Making Friends in Peace
---By Yu Yuan Sun
On May 6th, 2003, I went to help the Olympeace project for the first time. Other volunteers and I arrived at the field at about 12:00. There were already some students there with their teachers. They were Chinese-Americans and African-Americans. They all looked at us curiously, except Sam who they already knew. They were smiling, but some of them were shy, and did not talk much. Later, the students from San Francisco Waldorf School arrived. They were 4th graders too. Then we gathered and asked them to stand in a circle. I was introduced as a new volunteer, and I also introduced myself in my native language - Chinese. Then we played one short game. Some of them were already very much engaged. They had their happy faces on. After the first game, we divided students into different groups joined byteachers and high school volunteers.
Students were very fond of their group hats, which had a different color from other groups. They were excited, and could not wait to play the game which they were already quite familiar with. When we introduced ourselves in front of our group, there were still students too shy to say their names aloud. I was there as a photographer and a careful observer. It was very amazing to see each of the student changing during the game. They were not shy anymore. They laughed loud, and was totally engaged with the game. When the teacher asked who would be the next, about half of the group put up their hands and shouted,"Me!" Suddenly, it felt like there was no space between them anymore.
Some students often turned around in the game and looked at me, who held a digital camera in her hand. I smiled at them, but they were still too shy to talk to me. After a few turns of the game, there was actually one girl came to me and asked me to take a picture of her. Then I had a beautiful picture of a girl smiling widely at me which even made me want to smile at everyone, because it was such a happy face. I was very sure that she enjoyed herself very much.
In the snack time, students were suggested to go to a person that they did not know, and sit next to him or her. Even the students who did not talk much, were brave enough to meet a new person, then sat down and talked without any problem for about 10 minutes.
After about an hour, we saw students talking to students from different schools, and playing around with them. They seemed like they had made a lot of new friends. I was also surrounded by several students too. They talked to me, asked about my camera, introduced their friends to me, and asked me to take some pictures of them.
All the volunteers and I had great fun. We all enjoyed playing with these students, and were very glad to see that they got along with each other and had so much fun. I was sure I want to come again, and I hoped the Olympeace project can be spread out widely in this whole area.
