Community Service

We rendered our socio-civic service to kids (14-22 years old, i guess?) who committed crimes like theft, drug related crimes, murder and rape. I've already experienced dealing with inmates before, for my church service and they are really nice to visitors so I was not scared when I found out that we will a community service in centers who cater for the minor fugitives.

Anyway, although they may look as age as mine, I think they were really children at heart. when we held our program with them wherein we played games and we asked them for their talent presentation, They were really participative. I remember in the ~talent portion~ when someone did freestyle rapping. You know, I do not like freestyle rapping that much, especially some rappers in youtube and their senseless obnoxious lyrics. But I think that kid inside, redefined freestyle rapping. He included war in iraq, the abuse of adolf hitler and poverty in his rap. even though he might be just horsing around, but I was like, "oh!". This kid is socially aware and perhaps he used this ~art~ to express his suffering and the oppression he experienced.

During games, my groupmates and I thought maybe they might be bored with those pre-school games that we held like guessing game, sack race and dragon tail, but what happened was otherwise. You can see in their faces how enthusiastic they were and how they really enjoyed the games. you can really see in their eyes, that behind the mistakes they did, they are still children who wants to experience the freedom of being young which is apparently denied to them.

The last part of our ~program~ was the most moving. I again thought they would refuse to participate since they were boys (y'know how some boys especially in puberty spite sentimental stuffs like that? lol). But as the sharing goes, we found out how sad their lives are confined in the four walls of their dormitory without doing anything but to sleep and eat. Imagine that, and they were also away from their families whom they really misses so much like what they said. And the only way that they can go outdoors is that if they have visits and what's more tear-jerking is that, some of they were not even visited by their parents. there's this kid who just spoke out of nowhere while I was talking to someone and he said, he even spent holidays like christmas and new year in this place because his parents did not even bother to see him. Imagine a seventeen-year old kid oppressed by the society because of a mistake, confined in a dirty and poorly-ventillated room and then feeling that his parents neglected him. My heart is shattered.

I believe their main desires was just to see the outside world once again and to be with their family, those are the stuffs i heard yesterday from their sharing. Simple things that even i or you might often ignore, while for them, those things were everything that matters.

Now tell me, how can I be truly happy when my knowledge of subversion increased once more? Perhaps, if I'll be blinded by these facts? But that would be impossible. *sighs

I. . . I. . . I want to be useful.