My LoVes (:

♥ Saturday, February 28, 2009

Vietnam's experience.

I saw smiles.
I saw appreciation.
I've experienced vietnam's way of life.
I love their simplicity.
I've drank lavae water.
I've been a pillion rider for almost 2 weeks.
I've paint a school building for the kids, my first time.
I fell in love with babies.
I had infatuation.
I've teared there.
I cherished the friendship.
I love vietnam springrolls.
I've experienced indoor raining.
more and more, a great and cherished experience. Though it wasnt impactful enough, the precious memories stayed. Those teaching sessions, painting time and cooking jobs stayed deeply...was actually unwilling to leave the place, leaving the volunteers.. Hoai, Trang, Anh, Duong, Hung and Tung, they were full of passion. Fortunate to have met them. Ngoc and Loan, which i reckon those 2 kids have already forgotten me..

Woke up damn early, went to school, did the last packing and move the boxes down to the car and sent it to the airport. Was really excited for it! Had breafast with mummy before setting off...The first day was a little...draggy and i actually felt homesick. The bus ride to Namh Ding was a 7 hours bus ride. =x we spent time singing, playing on the bus..listening to vietnam version of 'tong hua' and many more songs, abit weird though.The city itself looked a little like malaysia just that they have loads of bicycles with their trademark hats on..and of course, they were tanned and some of them had brown hair. we were welcomed by SJ vietnam volunteers , i didnt have any impression of them during the first night because basically, we had dinner, debrief and went to sleep. we began our 'angel and mortal' game arranged by the 'games team'. My mortal was Nguyen(=.=).Hoai was our room mate, but we dint make any contact with her. Mozzies invaded our room, kill them like hell..well, i loveeeee my room mates!

We began our work the second morning, everything felt great and was ready to go all for it. we were allocated to our own riders for the girls, and my rider was the leader of the whole team => Kamar...was so surprised that he could ride the bicyle with me on it, haha!i told him to get ready for it, it will be like this for 6 days...cause i weighed a ton. Was actually relieved when someone was able to ride me(it wasnt easy)! we decorated our nametags for the children to recognize us and then.. Hung approached me to decorate his nametag, i was stunned for a moment because i dont even remember his existance.As i recalled, i remembered he was the one who sent the mail to us before setting off to vietnam..i thought of them as adults and not young adults like them. He indeed had brown, beautiful eyes. We had a welcome party by Namh Ding school, we played games, teaching them and sanding down doors to start painting.we started interacting with the kids, by playing with them...then carried on with the sanding work, it was dreadful. Dust filled the air, really torturous for me. and i tried to avoid the sun but to no valid.=.= After one Afternoon, i realised some of them kids were deaf and mute. That affected me for a while, couldnt sleep at night as i was wondering why such things happened to them and realised how fortunate i was. meanwhile, on our way home, suddenly. everything went black, were shocked for a moment cause we cant see the road properly. Thank God i have kamar with me, cause he has headlights!!^^ so we led those behind us. Had debrief, and bathed. I was utterly disgusted when i turn on the tap, and saw brown water flowed out of the tap. OMGXZ, it was a little unacceptable to me, but i thought. Since others can live with it, why cant i live with it? so i closed my eyes and the water flow over my body, no choice. BUT, i washed my face and brush my teeth with clean water. LOL. yay, we slept with mosquito coils, felt so safe with it.=) i went downstairs to collect my angel's note, hoping it would be there to keep me moving! I've recieved my angel's note and it wrote : 'nice working with you.you looked like my mother. Hope you always beautiful, happy, smile.' Immediately, i knew it was one of them and that made me laughed a while. i was thinking was that a compliment or ... lol. well, you made my day =)

On the third dayI had an accident with faezah as kamar was in the cooking team, both of us flew out of the bicycle. she had a bad bad fall and thus stop work to rest, poor thing...at the same time feeling a little guilty cause i fell on her, it was no joke, she was really in pain.=( i love faezah cause she always made me feel safe with her. AND you know what?! she was actually from BDS omgs, that is totally shocking...so she's my senior, my medic and my friend! i was sent down for painting the doors again, that was when i met tung, he was easygoing and funny because he cannot pronounce english properly.I actually had difficulty talking to him sometimes but he tried his best, luckily he doesnt mind me laughing or i'll die from his slaps! we talked about our lives in singapore and vietnam, it was really different. they had to deal with floods, farming which i had never encounter in singapore before. Hung was the one who cycled me back home, we chatted alot, laughed alot and silenced alot and....he said i was heavy..grr...he keep then had blackout while having dinner, leaving us feeling so insecure cause we couldnt see what we were eating and it was raining heavily, and drizzling in the house => indoor raining... =.= we had to clear and clean the stairs, everyone work together to get rid of the rain water in the attic. It was a long and tired night for us. then had debrief and wrote a note for our mortal. I was a little reluctant..Bathed with the water again, apply with lotsa powder. Feeling a little lethargic as painting wasnt easy. Infact it was really tiring. I've recieved my angel's note and it wrote : 'nice working with you.you looked like my mother. Hope you always beautiful, happy, smile.' Immediately, i knew it was one of them and that made me laughed a while. i was thinking was that a compliment or ... lol. well, you made my day =)

The fourth day I did teaching, thats when i knew trang and duong. i love speaking to trang because she understands my jokes, HAHA! in my impression of duong, she had a typical face of a vietnamnese, a long haired girl. she sweet looking too! I had a great day teaching though i had barriers teaching them..I've learnt alot of vietnamnese language from them, it was so interesting.They also learnt to write my name in chinese, super gan dong can! i love the kids there, instead of we impacting them, they were the ones who impacted our lives. Their innocent smiles made our day through. , they actually knew break dancin
g! OMGXZ, they watched tv and picked it up from there, super amazing.we had dinner at one of their local coffeeshops selling noodles. They are famous for their beef noodles! super hungry. Janice and i sat with Hung, tung and Nguyen. We saw a bottle of transparent liquid, thinking that it was vinegar. we turned the bottle around and look, it says ' VODAKA HANOI' => 30%. . Janice and me looked at each other with puzzled eyes. we tried outting them into our noodles and it turn out quite nice. The guys were afraid that we would get drunk cause we were in our usual self : HIGH. We then exchanged phone numbers with them, haha! went home with no lights on again, my hero kamar kept me and himself safe, HAHA! Water today was good, but i still washed my face with clean water, lol..mozzies are dead!^^

On the fifth day, i was transferred to the cooking team. then i met Anh, i ask her why does she wants to cook.. she said she had no choice cause she cooks well..haha! and the way she saw my cutting the meat, she ask me why did they put you in my team.. =.= lol~ so bad...we went market to buy meat and vegetables, riding the bicycle alone.had a great time cooking with her. our dinner prepared was meat and egg..the dishes was totally singaporean style and all of us missed singapore! Had some personal time, so Janice and i was invited by the volunteers to join in the games. We taught them 'chucky' and they taught us their games. We had our nicknames from there. Janice: vit con( duckie), me: banh bao ( a pau=.=). Such fun time really files. Then we were told to get out of the house, queuing in a straight line, blindfolding us and leading us to a unknown place. we went in batch by batch, I was the first one in the second batch. So, I held on to tung instead of the other guy( Janice knows). Surprisingly, we had a welcome party from the volunteers, super touching!.. cos they blinfolded us, brought us to a secret place which was filled with candles and balloons..then we began wrestling games, bamboo dancing game and many more. they sang their national sog to us. In return, we sang back to them, the first time singing ever since i've graduated from sec school. couldnt forget the song at all. I was really happy tonight, the first day i felt so.....relaxed.I was feeling a little melancholy..because on the sixth day, we would be leaving Namh Ding school.

On the sixth day, we had a farewell party and parted our ways. we then headed towards Hai Duong, in the city. you're the motivation. we went to several place and we went to the beach!! that was so relaxing! we had kite flying, sandbagand piggyback racing! we had so much fun until we got real tired.we picked up our bottles, the sunshine shone into our transparent bottles. GUESS WHAT?! we actually found wriggly tiny things in our water.OMFG, it was lavae!!!!!!! i felt like fainting cause we actually drank that thing for almost a week. disgusted, but just drink cos we were really thirsty. i closed eyes once again. Hai Duong kids were more hyper than what we thought, infact, they were abit overfriendly which scares us a little..it was no longer a house we stay but a hostel..feeling bit,far from our friends. This time, we couldnt have mosquito coils anymore, we needed mosquito nets! we closed the windows. well, a plus point, the water is really clean and we had bigger rooms!We had german volunteers staying there too! they're gonna stay for there for a year = 365 days. really very wei da, cause i cannot even tahan for a month. called mummy and chatted with her.=)

The seventh day, I did teaching. The kids were fun and willing to learn. We were suppose to teach them dancing to perform on the ceremony. But, we changed to singing! we sang 'you are my sunshine', and since then, it became my favourite childhood song. Teaching them was difficult too, cause they couldnt memorise properly and pronounce it properly. SO, we got our saviour to come. ANH! cause she doesnt have to cook in Hai Duong, i think she's feeling happy... so she put the english tone into vietnamnese tone which makes it easier for them to sing. and....we succeed! A lttile girl, burst ( melissa and i gave her this name cause her colthes are bursting), cried when singing this song. She suddenly remembered of her dad who passed away a month ago. It ends the day. We had dinner prepared by the cooks in the school..which left me with no appetite at all..wasnt used to the dishes at all, and thus. didnt finished my food.Had debrief and went back to bathe, writing diaries and reading the notes my angel gave to me..

'You are my sunshine' :
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

I did painting on the Eighth day. same thing, sanding down doors and painting them..Today wasnt that fulfilling, but i just enjoyed painting! nogc and loan kept shouting for my name just to wave.and indeed, that was touching enough cause they remembered my name when i only have a few hourse with them..The advisors then took us to the nearby supermart to shop around and we shopped like crazy cause...we haven eat food that feels like us for more than a week, we were despesrate.=.= went back for dinner again and this time, i took very little food. Feeling a little uncomfortable, i went to sleep. i felt something was coming up.

INDEED, i fell ill on the nineth day. Having fever! so, i'm always fortunate cause i have Faezah with me again! i feel that i always hai her cannot do work properly cause she has to take care of me. Besides that, i was also having rashes on my arms due to the environment and my sensitive skin.ZZZ. so the whole afternoon, i was sleeping sleeping and sleeping, not feeling any better at all..i spent the afternoon reading my diary and listening to songs and...daydreaming when i cant sleep. I couldnt get used to the food in the canteen at all, felt really weak! so i wasted a preciouse like this, Hoping i could continue work tmr.

ZZZZZ, i'm okay today but the advisor made me rest! i'm must rest while others could do more work. and my job today was just to rest AGAIN. ZZZ. I followed them to the mart though. i still bought crackers back to hostel. Of cause i know i couldnt eat that. Had debrief, when it was my turn, i couldnt say anything at all! cause i was lying on bed all the time, haha!i miss the kids!went to celebrate wq, andy, paul, jinghui and justin's birthday at place for k-ing! so we sang and sang, we had so much fun cause we really let go oursleves to get high! we got scandals pairs to sing, so funny! especially Janice and Jeremiah. They were really pei he-ing us! LOL. went back and kept staring at me mosquito net till i fall asleep..

I'm finally well on the eleventh day!!^^ I did babysitting in the morning as we're leaving towards Ha Long bay in the afternoon..The babies were soooooo cuteeee! some ofthem were abandoned by their parent. why would they want to leave such cute creature over there? i fell in love with the babies, each of the babysitting rooms had about 10 babies. Its like you're surrounded by babies all around, super exciting. At some time you will get panicky cause its their lunchtimeor time to get their nappies changed. Cries filled the whole room and you'll feel like going crazy too.Had a farewell ceremony, giving them the donated items and performance. I've learnt a few vietnam songs which i still cant forget now, it's so deeply into me. The kids left gave me a deep impression of them, i really missed them lots. Especially loan, ngoc and 'burst', managed to teach them 'you are my sunshine' song. It's really tough teaching
but it turns out that it's all worthwhile, watching them singing to you and hugging you.I really loveee them! A great satisfaction there. we were then brought to a bridal shop, made to change into vietnam traditional clothes and made to pose with the motobike in the shop=.= the vietnam clothes were beautiful anyway and headed with our little shopping trip in the market.The traffic at the market was quite bad, they had junctions without traffic lights so we had to cross the road with extra caution. We also saw pigs on the lorry, really really scary. LASTLY, we headed to Ha Long Bay! a good rest finally!we loaded our stuffs at a 'hotel', melissa, bijun and i were arannged to sleep together. At night, we had shopping again! the street shopping is totally like pasar malam in Singapore just that the shops there were infested by pearls, almost every shop sells pearls. The advisors then taught us to differentiate real and fake pearls. went back hotel to sleep with aircon!^^

day 12: we went Ha long bay, a world heritage tour in Vietnam.The view was magnificent, a view i've never seen before. I've never sat facing the sun for 1 hour while enjoying the view, but now i did! It's just a different feeling there, nothing like singapore. Everything just feel so peaceful. we took aboat over to the cave. It's the first time i stepped into a real cave, it was so well preserved. Glad that i studied geography, HAHA. we had to take like a million flight of stairs can! wah, i machiam gonna die soon. the stairs were super steep and slippery too...At night, we did shopping AGAIN. This the market was bigger, they sell bags clothes and souvenir, a place for tourists like us. shopped with Janice love, Jeremiah, Xinhui, Melissa and Andy.hahah!we were given only an hour to shop, totally not enough lor...hahah!!went back bathed, played and sleep..

It was day 13...we walked around Vietnam ,took us shopping and had lunch at some restuarant...we had seafood again, feeling so xinfu!!we literally walked the whole day, visiting and walking around. Shopped with Hung at the night market, we walked and chatted lol. Then i realised, he has mesmerizing eyes..!!He gave me a hair clip, simply cause i said its nice when i walked past.. Had beef noodles for dinner..yummy yummy! we were invited by the volunteers to go their and play!!!but were forbidden=( sad hor, last day liao still wanna control.ZZZ. So after i bathed, i sneaked into Janice room like about 1am? everybody was sleeping already..we both lie on the bed and chatted alot..summarising the whole trip, about us. she never that we could click with me so well, cause she said she seldom mix well with year 1s, haha! we were so in tuned with each other...about the volunteers, it was actually the volunteers who made our days in vietnam really fun..we were the few who could really mingled with them..so super she bu de them...was telling janice love abt tearing tmr at the airport..hah!! will really missed them so much. SO, Janice love was sharing with me some secrets and i shared with her some secrets over these 2 weeks.!hahaha, loves Janice love!

It's the last day of our trip, everything felt so weird today... Janice and I moved to the front of the bus to sit with the volunteers...we both knew, what was coming. we played and joke with them. I sat with Tung while Janice sat with Hung. we chatted alot, exchanging our mails and numbers..we taught the volunteers chinese too! we sang vietnam songs and chinese songs.hahah! when we got to the aiport, checked in our luggage. Janice and I couldnt hold on anymore, we actually teared as we hugged the volunteers. so saddening! The others cried too. super bu she de them...it ends here but the passion never ends. the pictures filled with reluctant. I missed those guys. i love meeting up ocp people in school!A wonderful experienced I Had.

i Came back thinning and charred. LOL. mummy says i should marry over there if i really wanna slim down, haha! i still love Singapore though! I took so so so to post this. Was happy when i actually remembered all those things that happened when i lost my diary on the plane. wah, precious book leh! sads.. I would wan another ocp trip! lol, sorry for lagging behind for almost half a year when i'm supposed to blog this last year=X