7979 Loves to Help People 

Colour As Light As Water

written by Rainy

When I was little, teacher used to request us to bring colour pencils to school for colouring exercise purposes or art class. As my family operates sundry shop. Hence, I could easily take a box of 12 colour pencils to school. Maybe the supplier gave extra colour pencils, we used to have a lot of loose and extra green or light blue colour pencils, it could be more than 10 sticks.

In school, I envied when I see my classmates had 24 or 36 sticks of different colours in a box, I felt so envy. No wonder, they always got A or A+ for their art, I only managed to get C or sometimes B-. The little me always thought: “Maybe I can’t do better because I only have limited colours”. Many years later, from TV ads, I saw a new brand of colour pencils, where after applying colours to the picture, you only need to use a water brush to sprinkle on it, then the parrot in the picture looks real and flew out of the art paper.   

One day during my uni. years, together with my friends we enthusiastically started drawing. My friend rode a motorcycle to a nearby sundry shop, he bought a book of art paper and a box of 12 water colours. Fortunately, we can mixed the water colours to get more colours. Few hours later, I drew a painting of a waterfall, my friends drew sun flower, beaches or architecture. We pasted our paintings on the wall at the staircase. So for those few days, whoever that comes to our house, we will asked them to choose the painting they liked the most. Just as expected, no one was interested in my waterfall painting, I was not puzzled about it, as I understood no one admires a still waterfall.

 

I had always been like this, not so particular about colours, I always prefer simple and safe colour matching for my clothing, in terms of food, people usually go for food that looks good other than taste and smell good, but in my case, I can still enjoy my cooking that turned out to be a disaster. Finally school over and I became a member of the working class, I thought my battle with colours is over, I didn’t expected that I need to prepare PowerPoint presentation and design posters. Computer has all shades of colours, I can no longer use the excuse that I run out of colour pencils. Maybe I have to admit, that other than short sighted, I might be colour blind too.       

That day, when my colleague and I were chatting about colours. She said that some people are like white paper when they come to a new place, slowly colours are added onto the paper by people around them, gradually the new comer will integrate into his or her new environment, and became one of them. Some came with strong subjective experiences, like a coloured paper, the person would like to integrate into the new environment. But, these people is making it difficult for others to paint onto their paper, in the end they usually will choose to leave with a complicated coloured paper. 

    

Later, I have the opportunities to reach out to many different cases. They all come in different backgrounds and characters, they produced unique colours on the drawing palette, they drew their own painting, and produced many different pictures. When their lives is in predicament, they are so heavy laden until they don’t know how to paint anymore, the intervention of volunteers became very crucial. If we rush in and quickly add bright colours onto the art paper, just hoping to lessen the effect of dark gloomy colours, then we as volunteers are only painting our own desire painting or lives.         

Water, is a transparent liquid that is colourless and tasteless. Volunteers just have to be the water, do not carry any colour or taste (value or prejudice), slip into the artist palette of every cases and blend with the original colour and fix it. Water, is also a moisturiser and a lubrication, that can revive lives for them to continue living; or overcome obstacles that used to block them in the past leaving no marks behind.   


For volunteering services, we have an ethical ground: “Volunteers should not force onto an aid recipient any of their own behaviour or belief.” Meaning that we cannot force an aid recipient to live according to our way, insist to put our desire colour into others drawing palette.

Let us be the people helper who is transparent like water.