Arvinthan Thevar A/L Sivachandran (MIC170006)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

REFLECTIVE WRITING

VISITI TO KAMPUNG DESA TEMUAN

ARVINTHAN THEVAR A/L SIVACHANDRAN (MIC170006)                 DATE:29^TH APRIL 2018                                

        I was always the person who think that the only way to find my true self is to lose myself in the service of others. I was brought up in a moderately educated and a middle-class family. Although I didn’t have a luxury life but I was grateful that I had a place to live and I had access to education . I have never imagined how would orang asli lifestyle be even though I was told that they live a poor and a very low profile life. However, when I was in school I was always told that the orang asli community was socially different from us, but I didn’t know how much would their life differ from ours until I visited the orang asli village.

       I had an experience which I’ve never had till today in my life at the village. There were  many things about the orang asli community that I learnt and the program as a whole had an impact on me. Firstly, let’s start with the kids. Before I went to the village I thought the kids would be very naughty and impolite but it turned out to be the other way around. I had a great time playing with the kids, initially many of them didn’t want to listen to me but as time went they were too friendly. Never knew that they will become so close to me. There was this boy who was holding my hands and asking me to come inside the hall and sit with him. The kids also enjoyed playing the games we prepared and they were all calling me “cikgu” which was funny and the amount of love they showed for someone whom they just got to know was amazing. There was also this girl who came and asked me to eat, that was so kind of a 6 years old. Even though the kids were naughty but they were friendly. This program had made me realise that love is unconditional and we shouldn’t judge anyone before we get to know them.

       Sometimes in life I get upset when I don’t get the things I wanted like clothes and shoes that I desired although I still had good clothes and shoes. The visit to village made me realise that I was actually very lucky in life. Those orang asli kids that I mixed with were not wearing any branded items like I do. Some of them did have clean proper footwear. It was an extremely upsetting sight to witness, however they were still happy with what they had. This  made me understand that I have to be grateful for everything that my parents have given me in life and I have to learn to appreciate everything I have in life as a blessing and never complain anymore.

       Since I was a kid I was always thought not to solve a problem using violence an this is something that has to be thought to every child. That day during or visit to the orang asli village, due to some petty issue two boys started fighting and it lead to a minor injury of one of the boy’s eye. When the issue was investigated, we realised that the boy’s father had thought him to use violence against people who bullies him. However, this is not the right way to solve a problem. This made me understand that the orang asli community need to change their way of thinking and be more open minded when it comes to solving an issue. As a result, I also realised when we are carrying out an activity it is our responsibility to not only take care of ourselves but also to take care of the participants safety.

        

           Even though I have taken part in many activities but then I didn’t really feel the importance of teamwork before. Participating in this program gave me a deeper sense and experience of teamwork. During the event, not everything went accordingly however, we had to work together as a team and manage to overcome any issues that we had. For instance, during the program just half an hour before the kraf tangan program was to begin we were told that the program was cancelled, so immediately we had to work as a team to fill up the extra time we had. That is when one of my classmate Wani decided to have some dancing and musical chair session. Even though I had some other work to do but I still took part in those sessions to help my friends to manage the situation. From this incident I have learnt that no matter how big the problem is we can solve it with teamwork and it’s important in helping one another during tough times. It also helped me to build some leadership skills.

        Lastly, this entire program was beneficial to me in many ways. I got to create better bonding with my classmates and had a great new experience doing social work. Even tough I was tired but I returned back with a sense of satisfaction as the kids went with lots of happiness and smile on their face.