This social engagement was a
wonderful experience not only for me but for my teammates as well. We had lots
of interaction with the children from Rumah Hope orphanage especially the young
ones which are age below 10. They are joyful and adorable though some of them
were cunning enough to take advantage of my forgetfulness, for instance I was
tricked to believe that Dinash was Peter by the person himself. However,
looking back at it, it was still a wonderful experience as it signifies the
growth of my bonding with the children.
Most of them seem happy and
care-free which shows that the orphanage is doing a good job in raising and
developing them. Furthermore, I was surprised that the children were able to
follow instructions from the caretakers, though of course, some of them were
hesitant at first. Even though, some of them had a sad and complicated past,
they seem to be going about their lives joyfully and normally like most other
children would.
Our time with the children were
actually quite limited as most of the children have school in the morning. So,
our morning time was used to help out the orphanage in any way we could like,
sweeping and mopping the floor, preparing cooking ingredients and doing office
work. I have to admit that the tasks were dull and boring, but still we were
able to learn something new as some of us have never help out in the kitchen
before. I was even able to learn how to trim meat, which otherwise, I could
only learn how by watching my mother doing so.
The orphanage has children ranging
from 5 to 18 years of age. Though, we could hardly able to interact with the
older children as they have their own tight schedule to follow, we were still
able to accompany them for futsal and badminton. Most of our time were spend on
taking care and playing with the kids, I have to say they were a handful and I
never expected to be so. They would ask you to carry them on your back and they
would also run around like crazy and we would have to follow them. Still, it
was a great experience to see them smiling and laughing as some of them they
had a sad past with their own family. I am grateful that the management of
Rumah Hope accepted our request to conduct our social engagement at their
orphanage as my experience there was a memorable one.
