Exchange student Anna Li Sze-yin helps shoot videos of sign language demonstrations during her three months of volunteer work in Mexico. Provided to China Daily

Mexico seemed a questionable choice as a study setting for exchange student Anna Li Sze-yin. In the end, she was drawn by the sheer foreignness of the locale and set out on a voyage of self-discovery. Ming Yeung reports.

It required a few minutes before Anna Li Sze-yin decided to accept the opportunity to embark on a foreign exchange program. It wasn't that she wasn't eager to travel, but the thought of six months in Mexico, the Wild West of drug dealing, kidnapping and murder made her hesitate.

At last the third-year undergraduate in finance at Lingnan University decided she would take up the offer. That was in July of 2008.

Mexico's poor reputation and her inability to speak Spanish notwithstanding, she decided to give it a shot anyway. Why Mexico then? "Because Mexico is a total stranger to me," the petite young woman told the interviewer assessing her application. "The less I know the place, the greater the longing I have to discover its secrets," Li added.

She was to attend Monterrey Institute of Technology, the most prestigious private university in Mexico. Li became quickly immersed in her new environment, which yielded up no shortage of surprises.

During October, Li learned by happenstance that the world's heaviest man, Manuel Uribe, was getting married in nearby Monterrey. Eager to witness this once-in-a-lifetime oddity, Li posed as a journalist. She sent an email to the groom requesting to be permitted to cover his wedding. Her audacious request got a favorable response, with the sole caveat that she would not be allowed to take pictures - the US Discovery Channel had exclusive rights to pictures of the affair.

The event proved memorable. The groom, who had not ventured from his behemoth-sized bed in the past six years, had taken some pains however, to "slim down" for his wedding with longtime girlfriend, Claudia Solis. Uribe arrived for the ceremony, a svelte 732 pounds, having trimmed some 500 pounds from his 1,232 bulk. The groom arrived in style, riding a specially-converted flat bed truck replete with video crew.

Li cheered with the rest of the crowd. She danced her legs off with several of the gentlemen present and accepted the polite invitation of a magician to drive her back to her dormitory. The magician, who proceeded to begin teaching her Spanish, had a few tricks up his sleeve, including some unwelcome sleight of hand.

"Stop!" she immediately cried out. "I cannot remember the vocabularies and I need a rest." On the verge of exploding with anger, she prayed that she would arrive home safe and sound. "I would be helpless if he drove me to a remote place where no one was around," she admits. Fortunately, she got home in one piece but she learned an important lesson: being reckless and headstrong could get her into trouble.

The time passed quickly. Li suddenly realized her semester was soon to end. She still hadn't seen much of Mexico. During one 11-day trip to Mexico City, Li met a German volunteer, bound for the Pina Palmera rehabilitation center in Oaxaca, the poorest part of Mexico. "I want to do this as well," Li decided.

She didn't want to return home, as scheduled. After applying for her school semester to be suspended and changing her return travel plans, she headed for Pina Palmera and three months of volunteer work. Li felt secure among the deaf-mutes at the center. "I was like them in a way, in that I spoke little Spanish," she said, laughing.

In the company of helpers, Li visited the physically-handicapped in the nearby villages periodically, taught them sign language and handicrafts. She took care of one boy, suffering from a severe mental disability. He could respond to nothing but water and cars. Li once pondered the meaning of volunteerism while feeding the boy. "He couldn't see me and didn't know who I was, so what was the point of what I was doing? Why would I leave my hometown to be a volunteer in Mexico?" she wondered.

The simple answer came to her. "Love is boundless. Love is care. It is not about individuals or responsibility. True love does not ask for reciprocation," Li said.

She became intrigued by the grace of signing and begged Moise, the language therapist, to teach her sign language. Moise was skeptical. He'd seen many people take up signing and give it up half way through. Li's insistence that she truly wanted to learn persuaded Moise to teach her.

The insufficient number of sign language instructors slowed down the learning progress for deaf-mutes. Li proposed to shoot videos of sign language demonstrations, to alleviate the pressure on the instructors and to help as many of the needy people as possible. Jeff Arak, an independent US film producer, happened to be in the neighborhood shooting a documentary about Zipolite, a world famed nudist beach. He liked the idea of shooting a signing video.

The video was planned for two parts: vocabulary and conversations.

Then reality landed with a hard thump in February 2009. Swine flu broke out in Mexico, on the way to becoming a global pandemic.

All of Li's peers returned to Hong Kong. The US volunteers went home. Her parents and friends worried like cats on hot bricks. Her photo was published, without her authorization, in every newspaper in Hong Kong. She became the target of caustic remarks posted to online forums, from people accusing her of being selfish for staying and letting her parents worry. She had acquired a certain celebrity overnight.

"To go home or not to go, that was the question," Li asked. In the end, her "love" for the physically-impaired and the work she was doing overcame her fears. She decided to stay on and finish the sign language video.

After witnessing the lethality of SARS back in 2003, Li, in her Mexican adventure, insisted on wearing masks. She avoided the traditional Mexican greeting - kissing and hugging. Locals teased her and told her she was a coward.

The mask effectively established a barrier between her and those among the locals, with whom she had carefully cultivated relationships. Li began contemplating the issues of life and death. Tens of thousands of Mexicans die of hunger every year. An epidemic is not a big deal to them. "Stay, live the way they were living," Li says. In the following days Li gave everything she could to help the people there.

In July, 2009, Li came back to Hong Kong and wrote a book, "I'm dating with Mr Mexico." "The swine flu crisis got neatly woven into other people's stories. The experience was indeed unforgettable," she said. It took her some time to readjust to the Hong Kong lifestyle again.

In retrospect, Li considers her Mexico journey "a voyage of self-discovery". "Each country has developed its culture through the trials of time. Outsiders cannot judge the way they live. The more you travel, the more accepting you will be," Li says. Li now is in Los Angeles, working for a volunteer organization helping homeless people.

Exchange student Anna Li Sze-yin's moments of life in Mexico. Provided to China Daily

(HK Edition 09/14/2010 page4)