Two Surgeons-Librarians In The Calvary Care Home Office

Sunday afternoons, when the Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys were having free activities in the compound, Albert P would spend some time in the office. Even though nowadays he only stepped into it once a week as the home administrator, he always made sure the documents within his eyesight were arranged neatly. Once he requested that I took a picture of him keeping the office so clean and tidy.

Two Sundays ago after I came back from the opening of Harap Learning Centre, I suggested to Albert that we checked if there were any donated items which the CCH boys no longer needed and with which we could perhaps bless the preschoolers from poor families at Bukit Baru who would be attending the centre. He agreed and let me start to look inside the drawers.

That afternoon, besides a considerable quantity of stationery, I also found clothes confiscated from the boys as a consequence of neglecting their personal belongings during Sis Fei Gin's term. Before I left, I put the clothes into different bags to either give away through Sis Annie or pass to Daniel whose size could fit into some.

Having discovered his assistant's additional "talent", Albert created new "office work" last Sunday--reorganising the shelves. As we began to move books and boxes, I realised that we not only had to get rid of unused items but also dust which was laying and flowing everywhere.

Not willing to inhale more dirty air in addition to the haze which was already quite present in this season, I said to Albert, "I think we need to put on masks!" He immediately responded, "There are some inside one of the drawers." Two minutes later, the two "librarians" had a surgeon's look.

I had never worn any face protection even when going out during the SARS outbreak or the bird flu pandemic. This time, I had to cover my face due to air pollution in an office!

When I walked to and fro between the kitchen and the office to wash and rinse the piece of cloth which I used to wipe the surface of the shelves and cupboards, no boys noticed me except for John who was having tuition in the dining room. He looked stunned when staring at my masked face.

While the home administrator kept throwing things which he judged useless, I kept picking up again many of them from the garbage bag to reuse or recycle later. I managed to secure a box of books.

After two hours' work, we were done with the first "surgery". All Shelves were clean and some were empty. Next time, we will "operate" the stationery drawers which are now in a mess.