The fragrance of dumplings drifted out of the nursing home.

The fragrance of dumplings drifted out of the nursing home.

On the morning of January 10th, in the Ximu Nursing Home in Tianzi Lake Town, over twenty elderly people were sitting outside enjoying the sun while more than ten young people were accompanying them, helping to cut their nails, comb their hair, and occasionally breaking out in laughter.

This was a scene from the "Warm Winter" activity conducted by over thirty volunteers from the Drip Public Welfare organization. When they saw that 82-year-old Li Xuelin had a basin of dirty clothes in his room, two volunteers immediately took his clothes to wash, while two other volunteers took his beddings out to dry in the sun and laid a new blanket on his bed. Grandpa Li touched the soft and fluffy blanket and said with joy, "I won't be cold sleeping at night this winter."

The kitchen in the nursing home was even more lively, with several volunteers busy cutting Chinese cabbage, pickled vegetables, and chopping pork to prepare dumpling fillings. "We'll make dumplings for the elderly to eat at noon. Their teeth are not good, so we need to chop the meat finely," said volunteer Yanzi. After the dumpling filling was ready, more than ten volunteers gathered around the table to make dumplings. Even though the Russian artist, Evgeny Bondarenko, wasn't fluent in Chinese, he understood the general meaning and used his chopsticks to pick up some filling and put it in the middle of the dumpling wrapper. After folding and pinching the wrapper, he finished a dumpling in less than half a minute. Little volunteer Jiang Jingyi also learned to make dumplings like Evgeny. After more than half an hour, over 600 dumplings were made. "These are Russian dumplings, Japanese dumplings, Northeastern dumplings, and our Anji dumplings," everyone said happily while looking at the two tables of dumplings.

At 11 o'clock in the afternoon, the steaming hot dumplings were ready. Several elderly people who were able to move had been waiting with bowls and chopsticks. "I want ten." "I'll have eight first. Can I have more later?" "Grandpa, please eat slowly and be careful not to burn yourself. There's more in the pot, and we'll cook more if it's not enough. There's plenty," said the two volunteers taking turns to serve.

Qian Huaiqin had some intellectual disabilities and had difficulty moving. It was the first time for Wang Xiuzhen, an elderly lady, to participate in volunteer activities. She held a basin and scooped up a dumpling with a spoon, blew on it, and then carefully tested it with her lips. Feeling that it wasn't too hot, she sent it to Qian Huaiqin's mouth. "Don't worry, I won't eat yours. Eat slowly, the meat filling is a bit hot," said Aunt Wang patiently. "Is it delicious?" "Delicious!" Qian Huaiqin smiled like a child and said, "Auntie, you should eat too." "I'll feed you. You eat slowly, and I'll eat later." The two of them talked and took care of each other like a mother and daughter, making those around them feel warm.

After lunch, the volunteers gave each elderly person a blanket and two pairs of socks. It was learned that besides giving gifts to the 24 elderly people in Ximu Nursing Home that day, the volunteers also gave gifts to 13 elderly people in Wu Town Nursing Home.