A Trip Down Memory Lane Part II

This is a picture from the very first IMPACTS project that we had in Peru, started some three and a half years ago. It was a project in which we went down every Saturday to teach English to a group of orphans from a Catholic orphanage. This is a small party that we had with the kids at the end of their first cycle of learning.

For most of us, it was the first time that we were teaching children. The lack of experience and know-how brought forth a lot of interesting anecdotes. For example, a kid that I was teaching once crawled underneath his chair and refused to come out. I tried every means possible to get the kid out, but to no avail, and finally I had to go out of the classroom to get help.

A team of about 10 volunteers, comprising mainly fresh graduates from the university, had come down from Singapore for a 12-day visit at that time, and one of the events which they liked the most was organizing a day of fun for some 80 kids at the orphanage, including telematches, games and food. Have you ever tried cooking for 80 kids? The picture of the volunteers cutting vegetables in our kitchen and laughing away about the task which seemed like a never-ending story, and the huge cauldron in which these volunteers cooked soup for the children remains vividly striking in my memories. On top of that, they were trying very hard to use their "cavemen" Spanish which they had learnt in a crash course to manage the kids, and it was quite a warm if somewhat funny sight to see the kids cuddling up to them and telling them with the most angelic faces that they had pronounced their Spanish words wrongly.

An air-ticket from Singapore to Peru is not cheap, and for most of these fresh graduates, it must have cost them a significant part of their savings. However, I am sure that what they got in return was an experience that would last them a lifetime, and a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that cannot be bought with money. Through their interaction with one another and with the natives in a foreign culture, they discovered new insights into their personal strengths and weaknesses.

I suppose that one of the biggest returns from their trip here must have been a change in their perspectives. As they saw the level of poverty that could be seen in some shanty towns in the outer suburbs of Lima, they began to better appreciate the many luxuries and securities that they had taken for granted in Singapore. For many children in Singapore, the question that they would often ask their parents at meal times is: "What are we going to eat?" Unfortunately, for many of these children who live in the shanty towns, the question that they are constantly asking is: "When are we going to eat?"

Our first project was a learning curve for us. Although we enjoyed the many "gotcha" moments with the kids, our classes were generally fraught with several problems of discipline of the kids. This could have been a combination of our lack of classroom teaching experience at that time, as well as the fact that several of these kids were rather hyperactive. We were also probably taking on too many classes at the same time. However, the biggest problem we faced was the administration of the orphanage. Due to the fact that there were very few staff, it was often difficult for them to ensure that all the kids could turn up for the Saturday classes. We often found some of the kids running around instead of attending the classes, and when we questioned them, they would reply that they had to attend another workshop. Due to the highly irregular attendance of the kids, and the failure of the administration to work out any system to ensure some continuity in the learning of the kids, we finally had to end our project here at this orphanage and look for a new partner for our IMPACTS project.