Today was a lot more eventful than day 1, since we actually began our service. It was very hot, but we bore it and went ahead with our project, to paint the walls of school. From this, we wanted to draw them numerous different animals of shapes and sizes, but they voiced their disagreement. We were rather indignant at their choice, since wew had already added on the drawings onto the walls, and had to erase everything else off and start over. However, we respected their decision as we knew that we came here to provide them service, thus we had to be mindful of what they wanted. In the end, the drawings came out looking pretty good, and some of the base colors were already added on.


(Trying to get the paint to be thicker.)

After that was the painting in the orphanage (picture above), Amanah, and we managed a lot. However, we realized that we needed a few more rollers and went out to buy a lot more, which we encountered a language barrier with the locals. We were lucky though, that Ryan (Indonesian) was with us and helped us communicate with them. This enhances the drive to learn their language and be able to communicate with them. The shopkeepers were very nice people, and we felt welcome, even though we repeatedly changed our choices.

Last activity was the dishwashing, which we realized was not the most pleasant thing to do. Much to our surprise (shock or horror?!), we found out that there aren't actually rags/sponges to wash the dishes, but only plastic (big black bags, usually used for rubbish). This was something that was really unusual, not to mention amusing for us, but we realized that they had to make do with what they had. After that, we brainstormed with group 1 with what they actually taught the children at the school as they were the first bunch up to start.


(Brainstorming with group 1 regarding teaching, and sharing experiences.)

Overall, our teamwork has been rather strong, only that we needed much more communication so that things can be made much more effective, and this is the most important to improve.

(Reflections done during the trip itself and transferred here.)