My 4 Days In Ipoh, Penang and Batang Melaka

IPOH
It has been 2 years since I last went over to Ipoh. I was quite excited to go back to the boys' home as it is a very welcoming place to be.

Capt Hary, Uncle Freddy (who flew in from Australia for the SALT training), Candidate Fiona (from Kuching) and I travelled for almost 9 hours on fri to reach Ipoh at midnight. On Sat, we went over to the Boys' Home to conduct a game for the boys there. Their ages were from 9 to 17 and there were more than 40 of them that morning. I had a tough time thinking of a game that I could use for so many boys in such a wide age group. Thank God Bernie suggest, back in Singapore, that I should try out the Candle War and I did just that. The real war, however, was not with the candles, but with the explanation of the game. Not all of them could understand English and Mandarin, but all were fluent in Cantonese, including the Indian boys. There was no way I could explain in my broken Cantonese and so it took me long time to do the explanation. By the time I finished, the boys just went off playing with the candles and completing all the tasks without adhering to the rules! Then we tried explaining and playing the game another round. Slightly more successful but one group won without completing the tasks, so I had to declare the other group the winner. Thank God that Capt came in to save the day with his little message at the end.


After the game we had free time and I showed some magic tricks. There was a large crowd following me after that and I had to move from place to place to get the perfect angle so as not to give my trick away. Being with the boys was quite an experience. They were very interested in conversations and would crowd around to listen if there were not occupied with something.

In the afternoon, I did a Sexuality talk for about 30 youths, majority boys from the home and 5 girls from the children's home. It was interesting to finally be able to do a version from the Christian perspective. I was aware that I needed to be sensitive in what I was saying as some of them might have some issues and I was right about it. One of the boys wrote this in Chinese and put it in the Q&A box, " What's so good about sex? If it is good, why did my parent do it and then abandon me? Did they just do it for the pleasure?" At that point of time, my heart was filled with compassion and I felt sad for the boy who wrote it.

The picture on the left is of one of the boys who was very hospitable. His name is Boy Boy, for real!. It was hard to believe at first but then I had no choice but to believe it when I saw his name tag on his school uniform on Monday.

I told a story in Sunday school the next morning. The initial plan that Maj Leong had was for Didi to do the Sunday School but it was unfortunate that she couldn't come along with us. The main service was quite amazing. The congregation was majority boys and girls from both homes and less than 10 adults. They have an organ and some guitars but no one knew how to play. So the whole praise & worship was done in acapella. Capt and I agreed that we should bring a team to teach them music the next time round.


PENANG
Our next stop was Penang and we left after the service. The boys in the home there were quite different; more urbanized and reserved. Spoke with some of the boys who were at the camp. Didn't get to take any pictures there as my phone batt went flat after the boys in Ipoh spent hours transfering the Christian songs to their own phone via bluetooth. We then went for dinner with Maj Mary and her children. Carmen, Alicia and Caleb were sad that Didi couldn't go and I teased Caleb for being disappointed cos he missed one chance to see the 'love of his life'. LOL.

BATANG MELAKA
On Monday, we travelled a few hours to Batang Melaka. By the time we reached there, it was 8pm. Didn't see much of the place as there was not much to see. But gathering from Capt Chong, they also needed quite a bit of help in what they are doing. I admire him and his wife as Batang Melaka is so out of place and the support and resources they can get is very little but they are doing their best and obviously passionate in what they do.


While driving back I was reflecting on my trip. I feel so much to want to help these places, to equip them with skills that they can use in their work. They are in so many ways lacking in so many things that we just take for granted here; manpower, resources, skills, support, physical things. I would love to visit them again, to encourage and empower.