So I take out my pink-white striped wallet and pay for her hot chocolate, my matcha latte with almond milk and two deeelicious macarons, using a 20$ bill, green and friendly as the country it belongs to (god praise Canada).
Here is what she says.
“Can I see it? That’s the first time I see one.”
“You mean, that’s the first time ever you see a 20$ bill?”
“I’ve seen nana using 5$ and 10$ bills before, but never a 20$ one.”
After that we changed the coins her nana gave her and the 5$ she got from her grandpa to her first own 10$ bill! You should have seen that smile…
I recently started volunteering with an organization in Vancouver where we as volunteers – I love how they call it – coach vulnerable kids for the game of life.
Every week, me and her spend some quality time together. We go iceskating, to the aquarium, or like on that day, play a board game or cards in a cozy cafe.
In moments like this, I realize – how much of a difference I can make just by taking out this adorable girl to places she hasn’t been before and showing her the world.
These few hours we spend together might mean a small thing for us in our busy-minded life, but they mean the world to kids like her…
Originally I started volunteering because I was seeking for compensation to my 9-to-5 office job and – of course – giving something back to the society.
Definetly a win-win for both of us, I thought. I love all the activities we get to do together.
But it’s way more than that. I didn’t expect how much I could learn from a 8-year old girl.
Not only that this smarty-pants corrects my english grammar mistakes, she makes me climb on trees, draw pictures of Helen, the dolphin in the aquarium, spend 2 hours watching and feeding fishes and play hide and seek in a fancy shopping mall.
Kids like her teach us what some of us might have forgotten in our fast-paced world – to stop to think, enjoy the moment and smile.
With this being said I just want to remind us all that there are so many opportunities to give something back to our society just by spending some quality time with another person – no matter the age or background.
Let’s not forget about the power of time and attention, we can make a big difference in somebodys life.
And in the end, we realize how much we earn in return.
Pina
“I used to spend a lotta time worryin that I was different from other people, even from other homeless folks. Then, after I met Miss Debbie and Mr. Ron, I worried that I was so different from them that we wasn’t ever gon’ have no kind a’ future. But I found out everybody’s different – the same kind of different as me. We’re all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin in between, this earth ain’t no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless – just workin our way toward home.”
