Last week (Thursady) was our first visit to the cancer hospital, a hospital that houses children with cancer. That day however was World Children's day and so the children were having a concert at a theatre close to the hospital. Before we even reached the auditorium,however, we were in the lift when suddenly there was a rush with people screaming while holding a child who was vomiting. We were all pushed out of the lift and I was left stunned. The smell was not that great and it was definetly a new experience to go through in a hospital.

At the audotorium, there were children on stage, some dressed up and some not- all singing together. We were guided to the front with our bag of presents and we sat down. We were all a bit unsure as to what we should do (since it was our first time), but among the confusion you could still feel a sense of 'we want to make you happy' from the children singing, which was rather 'cool'. During the concert the director of the hospital introduced to us a girl who is Sri Lankan, but has been living in Australia for a long time. The girl narrated to the audience her amazing story of how she was diagnosed with an unidentifiable cancer in the brain and how she could not see and was partly paralysed for many months. She described how her strong faith and will to survive pushed her through the experience, while telling every person in the hall affected by cancer to stay strong and have hope. I think the whole story and the joy that the girl and the children both expressed was definetly a good expereince to go through, since it made me aware of how fortunate I am in life and how tough life can get.

Finally, before joining Cancer Hospital I had a few doubts as to whether we would just play around with children and let time pass by. However, this trip was unlike any community service activity I have ever been a part of. In my former school (In N. Delhi) we had programs where kids from the slum close to our school would come on campus and play with us (I played cricket and was also part of other activities for smaller children). Yet on this trip I actually felt that these children needed our help, the help of every individual student, and somehow I also felt extremely fortunate looking at the children and their lives. I never felt this involved with the activity in other schools. Hopefully, this feeling will continue and we can provide more positive change for the children.