Roslin Orphanage Blog

My stay at Roslin

After a semester at the National University of Singapore and an internship in Singapore I wanted to experience more of South-East Asia. I wanted to experience what it’s really like, outside the glittering world of Singapore and away from the usual backpacker locations. First my idea was to work my way along the coastline of the Indonesian archipelago with my surfboard to search for undiscovered waves.

While researching I became fully aware of how poor some of these regions are. At that time, I was invited to a meeting of the Rotary Club of Bukit Timah, where I found out about Budi and Peggy’s orphanage. I was truly amazed by their work and immediately knew that I wanted to help. So I wrote an Email to Budi and a couple of days later I was on my way to Denpasar from where I caught a flight to Kupang.

Do be honest, I had no idea what to expect. I heard about East-Timor in the news coverage a couple of years ago but I would have had a hard time pointing it out on a map. About (West-) Timor I knew nothing.

I had been to Indonesia several times, but barely knew any Bahasa Indonesia, because I had only started teaching myself a couple of weeks earlier. So I was really glad that Cornelis (Peggy’s father, who’s called “Opa” by everyone) was around. He’s the only person I met during my stay in Timor who really spoke English. Furthermore his English is really good and so we spent many evenings talking. This way I found out a lot about life in Indonesia and Timor.

In the mornings I would normally have a traditional breakfast (cabbage and vegetables) with Opa and then would try to help with the construction going on at the orphanage. There was a new wall being raised around the property and a water tank was build into the ground. Coming from the rather cold Germany I was amazed by how much more exhausting it is to do physical work in this kind of climate. I have honest respect for the two workers I worked with who work in these kind of conditions day in, day out.

In the afternoon, I tried to teach the kids some more English. This was more difficult than it sounds due to the fact that I don’t have a language in common with them. So our lessons ended up to be pretty active, with a lot of drawing, gestures and pantomime being involved. In the end the kids learned some English, I improved my Indonesian and we all had a lot of fun

When we weren’t studying we were playing around and had a lot of fun together. The kids loved to see themselves on the tiny screen on the back of my camera and so we took endless series of goofy photos together. Another thing they loved to do was the “super jump”. I would lift them up while they jump so they could pretend to jump super high.

I enjoy remembering these days and I am still amazed by how quickly the kids accepted me into their group and opened up to me.

During my time at Roslin I also went on several trips to the town (Kupang) and the countryside. I experienced a lot of hospitality from most people I met and learned that a lot of them are really interested in people foreigner. It was not uncommon for people to stop and ask me if I was lost and if they could help me if they saw me walking down the road. For example on a trip to the village of Baun I stopped along the way to enjoy the view down the hills on the ocean. After a while some school children gathered around me and giggled at every move of me. A little bit later a guy of my age came by and tried to have a conversation with me. When he realized that my Bahasa wasn’t really suitable for a real conversation he decided to let actions do the talking, climbed up a palm tree and fetched me a coconut with his machete. Another time I met some students studying English. Their English skills were really basic but they were really eager to talk to me, because they wanted to find out what it’s like to live in Europe. So the next couple of days I invited them over and we would look at pictures from Europe and I would try to explain things to them in English. I referred them to Opa who is a retired English teacher so they can improve their English with him in the future.

When I was just starting to get used to all the little every day differences to life in Germany or Singapore (like no running water, mean mosquitoes and the likes) it was already time for me to leave.

I enjoy thinking back to the time with the friendly people of Timor, the nights discussing with Opa and most of all the time I spent with the children of Roslin.

I have the deepest respect for Buddi and Peggy who made this wonderful place possible. Thank you for giving me the chance to experience life at Roslin!

Lorenz O. Wiedemann

21. Oct 2009 Munich, Germany