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​GIRLS & BOYS

We interviewed Wu er da er

This girl is called Wu er da er, and she is from Sichuan. The reason she came to baseball angels was because of her poor family conditions. On top of that she had 4 siblings, their parents couldn't afford to live with her, so they sent her to Baseball angels. She thought Coach Sun was a human trafficker. So, she didn't listen to him until their teacher agreed to let her go. Wu Er da Er was not used to the campus at first, she didn’t know anything until the teachers taught her the basics. Even though getting used to the campus was a big challenge. However, she still feels lucky to be here, it's like her second family. The first time she competed in baseball was a disaster. She was so nervous that she made so many mistakes. But after training extra hard she finally gained back her confidence. In baseball angel’s she got an opportunity to learn something she never got in contact with before. She overcame lots of different challenges. Meanwhile she is also learning more about the community, how baseball in china is not a popular sport and how she can change the fact and bring baseball to the top.

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Overall, I feel like the camp changed her life a lot. She became more knowledgeable after the care of the teachers. In this camp, she learned things that gave her a better way out of the bad conditions of her family. She got more choices for her future life. If she didn’t leave with Coach Sun, she would still be in Da Liangshan farming every day, repeatedly.

Transcript

00:00-Wuerdaer: Im Wuerdaer, and I’m 13 years old.

00:04-Joyce: Can you describe your hometown?

00:08-Wuerdaer: I’m from Sichuan, Daliangshan.

00:13-Joyce: What was your first impression of coach Sun?

00:16-Wuerdaer: The first thing he told us was that he is going to teach us baseball. However, we didn’t know what baseball meant so we thought he was there to kidnap us. After our teacher told us he’s a good guy, he brought us to the camp. I was 11 when I first got here.

00:52-Joyce: What encouraged you to come here?

00:56-Wuerdaer: We actually have a lot of kids in our hometown, for me I already have four siblings, and basically everyone's in poverty, to take off the pressure us kids are giving to our family, when coach Sun came I left with him.

01:30-Joyce: Do you think you’re lucky being here?

01:33-Wuerdaer: I think I’m pretty lucky.

01:36-Joyce: Can you talk about the experiences you’ve been through when you were on the way here?

01:49-Wuerdaer: So when we first came, we were in a car, after that we walked for an hour. At last we got on the plane and flew to Beijing. There wasn’t anything that we were scared of since the teacher told us that it was fine. So there is basically nothing special.

We interviewed Chao Zhang

Zhangchao came from hebei, and got to the baseball camp when he was 10years old, in 2016. In the beginning when he first arrived, he was a kid full of curiosity. Which made every day different, it was a new experience for him every time he woke up. As he got older, his curiosity as a kid slowly faded away. He became more mature and started taking care of the younger students. He saw his shadow in these young figures. Then he decided to give them everything he learnt in the past 6 years. ZhangChao is one of the few kids who is mature enough to understand the condition they are under. So, for him he decided that his future plan is to get into college. Then come back to help the organization. From zhangchao’s experience we can actually see how these kids threw off the lock poverty gave them and is actually hoping for a better future for themselves. They no longer think poverty can drag them behind. Which can also mean that the baseball camp is actually working, and they raised up kids who is willing to catch their own dream.

Transcript

00:01-Chao: My name is Zhang Chao, I’m turning 16 this year, I’ve been here for 6 years.

00:05-Ella: Can you describe your hometown?

00:10-Chao: My hometown is Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, I got here at 2016.

00:17-Ella: What was your first impression of coach Sun?

00:23- Chao: My first impression of coach Sun is probably strict, very strict.

00:30-Jessica: Have you changed your impression of coach Sun now?

00:33-Chao: Yes, when I first came here, he criticized us. We didn’t understand why he criticized us at first. But after a long period of time, we noticed how it was because he wanted us to have a better future, and the only way to do that is to be strict and let us know what we did wrong. So now we listen to him.

00:51-Ella: Can you tell us about the process of your coming here?

01:12-Chao: I came here by car, when I first got here, I didn’t know what baseball was. However it felt really nice here. The reason is because it felt really lonely before I came, but now all of my teammates are here. It felt like home.

01:34-Ella: Do you like the baseball camp?

01:37-Chao: Yes.

We interviewed Jia yang zha xi

This boy we interviewed is 12 years old, he is from Gansu. Before coming the boy lived in an orphanage. He came here because he had the best body condition inside the orphanage. His first impression of Coach Sun was that he was very handsome. He never knew baseball was a sport until he came to Baseball Angels. Now he loves baseball. The people here are like his family, he loves this place. The one thing he loves doing here is talking with their coach's coach.

When we heard that Jiayangzhaxi was from an orphanage we were very surprised, since from my impression of the kids from the orphanage, is how they are very introverted. But from what I saw in the camp, he was not introverted at all, you might even say extraverted. In my perspective the only way that is possible to make a kid change this much is the surroundings, which means the staff there really did a lot to change the kids. Trying to give them a happy childhood. From what I heard; the staff told us that they haven’t gotten paid for the last few months. So, this shows how the teachers there actually want the kids to have a good future. Even if it means they don’t get paid for months.

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