Thursday, December 9, 2010
Charity at Batam, Indonesia
I am back again after a longggggg hiatus from updating my blog, so basically, I am back here again because I have something very interesting to share with you. I have not been a person who is exceptionally excited and into charity work, especially overseas. I guess it is mainly because in Singapore, being a sheltered lot with high quality living compared to the other South East Asian countries, we rarely voluntarily step up to engage ourselves in these type of activities.
So since it was the holidays i decided why not give it a go? SO I ended in Batam on the 27th of November, all ready to go forth to spread the ♥. The agenda for the trip was simple and sweet: to visit the slums and orphanage, and make sure that they have a blast with us. Our leader told us that there would be approximately 200 little children there, and since she had been there before, she knew exactly what would excite them:
STUFF TOYS!!
So, like a group people awaiting the "grab-all-you-can" opportunity, we gathered in front of the entrance of Carrefour and waited. and waited. and waited until FINALLY the shutter was raised and we started our "shopping spree"! Pulling our baskets and pushing our trolleys, we searched high and low for useful items which not only came in bulk, but also fitted our budget. Any non-Malay speaking shopper would be in dire straits when faced with this sort of situation because fundamentally, you didn't know how to ask for more supplies. FORTUNATELY, *taps self on chest* equipped with Bahasa Melayu, I managed to be quite a big help :D The store assistants too felt more comfortable conversing with someone who spoke their native language.
So after our fruitful and productive shopping, we finally made our way down to the slum area. Whenever, the word "slum" was mentioned, the image of Slumdog Millionaire would immediately appear in my head; the dilapidated alleys, without a single decent house in sight, scavengers roaming the grounds, along with the strong stench of waste. I was mentally prepared as we approached our destination, and guess what? it wasn't that bad.
I was ELATED! Not because it dawned on me that the experience would not be as difficult and harsh as I thought it would be, but rather I felt comforted by the fact that their situation was actually relatively good for a slum. In my opinion, I would call it a kampung instead because the place for waste disposal was located near the entrance of the slum, so as you proceed further in, the smell was eventually completely dissipated. Some girls even came to greet us in cute party dresses :D
So with ALL the stuff toys, we started on our mission: PHOTO-TAKING TIME!!
It was rather difficult to get some of the children to smile at first because they were afraid of the camera - to those who have never seen it before, it can actually seem quite menacing and we were glad no attempt was made in using the flash.
The rest of the time was spent developing the photos ON THE SPOT for them, which was really fascinating to them because they got to witness the pictures coming alive, layer by layer. Despite the heat and humidity, all of us felt a strong sense of accomplishment when we saw the smiles on their faces (:
It is definitely an experience which i will never forget, and this has fired my passion to serve in more causes such as these. It is always important to note that SEA is, afterall, one big family, so we should always reach out a helping hand to those in need, especially the peopl living in our area, our global community.
6:10 AM
