Rumah Shalom

On Jun 2007, i was in the incovar camp and that was the first time i visited ta orphanage home,the Rumah Shalom,the home for the homeless. With the house theme "Helping the helpless"

On the particular day, i went there with about 20-30 incovarians. The moment i stepped into the house, i saw the kids inside the home were looking at us,hiding themselves behind the wall with a little bit of nervous and scared facial expression. Well, The same thing happened to me, my mind full of thought, thinking what should i do, how should i treat the children..... Questions lingering in my mind, but it laid to rest when we started our programme.

Firstly, we divided each of the kid to each of the incovarian, we i have 1 too, a quite well-behaved little kid. He did not speak much nor participate actively. I was a bit of lost at that moment, I did not know what to do, and just followed what my fellow incovarian did. He was 11 years old, maybe because he is at the growing age, or maybe that was his character, or maybe he has some personal problem. I do know. I wanted to explore his mind, wanted to know what he is thinking, wanted to help him, but i just don't know what to do.

As we carried on with our programme, everyone start enjoying and start to know each other. The first programme was the magic show performed by an incovarian committee. Then we have the performance, where we did the “banana boat” dance lead by Xiao Thoong. After all the performances ended, we proceed with games, where all the incovarians and their “little brothers and sisters” choose games that they wanted to play. Playing with kid was much fun compared to adult. As we played, our mind somehow flashed back to the time when we were small. We were playing games that we played when we were in kindergarten. Dealing with pure and kind children was better than dealing with complicated adult. That was the reason I choose to be in

orphanage house.

Time flew, we left on the afternoon. That was the most touching time. When we just started to build up relationship with the kids, and they started to accept us, that was the time to say good bye. Well, some of the kids and even some of the incovarians cried. The time we spent together was too short. That’s the fact of live.

I heard some of the participants told the kids that they will come again. At that moment, that was a light of hope given to the children. I didn’t tell them that I will be coming back, because, I didn’t want give the children a hope that might not come true, I don’t want to give out empty promises which I can’t keep. I had experienced the suffering, the painfulness of waiting the long pending hopes that never be fulfilled. But at that night, I did make a promise among the incovarian, that we will revisit the home. I will keep my word. I do what I promised.

What I need are helps and supports from my fellow friends.