In April, the Tzu Chi Teenagers Class had “Medicine” as the theme for its monthly regular activity. The Class Pap & Mom use the notion of Environmental Conservation and Healthy Diet to impart the concept of eating right, eating responsibly and appreciating food along with fine table manners to the students. Three Polytechnic students from the Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth Association also came to share their volunteering experience with the class.

In response to the recycling effort, the students brought from home recyclable items and learned simple sorting techniques.

Volunteer Sister Chen Feng Juan, demonstrating to the students the way to make simple and nutritional sandwiches.

Lan Zong Xuan “showcasing” the sandwiches made by his team. Besides learning about hygiene during the making process, everyone was also expected to not waste food and finish off the handmade snacks.

Chen Weixiong gulping down the tasty and healthy sandwiches that he made himself.

Mulias, Sher Lin and Hui Ying (2nd from the left to the right most) shared with students of the Teenager Class of their volunteer experience and knowledge gained during the Batam Medical Mission which took place March 2007.

It was a breezy morning, when the Tzu Chi Teenagers were seen in group of two or three returning to Jing Si Hall lightheartedly. They were bringing along with them bags of goods collected from home specifically for the ongoing recycling effort.

These teenagers had been diligently learning simple classifications. After a few classes, they were already sufficiently skillful in segregating items like cardboards, aluminum cans, plastics, newspapers, stray papers and others. After cleaning their hands, they headed to the Cultural Hall where their peers and Class Pap & Mom were already waiting. The teenagers mingled with one another, and started chatting about school life, families… having seemingly endless topic of conversations.

Proper eating with a simple mind makes good health

Master Cheng Yen kindly shared that: “To take good care of our body, we need to pay attention to the way we eat.” Through proper eating with a simple mind, we could keep a generous and contented mind with no worries. As it goes with the catchphrase,

Being vegetarian and protecting the living will lead to fewer sicknesses,
Bearing environmental protection in mind while eating will lead to fewer natural disasters,
And fine table manners will lead to good temperament.

So what is the healthy way of eating?

Parents always want their children to eat well. They think that by having meat, the children will grow well and have good health. However, they do not realize that having meat will lead to an acidic physique which is the hotbed of sicknesses like heart problem, diabetes, paralysis and others. While being vegetarian is one of the ways of healthy living, it is not necessary that we must be vegetarians to attain good health. We could be healthy as long as we have balance diet.

In addition, we also need to develop good eating habits that avoid extreme eating or hunger. Excessive eating or prolonged hunger could lead to illnesses. Persistent bias in food intake will also compromise our overall health.

The purpose of today’s class was to educate the students the importance of proper eating with a simple mind, and how to eat healthily in a simple manner. Students were also given hands-on opportunities to make sandwiches which were simple, healthy and yet creative.

Before collecting the food ingredients, every team was required to pass a Q&A session. Questions asked meant to stimulate a deeper level of thinking included: “Eating burgers versus driving cars, which activity releases the most greenhouse gases?” “Human is more suited to eating meat or vegetable?” “Which type of physique is the source of sickness?” etc. We could see the teams actively involved. Those who got the right answers were very happy and were invited to the front stage to select the ingredients they preferred. During the quick-answer session, the students got to learn more about the nutritional values of the fruits and vegetable.

It was a brand new experience for most of the students to use fruits or vegetable to make sandwiches. Ingredients for the day were lettuce, carrot, cucumber, seaweed, banana, apple, dried grapes, papaya, cheese and mayonnaise. The students found it special, because they usually used ham and cheese. Hou Bo Qi, from the second team, was one of them. He felt a great sense of achievement to be able to make a simple snack, and one that tastes good. He even learnt to buy ingredients and made sandwiches for his family upon returning home, sharing what he learnt in the class about healthy diet with them.

Sharing on volunteering experience

In March this year, the Medical & volunteer team of the Singapore branch held a medical mission in Batam Island, Indonesia. Three Polytechnic students from the Tzu Chi Youth Collegiate Association, Ng Sher Lin, Mulias, and Ong Hui Ying, whom had taken part in this expedition, were present at the day to share their thoughts and experience gained from the mission. They belonged to the Caring Group which was to cheer and care for the patients and medical volunteers, so that they could forget temporarily about their respective sickness and tiredness.

Sher Lin noticed that most of the locals came well-dressed to the medical site. One of the seniors told them that the locals actually think very highly of the service. To them, this was a grand activity that they could take part in. Thus, in a bid to show their respect for others, they would get dressed up. Sher Lin was touched hearing this. In addition, the locals were also very considerate. For example, when the group members were distributing sweets, both the children and adults would take more than their share to share with their neighbours and friends. Sher Lin felt that this caring spirit was something that she should learn from them.

Mulias was equally touched by the warm and caring nature of one family with a little boy who suffered Hernia. The boy bravely accepted treatment and staunchly tolerated the pain so that his mom and dad would worry less. His parents kept encouraging him by the side and also brought food for him. That actually made the boy cried. Mulias was so moved and felt glad that the boy was able to receive due treatment.

During the sharing session, Hui Ying shared that it was difficult for some of the patients to bear the hot weather and considerably long waiting time. She thus got down with a few other volunteers to fan them and spontaneously entertained them with songs and sign language. This had helped them to relax a bit to patiently wait for their turn for treatment. The group members were very glad that with these small actions, they could help so many people, and being capable to contribute, they get to emulate the great aspiration of the bodhisattva in removing pain and rendering happiness. She expressed that she would very much want to join and take part in similar activities in the future given a chance.

After the sharing, the host put up a clip of Master Cheng Yen’s teaching. Having listened to the teachings, the students could better appreciate the importance of proper eating habits and simple-mindedness. Even though our immediate living environment was very good, in other parts of the world, there were still many people who are suffering in hunger. Hence, we must treasure what we have and cherish our good fortune. Excessive wastage in food consumption would not only lead to environmental pollution, but could trigger large-scale environmental disaster. Only when people started to restrain their desires, eat and consume healthily, would a healthy earth be reborn.

At the end of the day’s session, the students watched a video review prepared by the Literary Group which captured the sweet memories throughout the three months since the class commenced early this year. Appreciating the scenes on the screen, the students smiled at the harvest of the hard work, and the drive and happiness of the staff member behind-the-scene. That marked the end of the day, with everyone looking forward to the next class gathering in May.