獻上感恩的心。。。

我今晚去美術館看一部紀錄片叫，“唱歌吧！”。 那部是關於台灣一種的原住民，Bunan Tribe的小朋友的合唱團。讓我非常非常的感動。我對他們很有同情的。。最後，他們唱的一首歌是，“獻上感恩”。。一聽他們唱，眼睛開始濕濕得。。很輕的哭。。這樣的感覺，真的很難解釋。。。所以呢，我試試看用英文寫一下。。

The class I'm taking on Mondays is about documentary film in Taiwan, how it began, how it is used and what influence it is having. This year is the 7th Annual, Biennial Taiwan Documentary Film Festival. My teacher originally designed an independent study program through the department for her students to take for credit in which we would become volunteers at the museum during the festival to learn more about this genre and enhance our class time. However, not enough students signed up for the class so we can't get credit for participating, but the professor still wants us to take part in this rare opportunity. Because I speak English and a bit of Chinese and because they have many foreigners who have come in for this event, I have been volunteering at a help desk over the weekend. At the end of this week, I will be caring for a director from Russia during his time at the museum. Most of the foreigners who come in cannot speak any Chinese so they need people who can go between and help them to be in the right place at the right time. After the showing of their film, often the directors will participate in a Q&A session with the audience.

Long story short, that's what I've been up to ... annnnd, aside from any volunteer work, our professor wants us to view several films and write about them so we can discuss them later in class and so that it might help us writing our midterm and final papers.

Last night I saw my first film at the festival. The English name is, "Which Way Home" and the Chinese name is, "下一站，美國." The Chinese literally means, "Next stop, America." This film is about the illegal immigration of Mexican minors into the US. Being a native of California, this issue is of special interest to me. The film was heart-breaking, actually. There were 9, 12, 16, etc year old children attempting to make a very difficult journey by train into the States. Their motives for such attempt were: 1) to make money to send to their struggling families 2) to find parents who had left for the States for that same reason, but had never come back, or 3) both. My heart broke as I listened to one of the 16/17-year old boys talking. It went something like this: "I'm hoping that when I get to America, I can find a family who will adopt me. Maybe I can finally experience the love of parents that I've never had." This particular young man had been on the streets for a majority of his life and had addition problems. He recognized the problem, had stopped and was trying to get away from his depressing life by chasing his version of the American Dream ... he was not the only child interviewed that was hoping to find love at his destination.

Then tonight, the film I saw was about the Bunan Aboriginal children in a particular school in Taiwan. Their principal uses music to help give the children confidence in their ethnic heritage, as well as in their own human dignity. One of the elementary school boys read an essay he had written in which he described his desires: Too see his parents get back together, to have their love, and to be able to continue singing often.

All I can say is that my heart completely broke ... I can't imagine such a life. For so much of my life, I have taken for granted that I grew up in a home full of love. I never wanted for the love of a parent. Love was a central part of my foundation. the love of my family, who taught me about the Love of God, and the love of dear friends. To see children and hear stories about their lives and their simple desire to just be loved ... it moves me to tears. There is an ache knowing that the stories I've heard are few and the conditions surrounding them have been mild. There are millions of children all over the world who suffer similar and worse fates. My God, what can we do to help these poor, lost souls? How can we show them the Perfect Love of a Savior Who gave His Life for them? There are so many ...

For most of that documentary, the children sang songs in their heritage tongue, but the last song they sang was in Mandarin: "獻上感恩“ or "Give thanks with a grateful heart." My eyes filled with tears as I sang along with them from where I sat on the grass ... These children were being taught to be thankful, despite the situations they faced every day. One girl of 11 years had to be the primary care giver for her two younger siblings. Her father worked elsewhere and her mother had a drinking problem that kept her out and about. This girl had also suffered a horrible accident and her right arm was badly scarred. At the end of the film, you find out that her mother had recently died due to her substance abuse. Yet, through all of this, the girl had the fortitude to sing ... with a grateful heart.

Thought-provoking and convicting ... my heart is really too moved to be able to express myself any further ... I have no words left ...

Here is a version of that song in Mandarin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zRS-E1KlGY&feature=related