Outing with the boys

We all know who the girls are.  Today its 'the boys'.

'The boys' are the orphans or under privileged children I used to teach at Rumah Aman a few years back.

I have not written about them, I don't know why, but its not easy to write about them, eventhough they are close to my heart.  Its one of those things, maybe a painful nerve that stops me.

I taught English for over a year or so  to 30 small boys at that time, aged 5 to 9.  Its one of the more significant phase of my life.  But I had to stop to be at home for my family.  They have been in my heart eversince.

Yesterday I took the ones that the parent or guardian does not take home during the holidays. The ones the family is too poor to make the journey or no guardian at all.

They have grown much.  Taller and bigger. Amirul 12, Fadzil 13,Izul 11 and twins Ilyas and Ilyasak 8.

The plan was to see the movie from one of my favourite novels, Life of Pi.  Since the movie at Mid Valley was fully booked, we went to Mines Wonderland, a place I rarely go.  I heard there was a book fare at The Big Bad Wolf, (such a cute name for a book shop). But the fare had ended the day before, and the show stars at 6.45pm, we had alot of time to kill.

We hung around the Mall, went to the surau to pray zohor,  walked around, had tea at the 'Toast Box', went to surau for asar, walked some more.  Got everyone a Cool Blog, walked to see  huge cat fishes in the man-made river that passes through The Mines.  We had early dinner at Chicken Rice Shop then headed for the surau again  for magrib.  I specifically ordered them to take their wudu', prepare and get ready for prayers and as soon as magrib starts, pray quickly so that we can catch the beginning of the movie.

Alas, I was the only one who followed my orders, when I came out (the first) the boys were playing outside the surau.  By the time we got to our seats , a quarter of the movie was over.  Luckily we did not miss the highlights of Pi at the ocean with the Richard Parker the Tiger.

In the car on the way back I asked them what they learnt from the movie.  Amirul said, 'jangan putus asa'.  Izul said, 'berusaha' and Fadzil said, 'buat baik pada binatang'.  I asked them a tougher question.  Apa sifat yang ada pada Pi?  Amirul said,' tak putus asa', Izul said 'berusaha' and to my surprise Little Ilyas said, 'berani'.  Then I asked  'soalan cepumas'.  Apa dalam hidup kita yang kita rasa susah sangat tapi kalau kita buat sungguh-sungguh macam Pi, kita mesti berjaya macam Pi.  Izul said 'naik tempat tinggi'.  Little Ilyas got it right again by answering, 'periksa'.

If the movie had given the boys an example of  human courage, it was indeed a day well spent.

I do not know if the boys enjoyed themselves but I certainly did.  It put a smile in my heart.  The camaraderie between us was of genuine fondness without any divides. The boys like me and I like the boys.  I had the twins holding on to both my hands all the way when they were not scampering about or scaling the escalators.  The boys did not have to be 100 percent on guard and could be their ownselves with me.  Which, is not always a good thing.

I was not a good teacher in a sense that sometimes another teacher need to stand at the door to keep my class quiet.  I used to feel disappointed with myself for not being able to keep the class in order like the other teachers.  But they are instances that make me feel good like when the boys come back from school and pop their head into my class and ask 'bila teacher ajar saya?'  And by some luck, they usually do well for my subject.

It takes alot, a whole lot, to educate and discipline the orphans.  It takes someone made of steel.  And I think, I am more of a  emm.... cotton candy.