Apr. 25 Journal - Special Olympics for special needs kids volunteering - Day #1 | 四月 25日 - 给那些特殊的孩子举办的 特殊奥运会 志愿者记录 - 第一天

On this special day - 在这特殊的一天

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It is quite a shiny day. This honorable special event - Special Olympic Charlotte is being held by my school: Charlotte Country Day School, and I am here volunteering.
今天天气不错，有种明朗的感觉。这个带着荣誉感的特殊事件 —— 特殊奥运会 在我校举办，而我今天在这里，是志愿者的一员。

More than 1,000 kids are here at school today, organized, excited; but they are all not normal kids -- they are all special-need kids. Some of them are physically disabled, or having Down Syndrome (problems with intelligence). They are not easy to make the way to this game. When I picked them up from the school buses, they were excited -- but they gave me a feeling like they are so lost. It is like socially awkward. Somehow I felt sad for them.
有一千多名孩子有组织地、又非常兴奋的来到了我们学校；但是他们都不是 一般 的孩子，他们有的身体残疾，坐着轮椅，有的患有唐氏综合征（智力缺陷）。这一切对他们来说都很不容易。当我走向他们的校车迎接他们时，可以看得出来他们很兴奋，但是眼神又有点迷离。不知道为什么，我为他们感到很难过。

So my job is being a buddy. A buddy's work is to keep being accompany with them, and make sure they are at where they should be when it's their race. You don't really want them to miss the race, because they've been training so long for this and all of these are not easy for a special-need kid. I just came to this school for 8 months and I'm really not familiar with the sports fields. I was a little bit nervous and I keep making sure from my friends about the locations.
我的工作是当一个 buddy。buddy 就是一直陪着你的参赛孩子，然后保证他们及时检录他们的比赛，保证他们准时参加比赛。你不会希望因为你的失职而导致他们错过比赛，因为他们为此训练了非常久，而这一切对一个特殊需求孩子都不是那么容易。我来到这个学校只有 8 个月，对体育场地不是特别熟悉。有点紧张的我一直在询问同学，确认各项检录地点。

My buddy - 我的 buddy

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My buddy's name is Colby and he has Down Syndrome. You can't really tell if he is excited because he does not talk much. When he sees his friends around, he will keep saying their names, never stop. He must be happy, I think. The events he has, are 100m dash and softball throw. We nearly missed the softball throw, since the 2 games are basically at the same time. I worked way out and made him a chance to do the softball throw later again. He worked really hard I can tell, and he won the 2nd in the 100m dash.
我的 buddy 叫 Colby，患有唐氏综合征。我无法看出他是否特别兴奋，因为他不常讲话。当他看到他的朋友的时候，他会一直念他们的名字，从来都不会停下来。他应该挺开心的吧，我想。他参与了 100 米短跑和垒球。我差点让他错过了垒球，因为两场比赛时间靠的太近。我尝试和垒球组协商，让他后来又有了一次机会参加垒球。我看得出来他很努力，赢得了 100 米短跑的第二名。

(Colby is the one on the 2nd place with the silver medal | Colby 是在第二名位置带着银牌的小家伙)

Their teacher is really happy and thankful to us. She asked my name and she said that she would write an email to our principal to tell him how nice we were. I got Colby a balloon animal and let him paint for fun. They had lunch and head the way back to school.
他们的老师非常的开心和感激。她问了我的名字，说要向我们校长写一封邮件来表达对我们的感激。我给 Colby 了一个动物形的气球，带他去画画，之后他们吃了午餐就坐校车回学校了。

Conclusion - 结语

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It is a piece of very special experience. I feel some kind of sorry for these kids -- I don't know why. Today's day #1, and we still have it tomorrow for older kids. This Special Olympics is gonna work all the way through states, and nation. Hope them do a great job.
这是一段非常特殊的经历。不知道为什么，我为这些孩子感到很抱歉（更好的翻译可能是遗憾）今天是第一天，明天我将继续志愿，会是一些年龄更大的孩子。这个特殊奥运会将会一直举办到州里，乃至国家级。希望他们能够有一个优异的表现。