24-27 Nov 2009

I was in Batam for my Overseas CIP. First time I was surrounded by kids! Actually I was the one who bugged them but at the last day it was the other way round. The reason was due to that on the last day we were in the school, there were more children. Majority of them were girls.

Firstly, I would like to say that I am very SURPRISED that the hotel we'll be staying was rather luxurious! Don't be fooled by the photo above. There were two sides of building, the one shown was the BETTER one. I thought the type of hotel we will be staying will be kind of run down as the money will be donated to the children, but who knows.

The hotel was 95% booked-by our school, so we went to the school before checking in. When I reached the destination, I was quite taken aback by the roof. I don't have the photo to show you.

The classroom was super dirty! There were scrapes everywhere. We have to sweep out all the rice packets underneath the desk and then wipe the tables. Really gross but we did it anyway. Then we sweep the floor and move the desk to the side . We clean the wall and as you can see those patterns on the wall were quite hard to clean. When we pull out the feather duster from the holes, lots of dirt dropped down and fell onto our head. Really disgusting~ There were even webs. So after cleaning we are going to paint the wall. As I am short, I will be painting the lower part of the wall. Others will be painting the upper part. Then to prevent paint from dripping onto my head, I asked Siewyee to use newspapers to make hat. She even made one for Phillip but he gave them to the kid.

His cute right~

Well as there weren't enough paint brush to go around, I decided to make myself useful by playing with the kids. The first day I only get to know some of the boys and took some photo. It was late in the afternoon therefore the students all went home. I taught them tic-tac-toe. Was surprised they don't know the game, so I asked Ervin to help me translate. They were quite fast learners but only defiln is willing to play with me. The first time I manage to communicate with them was actually at the toilet. Me , Angela and some girls were cleaning stuffs in the toilet. I stood outside the toilet to wait for my turn. This guy -Defiln ( not sure if the spelling is right) came up to me and asked for my name. I introduced myself and after his friends saw how approachable I am, they began flocking towards me. I asked them to write their name on the sand using the rocks as writing tools. This better enable me to pronounce their names. Later on we began squatting down playing tic-tac-toe. Of course Ervin was the translator. Darren even took photos. HAHA.. but I was too busy playing then to bother.

That's this guy.

After painting we went back to the hotel have our dinner and lights off. I was obedient, I slept straight away. However I kept waking up , at least three times.

On the second day , we continue with the white washing and painting the lower part of the wall yellow. Again I have time to spare so I went to the back of the school to meet up with the 'Satellite'. We played pepsi cola, and if they win I reward them with sweets. Me and siewyee bought some food for the children. As I notice that if I give them food unconditionally, I will only teach them how to beg. So instead I made them play games with me and in time they win, I

reward them. Siewyee taught them a game ( I don't really know what the name is).

Third day, the guys taught the children PE, while the younger ones sat at the side. The children just sat there without knowing how dangerous it was and me being stupid, joined them. Phillip pointed out how close I am to sitting on the nails.

So with nothing to do I stood there and watched the children do their exercise. These two girls approached me. I still can remember their sweet voice.

"Kaka" (sister) and they asked and pulled me to buy ice cream for them. Sooo cute! But I didn't have any money so I treat them sweets instead. So cute!

This is actually the back of the school. As you can see there's a trail out. I am quite curious about what's on the other side of the trail but unfortunately, I can't go out of the school compound. Sad~ So I went back to mopping the floor.

As I was mopping I heard this boy calling out to me. I was trying to sweep the water out of the room. So he and a bunch of kids were sitting about 2 metres away from me . He called out kaka, and then I turned to reply him. He then showed me his dog. Sooner the rest starts to crowd around the dog- puppy to be exact. After mopping Enoch, the soccer fan asked the children if they wanted to play soccer. No sooner the started the game and more children joined in. Siewyee and Darren played with them. Feeling a little left out I went to find the girls. They all grin and greeted me the moment they saw me walking towards them.

Never have I felt this wanted and happy!

I was surrounded by girls. Everyone of them wanted me to carry her but I only have one pair of hands and I did twisted my ankle because they all started to jump onto my back. Especially this girl, OMG! She's soo heavy and wanted us to carry her (me and Siewyee) I really can't carry her up for a long period. They were grabbing me and later that night my shoulder area ached a lot!

I chatted with the tour guide and he told me the malls we visited are quite expensive and that he have been to Singapore. Originally I wanted him to help me to translate what this girl was saying because she kept asking me questions and I really don't know how to reply them. The tour guide then told me how the Indonesians love branded stuffs and that normally they come here for sight seeing. I asked him what's there to see when their homeland is much beautiful then ours. We only have artificial buildings. He replied that, at least they can say they have been to Singapore. I think I understand what his trying to say, it's something like, at least I have been to America though I didn't really see much.

Saraphine- cute~

Niko, me Lydia and Angela with the kids.

Since it's the last day, I gave the girls a big group hug. So warm~ I realised how innocent these kids are and that they know how to fully utilise the resources around them. At least they are not very greedy with life. Happy go lucky. Which is kind of a good thing rather than grumbling how miserable your life is. As it's the last day, we got to eat seafood dinner. I know the dish below looks awful but it really taste nice! Because I am a big fan of crab and I trust Ying Hui, I decided to give this dish a go. It turns out to be rather tasty. We had this huge dish of crab but only me and Ying Hui were eating it as the rest were quite full. We do looked like glutton ~ heehee, but honestly, crab leh! How can you resist?

After dinner and shopping, we ferry back to Singapore.

Home Sweet Home.
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P.s : Edited on 12/03/2012. This blog post is at least two years old. Some parts were edited and others were left to convey the feelings of that time. Meant for leisure reading, should it help you in your planning of itinery, would be great. Otherwise, refrain from using this as a main reference.