After telling people my displeasure on charity on the streets, milky commented.
milky says:
*cough those are from singapore polytechnic (your school) and my sister was one of those in orchard stalking people like you cough *
I pity you. *solemn nod *
Oops.
Never mind. You know, actually I did that before too. Well… I am one of those “volunteers”. You know, these people should stay clear of Orchard, it’s just not the best place to ask for donations. Some people are all lovey-dovey and it would be embarrassing to walk to them and ask them for a donation but - trust me - because if you do walk to them, chances are high that one of them would donate. The guy wants to show his generosity, the girl wants to show her compassion to whatever charity you are helping for.
I never stick at Orchard to gather donations to fill my tin can so that it would be heavy. During my freshman year, we -volunteered- are forced into helping out in a charity. That was even before the semester starts. My polytechnic - Singapore Polytechnic - wants some money to fill up the endowment funds.
Orchard is a bad place. I was at Somerset.
Hey, I was posted there, okay? I was posted there! Well, anyway, I was at Somerset (right beside Orchard) which is a rather nice place that can’t gather much donations.
The problem is not with Somerset people being less generous. In fact, Somerset is one of the most visited places in -Earth- Singapore, and I am standing right in the middle of it (no, I’m not at SingTel Comcenter side). I did not receive as much donations as I expect due to competition. Competition with our own people who are holding the same bloody tin can.
Later we discovered so many of our people at Somerset that, at one point, the population ratio of the public to our people is 3:1. In the end, Jinyao and I thought the whole situation was lame and left Somerset. Too many people. I don’t believe in competition in who has more donations.
We return to the polytechnic, tired and wanted to go home. I remember the lecturers still want us to count the bloody coins!
Okay, I brought all my one cent, five cents, ten cents, twenty cents coin and dumped it all into the can. And then I have to count it.
“Hey, wouldn’t it be dangerous if we steal the money while counting?” I questioned the lecturer hoping he would suspect me to be a thief and tell me to leave the tin can alone and go home.
“I trust you,” the lecturer answered. And yes, I stayed…