Mentoring Rofi for 4 days

December 18, 2012. The young university graduates barely left me when Rofi "came on board" to stay with me for 4 days, replacing Irwan. Irwan had made a suggestion that I spend a few days giving Rofi the kind of mentoring that he had received from me early last year. He said that it would benefit Rofi a lot, as it had benefited him and made a big change in his way of thinking and appreciating life. I said okay, and Irwan went to Gilbert Camp #2 to accompany Ahmad and to help setting up our small library for the kids. Rofi is one of our 16 sponsored children. I met him about 8 months ago when I was attending Irwan's High School graduation in the small village of Gringsing. At the graduation, I gave away 2 door prizes for a 4-day getaway to the "big city" of Semarang. Rofi, the leader of the students body in his school, picked one of the 2 lucky numbers. For 4 days in May 2012, I got acquainted with Rofi a little bit. Not enough to know him since my attention was divided for 3 other teenagers at the time. During the visit in May last year, I asked him what he wanted to do now that he had graduated from high school. He said he needed to be looking for a job to help his family, but he had a problem with one of his eyes. Apparently while helping his neighbor fixing their roof, something had gotten in his eye and it got infected. He had tried to go to an eye doctor, but the doctor could only do so much. He still had a blur in his vision and said it looks like there's water. So I took him to a specialist in Semarang. With some eye medication, he continued his regular doctor visits, and he felt a bit of improvement.

In the photo shown here, Rofi is the one on the most left. Rofi continued to be in touch with me via email till after I returned to the United States in June 2012. He said he was looking for a job but couldn't find any. Didn't know what to do since there was not many jobs available especially for high school graduates. The only factory in his town didn't have any opening. My heart ached for him. I had sent him to a driving school in Semarang, I thought with a driving license, he could be more competitive in his job hunting, especially in Semarang since the city is booming. Not many people his age know how to drive. Cars are very expensive, most people ride motorcycles. After he finished his driving course and got his license, his job hunting had not resulted in anything. I had told him that I was going back to Indonesia in November,2012 and we could talk. It's been 2 months now since Rofi joined "our family". I had offered to send him to a vocational school where he could learn some technical skills in 3 months, after which he could go hunting for a job again, or even start his own little enterprise as "the handy man who can fix many things". He said he would like to attend a computer college like Irwan does.