kampung trip

Child labour: packing 600 gifts at Aunty Jinny's house!

So every year, for the past few years, Grandpa gets us to pack hundreds of presents for the poorer folk in rural areas, or kampungs as we call them here. The presents are sponsored by the Lions Club and also other generous individuals.

Usually we just pack the gifts, and Grandpa and his fellow Lions deliver them to the place where children from many kampungs gather for a Christmas party. This year however, we all decided to bring our own children to help Grandpa distribute the gifts, so they can see for themselves where their hard work (packing the gifts) goes to and also to witness a bit of the rural lifestyle. Being the spoilt city people we are, (not just the kids, but us adults too!) this would prove to be an enlightening excursion!

Driving through scenic mountains

Well, this year, the location was different. We went to a school hall at Kampung Bunan Gega which was about 2hrs drive from the city of Kuching. 200 over children from a few surrounding kampungs had gathered there to receive their presents. Some had quite a distance to travel, and were there as early as 8am!

The event was supposed to start at 10:30am, but after getting lost and almost driving to the Indonesian border, we only managed to get there after 11am! Though it was a hot day and some had been waiting for hours, the children were orderly and waiting patiently!

Grandpa made us pack 600 packs of stationeries and snacks. The leftover packs were for another party a few days later. After some formalities, we handed the gifts out. To our surprise, that was it! There were no games or food and drinks for the party! If we had known, we would have raised some money for a bit of food and drinks. We felt bad that they had to come all the way just to collect our simple gifts! Maybe next year we will try to do more. Let me know if any of you would like to pledge some money towards this cause come next Christmas!

On the way home, we stopped for lunch and some yummy durian!