i know my blog's super dead but i'm here to revive it with something that changed my life :)
and that is service learning @ cambodia.
i'm really proud to say that i've been there and touched the lives of people, leaving footprints of faith and hope.
we all met at the airport at about 5.45am. seriously? it was so damn early. but anyway after the admin procedures like checking-in and so on, we took off for cambodia and reached at about 10+? we took a bus to pacific hotel, checked in, and had lunch at a restaurant that served singapore food. it was pretty good, cos' i expected we'd be having cambodian food the next couple of days. next we headed for a city tour and stopped by at a killing field. it was quite a horrifying sight, where there were excavated old clothes and skulls of the victims that died under the pol pot regime. :( it was a great eye-opener and i've learnt that we're very blessed to have a good government leading the country. after visiting the killing site, we headed off to the tuol sleng genocide museum. this really made my stomach flip, because what we saw was very unpleasant. there were portraits of the victims who were tortured, the actual equipment that was used for torture, and even dried up blood stains from the murderous torture on the floor tiles... it was really terrifying. after the not-so-pleasant sites, we headed off to the royal palace, a more cultural side of cambodia. the silver pagoda and the palace itself were absolutely stunning. at night we shopped at this place called supermall, where i bought ice-cream and pink shades! :D i <3 my pink shades ttm! after a long day we had team reflections and a small party, then headed off to dreamland! but while i was in the bathroom, gillian suddenly screamed and i got the shock of my life! she said there was a flying cockroach in the hotel room!!!! :O i came out with my shirt on and a towel wrapped over my butt hahahaha and tried to kill the roach with her.. i bet we made a ruckus ;) what drama!
Day 2, 29 May
awoke at 6am and went to the hotel lobby for breakfast. took a 3hr long bus ride to the homestay at baray district. it was a long and slowwww ride, but i managed to catch some sleep. no, actually alot. haha. when i woke up, the bus stopped for a toilet break and that was when i realised this was true village life. there were big empty and even barren fields, animals roaming around freely, and children with no clothes. when we arrived at the homestay, it was something i completely didn't imagine. we lived in huts with big big big big mosquito nets, and it was just... hmm. we met at a shelter and packed basic neccesities for the villagers then headed for lunch. then we had the pony cart ride!!! super duper fun! shared a cart with sheryl and madeline and the road was so bumpy my butt had a free massage teehee! it was really very touching cos' the kids would wave to you super enthusiastically even though you're a foreigner. we stopped by the fields and a boat-making area. a super fun and memorable ride :) <3 had dinner then night interaction! we taught the teens english, played many games with them. though there was a language barrier, nevertheless we still had loads of fun! :) team reflections then bedtime. it was gross cos' it was our first night there and we weren't used to the roaches, bugs, crickets and flies all around the toilets and everywhere. we were so scared of the 2 flying roaches in our hut too!!! but we still had a peaceful sleep :)
Day 3, 30 May
woke up for breakfast at solar cafe then headed out to the school to conduct our lessons! the kids were really very very enthusiastic in learning, and responded eagerly to everything we said. though there was a huge language barrier, the kids were really cute and repeated everything we said :P i had a terribly hard time coaching a boy sitting at the back on multiplication and division... i told him to group up 2 circles but he ended drawing me 2 circles instead. but i felt my efforts paid off seeing their enthusiasm to learn :') in the afternoon we took the packed items to the villagers where we could ask them any questions. for the first two houses it was pretty awkward cos' we didn't know what to ask. at the third house, we went up to view it and discovered much. the woman took only one month to build her house!!! we were done pretty early, so we spent pretty long waiting on the bus. had dinner and another session of night interaction and played even more games hehe! our group became pretty bonded :))) it was long and tiring day and again i slept very peacefully HAHAH.
Day 4, 31 May
breakfast @ solar cafe once again and today was hard work! headed off to pave a well right after breakfast and it was tough work. we carried heavy rocks to and fro, mixed the cement and sand together and scooped water up from the well. though i was drenched in sweat, i felt really good about myself because i felt like i was doing something meaningful for the villagers, and could improve their lives. :) though i was really worn out physically, mentally i was still alive and wanted to do more. after paving the wells, we went off to the same school again, to paint one of their buildings. first i took the small brush and painted the small corners of the windows and doors that the roller brushes couldn't reach. gradually i got quite tired and took a rest. i guess i had minor gastric pains as i was physically exhausted. after taking a quick bite and some water, i took over the job of the humongous rollers that were like 3m long. using those, i had to paint the very top of the walls! i had a very hard time doing so but i felt very accomplished after putting in all the hard work for these really eager kids :) we had lunch after that and since we completed our work way before time, we had loads of rest time and next we went for the ox cart ride :D it was another bumpy ride, with loads of ox dung everywhere. :P me, andrea, gillian and jasley shared a cart and we screamed all the way in fear of falling off and poor navigation! teehee, it was really the ride of my life. we filmed our roaming dv project here as well and the teachers were really funny :) dinnertime then again our last night interaction class :( i learnt quite alot of khmer words then too :) had an early night cos' we had our team reflection in the day! yayyyyyyy :-) dreamland! but we hogged mr lee's toilet once again hahaha!
Day 5, 1 June
breakfast when we woke up (as usual hahaha) and then we had our games carnival in the morning!!!! :-) it was cambodia's children's day that day and i was pretty hyped cos' our group put in alot of effort in planning the games :D the first group of kids that arrived didn't seem to understand the game and weren't as enthusiastic... but as more students came, their enthusiasm level was really raised to the maximum and laughed and had so much fun :) seeing them having this much fun really touched my heart :') after the carnival there was a prize presentation ceremony for the top students in each level and also a mini karaoke session hehe :) the kids were all really brave and sang really adorably! after that we had lunch, and off to the school to teach again. the english team took up too much time, and left the math group with only 30 mins to teach clock-reading! they were pretty distracted and hardly paid attention at all. we gave out our worksheets hastily and everyone of them were lost and didn't know how to do. after math lesson they had a break and i was so disappointed i teared. i felt like our efforts were wasted, i felt like we didn't do enough to help the children. however thanks to everyone who tried to comfort me <3 after a day of teaching we had dinner and then prepared for our much-awaited campfire! we sat in circles and got lightsticks for everybody! a little boy came to play with us and he sat on me and gillian. he was really cute and playful; he kept throwing the light stick near the fire! we totally got a shock and kept retrieving the light stick for him as he kept throwing it repeatedly. mr lee saw what happened and he came and 'confiscated' his light stick. the cute boy stared at mr lee in despair and disappointment - HIS FACE WAS SO SUPER CUTE :D i found out that his older brother, who was only a few years older than him, brought him here alone! we watched a couple of local dances and then our teams had to perform an item each. Awesome K2 went first and I got quite hyper after our random dancing :))) K3's shuffling was very cool too, and K5's performance was quite sweet ^^ now i'm addicted to party rock anthem hahaha! after campfire was a mini cambodian dance, where me, gillian, sheryl and madeline tried very hard to learn the dance moves haha! it was pretty fun! we gave our contacts to our night interaction group and took pictures with them :) it was pretty sad that we had to leave them... :'( i love my night interaction group!!!! <3 thanks so much for the memories :') it was our last night at khmer homestay and definitely the most memorable night. :)
Day 6, 2 June
we had our last breakfast/meal at the solar cafe. we finished up the PL board and left for phnom penh and the hotel. it was a 3hr bus ride and after checking in to the hotel, headed for lunch at the same restaurant that we had lunch on the first day. it was an afternoon of shopping at the central market and supermall (again). i bought another pair of shades, more ice cream, socks and a I <3 Cambodia tee :) through this i saw many people, and even children, begging for money. it kinda hurts to see such people living in poverty and have to resort to such ways and means... may god bless them and touch their hearts. after shopping we had a big big big surprise!! our celebration dinner was on a boat!!!!!!! :) boat ride ftw <3 had a great dinner and bonding time with the same party gang and then had separate team reflections. K2 also celebrated papa's birthday with a surprise cake and present from some of the K2-ers :-) papa was really touched and it was indeed a night of celebration. we exchanged cards and wrote for one another and continued doing so in the hotel. the teachers also surprised us with coconut drinks and ice-cream! thank you teachers :D when we were all done with team reflections, we partied in one another's rooms and we stayed up till 2am :P it was definitely a night to remember <3
Day 7, 3 June
had good breakfast of eggs and sausages in the hotel lobby. left for the airport at about 7.45am and before we knew it, we were on the plane back to singapore. :'( it was really a touching moment when we left cambodia as our heart was filled with so much pleasant memories. plane food was (y) btw ;-)
i've learnt so much from this trip. happiness is really simple. all you have to do is be contented with whatever you have and don't always bear grudges or complain. sometimes it's not about whether you have the latest gadgets, or the most amount of money, but it's more of making full use of whatever you have and being happy with it. learning to count our blessings and being thankful for whatever you have suddenly seems so meaningful after this service learning trip. there are so many people out there who are so much more unfortunate than you are... i thank god for whatever i have, and may whatever i have done bless and inspire the people out there in cambodia as well. i am very grateful for this amazing opportunity <3
I miss the hotel and hut stays. I miss swatting off bugs and insects off each other's shirts. I miss the delicious food at Solar Cafe. I miss my night interaction group. I miss the enthusiasm of the little children. I miss painting and paving wells. I miss sweating till we had salt marks. I miss tucking in the mosquito nets properly before sleeping. I miss looking after kids at the campfire. I miss K2's Flea Fly cheer. I miss avoiding cow dung. I miss the late-night insect-infested team reflections. I miss long bus rides. I miss screaming at insects and toads. I miss our late-night parties. I miss buying ice cream and shades at the mall. I miss waving at the children on the cart rides. I miss FIS Cambodia (Baray) 2011! <3
♥♥♥
