By Sandra Lee
I’ve come to a conclusion. Writing a general splurge about how we serviced the House of Love will not suffice. It was much more emotional than that, and each experience was very personal. So- I’m going to show you how lovely, mature, intelligent, and memorable the children and staff all were. This blog includes a collection of stories by a few Rovers and Advisors.
Sir Joseph (the Father): Having the Rover Scouts visit means more than just having 29 more volunteers. It gives the kids a chance to meet people outside of the orphanage. They get to learn things that they can’t get from books. It gives them a chance to practice their English skills too. Most importantly, it shows them that there is a whole group of people who care about them. It warms my heart to see how happy they are to have you here.
Paul Leung (Advisor): The amount of responsibility the children had surprised me. When we went to clean the dorms, they were very eager to help. We walked in with buckets and they offered to wring the towels for us so we can work together. They were very efficient and did well in following instructions. It was nice to see that they had a good understanding of what chores and responsibilities were. It was a good experience for us as well because we got to help out in small doses that, at the end of day, really meant something. We wanted to help them clean so we can make their lives a little better. It was good that we were there because we provided a service with resources that other volunteers might not have. We cleaned their dorms, library, kitchen, and common areas, which took us almost the entire day. I’m very proud of the work my team did there.
Tanya Lee (Rover): After all the dusting and wiping, a couple of us took a break to sit down with the kids in the living room. I would say that hanging out with the kids is a humbling type of service. I met a couple of kids who just recently moved into the orphanage. They were telling me that they cried the night before. It wasn’t just that we could be there so they could talk about their feelings; it was more about being a role model that they could potentially look up to.
Hannah Lin (Rover): It was moving to see that despite their circumstances, they were very high-spirited.
James Ng (Rover): I am used to working with a larger kitchen and I found it difficult to work with limited equipment. Working on the kitchen team was meaningful for me because I got the chance to share our culture by showing the kids what Canadians eat for dinner. I didn’t get to interact with the kids very much, but I liked contributing to the new experiences they can get from meeting our Rover Scout Group.
Lester Lo (Advisor) and Charles Mak (Rover): We tried to run a program that was similar to a one that we run with our auxiliary scout groups. It was funny to see that the kids were actually more eager to learn how to tie knots, make bracelets, and learn first aid skills. It might have been the way they were brought up in the orphanage, or that the kids back at home were distracted at the time. It was just really nice to see that they were so enthusiastic about what we taught them, and in turn, it reinforced that good feeling we got about being Scout leaders.
