am just back from a visit to 恩约儿童之家 @ JB... n i have to say..
i miss those kids! i miss esther! lol.. argh! ok im crazy.. so i haven been blogging much.. im now gonna do a rather long post.. no worries.. i have pictures to show u all!
Arriving @ JB
we met up with 甘传道 @ city square JB and she drove us to our 1st location.
so fast fall asleep liao. pig.
the ladies were more awake.. looking at the scenery..
one of the children frm the orphanage.
Our 1st stop, was this very colourful building..well.. i only managed to take the gates, but the bricks outside are also very colourful, obviously the building itself is not.. ok.. colourful outer.. outside. haha.
So we went in, and immediately the foul smell of dog pee + pee + i dunno what other foul smelling thing to make the smell so foul hit me and all of our noses.. yes, all 9 of us.
the 1st impression it gave me was.. man, this place is not very clean, and it smells.. not very nice... but 甘传道 explain to us that this is where the orphans sleep at night. Because they have yet to have a place of their own, they are renting this house and a few shop houses a few streets away.. so the kids sleep here and have activities in another area..
Their dining area..
notice board.
the guys bedroom.. i din manage to go to the girls one coz while my team mates went up, i went to take camera.
this is the living area.. those cupboards are for the kids to put their stuff, its like their wardrobe.. all neatly organized.
the stairs leading up to the girls bedroom.. 男女授首不清..very impt value that 甘传道 teach them..
one of the dogs that contributed to the foul smell.. he's very shy.. when u walk towards him, he will run away frm uafter visiting this house, we went to the activity centre which could be where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights.. and went around to 参观..
and this is the stars up to our room.. so retro.
they have this playroom, where they can erm.. sort of like try and understand the child through these toys.. u noe like when u watch CSI and when kids are traumatized and refuse to talk, these specialist would come and talk to them using toys or drawings.. this room is for the purpose.
the living room.. not bad.. still got TV.
and a super mini fridge
our bedroom.. we had colourful cartoon printed bedsheets for our mattresses..downstairs houses the kid's play,worship,learning,activity area.. a big hall and a dining area + the office + a kitchen
the corridor leading to the kitchen, filled with boxes of toys and costumes and of course.. pictures!
the kitchen area.. cooking for 40 over kids is no easy feat!
giving us a brief briefing...
my "work" station for 2 days.. the computer was kindly donated by someone..
he bought a couple for the children to use.. the other computer are upstairs in the computer room where they can play.
these are old computers where the kids learn how to fix them.. very cool.. a way to earn some money and to pick up a skill so that they can survive next time.. its like a mini workshop.. monitors, CPU, graphic cards, mother boards.. the works.
so stressful, they have so many trophies on bible knowledge competition.. the and 甘传道 said that the other time, students frm the SBC lost to them in bible knowledge! so stressed!
finally we saw kids.. lol..
this is the girl's "work" area, the guys fix computers while the girls do craft work to sell.. they are really creative.. and they have lots of old toys,used materials and they turn it into something nice and creative.. most of us bought things there.. lol..
the youngest child there.. only 6 mths old.. Esther!!!
see.. so cute.. loved by many of us..esther!
they are also currently renovating a place they just rented to house those mothers who are not married or single mothers..
place has 10 rooms..
under renovation..after all the looking around and unpacking and bathing.. we headed to our next destination for a very important event.
very very nice scenery and beautiful sunset.. and.. its near singapore so.. singapore reception!!!no roaming charges! lol
the important event.. DINNER!!
much much seafood..
huge huge fish
looking into the sky.. for..?
dig in! very hungry.. but only can eat peanuts at the moment..
the man tou is very nice! technically, every single dish is nice.. so nice!
Thanks to 甘传道 for a very fulfilling dinner.. like i said.. everything is very nice..
n we sweep everything clean clean.. lol..
but this was like a bribery.. haha.. bcoz after this, we had to do many many things!
work, work, work and more work!
on the 1st night, we had discussion with 甘传道， den when she left we had briefing withing our team, and after the 2 老师 cannot tahan and went to bed, we were left with the task to think of games to replace some last min changes.. when we went up to the room it was about 12.30am..
but all the hard work and planning was all worth it for this..
it was a very short trip and i guess many of us were rather reluctant to leave and hoped to have more time with the kids there.. they are really very different frm kids in spore and very easily contented.. while spore kids complain about not having enough money for sch, each of the kids there no matter the age would always be grateful for whatever they are given - stickers, notebooks, sweets.. they are so adorable! after the sunday service we had with them today (which was the last activity with them) we said our early goodbyes, and some of them started to cry! lol.. afterwhich, we became superstars with kids wanting our autographs, our phone numbers, facebook and even birthdays! and we had many many photos taken with some of them.. just like superstars.. lol..
hopefully, we will have another trip back, and hopefully, i can join them again..
i wanted to end of with 1 of their fav songs that we taught them, but the stupid file is corrupted.. i now plan to sms the person there to see if she could send me her pictures and videos.. hang tight.. hopefully i can get them coz.. its really beautiful to hear them sing.
P.S. After being reminded by SY's blog post, a couple of interesting things happen..
the kids there are really smart! we had originally planned to bring the kids out to 风筝山 to play, but due to some issues, we had to make changes, and so on the timetable that was given to the kids, we had to liquid off the word 风筝山. I think we are either too stupid, or we thought that they were stupid or the kids outsmart us. haha..
they scraped off my liquid and still saw the word and asked song lian lao shi about it.
my kids are even more adorable, they told me.. lao shi, can see from the back! den they flip to the back page and show me that the word can be seen.. lol
kids nowsadays.