Saturday my team and I took a group of volunteers  to a community in North Jakarta to do a free medical clinic and children’s fun day.

The community lies in-between a containment lake and a major road–so though it is quite long, it is very narrow. When I say narrow I literally mean about about 3 yards wide. When we had gone to look at the space it had appeared quite bigger–but I guess any space looks bigger when there aren’t mopeds and chairs lining both sides of the alley.

It started off a little bit like a traffic jam. Everyone was trying to figure out where they should be. Moms were trying to get their kids in line for the free clinic, volunteers were looking for their stations, others were setting up chairs–it was 15 minutes of what appeared to be chaos.  When you have any big event in a small space, though, a little chaos is expected. After about 15 minutes everything started sorting itself out and the event began in full swing. 

The first group of volunteers worked on the medical side of the day. We had some work at the registration desk and others work at the pharmacy station, where they disbursed not only the medicines the doctors had just prescribed, but some basic vitamins as well.

The second group of volunteers helped with the kids activities. This time we not only had our regular drawing, karaoke, and crupuk (Indonesian cracker) eating contests–but we also started a new soccer competition.

Since we had a very small space, instead of a typical soccer tournament, we decided to have a heading competition. Each coach would toss the ball at the kids and see who could head the ball the most in one minute. The winner of each round would be a finalist and would participate in the final head-off. It was a smashing success. Not only were the kids in the tournament having a blast, but the kids who were watching were having a blast cheering as well.

Every time I go into one of our communities I am continually reminded that this is why I am in Jakarta–and I absolutely love it! I cannot imagine being anywhere else.