My Chinese Momma

By Helen Todd
July 16, 2008

Meet Vicki.  By trade she’s a professional tour guide who loves her city but for the Olympics she has taken on a new role.  She serves as the Wukesong Baseball Venues Media Operations volunteer supervisor who is directly in charge of me and Bettina Stephenson.  From the moment she met us, she radiated with enthusiasm to help and work with us.  Vicki insisted multiple times that she be called if we had any questions related to the Games or about Chinese culture.  She has the kind of warm smile that is contagious and calming. It's one of my favorite traits as she’s been dubbed my Chinese Momma.

On Tuesday, our first day of training, Vicki met Bettina, Mei Li and I at the South Gate of the Wukesong Basketball venue, where we had a meeting with all of the volunteers we’ll be working with.  Under a big brown floppy hat, Vicki’s warm smile and open arms welcomed us to the start of the day.  Vicki was sporting a hand-painted t-shirt with a dragon wrapping around the neck.  In minutes we discovered that she had painted the dragon and had hand-painted t-shirts for the three of us.  We are the dragon family!  I was blown away by the amount of time that she had taken to hand-paint each t-shirt and can’t remember another time where I was humbled by another’s generosity.

Before taking a quick tour of the facilities, we saved our seats at the meeting where Vicki strategically sat between Bettina and me to allow for easier translation of the Mandarin.  Every activity we did, she had Bettina, Mei Li and I’s best interest at the forefront of here every move, even to the point of having a paper towel ready for us after washing our hands!  Throughout the meeting, Vicki would lean into Bettina’s ear and convey important information that was being disseminated while Mei Li did the same courtesy for me.

Before I knew it, the entire crowd was giving a welcoming applaud for the students from the United States.  Bettina and I were the only two Americans in the room full of some 300 student volunteers who were all told to take care of us as part of the team’s family.  With my heart pounding, Bettina and I were asked to introduce ourselves to the 300 sets of eyes.  We’re the official adopted American sisters in the family.

After our meetings, all of the baseball volunteers huddled into a room where two cakes sat.  The team was celebrating all of the birthdays in the two months that we’d be working together.  Each person with a birthday got a crown and said thank you to the group while a PowerPoint presentation played in the back, highlighting their names.  I was honored to participate and witness this part of Chinese culture. It truly drove home what being a collective culture means.  

As we said goodbye to the directors who were in the room, one kindly reiterated that Bettina and I were really a part of the family.  As of yesterday, I have a new Chinese Momma and 300 or so new Chinese brothers and sisters.