An Interesting Tuesday Afternoon At Calvary Care Home

Last month, Albert P, who had taken over the leadership of Calvary Care Home as a volunteer, asked me if I could spend fixed time with the boys so that they would not idle in the afternoons. As I was already visiting the boys on Tuesdays when I was free, so his request was just nice to let me commit myself to be there on a more regular basis.

It was one week left before the final exams for some of them. I felt a bit sorry when I reached there twenty minutes late with a big vanilla custard loaf for the boys' snack, thinking that those who were serious with their studies would be already in front of their books. Actually all were having a meeting with Albert right in front of the house. John had gone back to be with his biological family after his PMR examinations. When the discussion about the management of their pocket money was settled, Albert sent the younger ones into the study room while the elder ones stayed to continue their conversation with him.

Wilson took the bread to the kitchen to cut it into slices and served everyone. In this home, the spirit of sharing was strongly present.

The boys arranged their own desks and chairs, and started doing their own activities: drawing or doing homework. Since it was towards the end of the school year, those who had sat for UPSR examinations some time ago were already in the holiday mood. I was standing next to David when he suddenly asked me to look at the ceiling on the right. At first I refused, thinking that they wanted to play a trick on me. As they kept urging me, I raised my head. Another boy shouted "A snake!". The moment I noticed its shadow, the boys were rushing out to see the reptile. So I quickly followed them.

When I was also running past Albert and the elder boys with my camera, I said, "It looks like I'm joining them more than they're joining me!" Albert laughed. Mark was tackling the tiny snake with a stick. Wilson also gave a hand. The rest were watching.

They did not take a long time to pull the snake down to the floor. Compared to the one I had seen last year, this one was much thinner.

There was a little blood on the snake's head. To make sure it would not survive, Paul sprayed pesticide and lit a fire with a lighter to burn it at the same time. The poor thing was motionless after these numerous attacks.

God assures us that man has dominion over every creeping thing that creeps on earth (Genesis 1:26). So I did not grieve for this lifeless fellow who had a body, a soul, but no spirit.

The boys approached me, holding the dead snake's tail with fallen leaves with the intention of frightening me. I fled towards Albert, whom I liked to call "Principal" since he was the head of the care home. He commanded the boys to stop bullying me and go back to the study room.

Mark and Luke went back to their seats to continue drawing. I asked Daniel to take out his mathematics exercise book. Before he could settle down, Paul, Matthew, David and Luke came to him.

When I had arrived at the home, I had noticed Daniel's face looked a bit different than usual but I did not pay attention to him. When I took a second glance of him, I realized his eyebrows were missing! Albert told me what had happened: The previous day, Daniel began to cut one of his own eyebrows a bit by himself out of fun. The naughty Paul helped to remove the rest of the hair above Daniel's eyelid. When Albert saw the boys' nonsense, he did a radical job to shave the other eyebrow of this youngest child of the home to teach him a lesson.

When I was in the secondary school, my friends used to spread the saying that those who were without eyebrows would see ghosts! I never believed that. I thank God for giving me bushy eyebrows that I did not have to spend time using any cosmetic product to make them darker. Thus, I did not have an eyebrow pencil in my bag to lend to Daniel. Now thanks to Luke's black drawing pen and Paul's artistic talent, Daniel had a pair of artificial eyebrows! When the boys dragged him out towards Albert, all of us burst into laughter and gave compliments to his new look.

Now Daniel was finally able to solve his mathematics problems one after another without disturbance. Mark still focused on his drawing. Luke joined three other boys to play the aeroplane chess on the floor at the back.

When it was almost 6pm, the elder boys were still chatting with Albert and William

while the younger boys had left the study room and started to play outdoors. David

and Mark were very excited to show me their fish.

If we had left the snake alone, it might be a great threat to all these vulnerable creatures in the water.

When I was leaving with my car, the boys took the corpse of the snake from the lawn and put on the wide screen to scare me again. Albert who was also going off asked them to throw it into the dustbin. Despite a cough he was suffering from, he was still willing to spend time having conversations with the boys. And he told me, "Basically, these boys just want to talk to someone." How blessed we are to be their listeners and care givers.

And I thank God that I only remembered those boys' smiling faces when I went to bed that night, not the reptile.