went for a rendering service last sunday. visited an old folks home and an orphanage. every two of us were assigned to talk to one old folk. and the old folk i talked to, touched my heart completely.
she was 85 years old. a quiet woman for her age. she told me she didn't know how to talk as much as other old folks. while we were talking, i kept asking her questions about her life there. she told me she was happy being there. but for me, she was not. i rarely got her to smile. when another old folk talked to other helpers about her family, i saw her looking at that old folk with wet eyes. before we left, she kissed my hand and thanked me for being there. her eyes were wet. she asked me to study hard and always listen to my mom. i nodded and i asked her to take care of herself. i left with a heavy heart.
at the orphanage, we were separated into groups and we were assigned to look after 6 children. one of them was a 13 year old boy. he was quiet at the beginning, i thought he didn't like the games we held because those games were childish. then i kept supporting him and he joined and he was the main reason my group won the 2nd place. when it almost ended, those children each made a card and i wrote something at the back of their cards. then, i gave the 13 year old boy his card, plus some cards of the day. told him to keep them as memories. we won loads of junk food but they had to keep all the junk food in a room, away from them. the orphanage's rules. i saw him quietly keeping the cards away and running into his room to keep the cards. a lady from the orphanage ran after him and scolded him. saw her lecturing him. i couldn't do anything. i was helpless.
i went back to INTI that day with 2 things running in my mind; the grandma at the old folks home and the 13 year old boy. i kept thinking, was i the reason they were sad? if i didn't go to the rendering service that day, they wouldn't have gotten to know me and they might not be as sad when i left.
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