My Volunteer Awakening

When I was living in China, I did not know much about volunteering. I only knew that there are people who are using their skills, knowledge and time to do some good things for other people in their community, and they never got paid. It was never something anyone talked about. To me, it was always a mystery why people would want to volunteer and give their time up for free. In China volunteers were mostly people from western countries coming to China to teach English or do religious work while they have a holiday for a few months. I could never understand why people from rich countries want to come to help people in China and not make money. When you have no money like me when I was still growing up, the only thing you can think of is how to make money. Every hour of my youth was thinking how I could improve my family’s situation. So, I never did any volunteer work when I lived in China.

I only started to understand the enormous benefits of volunteering after living in New Zealand for nearly 7 years. A valuable lesson was taught to me accidentally and related to my travel business and the beautiful tiny blue penguins.

In early of Feb 2018, it was summer in New Zealand but winter in China. I took a group of Chinese teachers and students around the South Island. We were in Timaru staying at a hotel and during dinner, the restaurant owner told me that there is a penguin habitat located at the alongside of pier in town. He told me in the evening people take a walk to see the penguins returning home from sea, and it was free. Wow I talked to my group, and they were all excited to see the tiny penguins.

It’s still light till 9pm in New Zealand summer time, which is winter in China. So, after dinner, I set out with our group for the short walk from the hotel to the pier. We took the long route down past the beach, there some kids were still playing on beach.

As we approached the pier, a boy from our group yelled “I smell penguins, I am sure it is penguins I smell. The penguins are not far away!” I laughed and asked him, “how do you know what penguins smell like?” He said, “I love marine life so much and I have read a book which describes that penguins smell like dead fish”. Well it turned out, as crazy as that sounded, he was correct.

We followed the smell for another 50 meters or so and sure enough we saw the tiny penguins. I was amazed at how few people were around to see this tremendous natural display right in front of our eyes. I told our group to be as quite as can be so as not to disturb the little ones and not to use any flash cameras.

For the next couple of hours, we were mesmerized by these little darlings and their antics. By 11pm I realised my group were the only ones left, so we headed back to the hotel with our camera storage capacity filled with clips of the tiny penguins.

On the way back to the hotel I spotted two middle-aged they were wearing fluorescent vests, and the back printed “Penguin Volunteer Organization”. Aha, they are volunteers on service.

I was thrilled because it reminded me of the foreigner volunteers in China. So, I engaged with them and asked why they were giving their time for free and staying at the pier so late. They told me that because this section of the main road that leads to the pier is free and open, there are tourists and outsiders who visit and come and go and no one to make sure everyone was respecting the road users and the little penguins. Most penguins settle down once they find a suitable place to live. Some penguins have lived in the same place for more than 5 years, so it was incredibly important to protect their habitat.

These ladies told me that many tourists do not know the living characteristics of penguins and will unwittingly disturb them and disrupt their habitat. They told me of some curious people were tramping down and opening bushes to see their nests and making loud noises when they came face to face with the little penguins. They told me that the efforts they undertook helped increase the number of penguins returning to the pier to nest every year since they started. This was amazing to me, there was no government help or no Government official telling them what to do, they just did what they did out of the goodness of their heart.

They said their efforts benefit everybody in their small town and they so enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. They told me they felt so proud of the job they were doing and even if they were offered money, they would not accept it because they were getting as much out of volunteering as they were giving back. I realised right then and there these ladies were giving up their time not only to care for the penguins, but for their families and their community. I now understood what a noble gesture volunteering was and if I did it how it not only benefited my family and community, but my emotional intelligence would grow along with my self-worth.

We got back to our hotel just before midnight, but my mind was racing, I could not sleep all night thinking about these two ladies. They changed my life because since meeting them I have researched volunteers in New Zealand and discovered it is a massive movement of people getting together to help other people from the very south to the very north of the country and no one was doing it for money, just for love.

I had so many questions that I needed answers for how was this possible; how come it doesn’t get more exposure; and why is it almost unheard of in China, except for foreigners.

In my journey to discover what motivated volunteers in this rich beautiful country, I was fortunate enough with my tour business to travel the length and breadth of the country and talk to people from all walks of life and seek out volunteer services wherever they were hiding. I asked so many questions from the volunteers, like, do you have regular jobs? Surprisingly, many did and many were retired or between jobs. I also asked why they did volunteer work, almost without exception the response was “to give back” or some similar altruistic response. Meeting these people created a desire in me to join them in giving back.

My personal volunteer journey started when I discovered the Blue Penguin Mission project located in Dunedin. I met the scientists and the volunteers. Since then, I have organised some Chinese university students to join the Blue Penguin Mission Project as volunteers. This cross-culture of mine project has been enormously successful for the students and the mission project。

I have organised penguin lovers and artists from China to stay in a French family’s farm at Akaroa called “Pohatu”. This is the largest privately owned penguin habitat in New Zealand. All my guests have commented that this farm reminds them of an ancient Chinese story named “The Peach Blossoms in Spring”.( Chinese: 桃花源记)

Please check out the Potatu Penguins website and Facebook page, there is a lot more information there.

For my personal journey, while COVID-19 has shuttered my business I have been volunteering at St John’s for the last several months. It has been such a pleasure giving my time and meeting some really, great people along the way.

I have a deeper and more understanding of New Zealand through volunteering and I highly recommend it to everyone. It does not matter how much time you give up or where you direct your work. For example, you could help out an elderly neighbour once a week, maybe do shopping for them or lend a hand at the local school or nursing home. Anything you do will be paid back to you a hundred times over. It makes you feel successful and satisfied.