Game Changer

Having my tennis racquets with me is a game-changer. The first time I played tennis with a child on this trip was before I even had my racquets. I only had a quickstart ball and we used badminton racquets to play ball in their driveway. We bent the racquets, but we had a lot of fun. Now that I have my Prince Shark and a cheap-o made-in-China kiddie racquet, I can really play. They were brought up last week by a few volunteers who came up from Zhongshan to bring us supplies. Getting care packages is so refreshing- a boost for our bodies and minds. In my bag of goodies was another pair of shorts, Burt’s Bees lip balm, Dr. Bronner’s soap, vegan protein powder, Kind Bars from America, my sticks (racquets) and a few Quickstart balls. Now I am always looking for kids to play tennis with. The day after our supplies arrived, we said goodbye to the volunteers who came to visit us and set off for what we knew would be a long stint to the next big city called Hangzhou. That afternoon we stopped for lunch at a noodle shop. There were a few children running around playing with toy swords. They

stopped in their tracks when they saw me, and asked about the racquets on my bag.

“Ni yao da wangqiu ma?” I asked.  Do you want to play tennis?

One of the boys shook his head yes. As Ann and I waited for our food to come, the kid and I played. I showed the kid how to use the racquet and made a few gentle corrections. People in the shop came out to take pictures. People heading to the market stopped to watch us. His friends cheered him on, “Jai You! Jai you!” Before long, he was hitting volleys, sliding into forehands, and closing in on me. It was so much fun.

With my sticks in tow, this trip has a renewed sense of purpose for me. For years, I have loved the idea of putting a tennis racquet into the hands of someone who has never played before- someone who might otherwise never be exposed to the great game. Can you imagine being a child in a village in

rural China, seeing a foreigner for the first time in your life and playing tennis with her? Neither can I. But it’s an amazing experience from every angle. I love this game and I love spreading my passion for it because it has the potential to change lives. I know this because I’ve lived it. The game of tennis has connected me to important and influential people. It has taken me places and given me a sense of community once I got there. It supported me through college and beyond. Tennis is what brought me to China in the first place. I owe a lot to the game, and I’m excited to share this amazing sport with the people we meet along the way.

One of these people is named HongChang. We saw him and his family while we were walking across a bridge on the outskirts of Hangzhou. We doubled back to meet them because HongChang had a very apparent disability and we wanted to know their story. He is in an electric wheelchair because he has a disease that makes his muscles degenerate rapidly. He was very weak,

struggling even to push the joystick that makes his wheelchair move. He and his family live in their shack that also serves as their family’s truck mechanic business. We brought them some fruit and stopped to talk with them. Sitting around a small table in a cold concrete building were two men, a woman, a small child, and the boy in the wheelchair. At first they did not want to let us in. They were nervous about the two women who were at their door, surely questioning our intentions. They had never seen a foreigner before. Ann shared with them our cause and told them about our journey. They warmed up and invited us to sit down. We gave them the fruit and asked about their son. A little girl danced around the mother’s feet, grabbing the unwashed grapes out of the bag and eating them. They shared with us that HongChang had a brother who died at the age of 16 from the same disease. HongChang is 15. They receive very little support from the

government and they were fined 45,000 RMB for adopting their little girl. They adopted her so they would have a child to outlive them and take care of them when they become old. They talked openly about the fact that HongChang will die soon. I thought back to my experience with Special Olympics in the States. I have worked with athletes with a more severe disability than HongChang has. I’ve never played tennis with such a person, but I was confident that I could show HongChang a great time with a racquet. I asked Ann to ask him if he would like to play. He said yes. We went outside to the dirt lot where people were working on truck engines. HongChang had just enough strength to grip the kiddie racquet in his little hand. Ann filmed as I walked him through a few basic ball-handling skills. With little assistance, he balanced the ball on the racquet, rolled it around the rim, and bounced it up and down. I repositioned the racquet upright in his hand and tossed the ball for him to hit volleys. He did a fantastic job following instruction, and it was obvious that he was using all of his will and might to hold the racquet. His mother held his baby sister as she watched, absolutely beaming with happiness and pride. Annimal and I wondered when they last felt so much joy, and whether or not they will ever feel it again. Annimal talked to HongChang’s mother as I continued to play with him and his little sister, who was also taking to the sport (even though my racquet is bigger than she

is). We spent about an hour playing and talking with them before we had to keep walking. It was one of the best hours of the trip…of my life. I left HongChang with one of the three quickstart balls I have with me so he can practice squeezing it to try to keep his limited muscle strength. I walked away trying to block out thought that HongChang is late in the fifth set of his unfortunate lifespan. As we walked away, I rode the wave of overwhelming positivity from the hour we were able to spend with him. He could barely hold a racquet, yet he’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. The smile on his face is forever imprinted in my mind and for that I am so thankful.