A Chinese student’s experience at Id-Dar tal-Providenza

This is an email we received from Wei Leiyan, from the School of Life Science at Tsinghua University, Beijing. Wei has just ended a month’s placement at Id-Dar tal-Providenza and she now looks back at her unique experience. Thank you, Wei for your time with our residents. We will remember you in our prayers.

“Never will I forget my experience in Id-Dar tal-Providenza, I love it so much! By the time I was leaving I couldn’t stop crying and I had everyone’s smiling face flashing in my mind. If someone asks me what I am going to miss most about Malta once I left, I will say the people at Id-Dar tal-Providenza in no time. Actually on my first day at the Home I was a little bit worried; “will I get along with the residents and how can I survive among all these strangers?”, But the love I felt as soon as I came to Id-Dar tal-Providenza melted all my worries. For the first time in my life, everyone is smiling at me and saying ‘have a nice day’ to me, I really felt at home.

When I started to work with the residents, I was even more inspired. They are like those really small and simple people with a narrower world than ordinary people, and now you are in that narrower world, you are really needed by someone. Some of them can only repeat several sentences but they can call your name; some of them will never be able to speak but you can hear they are wanting you from the strange sound they make. The better part is that you can see their progress.

Even better, I was so lucky to be surrounded by a group of most caring and creative people here. The ability promoters and physiotherapists brought me new thoughts about the world almost every day, I could feel the humanistic care from a single decoration here. Amazing!

Anyway, words fail me to express my gratitude to all the people at Id-Dar tal-Providenza. I hope I can come back”.

WEI LEIYAN