BATAM OCIP:
Went for Batam OCIP trip on 25th November. We went there via Cruise aka Asean Raider...hahahaha, sucha weird name.
The first day was pretty ho-hum, with us just checking in to the hotel and a short visitation of the Orphanage we would be helping to do measurements and a rough gauge of what we would need to help accomplish what we set out to do for them.
The second day was where we really got down to work and the heat was scorching. Evidently shown by the sunburn that most of us got that day. Cutter was incapable of helping out as the people in my room _____ and he _____ the most and K.O.ed. We had a first hand experience of making cement by ourselves and laying the boundary for the sandpit around the slide.
The children were also very independent, looking out for one another despite their young age and when they fell, they did not cry but immediately picked themselves up and continued in their merryment of interacting with the girls. Us guys on the other hand were mainly working the physically labour part and maybe the kids were scared of us...hahaha..
The third day was the culmination of our efforts as we managed to help tidy up their classrooms by sweeping and mopping as well as repaint some stuff. The only thing that i regreted was that I didn't get much chance to interact with them. There was the language barrier as well that made communication difficult.
The things that I took away from this trip was firstly, I gained a new found respect for people in the construction industry. It may look and seem easy work, but it's tiring and they are severely underpaid, about $10 sg for more than 5hrs of work in Batam. Secondly, it made me appreciate the environment that we grow up in, the comfortable, spoon-fed, easy lifestyle. The Batam kids on the other hand grow up more mentally and physically stronger than us in my opinion. Of course there is the downside that your way of thinking might be different if one was born in Indonesia. But, indeed there are so many possibilities. Thirdly, these are basic things that we all should be able to do but for some, it was their first time doing it and so, it shows again how priviledged we are. However, it also shows that if we put our minds to a task no matter how big or small it is, it can and will be accomplished at the end.
MAWAI ECO-TRIP:
Went for the Mawai eco-trip on the 1st of december. Just had 2 days of rest after coming back on 28th of December before going on another trip.
Solomon, Cutter, Anne, Stephanie, Kaiwei and I were the only ones from my class to go for this trip. Phelan was in the same group as us. Cool...haha
The first day we took a bus to Mawai and took a boat to cross the small river that seperated us from the camp on the other side. We put our bags down and set up our beds before going for lunch and soon after, our first activity of the camp. We went for some walk that covered what happened during the Japanese Invasion. We managed to see some bunkers that they used in those days that were still there. Fortunately they sold rubber shoes there as I wore my dad's shoes in preperation for a swamp walk that they would have as it would get dirty but they disintegrated while I was walking to the MRT from home...so it was hobson's choice to purchase those shoes despite them being smaller than my usual size. I had to squeeze my feet into them and they are currently quite banged up now, with small cuts and bruises. We had a firefly cruise at night too. Saw some fireflies and it was quite nice.
The second day, we had Raft-building where we learnt some knot tying with ropes and underwent Water obstacles as well. Quite fun...
After that was lunch followed by the swamp walk. The swamp walk was super muddy and quite a few people got bitten by leeches. Well, the bite isn't pain but the blood loss can be quite substantial. Couldn't gaze at stars at night as planned as it was cloudy...so we planned for the last day's campfire performance instead.
The third day, we went to climb Mount Gunang Arok. The climb up was easy but the climb down was harder as it was muddy and slippery and much steeper. A few slipped and fell but thankfully, none was seriously injured...maybe a few hurting prides only...haha.
For the performance at night, we came in 3rd which meant we didnt need to clean the toilets, to much relief of the girls as their toilets were in a much worse condition than the boys' toilet. Instead, we chose to wash dishes which were technically quite easy, the next morning.
Overall, the trip was very in touch with Nature and was ok in my opinion. Maybe we should start doing stuff related to snow. I still havent gotten to play with snow. :(
hahaha...
Hope the next trip can do something with snow..or something we really haven't done before.
:) Thats all for now.
