While entering the Nantou branch of Tzu- Chi, I did not expect so many affable glances. Those volunteer workers kept smiling at me as if they were welcoming one of their children to come home. Even though I could smell a scent in the air and heard soft music, I was still nervous about meeting my interviewees for the first time. Then I saw Chen Wen-Shiue and his wife Yang Mei. Chen wore a neat striped blouse and Yang wore an elegant dress with a floral pattern and had put her hair in a bun. Their eyes smiled like crescent moons and I could see those little wrinkles around their eyes. It seemed that they could walk directly into an image advertisement for Tzu-Chi when they greeted me by putting their palms together.

As a well-known charitable organization, Tzu-Chi has branches all over the world and is known for its effectiveness to help people in need. As the uniform of Tzu-Chi is blue, we can see always see people in blue uniforms at the scene of Morakot typhoon in Taiwan, Sichuan earthquake, and Japanese tsunami, etc. What’s more, its founder, Dharma Master Cheng Yen, was selected as one of the most influential people this year by Time Magazine.

But Yang told me Chen was not happy about her joining Tzu-Chi at first “He was so mad at me every time when I had to go home late because of Tzu-Chi. So I didn’t have the courage to tell him that I was already a formal member of Tzu- Chi at that time.” In fact, Chen was also introduced to Tzu-Chi but he did not let Yang know as he thought that it’s a place to kill time with friends and he never took it seriously. Also, he thought of Tzu-Chi as a Buddhist organization so he didn’t participate a lot at first. He was quite upset at Yang when he figured out she spent almost all of her free time on Tzu-Chi. But on the other hand, he was curious about it and wanted to find out why his wife could spend so much time on it. So Chen asked Yang whether she could take him to visit those cases with volunteer workers. In Tzu-Chi, they call the people they are helping “cases”- to give them respect and privacy by not calling their names directly. Yang thought Chen was just curious about what she was doing at that time. So she could never imagine that Chen was so shocked and immediately sympathized with those cases after his first visit. Chen not only decided to become a formal member of Tzu-Chi but also decided to buy a car of his own. “If I had a car, I could visit those people by myself no matter how faraway they live.” He said it in a satisfied tone. So Chen and Yang drive their little March into those deep mountains and remote districts in Nantou. Some of their cases may live so far that it would take them almost a day of driving. So they would usually take rice balls and fruits with them so that they would not need to worry about what to eat. I wonder whether this is too exhausting for them especially since they are both almost seventy years old. Chen resolved my doubt: “I think life like this fits us well. As we are not people who put great emphasis on enjoying material life. Before becoming a part of Tzu-Chi, we already spent little on ourselves. That’s our living style. As for now, our highest living expense is the gasoline for the car.”

Moreover, Chen decided to learn how to use computers before he retired from his job as an elementary school teacher. “I asked a computer teacher in the school to teach me how to type and make paper documents into computer files. But I didn’t know how to save those files so my work was in vain at first.” Chen looked amused by old memories. Yang then continued: “During the 921 earthquake, our house was in a mess as everywhere was full of documents of those cases. He divided them by districts. So the piles of documents in living room were cases in Jhushan, the piles in the attic were cases in Chung-Liao, etc.” Chen explained further, “There was no Word or Office system at that time. I used PE2 to type but those file names could only be saved as English. As I cannot read English, I needed a notebook to write down file names and cases’ names. It was like giving those cases code name in English.” Chen scratched his head and looked embarrassed, “If my English was better, it could save much more time.” Listening to this, the scene in which Chen reads his notebook and files while wearing his reading glasses suddenly came vividly into my eyes.

Chen and Yang actually changed my impression about the organization. My aunt also works as a social worker in Taichung branch of Tzu-Chi. I often sense the pressure in that environment. People walk, phones ring, and employees type quickly. These noises make the atmosphere there quite tense and stressful in those offices. And it reminds me of some offices or departments in big enterprises. Different from the volunteer worker, the social worker is paid and the job requires a lot of professional knowledge about public and social welfare. When a volunteer worker visits a case and reports to social workers, social workers need to evaluate its situation and think carefully about how to help the case. They need to work hard until they find out the best resolution for every case. So my aunt would often talk about what obstacles and challenges she encounters. She even answered a threatening phone call from one of the cases before. Therefore, they need to deal with everything seriously and evaluate every decision they make.

Like Chen told me: “A charitable organization has its responsibility to people and we value every part of our working process. As we are taking people’s donations to help, we cannot waste their benevolence.” I found out at that moment every time when Chen talked about how the organization works, his facial expression changed. His smile would vanish gradually and turn into a serious face as if he was talking about a project about business. “And I think social workers really help a lot,” Chen said while mentioning my aunt, “They have professional background and communicative skills. They can always give us some practical and impressive advice. People always think that Tzu-Chi only has volunteer workers. Actually this is wrong. Tzu-Chi also needs professionals to support its volunteer workers. Volunteer workers and social workers are just like two machines in the factory which would not operate the same way but only when they work together can they keep the factory working normally and effectively. In Tzu-Chi, there are so many distinctive departments and people that they may have to work upon dissimilar issues and areas. Hence, you could be amazed that every branch has its own ambience and sometimes it differs a lot. Though every part is so different, it’s such a great thing to know that we all work for the same goal and we all have big enthusiasm to achieve the goal.” After that, Chen suddenly blushed “I talk as if I am the founder of the organization.”

Not only did Chen’s thorough understanding of Tzu-Chi amaze me but his good memory of his cases also surprised me a lot. When I asked Chen and Yang about their most impressive case, they mentioned a case whose name was Chen Shui-Ho. “He told us on the phone that his house was near the path of Yung-Kang elementary school in Chung-Liao. But not until we drove into the path did we find that we were driving on the mountain ridge. It was such an unbeaten place. As we turned left, I heard dogs’ yelp. His house was actually in the mountain valley. We took a walk into the valley because I thought it may be too steep for my car. ” Finishing these words, Chen drank up his tea in the cup. Shui-Ho was a victim of the 921 earthquake and his spine was hurt so badly that he needed a wheelchair. Chen told me that they didn’t expect the following scene, “In the valley, we saw such a colorful world. His house is surrounded by different types of flowers like Dahlias and Camellias. Flowers’ fragrance and birds’ singing all came to you as soon as you walked there. You can never imagine he created an environment like this especially since he lived alone. He used a long stick to water those flowers and weed. He did all this on his own.”

What was more surprising, he told Chen that he only took NTD$4000 as unemployment benefits from the government every month, but he thought 4000 dollars was sufficient for him and he didn’t need to get any financial support from Tzu-Chi. He told Chen he already received a lot of warmth and care from others so he already led a happy life. Shui-Ho believed that there was someone who needed those resources and money more than him. “Shui-Ho gave me such a shock at that time. From him, I realized that there were actually some people who were not greedy at all. In our perspectives, his life was hard because of the little allowance he got and his physical condition. Nevertheless, he thought that he already took a lot from others and his life was adequate.” Hoping other volunteer workers could also feel the positive attitude of Shui-Ho, Chen introduced this case to them and encouraged them to visit Shui-Ho. But as this case became more and more well-known to people, reporters flooded into Shui-Ho’s house to interview him and interrupted his tranquil life a lot. One day he asked Chen “Mr. Chen, when will those reporters stop ‘caring’ for me?” Chen looked quite sad while saying that, “I felt sorry for him. Sometimes too much care may become a stress for people but we can never realize it.”

“They are so down-to-earth. That’s the most proper adjective I can think of to describe them.” That’s from another volunteer worker, Wang, who I met in the Taichung branch. She answered without any hesitation as I asked her to describe the Chen couple, “People think that joining Tzu-Chi means that you need to have a miserable past (like you used to be in jail or sell drugs) or you need to donate a lot of money to make yourself known by others. But Chen and Yang never forget their original intention. They think of themselves as the poor and imagine how they would want to be treated. This simple thought makes them the most representative volunteer workers in my mind.”

Watching Chen takes the phone call of his grandchildren while Yang looked at her husband with a smile, the scene really reminded me of how my grandparents talked to me with warm smiles. And I suddenly thought of what Wang told me. So I told Yang that Wang thought of them as the most representative volunteer workers in Tzu-Chi. Yang looked so surprised, “I always tell my husband that we are too boring.” Yang made fun of themselves: “Our life stories are plain and we never do anything big.” Chen then added, “So in Tzu-Chi, we have a joke that if you cannot beat your wife, you cannot be a prestigious member of Tzu-Chi.” That is because the media would focus on some Tzu-Chi members who had miserable past or had done something bad in the past such as having been in gangs, selling drugs, or having been a compulsive gambler. These kinds of images help the media to give a sharp contrast to people and make them feel how great Tzu-Chi can change people. Like teaching a moral lesson to people, the media tells us that we could all become ‘good’ people no matter how ‘bad’ we were before. It’s actually a bit of sentimental. “Actually there are already a lot of good people with good intentions in Tzu-Chi who want to help others in need. In Tzu-Chi, your devotion would not be over-emphasized because you have a miserable or slatternly past. If you have the intention to help others, it gives you the strength to do it. It’s your devotion that matters.”

As Chen couple seems to be the model member of Tzu-Chi, I cannot help my curiosity about whether they have any dissatisfaction about the organization. “Definitely there are.” The decisive answer of Chen surprises me a little bit. “I joined Tzu-Chi because I think our ideas are similar but I also figure out there are some drawbacks to be solved.” Chen then explained further, “I think sometimes Tzu-Chi is not effective enough. The process of helping a case needs to associate with too many departments and branches. Therefore, cases might need to wait for our evaluating and working process until they get the actual help from us. Sometimes it may take a long time.” This reminded Yang a case, “I could still remember that once there was a blind woman who wants to build her own house and she asked for our help. But first we need to deal with some problem like the ownership of land and her kinship with family members. Every time when we help cases, we need to make sure that we are not transgress any laws or rules. And it may be complicated and lengthy.” “As a result, we found out that there was another charitable organization built her house within a month.” Chen said it with a bitter smile.

Yang grew from a family with nine sisters and she didn’t have a plentiful growing environment. “After school, I had to deal with so many house chores because my parents needed to work until midnight. And I could still remember that only my father had the privilege to eat eggs at dinnertime.” Yang continued, “Whenever I tell my story to my grandchild, he would often tease me that it sounds like a fairy tale to him.”

Then Chen said: “So our backgrounds also influence our attitudes toward each case a lot because we both had been poor before and we know how it feels.” Chen bent his eyebrows a little bit as he was thinking hard, “Honestly, we are more ‘stingy’. We may have stricter standards comparing to other volunteer workers while visiting those cases. Some cases are not aware of their own financial situations and still overspend a lot per month. Encountering case like this, we would teach them how to save money. For example, we would suggest them to go to traditional markets at noon. Vendors often give lower price because they are about to clean up their stalls.” Chen said sincerely: “We really hope that we could use every cent properly. I would never forget that once I received the donation of thousands of one dollar coins. And you would know it’s not the easy money. That’s why I also hope cases can cherish every cent of the allowance like us.” Also, they told me that they would not give large amount of allowance to people at first. I was doubtful about it because I thought Tzu-Chi should do its best to help those cases in need. Seeing my facial expression, Chen made it clear: “We would rather give them less and increase if the allowance is not enough for them. We would not giving them too much and reduce the allowance afterward. It gives people totally different feelings.”

I found out that every time when Yang was too focused on what she wanted to say, she would speak Taiwanese to narrate her viewpoints. And Chen would remind his wife that I can barely hear Taiwanese and translated for me. Even now, I could still remember that Yang told me the following words in Taiwanese. “Sometimes I would be quite worried about those cases. They live in such a bad environment not because they are poor but because they do not know how to manage their lives.” Like they had been told that there was a family in Nantou could only eat swill during Chinese New Year. “I was so sad that I could not have the mood to eat New Year’s Eve Dinner as long as I thought of the case. But when I went there, I found that there was actually refrigerator at the house but they put those dishes outside. And those dishes went sour and were surrounded by flies. Every time when I see scene like this, I would try my best to tell them how to change their environment and living habits. It’s not the problem about how much money they make but how they manage their lives.” After translating Yang’s words, Chen made fun of his wife a little bit, “She is so officious at some time.”

Yang fought him back immediately: “He is the officious one. While visiting cases, he would take notice of whether there is child or not. If there is child and does not go to school, he would try his best to persuade the parents to send the child to school.” Chen admitted it, “I see a lot of children doing trash picking with their parents. I would prevail on the parents to send children to school by giving them full allowance on education. At school, a child can find his interest or learn a skill. These would all help him to live a different life and he may do something more than trash picking at the future.” I saw the similar look to Yang on Chen’s face as he talked about the importance of education. Chen was abashed until he found that out, “Maybe we just cannot help being officious at some time.”

As my interview went to the end, Yang and Chen walked me out to the parking lot. I asked Yang what she learned from the experience as a volunteer worker, she answered me in a firm tone, “When I was still a little girl, I doubted stories of robbing the rich and helping the poor a lot. I am the poor. Why would I have the time or strength to help others? But now I am helping those in needs. And I am so happy that I could have the strength to help others.” While leaving Tzu-Chi by my scooter, I kept thinking about what they told me, “It is such bliss to devote ourselves to others and we really cherish it a lot.” From the side mirror of the scooter, I could still see their figures of blue uniforms keep waving their hands at me.