Hello people!
This weekend has been SUPAHH CRAZEHHH! Things happened and I'm super blessed. Maybe I'm going to divide the stories into two posts.
So, in the first post, I'd love to share about a recent visit to Rawinala Orphanage which was last Saturday. Me and some youth from the church went there to visit the children and to have some fun with them. We thought we would bless them but then we were so wrong because in the end we were the ones who were blessed by the children. Truly grateful for the experience.
A glimpse about Rawinala Orphanage, the orphanage is built for children with special needs. Children who are visually impaired or having multiple handicapped like visually impaired and mentally disabled. The Rawinala Orphanage is acting not just as a home for the orphans but also giving out education for children with special needs. The total number of the children that The Rawinala Orphanage is taking care of is around 40 children. Some of them still have a family, some are not. For those who are still having a family, they can just come to the orphanage to study and then go home afterwards or they can stay at the dorm in the orphanage during the school days and on weekends, the parents can pick them up. The policy is encouraged so the parents would need to be responsible of their own children instead of abandoning their disabled children.
Other than children, The Rawinala Orphanage also has another dorm to take care of the mentally disabled adults, for now the dorm is intended only for male adults. The people who lived in the other dorm are the people who have no family and no one to take care of them.
It was truly one of those life changing experiences. I am so blessed to have joined the team and meeting these extraordinary children. Their excitement and uplifting spirit have made us feel ashamed of ourselves because we didn't come with that much excitement. Totally a slap in the face.
Despite of their disabilities, some of these children played music instruments and sings. I can really say that they are so good at it! I think music is the thing that can support them when they're having a hard time. I also heard from the care taker of the Orphanage, Ibu Sundari, that these children would have their own music record. Which was so awesome!
We divided the youth from our church into groups of two people which each would be forming a group with the children from Rawinala. It was quite difficult at first to adjust with the situation but I'm so proud and humbled by the youth from our church because they were so willing and so compassionate to interact with the children and made an instant friendship bonding. And when each group was asked to make a performance, they were so excited and gave out the best. It was awesome to see how each group performed their best acts in singing and played music.
After the praise and worship time, a quick sermon and also performances from each group, we were then having lunch with the children. I sat next to a child named Louis. Louis is visually impaired but that condition doesn't take his spirit away. He's so chatty and fun to talk with, he also loves to sing. Since he cannot see, Louis needed to first touch his plate to figure out where the rice and side dishes were, after that he would tried to eat with his spoon. It was so hard to see that because I am able to see my food before I eat it, I know where every thing is on my plate, I can put aside things that I don't like before I eat and I can see if the food looks nice or not. I can scoop the rice easily with my spoon while for Louis sometimes he took an empty spoon to his mouth because he couldn't even see if he had scooped the rice or not. It took some time for Louis to finish his meal. I felt so humbled by the experience and realised how I have taken things given to me for granted. The sight that God has given me, I have never really been so grateful that I am trusted with such privilege.
Every children in Rawinala Orphanage are trained to be independent. They are taught to do things on their own. After every meal, they are required to wash their own plate and spoon. They are also taught how to wash their own clothes and how to iron their clothes. On days out, they even taught on how to go shopping at the market and how to differ the size of the money that they use to buy things. In short, every child need to be independent because that's what they would need to be in the real life, out there in the society.
It was a humbling experience to also see how the people who work at Rawinala taking care of each children. Their patience, their love and their understanding of the children are beyond measure, especially to deal with the children with multiple handicapped. I've been involved in many social activities before but when I was there at Rawinala, I can say that nothing can be compared to the work that they do in Rawinala. The patience and love they showed to the kids are respectable. I gave my utmost honor for them.
It was hard to part with the children in the end of the visit. Even though it was tiring but we were so much blessed by what we experienced at the orphanage and we're so excited to come again next time. It's a privilege to be with those extraordinary children whom have taught us a lot about being grateful and to care for other people. Thank you our dear friends from Rawinala, it's been a wonderful time and it's been great to have known each and every one of you.
ps: if anyone happened to read this blog and want to know more about this orphanage and ways to help them. drop a comment and i'll be more than glad to help you :)
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