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! (: