Volunteer Work?

I never have fancied meeting the poor. I also never fancied meeting disabled people and helping them. I other words, I never actually liked volunteer work. Trying to give meals to people I do not know, sitting in front of mentally ill patients and making myself look like one of them. That was the initial view I had towards all the different acts of volunteer work. I literally found them a waste of time.

When I was in middle school, I found out that it was necessary to fill in 60 hours volunteer work throughout the 3 years in order to graduate from the school. Having a dark look on my face, I decided to participate constantly in playing the violin for the poor in front of a cafeteria. The cafeteria was run by a chapel nearby, the priest looking over the system, hygiene and the financial management of the place. Me and my part of my orchestra went to that place once every two weeks. And whenever we visited the place, we weren't that happy. The music teacher, who managed our school orchestra, was getting aggravated by the fact that me, as a bandmaster, was not seeming to be the best model for the freshmen nor the juniors. Eventually, I decided to pay more attention to the people who come to have a meal.

As I drew my attention from my personal boredom to the people who are taking our volunteer work, I got to know something peculiar. The people there weren't that happy either. It was very weird to think that the service that our orchestra provided never was that much of a joy to the people who met upon it. With a characteristic of which I cannot stand my curiosity, I ask the priest why these people were so unhappy about our performance. His answer struck me hard in the head.

"These people spend their entire day simply craving this single meal. Most of the people only get to eat this meal as their one and only diet everyday. Of course they don't understand you're musical talents, actually they can't afford to understand. It would be a better idea to try to understand them and try some new music, okay?"

I was a fool. Every time I visited the cafeteria, I was loaded with hard and dynamic notes composed by Mozart and Beethoven. However, it was clear that the people who visit the place had no way to access such genre of music in their lives. It was obvious that they don't understand classical music. So, I changed the plan. I made an agreement with my other orchestra members to choose songs that are probably much more familiar to the people. Old Korean songs and songs by very famous Korean singers were the major choices we made.

After the change I started, there had been a huge difference in the way the people reacted to our performance. Starting off from nodding their heads, some elderly people even danced and sang aloud to our music. In the end I acknowledged something very important. Volunteer work is something that can be only properly done when you truly try to understand the people. Although I still am not a big fan of doing such work, it turned out much more easier for me to understand the people whenever I had a chance to help them out.