A 2-Day Visit to Ti-Ratana

Haha, another long delay for this post to be created. This Ti-Ratana post is written for the sake of those who went for the visit to ease their journal writing as well as providing an avenue for photo downloading (since my pen drive isn't able to fit all the pictures and videos). Since we are supposed to write our journals, I will put in a summary of all the activities that we had done.

28 August 2008 (Thursday)

12.00pm - 1.00pm (KT1)

Ms Thama informed us about the challenge that we are going to face in this semester. We had chosen our own groups and everybody had their own ideas of place to visit: Aquaria KLCC, Rumah Charis, Zoo Negara, Ti-Ratana, SJMC child ward, etc.

4 September 2008 (Thursday)

12.00pm - 1.00pm (KT1)

Ms Thama requested our name of place of visit and their contact information. My group initially chose Rumah Charis.

3.00pm (Neway)

When we were celebrating Dian's birthday at Neway, Yee Von was busy calling Rumah Charis. And then, she started complaining about inappropriate it is for us to go there. We decided to change to Ti-Ratana.

12 September 2008 (Friday)

10.00am (TBS Ground Floor)

After Business Statistics lecture, Yee Von got her confirmation to conduct community service at Ti-Ratana orpahange home. Who knew that we ended up cleaning the old folks home too.

6 October 2008 (Monday)

10.00am - 12.00pm (KT2)

Ms Thama was concerned about our progress in our community service and she called each group out to question them. We told her that 3 groups are going to Ti-Ratana together. She was a bit shocked to hear that so many people are doing this together and secondly, we had changed our place of visit.

10 October 2008 (Friday)

1.00pm (TBS Mezzanine Floor)

We had a meeting of our plans for the next day and what to buy for them. Since the manager of Ti-Ratana, Ms Christine told Yee Von that she will be the one delegating and ordering us on that day, we didn't really have much to plan. Meanwhile, we arranged transport - Bowie, TJ and Tien Jiun are the drivers; Ken was planning to go there by himself. Yee Von printed out the map for all the drivers, including Ken.

11 October 2008 (Saturday)

8.15am

Waiting for their guys to appear at TBS

9.00am

Reached Ti-Ratana's Main Office

10.00am

Warm welcome and being brought into the dungeon

10.20am

Let the games begin!

This games is called "Blown by the Wind"

Rachel not knowing that her knee was about to be injured for playing this game

10.45am

What's happening at the Underground?
Looks like the boys like Wan Yi pretty much ^^

[Missing scene - Musical Chair conducted by us for the kids]

Being isolated by the youth!

Yee Von joining in the the fun
(For your info, I'm being enclosed by the UltraKids)

Had Wan Yi managed to shake off her magnet-like attraction to join us?

Eu Ginn making a man-made tornado with the playful boy

Posing with the camera-boy who will be snapping most of the photos after this picture

This is an example of photo taken by the camera-boy called Xiao Yuan

11.10am

Now what's happening back upstairs?
Looks like Nicole has just found her twin sister - Vivian
(But Kar Mun & Tien Jiun are both showing some weird expression)

11.20am

Group photo at Ti-Ratana new block main entrance stage

Where is the cheque given by Padini to Ti-Ratana?
(I thought we were holding it for a second?)

11.30am

Socialising session begins now
(Photo taken by Xiao Yuan)

Yee Von carrying Xiao Yuan
(contrast of expressions)

Wan Yi, Kar Mun and Li Jhuin posing with the cutie-pie

Controlling the naughty girl

It seems the playful kid doesn't know when to stop
Climbing beyond the limits (guess it suits Eu Ginn's personality)

11.45am

Everyone is enjoying at the front hall of Ti-Ratana

Nicole, Vivian and Jeffery playing with cell phones
(By the way, the children really enjoy IT)

Rachel and her new friend who looked slightly shocked

TJ and Mun Yee playing with the boy

Li Jhuin playing The Fruit Game with the girls
(Too bad all the fruits requested by her contained worms)

TJ handling the boys

Eu Ginn supervising The Fruit Game
(Mun Yee is going to be indulged into hyper fun)

12.00pm

Anybody wants free carrier service?
(This extremely short video is supposed to be a photo)

"I don't want to be rode by you!"

The mighty TJ comforting Ah Yuan who can't stop crying by spinning him in circles

What's with Bowie and the girl, I wonder?

12.30pm

After socialising for an hour, I decided to become the explorer.
This was what I discovered at their kitchen.
(I guess nobody knows this except me)
Is this sufficient for the 30 children and the few caretakers?

Pouring out rice from small packets into the huge bucket

This is done by the helpful ones

After exploring the underground, I continue socialising for another hour before we leave the orphanage of Ti-Ratana. The next day is the cleaning day which is held at the old folks home of Ti-Ratana. Well, this welfare place is really enormous and thank God we went there in 3 groups (16 people).

12 October 2008 (Sunday)

Now the boring part of this post begins. We went to the old folks home of Ti-Ratana to realise that we had to clean the filthy place. All the photos below are dull because they are just for other members to download. But I'll make it interesting by adding some comments to the photos. The last section would be the video taken by Yee Von.

9.30am

Reached Ti-Ratana and Yee Von delegate the work by dividing us into 3 sessions
Starts with me, Li Jhuin, Germaine, Wan Yi and Bowie

This is Li Jhuin sweeping the corridor of the women section

Germaine sweeping the front of the women section
Back of picture standing near the gate is a scary lady
The ladies had conflict of being bossy and tried to order us to do different things
In the end, we don't know whose orders to follow

10.00am

Ken decided to request the ladies so that we can clean the Buddha statue
Me, Ken and Bowie managed to wipe the tall statue until it becomes sparkling

10.40am

Bowie and me cleaning the windows of the rooms in the women section
Surprisingly, they can sleep on their beds next to the windows while we were wiping it
(Isn't it dusty?)

10.50am

Now is the worst room that I have ever seen in my life
It really stinks because there is shit under the bed
(I wonder it's bird shit, lizard shit or human shit?)

Wan Yi was the courageous one to do the first cleaning which is to mop it away
Next, me, Li Jhuin and Wan Yi arranged the mountain of stuff in the room
(Took us quite a while since 2 women were ordering us to do it differently)

We were given masks and gloves by one of the ladies
I have never seen so many gloves before (it's like taking tissue out of the tissue box)

By this time, reinforcements had arrived
The third team (Kar Mun, Tien Jiun, Jeff, Kaylie and Eu Ginn) had reached
They helped in our sweaty job

11.15am

Me and Li Jhuin cleaning up the toilet
(specially built to suit the handicapped people living there)

Germaine and Jeff taking photos of each other doing work
Jeff first time holding a broom in his life

11.35am

Not knowingly, the second team secretly seeped in after their long breakfast
They quickly started their work at the men section of the old folks home
These 5 are Nicole, Rachel, Yee Von, TJ and Mun Yee
They started with sweeping, moping and cleaning the toilets

Kaylie cleaning the toilet side by side with Mun Yee

Nicole giving Rachel a helping "eye"

Tien Jiun helping Nicole to do The Thing that everybody is so reluctant to do

Even Li Jhuin has to use her gloves to do The Thing
Everybody is complaining that there is no point in using gloves since it will get wet and the hands will feel uncomfortable

Same goes to Yee Von
So cheerful in every photo
Guess she like doing work very much

12.00pm

Time for some toilet fun
Everybody washing the mop in the washroom
And then TJ started playing with the gloves
See those gloves being filled with water, they're kind of floury
Yee Von was so afraid of the gloves and she kept running away from TJ

Hey, there's special treatment for this man
He's watching The Drive of Life with a DVD player while being fed by a volunteer

The PCD enjoying themselves

Now for the fan wiping session (altogether 10 fans):

Started with Eu Ginn who's the initiator of this session

Bad merging of these 2 photos
Rachel really high already!!

Wan Yi's turn to wipe with pieces of tissue

Continued by Li Jhuin with the same fan

Mun Yee cleaning the fan at the wooden part of the old folks home
At first, we thought that we finished our work
But we soon realised that we were so wrong
Because there's one more wooden block at the men's section

Kaylie wiping the wall fan
I had to adjust it back in the end

Ken and Bowie sharing the same sort of fate

12.30pm

Everybody was listening to the Karaoke set that they have here
Too bad it played those local 20s Chinese songs only

On the other hand, these 3 were busy washing the dishes after the old folks had their lunch
How helpful of them

12.40pm

We were learning how to make animal decorations from ang pau packets
A friendly lady was more than glad to teach us her secrets

1.10pm

These are the food and drinks that we bought for the orphans
Actually, they were chosen by Kar Mun, Tien Jiun and Li Jhuin at Mid Valley
While they were shopping, of course

Last one, ended with Jeff cleaning up the mess
Wonder what suddenly triggered him to do so?

Li Jhuin, Wan Yi and Kar Mun stayed back for quite some time to help out
They are the truthful ones and should deserve most of the credit

A short video cut into 4 parts:

In total, we spent 5 hours each in both days from 9.00am to 2.00pm at Ti-Ratana.

Finally, thanks to our organiser, Lim Yee Von who did all the planning and management!