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TMT 25 May - 3 June 08
yes.. I know this post is way overdue but I never really had the time to sort out the pics and think of what to write. So here goes.. Well, I went to Northern Thailand, Chiang mai, Omkoi to teach english in a primary school in the town. It's a pretty small and quiet town but none the less a nice place to live in. We taught english in the school for 5 days, teaching from 9-12 and 2-3 (i can't remember the exact timings) daily.


the team at changi airport

this is a "song tao" we took it up the mountain

school assembly

Initially we were at a loss as we hardly knew any thai and the kids hardly knew any english. But the communication barrier was broken down through the kids' eagerness to learn and our intent to teach them. I guess in a situation where we can't use words to express ourselves, body language does the trick. I guess showing that you mean something is more real than verbalising it. Sometimes we just threw the syllabus out of the window and went crazy along with the kids in games lindy and I couldn't stop screaming about. I'm just glad they had fun and really, thank God for the receptiveness and openness of the kids and teachers. We were initially not allowed to preach, but we ended up incorporating the gospel into our lessons and we didn't get into trouble for it.


that girl looks like nabi

the p1 kids when we taught them colours

The way they are so easily contented, the way a simple thing or gesture can put a smile on their faces and the fact that they have so little yet are so happy is just so endearing.


some of the girls in the hostel

70% of the students in the school are from the Karen tribe, while 40% are actually Christian. =) As many of them have no money to study, they are sponsored by various Christian organisations and they live in a hostel inside the local bible school.

And our 5 days of teaching ended in a flash. We were zonked from facing this bundle of hyper active but super adorable kids but we were rewarded by their warmness and the fact that they learnt new stuff and had fun.

the team with the translaters and a teacher from the school

me plotting the demise of melvin's slippers

It definitely wasn't all work.. during our free time, the ajans (pastor/teacher) brought us to the local waterfall. We were totally unprepared for it and we ended up hiking for 1 hour in jeans and flip flops. -.- Uncle Francis was like plucking weird plants and going "eh this one can eat, that one can eat" so we ended up eating them but they weren't that bad. The water fall was super cool and the water was super nice and cold.




us trying to look like pandas because of the bamboo in the background

After we were done with teaching, we went further up the mountain to this village called pah poon dong. Our church planted a church there.

thats pah poon dong

We had a night envangelistic event there on sat and sunday service the next day. The night sky there is seriously very pretty, it's no science centre illusion! Pity we couldn't take a picture of it. We officially left the mountains and returned to chiang mai on sunday. We brought along with us lots of memories and lessons. I was impacted by the fact that they don't need alot to be happy, their faith in God despite the oppression they faced at the start, their enthusiasm to go to church and their sincere attitude towards God. All that made me reflect on my own Christian walk. I guess they think we are blessed because we have all the material comforts while we think they are blessed because they have all that was mentioned above. (plus the night sky and super nice scenary) The fact is, we had to remove all we had in our own lives to experience what they have. (am i even making sense?)


So we left impacted by these charming, warm, simple and sincere people.

let it snow
12:24 AM

And so the nus faculty of science camp aka scamp has ended. It was pretty much running around nus and singapore and playing a bunch of obviously sdu endorsed games which thankfully i managed to worm my way out of. The highlights being the food trail in geylang and fright night at old henden camp. The seniors seriously did a really good job for fright night with the realistic costumes, make up, acting and what not. I was seriously scared to tears. (zoey can testify to that) 5 days and 4 nights of craziness, sleeping an average of 3-5 hours and fun has left me zonked, burnt and down with fever. (i'm literally hot 38.1 degrees) But non the less I kinda enjoyed myself and I did meet some really nice friends. Not to mention my OG (jacksparrow) won station games on the first day and the amazing race around singapore; topping it off with best OG tagged along with a $200 nydc voucher and best clan (pirates). =) Will be uploading photos in time to come if i'm not too lazy..

let it snow
8:55 AM

OH MY GOSH!!! THE LETTERS ARE HERE!!!! =D And i finally got to meet up with Hannah! (my room mate in cambodia) They wrote to me and passed the letters to Hannah, but i didn't get to meet her til now.. so they are kinda late. But it doesn't matter.. i'm just so happy that my students wrote to me!! =)






Hannah and I decided to meet up today so that we could pass each other our stuff and shop but i left her books in the church office. =x Catching up and shopping with her was really fun. We talked alot about Cambodia. Boy do we miss the people in PKH. We were talking about being emo due to that. It's like so many things happened when I wasn't there and how i wish i was there to experience it too. But I guess God has His own timing for me.






I love them loads <3



I was lamenting to ah gong about how much i miss Cambodia yest and he sd "i really don't understand you.. normal people don't wish to go back to a 3rd world country =/ isn't it better here?" But the thing is my life has been touched by the people there. They blessed me with so much through being my friend and caring so much for me. It just reaches a point where material comfort isn't important anymore. Though you don't have everything that you have in Singapore, you still feel really happy. (in fact happier) Though they might not be materially rich, they have blessed my soul richly. I left thinking of how little I had to offer to them and hoping I could give more. But i'm so glad that God used me to touch their lives despite how unfantastic I am.


I guess one will never understand til he/she has been there and personally experienced it for themselves. This temasek poly guy whom we call "shaf" wrote to PKH after his week of community involvement there. His letter was about how touched he was by the students. It's like whenever you do missions, I believe you leave at least abit of your heart behind and you'll never be the same again. I'm sure it's the same with Hannah too. But none the less, I thank God for blessing me with such a beautiful experience. To God be the glory.

let it snow
8:43 AM

I have been on leave for 2 days and i'm enjoying it but i have to go to work tomorrow! It feels good to just stay home and read a book for once. Anyway monday was really tiring because I was dragged around far east by calisita ng bi qing before meeting mel and shu huey for ac band barbecue. We all left early in the end because we felt weird. I realised that we really aren't very close to the juniors in general and the ones we are close to didn't appear so basically our appearance was kinda redundant. Shu huey and I had a good chat at holland v starbucks and I went off to meet cal. Cal and i discovered that it is super hard to get drunk on bailey's (you can't even get tipsy) and bailey's and rum and raisin ice cream is super good. Haven't stayed over at cal's for ages.. it was great catching up with her and seeing the maltese again. I don't believe i actually let her talk me into letting her paint my nails hot pink.. URGH.. (i'm sorry aunty.. i kept them on in honor of you ok!)

let it snow
7:45 AM

Goodness.. I haven't blogged for ten years.. Maybe I should start again. So here goes my attempt at reviving my blog.

Yesterday I met up with cal, ah gong and jun ping. We were supposed to meet at 9.30 but that woman didn't appear til around 10 plus. After which we spent almost 2 hours looking for a nice quiet bar to talk and apparently a bar fitting the above description was not in existance. We ended up cabbing to mohamad sultan road where we combed the whole place and found out that cal is anti Harry's and the location of butter factory. (it's so ulu.. no wonder no one goes there) Actually there was a quiet bar but cal refused to go in coz she sd it looked too 'cheena'. So it was off in the cab to boat quay where we combed the street and ended up in an irish pub where we were the only chinese in the entire pub save the bartenders. It's a rather nice pub though.. not sleazy has a nice woody interior and reasonably priced drinks. By the time we actually settled down it was 12 plus. Catching up with them was fun; lots of suaning and nonsense as usual. We all left at around 2 and ended up with a wonderful cab fare. (Note: NEVER EVER go to clarke quay on a friday and saturday night.. it's crazy)

Anyway, kristen and I went to this really good sashimi place today. It's called sakuraya and it's a 'fish market' where you pick the sashimi of your choice and pass it to them to slice and serve. Since it's a whole sale store and market, the fish are fresher and the prices are reasonable. I had a reasonably sized fillet of maguro for 6.90. After dinner we ended up going to the Harry's outside because the place looked so nice. Cal.. Harry's really isn't that bad and i'm not becoming a 'jiu gui' =)

let it snow
8:29 AM