eye-opener

When I first get to know about this OCIP trip was during a talk given by the previous back of students during assembly. When I heard that they were also organising a group to go to Cambodia, I wa like "I'm so going to go Cambodia!!!" When I asked all my friends if they were interested, most said that they were busy. Actually I was quite depressed at that time because I was scared going alone with no friends to accompany. However, thinking deeply for quite a long time, I've made up my mind that I want to go as this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience during the days as a student. So I went to get the form and pray very hard that I would pass the interview and able to go. When the results were out I was like "YES!!!"

So days passed in a blink of an eye and the big day is here. i was so excited that i could not sleep the night before. The first day of the trip we went to Angkor Wat, 1 of the wonders of the world. Cool!!! I was like so excited as in it's the first time going to a place with such great history to it... Real eye opener as the tour guide explained to us the reasons what the statues means, the cravings mean, so on and so forth. It's really nice to be there:)

Where ever we went as in outside the Angkor Wat itself, there were like children swarming towards us trying to get us to buy their gifts. I was like shocked as in you can't see this kind of scene anywhere in Singapore. What i was thinking that just because they have to help their families to earn a few dollars, they had to stand outside the place from morning till night to get tourists to buy stuff from them. Hmmm... It's just really shocking for me:O

2nd day had come to get us to go to BBLC... But before that, we were going to do the rice soup programme. We met Sister Louise there. And I was really touched by her actions because instead of living in comfort in her own home, she came here to help the children. When we were told to help clear the rubbish outside the place. We were like picking up the rubbish with our thumbs and index finger because we were scared that it will dirty our hands. That was what I think most of us thought at that time. However, Sister Louise used her whole hand to pick up the rubbish. I was like "ok... don't you think that's dirty?" But what she did made me realised that being truely passionate about community serivce is that you will not be obstructed by what the environment shows. Hmmm.... I'm so sorry I dont really know how to express it out...T_T

Finally we had reached BBLC :D I'm part of the afternoon group for teaching the students English. When the students came, we introduced oursleves and realised that their English isn't that bad after all. So we tried to use simple sentences to teach them, talk to them. We even came up with little games to warm-up the class before the actual lessons. We had prepared worksheets for them to do and when we gave them homework they really did it without complaint. From this I can see that they are really serious and interested in studying.

Because I was teaching in the afternoon, I went to help with the raod building programme in the morning. Although it was really tiring, it was fun XD As this is the first time I get to help to build a road. Shovelling the sand and stones, then carrying them to the cement mixing machine. Whew!! it's tiring and by the next morning, we do not have the energy to really carry the pails full of sand and stone... But in the end , being able to help the village to have better roads, I felt a sence of accomplishment after completing the road building. And I felt really happy being able to teach those students because we were able to help them :) SO happy:)

Dinner was scary as they were flies flying around the whole place and like a lot of them landed onto our plates of food!!!! AHH!!!! We all thought up ways to get rid of the flies E.G. getting a pail of water to get them to fly into the water. It worked a bit though not much. :( So in the end we decided to eat in the dark flashing our flash lights once in a while. This really helped alot hahah:)

The stay in BBLC had come to an end. Cant stand it that we were leaving. It seemed time has fly very fast T_T I'm happy that I'm able to make such great friends and I will always remember them.

Next we went to the dumpsite area... to interact with the young children:) When I first reached there, the pungent smell hit me. Feel like vomiting but I was also thinking at the same time on how can the villages able the withstand the smell and lived in such a place? After quite a long walk, we finally reached the school. The children there were really lively and friendly. But also can say that they were a bit overwhelming. When it was interaction time, some children just went straight to some of the group members and asking them to hug them play with them. Although I said that some but that some is still a lot of children for 1 person to handle. I was overwhelmed by their over livliness XD But they were cute. The school don't really teach them like Singapore's kindergarden. They actually teach them manners which are the basics in life.

Leaving the dumpsite, we went to the killing fields and the S-21 Museum... The place was like... Don't really know how to discribe. Imagine thousands of innocent people being tortured and killed in a school but students who were 'brainwashed' then buried them in the killing fields. I felt angry and confused at the same time. How can you kill thousands and thousands of your own people and feel nothing and why just why? too many qns.

Finally it's shopping time:) Yahoo!!! bought quite a lot of stuff back for family and friends:) This is because the teachers taught us a bit of barginning skills:) And after a few tries, you can pick uo the skills very fast:)

Final day!!!! i can't bear to leave Cambodia as I had a lot of wonderful experience there and made quite a lot of friends:) Through this, I've to cherish my family and friends more:)

Keep typing non-stop... haha... sorry this looked like summarising what we had doneT_T
I will miss all of you T_T glad that I came for this trip and learnt things that cant be taught in class:) and most important of all is that i am glad that I've friends with all of you and thanks for thanking care of me all these while:) We will always be a happy family:)

Christina:) the crazy girl:O
ps. try to put photos up the next time round:P