Reflection by Lim Wen Yi

The visit to Home for The Angels, Broga was my first social volunteering project in University of Malaya. 

I remember when we first meet up to discuss about the project, it was kind of awkward as we do not know each other and some maybe even never seen each other in the faculty before. There were moments of silence after someone (mostly our leader) thrown a question, perhaps it's because we were quite lost and had no idea where to start from. Things became a bit frustrating when we took a long time to decide where should we carry out our project, as well as aligning everyone's time so that we wouldn't miss out anyone throughout this project. To be honest I was quite nervous when I saw other groups completed their Social Engagement project but we're still struggling with the venue. However, it was a relieve when we finally decided on when and where to go.

As time passes, during the planning, some of us started to take initiative to contribute ideas to the program and voicing out some thoughts on the ideas given. Though some may not be that outspoken, they also gave their best cooperation to team by playing the roles assigned to them. We have faced a few problems during the planning, such as the transportation problem - public transport couldn't reach Broga; sponsorship - we could find no sponsorship, thus we can only fund ourselves by paying quite a burdensome amount for us as students (luckily we spend less than that and at last we were refunded 70% of the contributions given earlier) Kudos to our leader and treasurer for the well budget done!

Basically, our concerns are resolved one day before our project day.

On the project day, I was in Batch 1 which departed from UM at 5.40am. I was really tired and my energy level is extremely low as it was too early for me. I couldn't imagine how am I going to handle a bunch of kids later with such mental status. Hereby, I salute the drivers who are able to stay awake throughout the almost 1 hour drive to Semenyih. As we reached Home for The Angels way too early, the doors are still closed so we decided to wait in the car as we wouldn't want to disturb the home with our early presence. It was pretty good as we get the chance to watch the sunrise at Broga. I don't think if I could find any words to describe the feeling of watching sunrise with your course mates.

When the sky lights up, we entered the home and greeted the teachers politely. We started with our cleaning up session with the kids. The cleaning session was another awkward moment there because we do not know the kids and their attitudes towards strangers like us were different ; some were friendly but some were cautious. We felt welcomed by the friendlier kids but this doesn't mean that we'll ignore those cautious ones. We managed to blend with them through the ice breaking session. The situation during ice breaking went sorta out of control, especially when the kids were too into the games we've prepared and they started screaming and shouting... It was expected, but personally I became really tensed because I couldn't stand noises. Anyway I managed to suppress this negative emotion and with our leader Ong Chee Keat facilitating, our team had slowly guide them to follow our flow so we could get back on the track. I appreciate this ice breaking session as it could be considered as my only chance throughout the two days to play with the kids as I was in charge to take photos and videos for the project. So our first day went on with tangyuan making, zumba dance and ended with movie watching. After urging the kids to sleep, I was exhausted and couldn't resist my drowsiness and I fell asleep very soon. A thing to mention is that - it was my earliest bed time (around 10pm) since I've entered uni.

On the second day, we woke up around 5.30am to prepare. We started our morning with a scrumptious breakfast prepared by the kitchen uncle and also our very own amazing team mates! It was a great start of the morning I would say. During the breakfast, we also chit chatted with the kids and we've heard some thoughts from them on the charity sale which will be held later on as well. I found it cute when the elder kids nagged that they need to be on duty for the sale, but later on they were still going for their respective duties assigned obediently. Some of the kids' family do visit them on this day, I was surprised when I saw they were so happy to have their family here to see them! It made me think, if I was in their shoes, would I be able to face my family members who left me here but not by their side? There's no definite answer, as there'll be saddist like me exist.

The charity sale wasn't as big as I expected it to be, so we made use of this time to get to know the kids better by having some conversations with them when there's no customers around. With some small talks, our bond had been stronger! At the same time, some of us went to look out for the kids in the experiment session as well. I saw the kids were super excited especially when they managed to get their hands on fire with butane gas and soap without hurting their hands! I think we did trigger their curiousity with the experiments, because they started to throw infinity questions to our experiment PICs.. Well, I guess it's a good sign.  

Before I depart from the home, a girl came over and hugged me tightly. She asked, "Jiejie (sister), are you guys really going off?" Yes, I nodded. Then she continued asking, "Huh, then will you guys come over and visit us again?" I was frozen at the moment as I don't know how should I answer without hurting this little angel's feeling. At last I just smiled and said, "Till we meet again."

These 30 hours seems short yet long for me. I felt like I've spent years with the kids here, and getting 

used to their daily routines. There were mixed feelings inside me. I'm contented that we're able to inspire the kids in a good way, but we came into their lives and left just like that. And I believe they will have to face a lot of such farewells throughout their years in the home, would it affect them in some way? I don't know. I wish these young souls stay tough, and be brave in pursuing their dreams! 

Thank you everyone who has contributed to this project, appreciate your efforts! Bravo!