When I was 15 years old, I had the
opportunity to go on a Community Involvement Program (CIP) trip to Batam,
Indonesia with a group of girls from my secondary school. I immediately jumped
at the opportunity, as the thought of being able to go on a “holiday” with my
friends was so appealing. Little did I know that the 4 days 3 nights trip would
change my life forever. A group of us were assigned to visit an Indonesian
Christian orphanage called “House of love”. The House of love was an orphanage
built specially to house children who had been left home less and without a
family after the 2004 Tsunami that hit the coast of Indonesia. We taught the
English language to the children, played different games with them and even
helped to clean and paint the walls of their bedrooms. What struck me the most
throughout the trip was when a 6 year-old boy by the name of Richy started
singing the Christian song “give thanks”. The lyrics go something like this
“give thanks with a grateful heart.. let the weak say I am strong, let the poor
say I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us.”
Although I doubt that at such a young age
he would have known what the song really meant, he taught me a valuable lesson
that day. If an orphan can be thankful for the little that he has, surely I can
be grateful for everything that I have.
(252 words)
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ReplyDeletea. What do you think about the event described?
ReplyDeleteAn OCIP trip is something that I have never attended in my life. Seeing photographs posted by friends who went for the trip always spurred me and made me feel like I have missed out a lot. However, over the years, I do share a different opinion after having spoken to many friends as well as organisers of such programmes.
Some thoughts that came through my mind:
- What if for them to have visitors is not something that's beneficial to them? After all, before the "appearance" of "existence of visitors", they have been living happily.
- Would our help be of much use? Sure we can help them to paint their houses, help them to build toilets and provide them with some form of education. But to many, this is a one-off experience. Will this one-off experience truly benefit them? I have also heard of cases where some of these children or even their parents asking money from the volunteers - how would you respond?
- By using our mobile phones and taking pictures, would this bring them a form of hope? Initially, their perception of happiness may be very simple. Perhaps just food, water and some good company. On days where they get something extra like better meat or clothes, they will be even more so contented. By exposing them to technology, showing them that there's so much more to just fishing and hunting for survival, will this bring them a hope, but one that is not realisable?
- Lastly, i felt this is a fundamental question that should be pondered on - Did they, in the first place, ever ask for us to 'help' them? I've been thinking, who are the pioneers of such programmes? Are they still active? What do they want to achieve by bringing people from the developed nations over? Honestly, I am pretty sure they are way better than us in building structures and all other manual labour work.
Nevertheless, I'm glad that Joycelyn took back a lesson from her trip, that is to be grateful for everything that we have.
b. Does this post strike you as having been written “with heart” or not? How can you justify your answer. Explain in your feedback.
In my opinion, a post that's written "with heart" refers to something genuine that comes from within. Joycelyn has admitted her intention of signing up for the trip, which obviously wasn't in line with the true intention of the programme. However, little did she know that she would be taking back valuable lessons in her short trip at Batam.
As the saying goes, "picture paints a thousand words". These images that she has included in her post reflected how much these memories meant to her back then, and how much this little boy, Richy, has influenced her since.
Hi Jocelyn! Although your initial intention to join this OCIP is to have fun with your friends, I feel that it changed your attitude in the way you take things or do things a lot, as you now always remind yourself to be grateful (which I think the main contributer is the 6-year-old boy and the song but not OCIP). I agree with Jovyn that a lot of these programmes did not help much in the poor and the needs, but actually creating havoc or affecting their life value negatively, but I believe that Jocelyn joined this OCIP as she intended to help people and she could not sort a better way out. In short, although i do agree that these programmes are not really helpful but it is good that Jocelyn has the kind heart to help people and took the initiative to join OCIP! I respect you!
ReplyDeleteI feel that Jocelyn had written this article with her heart devoted, as I think it is not easy for a person to share an event in her life that influenced her so much, and secondly I do feel how shocked (can I use this word? it meant to be 震撼) Jocelyn was when she first heard of "give thanks", as she did not expect such a young boy understands the meaning of being grateful (does that have anything to do with his suffering life?) but we as adults living so adequately still do not understand.
Here is one more sentence that I know from that song: "Give thanks because it's given"
Thanks Jocelyn for sharing!
This is a wonderful post. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete