Sunday, December 27, 2015

Christmas in Panti Jompo Budi Luhur (Home for the Aged) in Jambi



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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