" Spasibo (pronounce as Spasiba) " - Russian, means 'thanks'.
Lots of happenings in the last recent few days, that each time i wanted to blog, i procrastinated. And when i wanted to start, something else always pops up. So much, that now, it's already my mid-sem break. For this sole reason, i will update.
Of course not from the start. It will be too long for you to read and too tiresome for me to write. I visited I-City in Shah Alam- you can visit my brother's blog for more details.
I'll fast forward to the Thursday before the mid-sem break, putting the test i had earlier the day behind me and skipping the lab part to bring you a story that had, slowly but surely, shaped me into a better person and definitely meant more to an assignment for the Moral Studies.
A group of eight students embarked on the journey to Ipoh, locking the Precious Gift Home as the prime destination. We arrived the home slightly after 3 and handed the groceries we bought earlier to the caretakers as donation. Later, we gathered in the living room and began to introduce ourselves.
When we stepped inside the home, we noticed how the children became excited and attached at our presence. Some came close to us, reached out for our hands and asked us to carry them. They were so little and the majority of them were Indians.
After a brief introduction with them, we began our first activity- drawing with the children. We brought books for them and gave each kid a pencil. I have to admit, my drawing is really terrible, and they wanted us to draw for them. I sat next to a boy, his name is Aaron. From the session we had, i realized how his imagination grew wild and his creativity just spilled all over the pages. Indeed, sometimes i had to ask him what it was because i couldn't make up the pictures he had drawn. He is five.
Meet Aaron.He asked me to draw him Ultraman. It was not easy- as i have said, i don't draw much but i tried, at least i tried. I asked him to pose as the Ultraman as i sketched the image of him onto the book. Then we drew spiders. Spiderman, actually.
Then there's another kid, his name is Samuel, the kid of my post title. He calls me Anna, and somehow, i felt a feeling i have never felt before. He was the only Chinese boy in the home at that time (his brothers were at school), shy and quiet, yet he mingles well with the other kids. This, by itself, has taught me about togetherness. Being together, despite the difference in race, respect knows no boundaries. To call me 'brother', in any language either way, it simply shows their respect towards us, towards me.
And Aaron, he called me uncle.
Then i experienced another incident that caught my attention. Another kid was drawing in Samuel's book and when Samuel realized it was his, he became agitated. He snatched it away from the other kid and went to the sofa, grabbed a sharpener resting on it and threw it away. I wanted to go to him and talk to him but then he walked to the other side of the room and sat in front of the aquarium. He hit the aquarium with his hand where the fishes were and crossed his arms. Then, he became still for a moment. Not long after that, he got up and walked back to the group of kids and played together again, with the kid that used his book on accident too. I knew that it's normal for kids to throw tantrums and the look on his face says it all. But his tantrum was short-lived and the wonder part of it was he forgave his friend about it and everything became back to usual.
Then it was time to colour the sketches. This, again, i've read that it tells the mind of the child. It gives us a clue to what he thinks or what is playing in his mind- psychology, my passion to study about human behaviour before i took up engineering. Enough on the sketches, they started to make paper planes and flew them across the room. A kid, i can't remember his name, came to me and asked if i could do him a paper game. I asked him what it was and he showed me, by his fingers, how it was played. It was the game that goes 'colour-colour, what colour do you want'.
I knew what it was because i had played it back as a kid. The problem was i couldn't exactly remember how it was made. But, again, i tried. I tried because i wanted to prove to the kid that i can do it. I attempted to design the game for him and as he looked thrilled towards me, i folded the paper, one step at a time. And when i started, the memory of doing it came back and i completed it for him. I wrote the four colours on each face of the paper and slowly placed the paper between his fingers. Not long after that, i saw him walking to the other kids and he started to play with them.
The point is, in satisfying him, i realized that from the result, i'm more satisfied at myself. When he asked me about it, the first thing that came to my mind was 'Oh sh*t, i forgot!' and i was hesitant to start because i didn't want to disappoint him but when i told him 'I can't remember, but i'll try', i couldn't believe that i actually can do it. And that was pure joy and satisfaction.
We played charades for many rounds and from my observation, they are competitive kids. Some are brave to come forward to act; some don't know how to act but they still came forward.
And the last on our spontaneous agenda list was to sing with them. Some of them could play the guitar- if only i have learned. And we sang together. We sang 'Rasa Sayang', twice- once during the singing session and another before we say our goodbyes.
It wasn't until about a quarter past six when we left the home. We were there for about three hours, but it didn't feel as long as the time tells. Perhaps, it was because time flies when we are having fun. But for one thing sure, i was drained at the end of the day- it had been a long day in uni and the kids were energetic.
What i can make out of this visit was that it wasn't a mere task to complete my Moral Studies coursework but something that we can and should learn. Other values that i learn through this are patience and tolerance. It is not as evident or as clear in the situations i had experienced but on the whole, i felt that without these two putting into practice, there won't be a visit as fruitful as this.
wc10 will visit the home again and 'spasibo' for the enriching experience!
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