What a day!

Today I have the privilege to be part of Tzu Ching’s activity to the SILRA Home. SILRA is the home for the old folks that are suffering from leprosy and being ostracized by their families. I took part in the short skid that portrayed the harsh reality of life, facing death pain and suffering and the best attitude to approach this. This is supposed to encourage, motivate the 阿公and 啊婆 there to take things to their stride. Although they cannot change tomorrow, cannot predict tomorrow, at least they can life today to the fullest and we are there to add color to their life.

What I am amazed is the fact that there are many people still has the passion to serve those in needs without asking for any rewards. There are many people from secondary schools, Junior college universities, those in the workforce and even the “almost senior citizen” come to participate without expecting any rewards. I think that to them, being able to help others itself is a reward to life. In university life, it is sad to say that most of the students take part in any community service only to fulfill their course requirements.

There is a course called Leadership and Teambuilding where we are given 14 weeks to engage in community activities, experience, evaluate and supposed to learn from what we have seen. We are expected to write our Learning Journal and make a final presentation where the professor will decide whether we have learn some meaningful stuff.

At the presentation’s question and answer sessions, many questions will be shot to inquire our depth and learning process. Some of the questions are indeed hard since different groups will try to prove that their project is the most meaningful one and hence, determine the highest grade. However at the end of the day, after the course itself, how many of us will really remember and learn to serve our community?

The most beautiful thing is that they do not go to SILRA to preach about Buddhism and expect the elderly to convert to any belief. Although Tzu Chi is under the umbrella of Buddhist society and most of the volunteers are Buddhist followers, they do have the tendency to operate under the banner of religion. Neither do they require the new followers to be immersed in Buddhism.

I was helping my friend to edit an article that is meant to be part of a newsletter. It mentioned about the emergency relief efforts undertaken by Tzu Chi followers in many parts of the world to support the reconstruction efforts. The disaster victims would be receiving daily necessities and psychological supports from the Tzu Chi volunteers. At the end of the day, they would get new house with a large courtyard. The houses that were built are much bigger than my own house in Jakarta. Impressive.

On one hand, the article is slightly self serving, to portray the greatness and glory of Tzu Chi, but the best part is they do not try to build halls for religious activities. Contrary to that, when I went to the briefing for the reconstruction projects in Aceh and Nias organized by some churches, it was obvious that part of the plan was to equipped the new villagers with halls that were meant to preach Christianity. Missionaries and pastors will be sent to spread the Gospel. What a stark contrast.

Another thing that I learn today is a short yet meaningful song. The title is 温暖满人间.

当你伸出双手
帮助别人的时候
世界从此不同
因为我们不再冷漠

感恩在心田
温暖满人间
让世界跟着改变
用爱画一格元

当你伸出双手
许要帮组的时候
你也许会遇见
一双你牵过的手

Hmm…I think I have learnt and experienced quite a lot on this day. Still, I have much to learn and I glad to discover that there are many others to learn from. Yeah!