Saturday, December 6, 2008
( 11:41 PM )
apparently, i'm one of the last few to pen down my reflections. or maybe, the last... since it's already 11.42pm right now. =/ this is going to be a ultra long post... or so i think. vietnam was AWESOME!i never thought that i would miss being overseas as much as what i'm feeling now. despite the hard work during our trip, it was very much enjoyable. cementing under the hot sun was downright exhausting. especially with all that clearing of the portholes and creating a drainage system... these were definitely things that we were never exposed to here in singapore. i've always known that we were a bunch of extremely fortunate kids. being born and bred in singapore for most of us, we never actually knew how tough life could be. the experience in vietnam was hard evidence to show how blessed we are. having seen the state the school was in, it seemed almost impossible to study there. or so i thought.... yet, kids were sitting in the classrooms, attentive to what is being taught. this, has taught me to be thankful of what our government has provided us with. though we may not have the best facilities back in ijc, it was a far better cry than this. the painting of the mural and the whitewashing was pure pleasure. though the whitewash was pretty frustrating, i think we all had tremendous fun doing it. =D the guys were singing and all of us were laughing as we did our jobs. the orphanage, in my opinion, was the most satisfying part of the trip. since i love playing and taking care of kids, this was literally heaven to me. took care of a toddler named tien for the first day. she was ultra quiet and hardly anything i did made her smile. though, when she smiled, it was the most heartwarming smile ever! as i carried her, i could sense her insecurity. her legs were always tightly wrapped around me, as were her hands. the grip was firm, as though she was afraid that i would drop her. this insecurity made me wonder what exactly was the cause that made her this way. found her with qianhui the second day. she seemed to have forgotten me... but after awhile, she warmed up to me again. i'm totally missing her right now. seeing these kids, my heart goes out to them. not only were they abandoned, they seemed to be mistreated. the bruises on them was a heartwrenching sight to behold. the visit to hong bang university was pretty interesting. even though they were university students, and you would expect their mastery of the english language to be better, i was proven wrong. the language barrier was very much present for me. and the supposed interaction was nothing more than a round-a-bout talk that consisted of me asking a question and my vietnamese friend not understanding the question at all. it was pretty frustrating... guess i shouldn't have expected too much. the interesting part was the performances that they put up. through it, i could see how much importance was given to the preparation of this visitation. and the last minute dance performance that we put up for them. apparently, they seemed to love it. i'm guessing it was due to the fact that the song we danced to was high school musical. of course, this whole trip wasn't just all work and no play. we found time to have fun and enjoy ourselves during this trip. totally missing the time we spent in the nights at can gio. going to other members' rooms to watch late night movies from an ipod.and the other cliques playing games in their rooms. the rainbow hotel was the worst experience one could get. especially when raini and i were locked out of our room. i have no idea why... but yea. in the end, thanks to dickson's generosity, we camped on his bed. however, i did enjoy all the bitching sessions in rainbow hotel. what with all the lists and what not. =P hotel pearl was the best ever yet. both nights, we had people camping in our room. which was pretty fun except that the 2nd last night i was having a fever and couldn't really join in. the last night was totally awesome and we all had a tremendous lot of fun. all in all, i totally enjoyed myself.through this trip, i learnt a lot more about volunteerism and giving back to the society. i'm extremely glad to have been given this opportunity to have gone through this whole journey. from the start till now, i have learnt so much. ocip has allowed me to grow and mature. now, being back in singapore, i feel a sense of emptiness. and i know quite a few members feel the same way too. guess we are extremely used waking up and having something for us to do. a sense of purpose in life, i presume... lastly, i really hope that our ocip team would stay bonded. chalet at the end of dec or first week of jan?? =D its 12.28am.... guess i'm being ultra long winded here. =/ genevieve. I LOVE OCIP! I LOVE VIETNAM! I LOVE TIEN!
