Day 2: Bringing the Cows Home

This morning the team, along with Bina Putra’s principal and teachers, made our way to a nearby cattle market to purchase the cows we would donate to the orphanage.

At the market, livestock such as goats and cattle were tied to rows of posts to be sold. Pak Simon, the principal, requested the breed, gender, and other specifications of cows the orphanage was looking for, which sellers then brought over for inspection. In the end, two healthy young Zebu cattle were purchased after being bargained down in price. With the leftover funds we had, the orphanage would top up to purchase a third cow the next day. Due to tradition, one cow would be delivered to the orphanage each successive day.

Cattle at the Market

Inspecting the Cow

There was much to be grateful for: that the weather made the trip possible, that satisfactory cows were chosen. During the reflections session at the end of the day many fundraising team members also commented on the happiness they had felt seeing their efforts culminate into the actual, tangible cow purchased.

Following that, we made our way back to Bina Putra orphanage, where the team conducted the first day of games and English education sessions. The students were split into two groups, where one half would attend the English sessions while the other would attend the games, and the groups would swap activities the next session on Day 4.

The English education sessions were split up into three classrooms. In each, team members conducted various games that would facilitate the learning of English. Despite the short time we had to amend the planned activities the day before as well as the language barrier, the team reacted well on their feet to tweak activities as necessary, and the programmes ran smoothly.

This was in no small part due to how receptive the students were to participate and to engage us as well. With the team being more spread out today running different activities, we did not always have translators with us. Instead, we had to make use of signing and actions, mixing our sentences with the small bits of vocabulary we knew of each other’s language. Despite this, there was the excitement of eventually understanding and being understood, organic interactions that brought about a connection despite the barriers. When our limited grasp of their language fell short, they prompted us encouragingly with words we had been trying to find, teaching us as we tried to teach them.

“ The interactions during the English education activity was a two-sided learning experience rather than a one way, impersonal delivery of pure content."

- English Education IC Brendan Wang

English Education Lesson Underway

The games organised consisted of station games, mass games, and a mass dance session. Due to the lack of translators the giving of instructions was at times confusing, but similarly to English education, efforts from both side eventually allowed communication to happen.

The station masters also had to think on their feet to solve problems that arose.Time allocated to different activities were changed according to the levels of enthusiasm in order to allow the students to enjoy themselves as much as possible. Thankfully, the weather also remained sunny, which allowed outdoor activities such as mass dance to proceed smoothly.

Games IC Emily Tan shared that these events posed a different challenge to what we had been used to previously in having the opportunity to plan events months in advance for a known demographic. However, the student’s open-minded receptiveness to the different activities planned meant that they were enjoyed by all nonetheless.

Mass Dance!

Thereafter, we played a game of Captain’s ball together with the students. While it was an intense and exhilarating game, there was no bitter rivalry or extreme competitiveness. Instead, both sides approached it as a means to interact more with each other, and a time to have fun.

Midway through the game, we were overtaken by surprised as the Indonesian students by the sides started chanting “Singapore! Singapore!” to cheer our team on, even as we faced extremely strong opponents. Though the match ended as a loss for our team we still felt as if we had gained something infinitely more valuable - to experience the immense empathy of the students in the care they showed for their guests, and the chance to play a good game of sports together without any hard feelings of rivalry. Through gestures such as the shaking of hands and the group photo taken afterwards, the sportsmanship demonstrated by those present was indeed something we could all learn.

The day ended once more with a reflection session. Our teachers stressed on the importance of international mindedness, leveraging on our experiences of communicating with the students and the language barrier faced. It was emphasised that it is by learning a different language that we can truly begin to understand a different culture, and that what we had experienced was only a taste of the true richness of another culture.