Door knocking

Had a garang guni session last sat as part of canvassing for ocip
trip. It was quite rewarding and tiring. (Imagine the weight of those
heavy and old electrical appliance) Another thing I do learn about is
the dynamics of the people residing there.

Let me just elaborate on what I am trying to talk about here. Due to
the nature of the estates, the doors of each house varies and this got
me really fascinated. We basically need to ask very household on for
old newspaper/clothes or any thing of value. Sounds easy? just press
the door bell and people will just come. The problem is that the
doorbells in this estate can't be trusted, with a number of them not
working. In the end knocking on doors directly is the best choice.

The front door is often the entrance to our houses and more so true
for many staying in flats. It is like the first and last line of
boundary between what is private and public. Basically its common
practice for us to lock and close the door to prevent burglary. People
normally hang/decorate religious or good luck items on their doors.
Some use them to ward off 'evil' while others are just there to
proclaim their faith to people outside. During my walkabout through
the many units in several blocks of flats,  I've seen doors that are
really scary/intimidating, with signs and symbols that in a way
reflects how deeply religious or superstitious the people behind those
doors are. Some have mirrors, charms, altars build just outside. Some
are so bad that i didnt want to knock on it. interesting ones I saw
include a door with paints splashed upon (which im quite certain is
o$p$), there another one thats decorated with Liverpool's ( the
english league football club) stickers! Almost like the works of a kid
and his passion for football.
We covered some old blocks and some new blocks of flat. The doors of
the newer home units have really hard and thick wooden doors. Knocking
on it is hard and painful. Some doors have steel grilles with barely
enough gap space to stick a fist in to knock. Those rare corner units
in a few blocks even have bought a space between the grilles and the
door, making it impossible to indicate your presence by the very act
of knocking. I love the doors of the older flats, they have doors that
aren't thick and produces a loud thumping sound when knocked upon.

Having said all these, (assuming there are people in the house) the
response to even louder sound needs to be acknowledged from in the
house. It's heartening to have people taking their effort to crawl out
of their bed or whatsoever to open the door, even if it means not
having anything to donate.

The very act of knocking and then answering is definitely not new.
Drawing this parallel to how each of us are a unit, with our heart as
the door/front door. Are we hardening them out, pasting it with
charms/amulet to keep 'evil' and 'good' out and in respectively?

This little act of swinging my fist against those thin wood suddenly
makes sense to me.

So are you prepared for the next knock or doorbell ring? Perhaps
change to those old school doors, or just simply maintain your
doorbell periodically.