My initial plan for Christmas this year was actually to
spend it with friends in Singapore. However, even after 4 months, we could not
get a fixed answer as to when we are getting our KITAs (1 year Student Visa)
from Immigration.
I have already spent a week on holiday, and I was feeling
how much time I am losing rotting inside the dormitory in Kampus. So, even if
that we already had a good sign that we are finally getting our Kitas in a few
days, i decided to go ahead. The other thing that I thought was that I came to Indonesia
to see it, hence i took this scholarship, and I better use the time in my
scholarship visa to do as planned.
Nevertheless, I did not want to have an extraordinarily
casual Christmas. Gladly, my couchsurfing host in Jambi know about the
orphanages and homes for the aged around town.
I chose the home for the aged since we have just recently
done a feeding session in an orphanage in Padang. Plus, I have been missing my
grandma, and I thought that will help out a bit.
The morning after my arrival, Laser, my couchsurfing host's staff in his English Tutorial class accompanied me to the home for the aged. We
were escorted to the kitchen and was asked to arrange with the kitchen head.
In fact, they have a steady menu of food to cook. I asked
them though if it would be ok to serve something not the usual, and said it
would be better. The seniors who were there asked for shrimps. When we asked
the kitchen head, fortunately, it was manageable.
The next day, I came back early to help them a bit to
prepare. Yet, the staff must have been so acquianted with their task already
that I almost did not do anything.d enough not to be able to walk the distance
anymore to the kitchen.
Each has his own room in a house of 5 rooms. Others, the
stronger one, get the food for their peers, while some staff had to personally
deliver the food to some others.
The seniors began coming around 11am, as I was told. There
is no single place for them to eat lunch altogether, and also that some are age
d enough not to be able to walk the distance anymore to the kitchen.
Have I had an
institution like this, I would no doubt hire these 2 lady staffs. There was
obviously more than just work in these people that keeping them in their job
(later to find out that they are not even regular employees but as rather
casuals in the institution even after several years of service).
Thanks to friends Julie Tinio and Major Cruz for sharing in the expenses. We had an excess and so We bought books to be donated to a library in a remote village in Jambi.
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