Yesterday was the first time I visited an orphanage (Yayasan Sunbeams Home) and some of you may ask how I end up visiting the orphan’s home. Every year, when the American teens come to Malaysia, the church will organize some events and this is one of them. Last year, they did organize this event but it was cancelled the last minute because of the Bersih rally. Thankfully, this year, everything went according to plan. Since I never went to this place before, why not take the opportunity right?
When we reached there, there were roughly around 70 children, mostly between 5-14 years old. Some of them were pretty shy and quiet while the rest were so energetic like they were on sugar overdose or something. At first, it was hard to mix around with the kids since they were in their own groups and they haven’t got used to our presence. After a while, after singing some songs and play some games, they finally open up to us.
For me, I managed to get close to this little girl. Her name is Joey and she’s 9 years old. The funny thing about her is that no matter how many times I told her that I can only speak in English, she will still talk to me in Chinese. Luckily, I could still understand the basics part and so, it didn’t really give me a problem. She didn’t know how to make an origami, so I thought of teaching her on how to make a stork. But learning to fold an origami requires patience and patience is something that is very rare in hyperactive children. After just folding a few steps, both of us gave up; she gave up learning and I gave up teaching. And so, we did something that’s fun for her (in her definition) like thumb wrestling, mimicking, and tickling.
Sheue Li and Jie Jing joined the visits too. Jie Jing, who has the natural motherly aura, managed to control even the naughtiest kid. Of all the kids in the home, she picked the crankiest kid to feed and that kid only listen to her. For Sheue Li, being a thoughtful person, she had bought a packet of jellybeans and a packet of marshmallows for the kids. The children were lining up to get the sweet treats from her. Everything goes well until she tried to give a candy to a particular kid, who was being carried by a haggard aunty. The heartless aunty asked her coldly, “Why did you have to bring so much sweets?”. From then on, she stop from distributing the candy and she only told me about this when we were on the way back home. Damn that old lady! They are just kids, what’s wrong with giving them some sweets?? It didn’t happen every day, in fact we just come once a year. Giving them a few sweet treats won’t cause them to die immediately from severe diabetes or tooth decay. These kids don’t have parents to call their own, so what’s wrong with giving them sweets to at least give them the childhood they truly deserve? Damn you old aunty, I bet you had a terrible childhood experience. Or maybe just menopause.
Kids have a very funny way of showing their envy. There were more kids than us and hence, it was natural that every one of them tries to seek our attention for themselves. While I was playing around with Joey during dinner time, a little girl who was sitting directly in front of me, told me “Three of us won’t care about you” (there were other 2 kids sitting at the same table). She was trying to give me a cold treatment but I just smile at her and continue to mess around with Joey. Since it didn’t work, she gave a warning to Joey to stop playing around at dinner table but since that method also didn’t work, she finally gave me a lecture, “A guy shouldn’t play with a girl like that”. Wow, gotta salute her for that!
This trip is definitely an eye opener for me, showing me how lucky I am and how I always take my parent for granted. I didn’t manage to take photo with any of the kids but there’s always a next time.
Yeon Ciat's Space 