Raleigh International KL (Team Alpha) organized a mini sports carnival for Precious Kid’s Home located nearby the Assunta Hospital, PJ.
After weeks and weeks of hard work fund raising for the event, we’d reached the amount that we needed in due time. After much bickering among ourselves relating the schedule and programs, we’ve finally got it done.
We headed off to Precious Kid’s Home at 8.30am. We managed to squeeze our time there at 9.30am. Off we headed to the football field. We started off with a friendly football match. Us against them. Soon the game got rough, the kids beat us to 5-0. What a bummer. By 12.30pm, we’ve concluded that we are terrible football players.
We definitely had the time of our lives playing football with them! Thus, after hours and hours of fun in the sun, we returned to the home for a short break and lunch. Lunch (mmm...) was either a yummy dish of fried noodles or 'meehoon'. While feeding our appetites and our growling tummies, we had the golden opportunity to socialize with them. Most of us seized it - We chatted and chatted with them about all kinds of things; life, school, games especially football, etc... We got to know a lot of things; things that can only be seen from an orphaned young child's eyes. In this way, our perspectives about love and kindness were changed and minds were broadened, when they led us into their world by storytelling us about themselves. Through these conversations, we were touched by their positive attitudes towards life and realized how similar we all actually are deep down inside; that is we all have one common factor - the need to feel loved. Personally, I know this will be one of the most memorable lunchtimes ever.
After licking our fingers, it was now time for our long-awaited indoor games. We taught them a few new games; simple yet fun games that promote teamwork like Tangle-Time, Goofy Theatre (commonly known as Charades), and Chap-Cali-Chap.
The tension is building up; every one of us knew that the water balloon match will be on next. We transported the kids (and balloons) to the nearby playground. Before the word “GO!” the kids started throwing the water balloons here and there. Buckets with water were specially filled for the coordinators to be ‘splash’-ed on. We had an amazing fun time and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, so much so that we lost track of time. Just to show how time really does flies, before we realized it, it was already time for us to leave. Thus, we ‘departed’ unwillingly from the home with a heavy heart. Before that, Team Alpha presented a huge box of Ferrero Roche’s to Pastor Evelyn, the person in charge of the Precious Kids’ Home as a ‘thank you’ sign and as a token of appreciation to her and her staff for allowing us to help out at the home, even if it was only for a day and to have fun with the kids and get to know them better.
To wind it up: All in all, even though at the end of the day we were all exhausted both physically and emotionally, we knew that it was well worth it. The look of childlike innocence on the children’s faces especially when they looked up expectantly on us when we first arrived at the home, the somber yet earnest looks of a little one who at first refused to finish his lunch, but whose face lit up when we offered to feed him, their expressions of pure joy and happiness when we played games-especially the ‘Attack of the Water Balloons’. The lasting impression of the ‘come on, let’s play!’ looks on the young chaps who were overexcited about the football match are all totally priceless. The sweet memories we made and the new bonds of untainted friendship we forged are irreplaceable!
