St.Nicholas

After two weeks of office work, today Naima and I finally got to interact with the children.
I thought there was a significant improvement in my interaction with the children today as I'm beginning to understand their body languages (e.g. a girl playfully demanded that I have to sit cross-legged like she was, so she pointed at her legs, then at mine, then at a spot beside her); I've called a few of them by their names and they've responded; I was actually able to have a proper conversation with one of them; and most importantly, I'm adjusting to the way they behave - I feel more comfortable spending time with them now. I also think the children are beginning to recognise me now, as one of them smiled so widely when i said Hello to her.

We were basically playing with the children in the playroom, and I found that the toy that they liked the most was Lego (probably because they liked the feeling of constructing things with their hands), so I thought of the idea of asking people in Uplands whether they have any old Lego they would like to give away, so that the children in St. Nicholas would have more to play with.

interacting with the children at St.Nicholas

Today after school, Midori,Ivan,Phuminat,Naima,Chih Yao, Maiki and I took a bus down to St. Nicholas School.

We divided into groups according to the areas we preferred helping out in. Phuminat and I chose to interact directly with the children. We were brought to the playroom to play with the children. At first, Phuminat and I were very lost, because we had great difficulty in communicating with the children, as some of them were not only visually impaired, but also deaf. And those who weren't deaf, spoke in Malay, which neither Phuminat and I are very good at. After some time, i decided to look for one of the House Mothers (who looked after the children), to ask her to give us a brief introduction for each child, so that we could get to know them better. The House Mothers also explained to us that we had to try communicate with the children by sign language (which Phumi and I had trouble doing too...), and that the children recognises us by our smell, so the next time that we visit, they will know it's us again.

I have to say that i was a bit hestitant in interacting with the children today, as i was clueless and a bit nervous about communicating with them, so today I mostly only observed them. And i was very impressed and moved watching these young children, who had lost so much in life, still being able to laugh and have fun, by living their lives with their other senses. Although we did not directly interact with the children much, i did get to know the children individually better today, and I aim for my next visit to create an even deeper understanding and bond with these children. I hope that in a few weeks time, I would be able to communicate with them easily and comfortably.