My Service Learning Partner is Mr. Du. He is currently 74 years old and is the owner of the hotel next to Yangzhouran which is currently under construction. Mr. Du lives a peaceful life with his large family and loves to play Chinese chess and smoke water pipes.

Our service learning partner is Yang nai nai. She is 62 years old and lives in Zhoucheng but works in Xizhou selling handmade tie-dye and embroidery with her daughter. From this service learning experience, I have learned a lot about Yang nai nai. She very sweet, kind, funny, and caring. She is determined to care for all the people that she loves in any way possible. She works hard making tie-dye and embroidery even though she says she is losing her eyesight. When she was young, she did not go to school, but instead cared for her siblings while her parents were working on the farm. 

Today, day 26, we presented our Service Learning project to our classmates and other members of the community. Our Service Learning partner was Mrs. Li, but sadly, she was not able to come today because her family had a celebration today. Even though she was not able to come, it was still a very good experience being able to share our video with the community. 

Life in Microcampus is like this. We can crash down into the ground in the mornings and recover again with light and hope in the afternoon. My mood fluctuated severely today. Due to some conflicts and hardships, while finishing our service learning project, I faced some instability in terms of my emotional wellness. 

Unlike other sharing events, the Microcampus Service Learning Sharing event is not frustrating and not stressing. It is an event for celebration.

Today Sarah R. and I were invited to eat dinner with Zhang Ayi, Shi fu, Ye ye, Nai nai, Zhang Ayi's son and his friend at their BaBa shop. Everyone was squished around a tiny table full of a different variety of dishes. Zhang Ayi and Nai nai kept giving Sarah and I different meats and veggies even though we were full. One time they handed us this meat that looked like pork fat and they insisted we tried it with a little bit of chili sauce.

The experience of sharing my group and I's final video with our Service Learning partner was relieving and remarkable. It made all of our diligence and hard work worthwhile. It made our connection to Mr. Li increase even higher. It made me recall the first moment I met Mr. Li. It made me remember how intent he was on carrying back his own drinking water even after my Service Learning group and I insisted to help him. It made me recollect all the memories and wise words Mr. Li had told me. 

This week is about gratitude, thanking the community. One big part of this is to create a Service Learning project, where we preserve the history and the interesting stories of the elders in the village of Xizhou. As we slowly approach the ending of the Microcampus experience, everyone is more likely to become emotional and collapse. We know that most of us just want all of us to be successful, but most often we take different approaches, and that creates a lot of argument. 

It was a nice, peaceful day to complete my Service Learning video with my group. 

Though my groupmates often think that they have served no use to the group, I believe otherwise.