For volunteer Lee Siegel, the trickiest part about her sojourn to China this past summer was not the challenge of teaching local students to speak English - with decades of teaching under her belt and some innovative ways of communicating, those language barriers were circumvented. Rather, it was the scorching heat, an altered diet and painstaking communication with villagers outside of the school for simple items like groceries that made the Syosset resident's three-week task so daunting.

But while these elements were trying, the 75-year-old has no regrets, knowing that she and 13 other American volunteers may have changed the lives of hundreds of Chinese children at an English language summer camp who otherwise may never have been properly exposed to the invaluable English language.

Siegel and her teammates assembled together for this project through Global Volunteers, a non-profit organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota which arranges special cultural projects in all corners of the world for interested travelers who desire an unusual vacation and an opportunity to do worldly good.

"The mission of Global Volunteers," said Nancy K. Groves, spokeswoman for the organization, "is to wage peace through mutual understanding, and the way we do that is through work projects."

Founded in 1984 by Burnham Philbrook, Global Volunteers currently runs work projects involving education, construction and health care assistance in 20 countries. Several years prior to her China excursion, Siegel had volunteered with Global Volunteers for a similar English education project in Poland.

Although Global Volunteers tries to link various professionals with local projects which might benefit from their expertise, no special training is actually necessary for one to volunteer. Mostly what's required is some rainy day savings, as trips range from $995 to $2,395 to participate.

Before departing for the host country, the organization gives its volunteers notice of what, both good and bad, they might encounter upon arriving at their destinations, which are frequently far-flung from tourist hot-spots.

"They tell us what to expect; however, the person who's explaining what to expect probably hasn't been there for a while," said Siegel, who experienced culture shock.

Siegel, her team's leader Maria Maki, and the 12 others arrived in Baoji, a small factory city at the foothills of the Quinling Mountains in China's Shaanxi Province, where, stated Siegel, "the 14 volunteers are the only white people in the entire city, and no one speaks English." Stir-fry was the staple meal, at all times of the day. And going to the store for supplies or souvenirs required a lot of pointing and gesturing, something Siegel would be doing a lot of before her students.

Siegel was assigned to a class of 49 11-to-13 year-olds. A former Adelphi University adjunct professor and a first grade teacher at Willits Elementary School in the Syosset Central School district for 25 years, Siegel had never encountered a group of students like these before.

"They were wearing uniforms, and they were very polite ¬ not what I was used to getting," remarked Siegel. The children, educated year-round and six days a week in a very structured system, weren't just behaved; they were "absolutely dead silent."

According to Siegel, the kids were very talented academically and artistically, and were able to demonstrate their abilities despite the detrimental conditions around them, particularly the climate. Said the teacher, "The school had no air conditioning. The temperature was 100 degrees, with high humidity."

Furthermore, before the Americans had arrived, the only English teacher for these students was not at all qualified. "The English teacher knew as much English as I know Chinese, and I know eight words," said Siegel. The teacher would have students write sentences out of books, with neither the class nor the instructor understanding what was being transcribed.

Siegel's job was not to teach these children perfectly constructed English. The goal was to teach conversational English, or how to use the language in a social situation. "I'm not teaching them grammar, I'm not teaching them punctuation. We're talking," she said. Siegel instructed the children for three weeks, Monday through Friday, for three hours daily.

Siegel explained that many Chinese students learn to read English on their own - many even learn enough to ace scholastic tests and earn admittance to America's universities. But once abroad these students sometimes falter when they discover that they cannot understand the language when it's fluently spoken. Suddenly, the language barrier becomes as huge an obstacle as the Great Wall of China.

With a bit of pointing, pantomime and body English, it did not take long for Siegel to elicit the names of every student. Because of their apparent fascination with English names, she then assigned one to each child.

Siegel involved the students in a variety of activities and games which would boost their vocabularies. One of her favorites, which was photographed for an article in one of China's newspapers, was Simon Says - a competition which introduced many of the kids to words for body parts.

"Every student wanted to be Simon so that they could be the one to trick the other students," said Siegel.

Soon words were being strung into sentences. "They would try to talk with each other in English and then falter for words, switch to Chinese, and then go back to English," said Siegel. While fluent English was still a struggle for the students to grasp by the project's completion, they had nevertheless made remarkable progress.

Progress was also made, if only a little, in warming the relations between the people of two countries which have a strained relationship. Said Siegel's team leader Maki, "The team...was treated with genuine, at times overwhelming, hospitality."

Last week, Siegel received a second article written about her in a Chinese newspaper. "I got two copies of it," said Siegel. "But I can't read it!" No translation was sent.

Maybe one day, some of Siegel's foreign students, with the precious possession of conversational English skills having led them to a successful life in America, will pay Siegel back for her efforts by teaching her Chinese, so that she can read her own story.

For information on Global Volunteers, call the organization at (800) 487-1074 or go to http://www.globalvolunteers.org.