project coast2coast part 2

17 dec 2006 - day 3
woke up at 7ish as usual. breakfast and back to FH for formal lessons. the main part of our project is more on the interaction aspect (not building houses or whatsoever)

main focus of project:
1) healthcare lessons - washing hands, brushing teeth, etc.
2) creative classes - origami, kite-making, colouring
3) murals painting - to decorate the library in their new dormitory.

2nd day at FH. we still have 100 kids with us cos' the darruseleum team ( a muslim grp from spore) hasn't arrive. we started the day with telematches which were a blast. the kids were really enthusiastic and spontaneous. i always wonder where did they get all the energy from.

yet, the most starking thing is that they rem most of our names (or recognise our faces). they greeted us with such enthusiastic waves and warmth that you might(will) not receive in spore. the girls held onto you hands and say how happy they are to see you again. they treat you like one of their own. just a simple smile from you means so much to them. and just a simple smile from them means so much to me.

after the telematches, my group (kavi, me, cher, yh and alvin) took this group of boys for healthcare classes (they are under our care for that day). who will know that the boys will sing and dance with us when we asked them to do so (there were a few that were in their teenagehood where the so-called rebellious stage is).

had creative classes after that. origami folding!!!
i never experienced so many guys surrounding me!!! ahahah!
i was supposed to teach the older boys to fold cranes, boats and balls. haha. i had loads of fun. some were really quick in picking up, some gave up halfway, some volunteered to help their friends, some just accepted the help. overall, i had loads of fun :D

i am pretty impressed with the older guys cos' i always thought that if i were them, i would be so bored of folding cranes over and over again.

lunch at some cafe (high-class one). no more nasi goreng/ mee goreng!! ((:
we had padang for lunch (again!) but it was really nice. there was taps around the cafe for us to wash hands k!

murals class. was quite chaotic. the kids just paint whatever colours they wanted. some turned out fabulous, some were disastrous.
murals ended early so we played MONKEYYYY!!!!! :D
was super hilarious! the kids used the ball and hit the "monkey's" head!

met ira, our team mate from jakarta.
met imar, isnar and freddy too, our interpreters for the day.

went on a disaster-site visit. saw the ship that was brought 5km inland and now, it's too big to be removed. according to the locals, no one knows how many bodies are under that ship. saw a few kids on the ship who went thru tsunami and lost their parents. there was scars on them and they showed us they living squatters. (you would have imagine how bad it is)

next to ulee leue, the most hit area by the tsunami.
too much to be said. too much awe. too much destruction. too much devastation.

had a&w for dinner. a break from too much grief.
A&W! HOW MANY OF YOU MISS A&W? cos' i miss a&w so much!
i saw the first flushable toilet at a&w too! oh! and the first chinese and caucasian family!

back to wisma. debrief and everything :D
washed my own clothes for the first time!

the highlight for the day:
CUT OF ELECTRICITY!
which means there will be a cut on water supply (since the water is generated by generator)

went to sleep in the living room. communal sleeping in the living room!

did i say that the mosquitoes are rampant?
so we burnt mosquito coil, stick mosquito pad on ourselves, spray mosquito repellant but the mosquitoes just won't buzz away. (in fact, it was buzzing around our ears!)

i kept scratching, kept hearing others scratching. woke up, scratched, slept. and this cycle continues until qinying decided to go into the room and slp so i got promoted onto the sofa.

and the 2nd highlight came!
EARTHQUAKE!!!
my sofa started shaking first (i was wondering who was kicking it) then the whole house started shaking. glasses were clanking and everything. then it stopped. had no idea who asked us to evacuate the house to the porch area. then we sit on this giant carpet, with no electricity, no water and A LOT OF MOSQUITO BITES!

but wait, the porch area was better than staying in the living room cos' it was much airy and cooling. so we sat, waited and complained about the no. of bites we have for the night for like 15mins before there's no more tremors and stuff.
and I FINALLY GET TO SLEEP!
the night just can't get any worser.

i've a confession to make, when my sofa was shaking (in fact throughout the whole incident ), the notion of an earthquake didnt strike me until we evacuated the house. i was like "HUH! who's shaking ar!" i never thought of evacuation or anything. haha.

18 dec 2006 - Day 4
woke up after that dramatising night and according to song,
i sleep-talked -_-"

no trip down too FH today. went to leung batar's kindergarten. (the 2nd team built it).
met the LP3I girls. (a computer school in aceh)

interaction with the kids. taught them chicken dance. played a few games and time for them to go home.

lunch with LP3I girls were like a mini cultural exchange. i showed them pictures in my phone of singapore and they tell me more about aceh.

painted fence for the rest of the day for the kindergarten.
KAVI IS SUPER HILARIOUS! :D and the fence turns out NICE! ((:

dinner was packed back. nasi/ mee goreng with ayam again.
but bernard and qinying made nice barley drink for us :D

cher loves mlb too :D

film screening. film on post-tsunami. the adults taught the kids (affected by tsunami) to use the video cam to film their lives. (act as a distraction to their grief)

19dec 2006 - day 5
back to FH! :D the darruseleum team has arrived. the LP3I girls were back!

one grp stayed at home to cook lunch and dinner for us. (we are splitted into 3 grps)

had creative classes first then mural painting.
did sponge painting for creative class! :D i love mine! agung (LP3I guy) drew manga for me!
and i conducted the mural class :D (3 cheers for annie!) was quite slack lah! cos' the darruseleum girl did the translation for me, so i just need to action a bit only.

lunch at home. the cooking team cooked pasta!! :D
it was their (LP3I students) first time eating italian pasta!

some LP31 girls like it, some didn't (agung threw away his after one mouth!)

was late when we went back to FH for the 2nd part of the day. so the darruseleum team took the 100kids. so in the end, we assisted them in their activity.

didn't turn out too badd. was the photographer for the session! :D

had a short introduction session with the darruseleum team!

OH! did i tell u that they got really cute (malay) guys in the team? girls too! :D

dinner was nice. like wedding dinner. ten course meal lah!

hk behaves like some wedding photographer too!

oh. i miss home that night (i wrote it in my diary)

was really tired that night too.

homesick and fatigue make annie a moody girl.

alright. this entry is getting a little long. i can still go on and on.

but shan't bore you all with a lengthy entry.

so stay tune for project c2c part 3 ((:

mungkin nanti
perhaps later

project coast2coast to banda aceh, indonesia 15-26dec - part 1

15dec 2006 - Day 1
the first day was kind of slack. just manual work of checking in and out for our baggages and items that we brought over for the orphanage. met at the airport at 6am. boarded the plane at 8am and reached medan at 8am!! (haha! medan is one hr slower than singapore!)

our next flight to aceh was at 3.45pm! had lunch at some indonesia style restaurant. It's called a padang. they will bring out all the food they have and put it on your table. then we will eat those we want. so you could only touch the food that you want. if you accidentally touch a food then you must pay for it.

played some team bonding games while waiting for the next plane and i was forfeited lah! so many kids croweded around when i was singing "twinkle twinkle little star"! -_-"

boarded the plane to aceh and reached aceh at 4.45pm! saw the principal of the orphanage! SO CHARMING! :D went to our house! the house is called wisma!! so we were at wisma too while you guys were shopping at wisma!!

settled down and went for dinner at some road stall. their chairs and tables are really short. i had nasi goreng spesial which is fried rice, chicken (ayam), eggs (tulur) and prawns (udang). drank milo susu dingin (iced milo with milk)! their susu (milk) is like 2/3 of the drink! super sweet but super nice

back to wisma! had debrief and faciliation session! oh! our house is really good. it's super huge like half a soccer court. but the toilets have no flush system and no water heater. we cant even throw toilet paper into the toilet cos' it will choke up the sewage. bathed in cold water and the water is so dirty that you can't see what's below (water from the well).

aceh has so many mosquitoes as many as the number of people in singapore. they bite us with much pleasure and feast on our blood (like free flow).

oh! i had aircon in my room! :D

16dec 2006 - Day 2
woke up at 7am and had aceh bread for breakfast. their bread has this really weird taste but that was the only food available.

interaction at fajar hidahya. had station games. was supposed to play big fish and small fish with the kids at my station. had a hard time communicating the game with them. we then changed the game to ikan besar ikan kechik (which is the malay version) which didnt work out too. so we played "aku says" which is a similar game to "simon says" and then we played another game called "what is this (aper ini?)"

was super tiring handling 100 kids. had to repeat the games so many times that my voice went sore. was super super super tiring but i had loads of fun.

left FH and had lunch at another roadside cafe. we then went on an orientation trip to the wet market and supermarket. the wet market was really wet. it's like vegetables everywhere on the floor. and i see live cows and chickens being killed!! saw a few kids who caught live fishes down the stream! :D

back @ wisma for sports day/ pre-sports day demonstation. and did i say that mosquitoes are REALLY REALLY IRRITATING! i see like 10 thousands mosquitoes all around me!

dinner. which is nasi goreng again )):

then debrief. learnt a lot during debrief.
1) the aftermath of tsunami -does the effect linger and persist?
2) income gap among indonesians. (aceh is the 2nd most well-endowed state in indonesia but it is one of the poorest state in indonesia)
3) what's our motive for coming to banda aceh?

that's all for day 2! :D
my bro needa sleep. shall continue soon!

PLEASE STAY TUNE FOR PROJECT C2C PART 2!!

there are new things to be learnt everyday! :D -kavitha-

I AM BACKKK! :D

i had so much fun, laughters, jokes, smiles and happiness! :D

i've learnt so much in those 12 days, much more that i've learnt in my textbooks for 12years.

too much to pen down. too much to illustrate. too much to say.

shall do it another time since i am at eunice house now.

:D

i miss my friends when i was in aceh cos' i miss all of you guys.

on a sidenote,

I EXPERIEND THE EARTHQUAKE BUT NOT THE FLOOD!!

and i am very safe! :D

I AM LEAVING! LEAVING! :D

merry christmas to everyone in advance!

went zhao's house for steamboat. 5 bucks for A LOT A LOT A LOT of fooodd!
oh! and it's only 4 of us, the 4 of us who are unemployed and slacking!

can't wait to leave and can't wait to come back!
hopefully the earthquakes (which is common there) won't be toooooo shocking for me to handle. and hopefully the kids will be so so so adorable! :D

and seriously, i think crescent is a place for friendships to reallly really blossom. right, zhao?

show you the house at haji lane that i took a loooooong looooong time ago!

it's so awesome right!!! I LOVE THIS HOUSE! but i wouldn't dare to stay in it -_-"

alright. i am in stupor sadness.

firstly, the show that i've been watching on youtube is awfully depressing.
check out "1 litre of tears", a japanese drama.

this drama is based on a true story, of a girl with an incurable disease that was diagnosed when she was 15 years old, and was able to continue her life until her death at the age of 25 years old.

During her ten years lifespan, she kept writing in her diary to remember her experiences until she could no longer hold a pen. Her diary "1 Litre of Tears" was published after her death, because of its inspiring and courageous message of, "Just being alive is such a lovely and wonderful thing." So far, over 18,000,000 copies of her diary have been sold.

one of the saddest drama serials ever.
but personally, i cry for almost all the drama serials/ movies that i've watched.
like who on earth cry when watching monster inc.?
but for this show, i started crying since episode 1 (!!!) and all the way till the end.

and secondly,
i've been rejected by CDC. i guess i am stuck in being a waitress.
but hey, i am fine ((:
when i received that email, i was watching the drama and i was crying so badly over that girl's life that this small little rejection from a company seems so insignificant.

haha.
i just called the health promotion board to ask them for the soundtrack of the great singapore workout!
haha. quite dumb. we are dng that over in aceh!

bye!

I AM STILL IN SINGAPORE!!! :D
leaving on this friday, 7.45am! (so early!!!)

i spent my entire yesterday running around like a mini amazing race.
lavender. tampiness. bedok reservoir. NLB. great world. NLB. bras basar. telok blangah. HOME.

i had a mini amazing race yesterday. went to so many places in one day. thank God we had bernard to drive us around, but the trip down to lavender and tampiness from bukit batok was the worst! so far from my house!!!

tampiness ikea is DAMNNNNNNN BIGGGG!
we finally got all our furniture, murals drawn (left the SE asia countries)
all geared up to leave :D

last day of work (not exactly last day if i still don't get a job by next yr) was quite different.
was working at promenade. it's outside the hotel beside the singapore river. kinda fun! :D
you see all the sampans passing by with all the tourists and i waved to most of them!!!!!!
but still uber tiring!

hmm. so boring.
can't wait to leave!
lucky lydia (ALLITERATION!) is already in australia!!

OHHH! sunday i went to the clementi bible church with chock, wh and lyd!
CHEWY!!! it's alex's church!! i messaged you but you never reply me )):
wh's mum is damn cute!

i guess i hate it when i fail for the first time.

maybe i am just not cut out to serve the community. i need to get a grip.
should i just get another job? a paperwork job and bore myself to death but at least get a reasonable pay?

BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I FREAKING WANT!

alright. in case you guys don't know what shit i've gotten myself into.

I SCREWED UP MY INTERVIEW FOR MY INTERNSHIP!

alright. so what's the hype right?
it's the first interview i ever had and who on earth needs to do powerpoint slides for interview?

so i needed to do 2 proposal for them (CDC). to come up with the new programme for CLAP! (who knows abt CLAP! by CDC please drop a message) and secondly, come up with a community service programme in-sync with their vision and mission.

fine. these proposals are fine. but guess what.
my com was down, my bro has to lend the laptop to some girl (girl is more impt than his sister's future!) and at wilson's place, i just can't seem to download my powerpoint slides.
then i forwarded my ppt to my sis, hoping that she could open and at least print out a copy of my slides for me, AND SHE FORGOT!!!so there goes. my sis then suggested that we go to cdc earlier (my sis works there) then we can use the com to print the slides out. and what more, HER PRINTER WAS SPOILT! how lucky can i get? so when she finally got my slides printed out, i only had like 10mins to rehearse, prepare my presentation.

)):

this is like how tragic.

i guess those other intern applicants have the help from their family, but i think i've none, none at all. my sis refused to help cos' she said it was unfair, my bro would rather help a girl than me.
alright. i am just being me, petty and still petty.

i am feeling indignant, unjustified and of course angry with myself.
i just want to bury myself in a hole and cry for eternity.

i need to get a grip.
and guess what i told my sis

me: nevermind, waitress' pay also higher than this.

and after the interview,
sis: your waitress' pay also higher than this right?

and when i told my bro that i screwed it up.
me: i screwed up my interview. i am stuck to being a waitress.
bro: okay. then work hard alright ((:

i think they were being encouraging. but you know, how it completely sucks inside?

there's no turning back right?
maybe ncss might consider me or feiyue.
i will not give up.

and guess what, i completely forget to blog about prom.
it was alright lah! quite fun.

i like this shot!

post prom at chijmes with chewy, jj, qiling, guan and kaijie was a little tipsy.
i've to finish all the drinks that we ordered but the rest refused to drink.

anyway, i am VERY BUSY.
sob.

but thank God, i am leaving soon.
leaving on a jetplane. bye world.
i hope i die in a tsunami.

PROM IS FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY COMING.
phew. it's so "EEERRR"

hate it.

i feel quite off-the-world.
i never see khairi for a long long long time! finally saw guan you today and he sent me a weird message saying i always make him feel sad. saw liyana and shien today too ((:

collected newspaper with the canoeists.
apparently, it was less slack than what many had described but was still BADDDD
haha. but i had loads of fun with my pita, guan and guan's new found best friend

the "saikang" gang! :D

what a life.
i also wanna blog abt "jon l eong" or smth! HAHAH!
-looks at jas, chewy, qiling admirably-

YEAYY! I WILL SEE THEM TOMORROW! :D
chewy, it's the stars awards nighttt! ((:

jean is scared that i will go aceh and never come back.
haha. but i am a little scared too!!

my all time fave president and minister of hospitality.

alright. bye worldlings.
i am gng to church tomorrow :D
and i love keeping myself busy

i am so busy )):

m usical ev ening was hilarious. pple commented that the alumni was the best performance for the night lah!! like ARE YOU KIDDING??? haha. hilarious shit.

work was insane. i folded like 400 napkins (which i see no use lah! in the end the guests also throw all these napkins on the floor waiting for us to pick them up!)

i coloured my hair red! :D
just red streaks. actually not much diff.
oh! but i realised that my friends are having longer hair after going into jc and my hair just keep getting shorter and shorter.

I AM GONNA KEEP LONG HAIR!

met affair and yy and their friend, maggimee hair in town to help affair shop for prom dress.
affair is damn hilarious. and we were out to look for a dress cheaper than shuyi's.

slack today. LIKE FINALLY! was supposed to meet mad to extend my passport in which mad decided not to go and i decided to be lazy and slack at home.
meeting at westcoast cc for the aceh trip again.
today was quite productive. i am quite scared actually.
all the expectations, results, goals, aims. everything.

WORK TOMORROW )):
not much choice. i need to earn for my living expenses over in aceh.

my friend is leaving to navy tomorrow.
take care :D


the esco.
i think i must start looking like an 18yr old.
no more sweet 16 for me.