I wondered: “What does that mean? What colors do people have? How about me? What colors do I have?”

I saw this sentence for the first time when I volunteered at Camp Costanoan. I had come from China to the United States to participate in the Asia-U.S. Service Learning (AUSL) program one August. This program is held at Stanford University in California by Volunteers in Asia, which has the mission of increasing understanding between the U.S. and Asia. During the program, I always kept these questions in my mind, hoping to find out the answers.

There were 23 participants from different Asian countries in the AUSL program. It seemed that we were all the same in coming to the U.S. to learn about service. But when I started observing the people and the things around me, I realized that we had differences. It was not only because we are from different countries, but also we grew up with very different cultures. These differences shape us in languages, personalities, and talents. But, we learned the same thing from this program – to increase the understanding between us through service. To paint a beautiful rainbow, we need to have faith in the colors we are given. And, we need to find out what colors those are.

As I thought and experienced more during the program, I realized, “The colors here can mean anything!” And each day, I picked up different colors.

On the first day, the program director gave me a warm welcome with her shiny smile, and led me all the way to my room even though she was very busy with starting the program. I felt the color was “Kindness”.

Then I went to the participant lounge where the coordinators were working. They had been preparing that lounge for our arrival since February. Seeing the decoration saying, “Welcome to AUSL! Are you ready for the AUSL Celebration?” I felt the color was “Hardworking”. They painted our first day in the U.S. with their own colors, which made all the participants feel at home.

In the coming days, I saw more people and felt they had their own wonderful colors that could paint great rainbows.

I learned more during two specific days at Camp Costanoan, a summer camp for children with physical and developmental disabilities, than any other days. They have many activities like swimming, basketball, performing arts, and creative drawing. Before I went there, I had never seen so many people with different types of mental disabilities getting together. I started to talk a lot with them, about everything, even silly topics. They were very friendly to all of us, and were always giving us hugs. At that moment, I felt the colors that I picked up first were “Love” and “Caring”.

Those campers were very young, ranging from ages 5 to 15. Some were so active that they ran everywhere without stopping until lunch or dinner. Others were extremely quiet, sitting still and giving no response. When we arrived, we felt overwhelmed and had no idea about how to interact with them. But the counselors made an excellent example for us. When the kids ran around all the time, the counselors also ran. When the kids sat still on the chair for the whole morning, then the counselors accompanied them for the whole morning too. I felt that the color was “Patient” and “Considerate”.

For two years, I had been living with my classmates (we all have physical disabilities) at a boarding school in China. But not until I experienced this U.S. camp did I realize how these group experiences benefit both the children with disabilities and the volunteers. We learned from each other. We also created a way for people to make a difference in society by taking advantage of the colors we are given.

The colors can be anything. I believe all people, including those with disabilities, need not complain what we are nor look down on what we have. We must trust that we will use our own colors to paint our rainbows – we can contribute to society and beautify the world!

Learn more about Volunteers in Asia by visiting their website at http://www.viaprograms.org.