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.
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