YES Volunteer Quarterly Party – Spring 2011

Saturday, July 2^nd was a sunny day. After two successive horrible weather conditions, this year’s quarterly YES Party finally began. In total, there were six participants: four volunteers (Shen Mengxu, Yao Xingyu, Wang Yongbin, Xu Jiawei) and two Roots and Shoots employees (Minying and Rebecca). Our destination: Shanghai Chongming Eco-Farm.

At 8:30 a.m., we gathered at the gate of Shanghai Ocean Building, and after roughly 90 minutes, we arrived to the Shanghai Chongming Eco-Farm.

Upon arrival, we carried out our first project: bird observation. We went to a tranquil, vast land, where birds flew freely. Using telescopes, we observed many birds, including swallows, egrets, eastern curlew, etc. Apart from birds, there were also small crabs and fish. We took pleasure in catching the crabs; this was an interesting experience for us all.

The bird observation ended at noon. We returned to the farmhouse and had lunch. Since we were in the countryside, we mostly ate vegetables. Of course, farmers also prepared fish and meat for this occasion. It was very nice. Wang even teased and fed three dogs outside the house with meat and fish.

After the lunch, we drank some strawberry wine. Despite the high alcohol percentage, the wine was excellent. The rest of the day we stayed inside the farm. Here, we concluded this semester’s activities, such as our ratings and school evaluation. We handed out volunteer certificates and started to work in groups. Girls were in charge of making sachets and boys grinded soybeans on mills. Sachets were easy to make – we simply needed to put vanilla leaves in sachets and tie them. Grinding soybeans, on the other hand, is physically challenging. The person in charge of Eco-Farm gave us frozen strawberries, which were absolutely comforting on such a hot day.

Afterwards, we sat together in a circle and told each other stories that happened throughout the semester. Then, with Yao Xingyu’s singing beautiful songs, we felt more powerful when grinding soybeans. We became more adept at it as well. We also bought some organic vegetables. After some time, we boiled the soybean milk. It tasted so delicious.

It was getting late when we finishing the soybean milk, so we packed and headed back.

This was a very pleasant trip for us all. We had so much fun and were able to become closer to each other.

(Translated by WFLMS Crunchy Zoo Language Club)