We went with Yee Yee and Nicole Jiejie to help out at a children's home today. Yee Yee belongs to a Catholic Mums group and her group was volunteering to prepare and serve food at Canossaville Children's Home today so we went along to help out. The lunch menu was hot dog buns, fried bee hoon, fish balls, nuggets, fries, koniyaku jelly, and ice cream. We were in charge of preparing the hot dog buns, fishballs and jelly so we had to leave quite early to get the food ready. Caleb didn't quite have a clue about where we were going. I just told him that we were going to this home where there's a lot of kor kors and che ches, and I guess that was good enough for him. I think the highlight for him was probably the big playground that the home had and the other children around to play with him.
He clung to me for the first two hours as I tried to help out with the food. I was assigned the very simple task of helping to separate the hot dog buns but the task got quite daunting when Caleb started tugging at my arms and going "Bao bao..Bao bao.. Mummy, bao bao!" I ended up babysitting him, nicole and keeping an eye on the children of the other mums who were helping out.
After the children at the home finished their lunch, they started coming over to play with all the volunteer mums' kids. An Indian girl about 11 or 12 years old, came along and told Caleb that she'll bring him to the playground to play and he left my arms and went with her. And he didn't come back looking for me after like 10 to 15min. I had to look for him!
Ok, sidetrack a bit. I'm not racist or anything and I don't have any issue with it but it's just an interesting observation. My son likes Indians. For the last 19 months, he has shown time and again that he's willing to leave us and go off with some Indian kor kor or che che. If a chinese boy comes along and tries to carry Caleb, chances of him agreeing is quite low. But if an Indian boy comes along, somehow, more often than not, he'll agree to let him carry. Don't believe, ask Raveen from church! He can be my babysitter any time! And if you are a girl, with long hair, slim, dark skinned and quite pretty, he may agree to let you carry as well. We thought about it for a while and concluded that maybe it has to do with the fact that when I was pregnant, my job required me to interact a lot with Indian men. Yah, I talk to at least 5 Indian men a day from the time I start work till I knock off. Multiply that by 9 months.. that's a lot of Indian men that I talked to! I guess Caleb must have been listening in to my conversations. I told PJ that and he attested that it was true coz Caleb seemed to look at him a bit more when he put on an Indian accent when he talked to him.
As for the girls part, the helper that I had when I was working was dark and had long hair. She wasn't very slim though. I think the slim and pretty part came from me. (Hee hee, so thick skinned, but something got to come from me what!)
Ok, back to the home. Well, I think the home visit ended quite well. The children at the home enjoyed their lunch. Caleb had his fun. And we spent the afternoon in a meaningful way. I do hope though, that when he gets older, he'll appreciate the many blessings God has given him and not think that everything is just for fun. Daddy says we should bring Caleb to Nepal and he'll see just how fortunate he is compared to the children there. Daddy, when Caleb is older ok?
Oh, and I promised Yee Yee I'll blog this. When we were on the way to the home, Caleb was really vocal in the car. He was just going on and on.. "Big Bus! (and he says it with a LOT of Gusto!) Blue Taxi!... Dump Truck!.. Car!... Bird!.. See! Trees!" Yee Yee was laughing at him and I was saying "Yah, he's quite a chatterbox nowadays..." and the next thing I know, Caleb followed and said "Um! Chat-ter box!"
I really have to watch what I say!
