i'm a little teapot, short and - hello. i am a great kid with a naive mind. feel free to share your thoughts with me. 'would you care for some bread with your Earl Grey ?' i like tall and handsome korean men. currently married to Howl of 'moving castle' fame. adios amigos. :D

Day 7: Sunday and I just realized how long we have been in Vietnam – ONE WHOLE WEEK! :O it seems quite impossible to be true. Had to take malaria pills and went to do painting at the 2007 site, the one that the previous batch of SA OCIP Vietnam Team-ers worked at. We played with the children that came to take a look at what we were doing and gave them sweets and biscuits. It was then we found out that they did not know they had to tear the wrappers to get to the candies – they would eat them up whole if we did not tear it open for them. :( I remembered that I was left with 5 biscuits and I told them to line up to take them from me. Of course they did not understand and instead crowded around me. The kids still held this fear of strangers from a foreign country as they would snatch the snacks from my outstretched palms. The girls were better behaved though. :P after they had their fill, we saw that there were crumbs and sweet wrappers scattered about the floor. We proceeded to pick them up and put into one of the plastic bags we brought and, WHAT DID YA KNOW? The kids actually took the initiative and copied our actions. It probably goes to show how children are influenced easily and with the RIGHT influence, they can learn new etiquettes. How very interesting. :O

When the second group returned from their work at the 2007 site [which was us], we were struck by horror [at least I WAS] struck with horror when I saw that they were sitting at the dinner tables with lamps lighting up the place. Almost pitch dark but it wasn’t evening yet. I fed Nam Ai today [the imp from our lodge] and watched the stars [for once we can see them!] with Ces, Josie and Val Xie. Played “if you know what I mean” [WLIIA game] with Shane, John and Fiona. John was totally horrified with our answers and the look he gave us! >>> AH priceless. :P The experience working [building a kindergarten] in Vietnam is so much more enjoyable than in Singapore. When I look up after hard at work for quite a long period of time, the scenery just strikes me as BREATH-TAKING. Literally. I can only marvel and gaze at it in awe. This got me thinking a lot really. Like comparing Singapore to Vietnam, since we lack all these scenic views in an island that constantly deals with land scarcity. I wonder why I don’t work hard in Singapore when I do local CIP. :S Is it because of the lack of incentive? Then am I truly helping others to their benefit or am I just feeling satisfied from it? Isn’t that equivalent to being selfish then? I feel tremendous guilt when I think like that. :(

To pass time, Shane told us some scary stories – actually about how he found some videos on Youtube and that the videographer/photographer/cameraman actually caught real-life scary scenes. He told us how to identify the real ones and the fake ones. Seriously speaking, I wouldn’t care. Watching horror films already give me the creeps, I don’t need to search for videos that are even more life-like/realistic THANK YOU VERY MUCH. (-.-“)

OH SUNDAY WE WENT TO THE SUNDAY MARKET TO SHOP ! :D Many interesting sights and sounds welcomed us at the Sunday market. There were many other tourists there too and the villagers were out in full force, hawking all their wares and handicrafts. Among the situations/scenes that different team mates faced were slaughtering/sale of pigs, puppies in baskets and the manner of treating them when they were sold to their buyers, ETC. The villagers don’t have much for entertainment so many of them are really good at making up their own games or playing simple games like chapteh and chess. These games are probably from our parents’ times, when they were still living in kampungs. Personally, I felt this strong sense of nostalgia and maybe peacefulness. They lead simple lives, free from the complexity of the city.

An interesting [actually maybe I should say EXASPERATING] incident was that this ANGMOH couple went up to one of our team mates [they would have noticed us; we were in such a big group and all wearing identical windbreakers] and asked "CHINA?" :O

WTH WTH WTH WTH WTH. :( :( :(

bah, as if we don’t stereotype them ourselves. BUT SERIOUSLY, WHICH PART OF OUR STANDARD OF ENGLISH DO YOU NOT GET ??? This is highly infuriating and only serves as a reminder for the time I logged onto Facebook and joined the page, which was tagged as “WHO’S GOING for the Maroon 5 concert” and they labeled – SINGAPORE, CHINA.

[NO OFFENCE TO ALL CHINA PEOPLE. i just dont like ths misconception very much.]

WTH WTH WTH WTH WTH. >:(

FOR GOD’S SAKE ASIA IS VERY HUGE AND ASIA DOES NOT EQUATE TO CHINA ALONE ! THERE ARE MANY OTHER COUNTRIES IN ASIA - SOME OF WHICH ARE SINGAPORE, INDIA, MALAYSIA, VIETNAM, INDONESIA, LAOS, CAMBODIA, ETC ETC ETC.

Which makes me want to mention that I put up a video quite a while back that showed how Americans [they have other alternatives: British, Germans, French, etc.] were extremely CLEVER.

I MEAN THEY ASKED THIS [why does she happen to be a blonde??? :O ] LADY TO NAME A COUNTRY THAT STARTS WITH THE LETTER “U” AND SHE WAS STUPEFIED. WOW REALLY. HONESTLY SPEAKING. IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO COME UP WITH “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” OR WHAT ?!?

Nevermind, was digressing over there. BACK TO THE STORY SORRY.

Day 8: I wrote only one sentence in my diary/notebook and it goes like this: “Today we helped to paint the classroom and I did programmes with the kids. It was fun. THE END.” I can’t believe how short this entry was. I must mention though that I love kids and that I had a great time teaching them arts and crafts. One of the activities that we did with the kids was to string macaroni and make it into a necklace. I realized how grubby the little kids’ fingers were. It almost seemed like they had been hard at work in the fields or something. i wonder if they were considered priveleged BECAUSE I WONDERED IF THERE WERE ANY OTHER KIDS OUT THERE THAT DID NOT HAVE AN EDUCATION. I wonder so much that I think my head still hurts. =/

For the sharing session, instead of voicing out our opinions straight away, we were told to think what would Mr Ong and Ms Tay say to us about what we have learnt throughout the day. ALL I WROTE DOWN WAS QUESTIONS because I have never been very good at guessing what someone would say. BUT I CAN THINK OF THE NUMEROUS POSSIBILITIES WHEN IT COMES TO QUESTIONS. :O

I think coming towards the end of the trip, we didn’t get much oppurtunities to share because of the places we were in. It’s quite difficult and also a little inconvenient to get all 20 smtg of us to meet at the lobby of the hotel we stayed in at some stipulated time. It would seem like some illegal gathering anyways. :P One point to mention about Day 8 is that Mr Ong felt that maybe the villagers didn’t appreciate us for all the work we have done. Come to think of it [ahhh, thinking again], I have never looked through the matter in such a perspective. How could I be so naïve to believe that they would appreciate all that we have done? Sometimes I feel guilty; I should be doing more to help them – I’m sure I’m capable of it, whether physically, emotionally or financially. I don’t want the people to think I’m doing it so that I make myself feel better [oh so now I’m a saintly figure or some do-gooder?] NO NO NO. I honestly want to help and I’m being earnest.

Which is why we should take our local CIP more seriously because if we can’t help our fellow Singaporeans/citizens, then why should we help others?

chew on it. ;)

Days 9 and 10: My memory is failing me. My notebook cannot assist me. I teared when I waved goodbye to the kids, not knowing if I’ll ever see them again and whether they truly know of our existence in time to come. [insert heavy sigh] The kindergarten is incomplete and so are the murals – AND WE HAD AN INAUGURATION CEREMONY? I felt guilty once again and just filled with many questions.

What have we came here for? Have we achieved our goals and attained what we were scheduled to accomplish? I HAVE NO IDEA AND TRULY SPEAKING, I THINK NOT.

Our performance was quite alright but I felt that our practices seemed to – OH I DUNNO THE WORD FOR IT. It was slipshod work, everything to me was. I just wanted to ask them to have their own opening ceremony later and complete the kindergarten first. What [to me] was important was the completion of the kindergarten and nothing else. Again it was all a matter of “face” and “presentation”. The organizers and big shots took a picture of the front of the kindergarten because it was most presentable.


SAYING THIS ONLY MAKES ME HATE MYSELF MORE. :( :( :( :( :(

A couple more things happened after that and all I can mention that it was heart-rending and confusing. I do not understand why and whether we have truly helped the community at all. =/

Day 11 [COPIED WHOLESALE FROM NOTEBOOK]: We took the overnight train ride from Lao Cai to Hanoi. It was unforgettable experience. Had so much fun crashing each other’s bunks. :P The train ride was rather bumpy though, but it is a once in a lifetime situation you wouldn’t be in all the time – I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Pretty creepy in the toilet though – the train made weird jerking noises as it went past the countryside. [Sidenote: Our bunk was on the last end of the carriage. As you have probably seen in some movies, carriages are linked to one another by small doors and this area where you can walk across to the next carriage. These linkages are however, not very stable, and usually exposed to whatever is outside – the wind, rain, sun – YOU GET THE IDEA. It was late in the night when we travlled and the toilet was just beside this linkage. I SWEAR IT’S FREAKING SCARY. You can imagine one of those horror movies to take place right there and then.] We had supper – my digestives were mostly consumed and we listened to some music, courtesy of John the funnyman. I had difficulty getting to sleep [perhaps it was the train rocking to and fro in awkward positions] and got woken up early by the train alarm at around 4 plus [!!!!!] in the morning. The alarm was VERY LOUD AND VERY LONG. In fact, it probably only stopped when we were approaching the station. What they did was to BLAST VIETNAMESE TRADITIONAL SONGS AT HIGH VOLUMES and hopefully the passengers would wake up, wash up and get ready to arrive in Hanoi.

HAHA THANK YOU WE DID. (-.-“)

No time to brush teeth or anything. I felt dirty [no bathing for A day !] and stinky and grossed out. Did not get to keep my train ticket which was sad. :( Shane still has his [I found out when he dropped it on a chair at this café at this pit stop, when we were making our way to Hanoi’s airport for the trip home.] Anws, we went straight to the hotel by bus and I saw Sofitel! It’s an expensive branch of hotels [I’ve been to one in France] that has quite nice décor, in contrast to that of the other buildings in Hanoi. There was also a Louis Vuitton shop – I SWEAR IT’S AUTHENTIC. After we checked in, we walked to the lake and onto this bridge [it does look quite like the pictures] and there were many flies – MANY FLIES. I don’t think that they were swarming around us because we haven’t had our baths yet but - YOU NEVER KNOW. :P

The city life is hard to get used to after so many days in the mountains. I’m not quite accustomed to hearing the horns again. It was so peaceful in the countryside, the scenery and greenery, including the air – SO MUCH FRESHER IN BAC HA. I think maybe instead of Switzerland, I’ll retire there. It may not have 4 seasons but it can get pretty cold during the winter period, when we are high up in the mountains. :D

DAY 11+ and 12 TBC for another day. ciao.