Friday, December 21, 2007 @4:21 PM
given my laziness, i was never able to complete the vietnam trip post. right. and now my brain cannot take it so the rest of the post would be what i remembered from the trip. ):
day two, three, four and five
these were our working days. 4 very tiring, meaningful, memorable days. tiring because of the hardwork that we have never done in Singapore; from the scrubbing of the walls on the high scaffoldings using limited amount of sandpaper, to the painting of the walls for which the guys and yes, manly girls as well who climbed the 3.2m scaffolding, balancing themslves and getting paint all over them to get the highest parts of the wall painted; the smelling of the emanel (do you spell it this way?) paint while painting the windows and the grilles; the feeling of nauseas while varnishing the tables and chairs in the sun; the carrying of sand to fill up places for the tiles to be held in place; the washing of the tiles, soaking our hands in very dirty water; the clearing up for which we ended up feet in the milky coloured water and not forgetting being Cinderellas scrubbing off all the paint marks on the entire floor that was once the colour of brown and also the last minute decoration of the classroom for which we thought we would not be able to achieve in time for the closing ceremony. perspired we had but with self motivation, determination and perseverence, we pulled it through with a common mindset of brightening up someone elses life. these works are really nothing as compared to the innocent sweet smiles from the kids.
meaningful because of the many lifelong lessons that we learnt which will never depart. teamwork, perseverence, encouragement, back to basics, paying attention to the details, listening to others, planning ahead, learning to appreciate others, reflecting on oneself, better know known friends, understanding the how simple life can be, etc. too many to remember.
memorable because
1. new found friendships
2. experienced the vietnam culture especially their food, cooked specially for us by the principal's brother's wife i presumed everyday on our working days (lunch), and their lifestyle
3. seen another perspective of lifestyle
4. learnt a lot from new found friends
5. crazy moments like 6 people sitting on one king size bed playing bridge
6. singing vietnamese songs
7. playing games with the vietnamese volunteers after lunch
8. hearing people sing as they continue working hard on their tasks
9. nine people playing the pig with grades game
10. crashing other people room at night, making lots of noise while playing games (my friends and i crashed the volunteers room)
11. everything!
and the list goes on...
day six and seven
basically, i see these two days a form of reward after our muscle aching days. thanks to Tuan who's a vietnamese, we were able to get good deals as he was ever ready to help us bargain in vietnamese. also, throughout the working days, we always needed a translator due to the language barrier and he was always there to provide help.
i custom made a vietnamese traditional costume and it's ready now! so happy! (: cant wait to get it.
went shopping and i bought a backpack for my sis and coffee and lotus tea for my parents and relatives. it's sad that i couldnt buy a necklace that i saw which was very sweet looking. bought food stuff as well for GZ peeps.
we also visited some places of interest such as the reunification palace as well as the tunnel, understanding the vibrant culture and history of vietnam. glad that we actually had the chance to experience the tunnel ourselves and it was a really good experience to walk like a duck for so long. imagine when it was war times long ago and the soldiers had to fight in such constrained areas! gosh.
to end off, vietnam's a really nice place. i kind of got so accustomed that i dont feel like coming back to Singapore. the memory's sealed and yes, i want to thank every single member of the trip. without all of you, the trip wont be as enjoyable. like i strongly believe, all of you are a gift to me. it's a pleasure getting to know all of you. that makes me want to appreciate the presence of all of you more. thanks loads and with love to:
uncle dennis
uncle AK
mrs chan
mrs tan
andrew
tuan
silvia
bingxin
cheryl
sarah
liuxuan
abigail
larrissa
lee jing
estella
arthi
gwen
jasmine
sue ping
johnathan
eugene
chian siang
trent
han dong
and a little bad news, my camera spoilt on the second day of the trip so there's no pictures that i can share here but, check out the link to a website where there are some of the photos taken by our dear vietnam volunteers. look for it under "friends and links". have fun viewing! (:
Wednesday, December 05, 2007 @1:39 PM
ok. now to share the happy stuff before living tomorrow for china. overall, the vietnam trip's a very satisfying trip. really gain a lot from this meaningful experience. (:
day one
woke up at 3.30am to get ready to go to the airport at 4.15am, picking up my friend Liu Xuan along the way. the taxi fare was so ex! ): haiz.. no choice cos the flight's at 7.15am and we need to reach early. checking in was troublesome cos we've got so many people.. anyways, nothing much then. riding jet star was a good experience. it really changed my impression of a budget airline. i thought jet star was even better than my JAL and china airline flights! haha. except that a small bottle of mineral cost S$3 which is really too expernsive and so i had to go without water for 2 whole hours. thankfully it's only 2. reached Ho Chi Minh airport around 9+ (cant really rmb the timings) and i thought the airport looks good, except it does not have the warmth present in Singapore. really amazed. after waiting, we were greeted by our vietnamese volunteers. they're so friendly and that's the start of our 5 hours ride to the dong thap province.
along the way, i see the changes from the city area to the rural area. what really amazed me was the traffic. without proper traffic lights like those in Singapore, the people can still ride their way through, especially the many motorcycles and scooters. due to the presence of these vehicles, there's much pollution as one can sense the dust around in the air. and that is when the face mask is put to good use. they come in different shapes and sizes. so cute! haha.
ok. so we moved on and i was looking at the shophouses, the buildings etc. it's amazing that a modern building can be beside another that looks rather run down. the front of the shophouses do not have proper pavements for people to walk on, instead the motorcycles and scooters can just ride there. how dangerous! moving towards the rural area, i see chickens, dogs running around. there are also buffalos to help plough the field etc. so interesting! oh and they have resting areas and there are hammocks hanging around for people to rest as well. omg. so fun! haha.
lunch was at a restaurant beside the river which is famous for their fried fish which stands upright. really cool as the fish fins can be eaten like crackers and they do taste like crackers. a few of us also went to see how they made a ball like thingy from some dough. it was only a little dough and yet it can turn out so big and round in size. ate those for lunch as well and it was rather sweet. (: we tried rice paper and did the wrapping ourselves as well! other dishes also include the prawn. it's the size of my plate and guess what, they call it the shrimp in vietnam. we were shocked. so we asked what's the size of a lobster and prawn. haha. as we had lunch, we see many motor boats passing by with rice grains and stuff. the weather was just nice as there was a breeze blowing by every now and then.
reached the hotel earlier than scheduled. the hotel's like a chalet! and it's so heartwarming because the place was a 100% better than expected. xuannie and i are really lucky cos not only were our beds big, our room was so spacious as well! i had the bigger bed which i think is of king size. never had a bed so big to myself before!! wah! haha.
spent the whole afternoon learning bridge and yes, i'm quite good at it now. (: can remember what we had for dinner but it was at the hotel. in general, all the food provided for us were really wonderful except breakfast. the menu's always the same and the eggs are too oily. had dance prac after reflections.
day two
first day of our working day. after breakfast, we travelled to the headquarters of the school and had a talk by the principal and some of the staffs. after that we walked to the work site, the primary school. we were told the last time they had a renovation was in 1993 so the condition's really quite bad. our job was to whitewash the walls, paint the windows and doors and to build a fence around the school compound. haha, basically it's to just become labourers and help out in their renovation.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007 @8:38 PM
ok. i finally found time to update. there's good news and very saddening news. i'll start with the sad one.
my pe teacher, mr stephen loh, passed away recently. i heard of the news of the five dragon boaters missing from my fellow vietnam trip mates on the first day when i arrived at vietnam and all the further news on subsequent days as well. when i first got the news, i was still holding on, not believing what i heard and hoping that they would be found surviving but on the next day in vietnam, i heard that the five of them left us. bingxin and i were on the scaffolding white washing the walls and we started talking about mr loh and all that he had done, even though he's only our pe teacher and we only see him for such a short period of time every week. we were rather emo. bx was the pe rep during school term.
the wake was on thursday and i was still in vietnam. i felt lost as i've known the news yet i couldnt do anything about the situation. the group of us observed a minutes of silence but still, i had the strong yearn of returning to singapore. this is my first time when someone so close left me. but something to be thankful is that mr loh passed away doing something of his passion and what he loves.
returning home from vietnam, i read all the news articles on the tragedy and i cried. i saw my school's website and read the tributes. it really pains me that he's gone.
dearest mr loh,
thank you so much for being our pe teacher. you're really one special teacher who makes the effort to remember our names even though you do not need to since we dont see you so often. although i only see you twice a week for two sessions of pe lesson of 50min each, you are always there showing us concern, asking how's our day and sharing your experience with us when we complain about heavy school work load. really appreciate your words of kindness. also, you never lose your cool whenever we dont listen to you or tried to create problems when we dont participate actively during pe lessons. not only that, from time to time we complain about pe lesson, about how we're not playing games and you painstakingly explain to us why you want us to do gym. i will never forget your words of "i want to share with all of you my passion of working out to keep a fit body." i know i took it for granted because i dont like working out but now, you've really made me learn another lesson, the really hard way. i wont mind having you nag at us doing our one RM but now, it's too late. it's an important lesson learnt to cherish someone when they are right there in front of you. you're a gift to all of us being our pe teacher and i guess we havent really cherish you enough and you're gone. mr loh, you'll be greatly missed by all of us and you'll be remembered, for the passion you've shown for dragon boating and sharing with us the beauty of keeping fit. we will never forget the teacher who's so well built and taught us pe lesson, showing us those basketball skills and all. thank you so much for everything, for being such a wonderful teacher.
still havent really recover from the sadness after typing the above so i guess i'll have another entry on the vietnam trip. really sorry.