Orphanage, Batam

Two weekends ago, the husband and I went to Batam with our church to visit an orphanage that we help to support financially as well as medically. The 30-odd children housed in the orphanage were originally from Sumatra, and were displaced by the 8.7 earthquake that hit Nias in 2005. While they survived with painful memories of the rest of their family not making it, it's also a blessing for them to have been given shelter, food, clothing and an education.

The plan was to do a simple Bible lesson, worship, play games with as well as cook for them on the weekend that we were there - the last part was to give the usual cooks a rest for the day. I volunteered to run the food part of the programme, and stopped by the wet market to do the grocery shopping before going to the orphanage. Contrary to popular belief, food isn't necessarily cheaper there as Batam has so few natural resources and has to resort to importing things from the other islands.

All types of dried fish

We bought this whitebait to cook in omelettes

All the veggies on display looking very fresh
We stopped at this restaurant called Pak Datuk for lunch. It was an amazing spread, with plates set out in front of us, double stacked.

The variety was mindblowing - every single type of meat and vegetable cooked in different ways.

Food filling the length of the entire table.
The perfect ending to a perfect meal - avocado juice with chocolate. Rich, sweet, thick - absolutely yum.

Finally, we made it to the orphanage.

The children are housed in a one-storey building that is made up of a simple concrete structure with brick walls. There's nothing elaborate about it, and everything is extremely basic.

It was not an easy kitchen to cook in - the utensils were old, and loose in various parts, and there was no real benchtop to use. The tap was about 15m away outside in the garden.

Cooking the omelette was easy enough. The real challenge was the 5kg worth of kangkong (not pictured)!

Starting the chicken curry - frying garlic, shallots, lemongrass with the curry paste, with cinnamon sticks and star anise thrown in.

Putting in the coconut milk - this was 3 one-litre packs for 8 chickens and 50 potatoes.

Everything cooking nicely - one of the team members brought tau pok too.

The final touch - adding curry leaves before covering and leaving to boil.

Matthew 19:14 - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."