Tsunami Pack em up [06 January 2005]

Honestly , I expected the job to be more strenous and long .. but it was not . In fact , the whole bulk of the work were done by a group of 50 volunteers before us and groups of ladies. When the night group came , we were finished within 2.5 hours. So , were back to PJ before 9.30 . That was extremely fast. News travelled fast , and almost all the volunteers during my time there were somehow connected to each other. There were about 20-30 of us . It was good to work among friends.
But a lot of experience in getting the things sorted out. You could not image how terrible some of these donations are and probably from different milleniums. It is 'interesting' to see what one finds in the bags. And my mind was just playing a game of trying to imagine what/who the donors are. There are clothes that are very "chinese" , where they send their cheongsam and evening gown ( for wedding dinners) . I think one pack belongs to an Indian couple full of Sarees. And there are a lot of Ah Pek slacks. We were also debating whether the Indonesians would want to wear worn out undergarments. One can even find a "Guess kid" overall and a Hard Rock sweater in there. But I think the majority of donors are Chinese , by the look of the clothes. Note for donor- wash the clothes first.
But one observation is the Mercy staff ... I think they are paid to work . They just sat there and the volunteers do the work . I guess they are tired of all these. Some were even playing around diving into the clothes. And those in charge just went missing . Soon , the volunteers took over the task of organising and explaining to new volunteers. But the sheer physical and mental demands is evident , even working in a warehouse to sort out the packages. And they were there since last Friday . I think my worst impression came when we were going back , a seemingly "VIP" person came with his entourage. He just seemed 'cocky" and even angry initially when he saw that we left. But his look turned to surprise as I think one of his entourage told him that the work is done. Maybe he is just a local Datuk or something that comes to lend his 'support".