'Little cabbages' lead the way
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| Expo volunteer He Keke says her job does not only involve directing visitors from place to place. |
Volunteers in green or blue uniforms can be seen everywhere throughout Shanghai. With a warm smile and polite manner, they offer various services, as well as providing information to visitors from all over the world coming for Expo 2010 Shanghai.
It is my great pleasure to be one of them.
Visitors love to call us "little cabbages", a nickname created at the opening of the Expo. To be honest, I am very glad that I can offer help to visitors.
My day starts at 8 am. I have worked in Zone A for more than two weeks. Just like the thousands of other volunteers, I need to approach to my position immediately after I arrive at the Expo Garden.
Since I am assigned to Zone A, which is considered one of the most visited areas, I hardly have any breaks during my shift, which runs from 9 am to 4 pm. During the recent extremely hot weather, life has not been easy for volunteers. However, I ask myself to stay calm and carry on with my job. This makes me very proud.
Lots of people may think our only function is to tell visitors how to get from pavilion to pavilion or point out the nearest shuttle bus stop. This was all my job seemed to entail at first, as I did not really pay attention to other issues but just focused on that aspect of my job.
However, I found it is very hard to leave a man who suddenly fell over alone. As soon as I saw him fall, I called 120 and then contacted his family using his mobile. Then, I moved him to the shade to wait for an ambulance. In retrospect, all of this might sound easy, but at the time, it was tough.
So far, I have not had a chance to visit any pavilions. My impression of certain pavilions comes from visitors. I am keen to visit as many as I can, but I need to stay on the job in case of emergencies.
We like to gossip after work about the amusing things that happen to us during our shifts. Of course, our chatting is not offensive, we just share interesting and positive experiences we have during the day, and see what can be improved upon.
I still remember the day when Jeffery, a visitor from the United States, told me that he thought volunteers were the best thing about the Expo. That was a beautiful moment for me and made my job worthwhile.
The author is a volunteer at Zone A in the Expo Garden
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