Taiwan Today

Every Friday afternoon, volunteers from a variety of jobs leave their ordinary posts and take the little hands of blind children from the Taichung Huiming School into their own, carefully shepherding the youngsters out into the fields. The long line marches on as passersby wave or give them the thumbs-up and shout encouragements. All the homely sounds that ordinary people "hear but do not listen to" – the wind, birdsong, machinery, car horns – these are all of great interest to this group of children. The volunteers carefully explain what each is, describing its function and even leading the children to touch or smell the source of the sound if possible. On one occasion, when a carambola tree happened to be flowering at the moment the group was passing, the volunteers let the children touch the flowers and smell their scent. The children were later able to identify the fruit from afar just by their sense of smell. One volunteer, surnamed Chen, says that on another occasion, the children heard her push the shutter button on her camera, and wanted to play at taking pictures themselves. Of course, they could not see what was being photographed, but they still took shot after shot. When she described the scenes they had "photographed,” the children reacted with delight, imagining the details. Chen says she will never forget that day. Huang Yu-Jui has been volunteering here for six years, and says that watching the children and what they lack makes him appreciate what he has. He has watched the children use touch, hearing and smell to find out what things are like and to imagine a world they cannot see. Thinking about this, Huang reflects that despite having all five senses, he seldom truly looks at everything in the world around him. He has learned to live more from the heart by watching the children's example. Wang Shun-hong works in an insurance company, and started to volunteer at the school three years ago. He says that watching the children singing and skipping along the roadway, treating their "incompleteness" with optimistic innocence, truly moves him. Although they live in a world of darkness, the children have light in their hearts. The observation has made Wang more sensitive and sympathetic in his dealings with clients. Another volunteer, a worker at a breakfast business, has been helping the children here for over five years. She says that seeing the children doing their utmost to break out from the darkness they inhabit makes her feel that all her efforts are worthwhile. Hsiao Wei, 16, is not only blind, but also suffers from cerebral palsy. He walks with a hand on the shoulder of the volunteer who accompanies him, so as to be able to walk "boldly ahead." Because the volunteers are not only his eyes but also his hidden wings, taking him walking and helping him over the uneven patches in the way, he believes that there is great beauty even in a "dark" world.