Roslin Orphanage Blog

So much to be said about them and at the end of it I must say that I must learn a lot from them both about how to love others and doing our best.  They came to know about us through my other wonderful friends ( Chris Sng and Lay Kean).We never seen each other before but with the care and love for others they came with us to Timor and taking their annual leave specially just to help out us doing a lot of “physical ” activities upon building the new rooms for the growing orphans. No complains what so ever about the trip from Singapore to Kupang city ( West Timor) on their own nor complaining about what we have and the kind of a place that we are staying.

Their activities were nothing else but helping us the best they could from morning to the evening hours. It can be helping us to make the green house for the plants, carrying bricks, carrying the water to mix the cement, the sand and the cement mixing it self.  They did not mind using our weapons such and spade, and ” cangkul / cangkol” to do land clearing and many more things with it. Even to help out putting some soil for te plants ( the soil has been the mixture of many thing including the burnt padi’s seeds and dried cow dunk). Their purposed for them to come is to help and it was so true that they were refusing us when we want tried to take them out for some sight seeing . Their presence was fully dedicated for helping us to do all of our activities .   One of the day we asked them to make the library’s name ans shown on the picture.  Not only painting the name of the library but they were also cleaning the library and rearranging the books as well.  Indeed I must  learn from them about how  to stay focus and stick to the plans for the future activities. 

Any way this note below is a write up  by Amy and Chris after they were returning to Singapore:

Trip to Roslin Orphanage, Kupang, Indonesia 14-21 April 2007

To you who are reading this, you must surely have read the background to Roslin Orphanage from its website, what the place and its mission is all about.  So I shall not repeat the details and leave you to explore the website if you have not already done so. This write up is my personal view of my visit and its experience. I hope to convey to you some degree of the encouragement and inspiration I received during the trip.

The work

When we (my husband and I) first received the invitation from Capt Budi to go to Kupang to help in the construction of additional rooms for the orphanage, I thought labourers were in shortage and extra hands were needed for the construction project. But it turned out that even our extra pairs of hands were of not much help, since the laying of the wall foundations and subsequent brickworks require a certain level of expertise which we city folks obviously lack.  So help as we might, our work failed the quality control test of the workers.  We were then relegated to other menial manual work like mixing concrete, carrying bricks, cement and rocks to the work site for laying. Everything is done by hand in that place, no cement mixers or steel benders. We learnt to mix concrete manually, the workers bend and cut steel reinforcement bars with hammer and chisel. Grounds were cleared not by bull dozers but manually with spades, hoes and parangs. The work was hard and slow, but the labourers took it all in a steady stride, unlike us typical Singaporeans, kan cheong all the way.  

The people

Being jaded with life and the self-absorbed people around, it is refreshing and eye-opening to be among those who give without thinking or calculating what’s in it for them. The people there are warm and friendly with a level of sincerity that is uncommon in a place like Singapore, where materialism consumes and preservation of self-interest and personal gratification is paramount and abound. They give of themselves to others with such simple trust and are happy and contented with what little they have, as opposed to the culture which we are used to, where possessions keep getting bigger without ever being enough. The workers demand no wages, fully trusting in their employers to provide for their every essential need. The employers do not take advantage nor exploit such trust, for they teach these simple, uneducated folks the principle of saving for a better future instead of wasting hard earned cash on frivolous wants, which is their first inclination. And so the privileged learned leads and guides their poorer fellowmen, providing for their daily needs of food and shelter. And when the wages due to them accumulates enough, they get to satisfy a real need, like buying a motorcycle for transport, or building a real concrete house in place of the existing thatched one.   Working side by side with the labourers under the sun all day, it gives me a better perspective of life. It makes me appreciate the construction workers back home, who toil all day under the blazing heat to build us homes and roads, and appreciate the hard work involved, now that I have a taste of it. But at the same time, these workers work with a lightness of heart, stopping to rest once in a while with a chat or enjoyment of the occasional breeze.  And when the music played from the nearby stereo, they stopped to dance a little, and then resume work with such vigor and enthusiasm, it was both invigorating and inspiring.  

The children

The orphanage houses about 40 children, ranging from 5 months old to late teens, many given up by parents too poor to feed them. Yet, to these children, the orphanage is their home, the orphans their siblings, Budi and Peggy their parents. The kids are amazingly obedient and independent, yet they possess an innocence that is absent in the kids of Singapore. I saw a 2 year old feeding himself with no special treatment. Back home, kids that age are spoonfed with baby spoons, with food cut into minute pieces. Over there, the kids use regular spoons, said grace in unison before tucking in, clean up their food without supervision and returned the emptied plates in a neat pile. Food served was simple fare but comprised all necessary food groups: rice for carbohydrate, vegetables for fibre, egg for protein, ikan bilis for calcium. The children finished every single morsel of their food without complaints, unlike the children back home who are picky and wasteful. Children being children would fight over toys but their bickering stops the moment they were told to stop, no arguments, no defiance. This starkly contrast with the children back home who learn manipulation and defiance at an early age, with insolent challenges to adult authority being illogically credited as a sign of intelligence, the innocent obedience of the Kupang kids markedly and sadly non-existent. Being one who is severely allergic to the brats back home, the children of the orphanage both amazes and touches me with their obedience, sweet innocence and independence. 

The food

Wow, what can I say about the food in Kupang except that it is oh so cheap and oh so good. I had a daily ranking of the best that I have tasted and the ranking changes each day as one dish is better than the next. Peggy teased that my ranking of the food is akin to popular chart of the music scene. The seafood is fresh, with the fish market just next to the sea. Back home we have to check the colour of the fish gills and eyes to ascertain its freshness, over there the fishes and prawns were still jumping with life even as they were being packed into our shopping bags. No choosing is required as everything sold is fresh from the sea. 

Parting thoughts 

 I thought my trip to Kupang was a sacrifice on my part to be a blessing to the poor and the orphaned. But in the end it was I who was blessed - blessed by their Spirit of Giving; blessed by working shoulder to shoulder among humble, contented, generous, sincere, trusting people who love the Lord; blessed by the testimonies of Peggy and Budi, who walked by faith and experienced the miracle of God’s provisions and grace. When I asked Peggy where she got the energy and motivation to do all these work when she could so easily have chosen a “tai-tai” lifestyle, her oft heard reply is “don’t think, just do it”, simply because it’s the right thing to do. And Budi’s favourite phrase must be “God is in control”, testifying to his abundant experiences of God’s provision and grace. Indeed, I am much blessed, encouraged and inspired by these giving people who walk by faith and not by sight, to hear their testimonies and witness them walking the talk. I am blessed by the innocent, yet resilient and independent children who obey with absolute trust. The jaded, cynical me, who thought that life sucks because of the self serving, self absorbed people in it, wondered how these people can think that life is beautiful. Now I know that life can indeed be beautiful when you take yourself out of the endless and relentless pursuit of material, when you take your focus off the “me, myself and I”, learn to walk by faith for the betterment of others and experience God’s Comforts instead of freaking out over the smallest thing. We may think that we are rich and they are poor, but the joke might just be on us.  How many of us would actually step out of our comfort zone and do something about the injustice and poverty that we witness around us? It is one thing to be a tourist, see the sufferings of the poor, maybe feel a little sad, a little guilty, give a few words of encouragement and then move on, it’s totally another to sacrifice your comforts and actually do something about it. Peggy & Budi have set before us an exemplary example and deserve all our physical and monetary support and prayers in this selfless venture. In our throw-away culture of waste and consumerism, I would say change your attitude towards the material by living among these people for a while, let the simplicity of their lives influence you. You might just realize that food and water are precious, not something to be wasted in wanton extravagance, gluttony and greed, that while possessions need not consume your life, it is not something to be wasted either.  Be touched by their giving spirit, that we might learn to share our abundance instead of hoarding and accumulating endlessly.  And for those who feel choked by the poison of narcissism and materialism in Singapore, a stint in Roslin Orphanage, Kupang, might just be the detox you need! 

Still thinking about the trip, and missing it… :)) Best RdgsAmy