By Karima
When looking for a CAS project to be a part of, the only one that really caught my attention was 'Dreams we believe in'. This is because i had seen from the previous year how dedicated the students were to helping out this cause and i thought that the kids of the Mercy Center must have had a real impact on them, I wanted to be a part of that. |
Helping them make the cards meant helping them to draw pictures of a snowman, how to say certain Thai words in English, Some of them did not know how to write so those of us who knew how to speak Thai stood by their side listening to their requests while writing it for them. Once the kids were done and restless we played small games such as 'piggie in the middle' where a small group would stand in a circle tossing around a small ball without the person in the middle catching it. Other times some of us would carry around the smaller children playing games with our hands and i even managed to have a sword play with a little girl who would beat me continuously.
What i usually expect when visiting an orphanage or people living in poor conditions are the people looking sad at what they don't have but every single time i am always amazed at how truly content they are with their lives, they have nothing to compare it to so to them what they have is enough and they are happy just like that. These kids were so energetic, happy and polite that throughout the visit there were times where i forgot i was in a room with HIV affected kids and it just felt like I was at school playing and talking with the students there. It was such a wonderful experience to help out with a cause where i get to actually spend time with the kids weekly whereas some organizations just hand in the money without getting to know anything about who the kids are. This way i get a personal encounter with every single one of them and every time i leave i look forward to my next visit.
The second visit was on the 17th of December where we were giving them the Christmas presents and Mathilda, one of the leaders had organized for a Swedish restaurant to donate their food such as burgers, meat balls, bread and corn for this particular day. As soon as we entered the Center with the big bags of presents the kids faces completely lit up and ran towards us excitedly. the way it was organized was that we played games with the kids in a small room such as 'musical chairs' where there would be a circle of chairs, music playing and the kids would have to dance around the chairs, as soon as the music stopped they would have to find a chair to sit on, the person with no chair was out. Every time the music continued to play we took out one chair making it harder every time. We played 'Simon says' where someone who could speak Thai would be Simon and tell them to do many things such as 'Simon says touch your nose' 'Simon says dance around' 'Simon says hug the teacher' and i would stand next to him demonstrating in case the kids were unsure. At one point we let the music just play on the kids would start dancing not stop until we resumed with more games. Once again we played 'piggie in the middle' and as well as 'musical statues' where the music would play and they would have to dance, when the music stopped they would have to become statues in the position they were in when the music stopped not being able to move. A judge would come around and those who moved were out. At about lunch time we had set out the tables with the Swedish food and some Thai food such as fried rice which the kids had devoured, obviously hungry from all the activities. After lunch they sat patiently waiting for the presents to be distributed along with the cards from their receivers and it was the best thing watching them find exactly what they had asked for. Some kids wanted to save their presents, refusing to open it, wanting to keep it brand new.
That day was amazing to see kids so active and excited to each get something they wanted for a holiday and i realized how much i loved being involved with something like this, in being able to spend time with them and help to make some of their dreams really come true. This CAS project had the outcome in undertaking new challenges for me because working with kids has never been very easy for me, i simply just do not know how to handle them or give them what they want but that was because i had never really spent more than half an hour with them until i spent about three hours with the kids of the Mercy center on my visits. By the end of the day i had this one girl clinging to me because i had spent so much time with her that day and she kept wanting me to play with her. This was a breakthrough for me and i knew that the next time i came back i could handle them just as well as i did and this would really help me in the future because there will be a time when i have to face another group of kids and i can do it knowing that i did it well in the past. Something else i can extrapolate from this to apply in my life more generally would be the way i had to communicate with the children. i do not know how to speak Thai so communicating with them was quite a challenge but in the end i managed to understand them just as well as they could understand me. I used my hand gestures, objects around me and demonstrating things myself to really get myself heard. This will definitely be useful in the future when i go to different communities that don't speak English.
The most recent encounter I had with the kids was Saturday 21st of January. The leaders of 'DWBI' had organized a Mercy fun day where the kids came to NIST and did many different activities such as swim, bake cupcakes and cookies, art and play football. i helped out in the baking cupcakes with the older girls who handled things so maturely and seemed so experienced in baking, in the end their cupcakes turned out better than ours. There were five tables separated around the room with all the ingredients needed so the girls split into three per table with those of us teaching the lesson in the front. It was such a calming experience working with teenagers our age who knew what they were doing the whole way through. Each group made 12 vanilla cupcakes using their own choice of colors which all turned out to look amazing. When i walked around the school looking at the other activities happening around the kids looked so happy to be in a change of environment doing things they can't normally do due to lack of resources. I believe they had a fun day and look forward to the next time we get to host them rather than them hosting us every week.
What i usually expect when visiting an orphanage or people living in poor conditions are the people looking sad at what they don't have but every single time i am always amazed at how truly content they are with their lives, they have nothing to compare it to so to them what they have is enough and they are happy just like that. These kids were so energetic, happy and polite that throughout the visit there were times where i forgot i was in a room with HIV affected kids and it just felt like I was at school playing and talking with the students there. It was such a wonderful experience to help out with a cause where i get to actually spend time with the kids weekly whereas some organizations just hand in the money without getting to know anything about who the kids are. This way i get a personal encounter with every single one of them and every time i leave i look forward to my next visit.
The second visit was on the 17th of December where we were giving them the Christmas presents and Mathilda, one of the leaders had organized for a Swedish restaurant to donate their food such as burgers, meat balls, bread and corn for this particular day. As soon as we entered the Center with the big bags of presents the kids faces completely lit up and ran towards us excitedly. the way it was organized was that we played games with the kids in a small room such as 'musical chairs' where there would be a circle of chairs, music playing and the kids would have to dance around the chairs, as soon as the music stopped they would have to find a chair to sit on, the person with no chair was out. Every time the music continued to play we took out one chair making it harder every time. We played 'Simon says' where someone who could speak Thai would be Simon and tell them to do many things such as 'Simon says touch your nose' 'Simon says dance around' 'Simon says hug the teacher' and i would stand next to him demonstrating in case the kids were unsure. At one point we let the music just play on the kids would start dancing not stop until we resumed with more games. Once again we played 'piggie in the middle' and as well as 'musical statues' where the music would play and they would have to dance, when the music stopped they would have to become statues in the position they were in when the music stopped not being able to move. A judge would come around and those who moved were out. At about lunch time we had set out the tables with the Swedish food and some Thai food such as fried rice which the kids had devoured, obviously hungry from all the activities. After lunch they sat patiently waiting for the presents to be distributed along with the cards from their receivers and it was the best thing watching them find exactly what they had asked for. Some kids wanted to save their presents, refusing to open it, wanting to keep it brand new.
That day was amazing to see kids so active and excited to each get something they wanted for a holiday and i realized how much i loved being involved with something like this, in being able to spend time with them and help to make some of their dreams really come true. This CAS project had the outcome in undertaking new challenges for me because working with kids has never been very easy for me, i simply just do not know how to handle them or give them what they want but that was because i had never really spent more than half an hour with them until i spent about three hours with the kids of the Mercy center on my visits. By the end of the day i had this one girl clinging to me because i had spent so much time with her that day and she kept wanting me to play with her. This was a breakthrough for me and i knew that the next time i came back i could handle them just as well as i did and this would really help me in the future because there will be a time when i have to face another group of kids and i can do it knowing that i did it well in the past. Something else i can extrapolate from this to apply in my life more generally would be the way i had to communicate with the children. i do not know how to speak Thai so communicating with them was quite a challenge but in the end i managed to understand them just as well as they could understand me. I used my hand gestures, objects around me and demonstrating things myself to really get myself heard. This will definitely be useful in the future when i go to different communities that don't speak English.
The most recent encounter I had with the kids was Saturday 21st of January. The leaders of 'DWBI' had organized a Mercy fun day where the kids came to NIST and did many different activities such as swim, bake cupcakes and cookies, art and play football. i helped out in the baking cupcakes with the older girls who handled things so maturely and seemed so experienced in baking, in the end their cupcakes turned out better than ours. There were five tables separated around the room with all the ingredients needed so the girls split into three per table with those of us teaching the lesson in the front. It was such a calming experience working with teenagers our age who knew what they were doing the whole way through. Each group made 12 vanilla cupcakes using their own choice of colors which all turned out to look amazing. When i walked around the school looking at the other activities happening around the kids looked so happy to be in a change of environment doing things they can't normally do due to lack of resources. I believe they had a fun day and look forward to the next time we get to host them rather than them hosting us every week.