July 26, 2017 was a nice day.
In 8 a.m., NPNG Sports Centre was preparing football matches. That was when we, the Aiesecers, were coming inthe way. We arrived in batches.
My batch arrived first, but because we were not familiar with the coaches, we did not help starting the events right away. After that, the more experienced batch came and helped setting the matches.
Beneath the sun, there werechildren with different colors. They gathered together and organized differentteams. I remember that the names of many teams contain the phrase “red dragon”.I guess it means great power. Actually, they did show their great power on thefootball field. We, volunteers, were the score recorder. When I watched themplaying football, I saw youth, strength and courage in them. They ran on thefootball field, sweating, cheering and tearing. The weather was nice but alsohot. Each player's face was covered with soybean-like beads of sweat. They weredifferent in stature, some were tall, some were short, some were fat, some werethin. However, regardless of the stature, they all ran fast without anyhesitation when the team needed him. When the team -- “Red Dragon All Star”scored, their players cheered for a while and jumped back to defend again. Istill remembered a lot of players falling down many times, but every time theyfell, they didn't cry. Instead, they got up quickly and rushed for the game.
At noon, we had a break. Weand the children players had lunch in a shop together near the playground. Inever ate that kind of food before, but in my country, we also have milk teaand ice tea. I ordered one cup of ice tea and it tasted so good that I forgotabout the heat of the day. I have three football fields at all and we had about10 people, so we took turns recording the scores. Our team was a united team. Wecared about each other and the boys tended to do more work, but the girls werereally great. They almost took care of all the recording work of the points inthe third field.
People may say it is boring to record the scores, but they were never there, so they couldn’t feel andunderstand what we have experienced. When we were at rest, we met with the kidswho were obviously in joy. I think they were singing their folk songs and oneof the players was beating the drum, but the drum was actually a small chair. Theirchorus was jumbled with neat tones, with a light and passionate rhythm. Irecorded the moments as a small film. It is definitely going to be a preciousmemory of my life.
At 4 p.m. all the matches were finished. Our backs were filled with sweat, you might think it is not comfortable. You are right. I was not comfortable and also really tired, but noefforts, no returns, after today’s work, I learned a lot about children, theirpassion and their energy.
In the end, I want to thank all my friends and all the people who contributed to the events. Only with theirhelp, could we manage it well.
我是马特。这是我在马来西亚参加志愿者项目时候写的文章，现在回想起来还能感受到孩子们在我耳边的欢声笑语，异国他乡的善意。我参加的项目叫做cycle for change，这个项目主要内容就是学习并建造双人自行车，之后再把建好的双人自行车带到学校里，和孩子们一起玩耍，在这些孩子里面，很多都是残疾儿童，有身体残疾的，也有心智残疾的。与他们在一起，你可以感觉到什么是真正的不幸，也可以感觉到什么是爱与温暖。当然，在学校里，除了和孩子们一起骑双人自行车，还有很多其他的活动，涂鸦，体能测试等等。
在马来西亚，第一印象就是竟然有好多的华人，他们那里的华人有很可爱的口音，我很喜欢。他们国家大致由印度裔，马来西亚人，还有华裔组成，所以整个国家通行英语。他们的英语说得比我肯定流利很多，但也有一定的口音，刚开始我听不大懂，后来渐渐得也就习惯听得懂了。
我们项目的负责人是玛丽女士，她对我们这些志愿者都挺好的，请我们吃过比萨，也常常载我们回住所。我真的非常感激她，像这种非盈利机构，要坚持下去，是需要一个人很大的勇气的。
我们项目有来自突尼西亚，越南的美女，埃及，巴基斯坦的帅哥，最重要的是还有来自马来西亚的小姐姐和小哥哥，他们对我们很好，照顾我们的衣食住行，却从来不求回报，我永远都会记得和你们一起玩耍的时光，我会想念你们的，EP BUDDIES!