Saturday, January 28, 2006

Many Smiles =)

Was talking to Yongming today and realise that both of us had the same question in mind.

"Wonder what the Cambodian kids are doing for Chinese New Year?"

There's a Chinese saying: 每逢佳节倍思亲. I think the kids, to me, do feel like an extend family. Perhaps it is their sensibility, sincerity & cheerfulness that attracts me most.



From the memory lane, the smiles that are everlasting. Happy CNY to MPX2!

YZ
______________________________________________________________________________
"You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing." ~ Michael Pritchard
______________________________________________________________________________
P.S. From the dvd, I selected some photos with smiley faces and also uploaded another photo album know as "Ming Sing Xie Zhen Ji"
1. Smiles of a thousand kids
2. Ming Sing

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

NUS Rotaract Mit Pheap Exchange II

NUS Rotaract Mit Pheap Exchange II
haiyo haven write a blog in my life yet so here goes...
today 17/01/06, in hall now, raining, feeling at ease with myself & e rest of the world - basically bored lah, writing tis to kill time.

Tis trip contributes to yet another chapter of my life, gave another learning experience to improve myself and to know more bout myself (undoubtly man!). Till now after been back for bout 3 weeks, i still think of the life there - the happening village wif all the lively (& crazie *wink*) kids, the helpful villagers, the easily flooded dirt track, the milo- coloured river, the school we built the library at, the students at the school, the fruits the kids always bring us, KFC -Kelvin Fan Club, the games the kids taught us, the people i got to know - Thearith & co, the khmer culture, the markets with super lots of bargains, Ang kor wat, FCC (french correspondent club its a bit like starbucks lah but the ambience way more cool, the food (though i not quite used to it but juz missed it lah, the long bus ride to & fro siem reap, the Man's talk session wif the guys, the pre-arranged saboh session of amanda & cj during our drinking games *oops*, the photo taking sessions wif the kids, the playing of stupid games (yishun bishan orchard which mrt station comes next? ER....), the brickering session wif miss giraffe & cj ("woman talk so much for wat, go cut a plate of oranges lah"), the family of ah pa, ah ma, me & er ma, the world famous handsome cum talented group of H4 & their ang kor wat tour, the tortoise family which i still haven figure out who's who, the playing of asshoe dai-dee and bridge, the food prepared by all the 4 phases esp my phase III ("Its all bout e heart man!"), e tearful farewell and most importantly all the precious moments the team spent together - laughter(from the fun the kids gave us), sweat (from the building of the lib hmmm are we realli helping to build or hindering?), blood (mostly from puking after toking to the blur blur charmaine & the e forever in her own world treasurer) , tears(from laughing too much aft hearing ronald talk, see thinking of it now still makes me laugh), stink (the smell of the ppl who always skip bathing, u know who u are), LS (from eating the roadside food or isit the food we cook?), exhaustion (thks to the ever energetic kids who simply tire us out totally from their ever running games)......

See wat it mean by wonderful memories tat accompany u for life? these scenes juz keep flowing into my mind aft i start typing away.... hopefully i haf improved as a person (hey at least less vulgarities sprouting out of my mouth now...) and getting to know some realli great personalities in e team...

Simply put...

MPX II FOREVER!!!
H4 also lah heehee...

Friday, January 13, 2006

2006

Finally! done with class for the first week of school! Was just looking through pictures from Bobo's fotopage..During the interviews before the trip, most of you cited "I hope to have a different kind of community service experience" "I hope to understand Cambodia and the people better ie cultural exchange" "I think there are people who really need our help"..Hopefully you have all answered your own questions and achieved what you have set out to accomplish prior to the trip!!

Some questions on top of readings and tutorials to ponder on..

What are YOU gonna do with this MPX II experience?
were we just there to have fun? know more fellow NUS students? Network? and den after all that return to normalcy?

OR is there MORE that YOU, armed with this once in a lifetime experience can do to make change/s around you, no matter how small?

What would you have done in the December holidays if you had not been part of MPXII?
do volunteer work? sleep? holiday jobs? slack around? wait for mummy to give allowance? club like there's no tmr? haha! which leads on to the 3rd question..

How have YOU changed after coming back to Singapore? (well, at least i've been bathing everyday! lol!)
Have you been talking to your neighbour? Are you able to appreciate and be contented with life better? How long will this last? Do you suddenly hate the kids in Singapore?

there's perhaps no right or wrong answers to the above questions..i guess if we are able to think about them in more perspectives and be more aware of ourselves and the environment around us then i would think we have all grown...

Enjoy!

What we have been makes us who we are...

amanda:)

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Lao Shu Ai Da Mi

This song sure is another favourite of the kids. Or at least we understand the words better. Enjoy, folks.

English "老鼠爱大米"

When that day I hear your voice
I have some special feeling
Let me always think I don’t wanna forget you
I remember at the day
You are always on my mind
Even though I just can think about you
If the day in the future
This love will becoming true
I’ve never change my mind that I will love you forever
I don’t care how fool it is
I will let my dream come true
I will tell you something I wanna let you know, I let you know

I love you, loving you, as the mouse love the rice
Even every day has storm, I will always by your side
I miss you, missing you
I don’t care how hard it is
I just want you be happy
Everything, I do it for you

YZ

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

It's ONE month already!!!

Hi pple,
Happy New Year!Yeah,it's 4th Jan already...one month after we have set off to Cambodia.Have you guys remember to eat your malaria pills daily?=)
Still can remember the panicky situation i was in on 3rd Dec...packing my bag late at night and chatting online with Yilin,discussing what to bring and what to forgo bcos my bag is exceeding 10KG!!!And I ended the conversation by telling her 'Good night and I'll see u in a few hrs time!'And now everything seems to have fast forward to one month later...I guessed I really enjoyed the 20 days there so that is why I find time passes so quickly.hee!

Just want to thank everyone in the team individually for making the trip such a memorable one:

First of all,
Amanda-Thanks for kicking me so many nights in the village!!!amazed by how you can hit the pillow and fall asleep immediately!!!And also w/o bathing for many days!!!eeeeee!

Fellow Phase III pple-The 4 days were SUPER DUPER FUN!!!Cooking,playing with kids and the celebrations that we had...still can remember how YM knocked into Dickson when he was trying to run away frm CJ.All bocs of the pinching nose game...haiz

CJ-Got to know you better thru this trip and I love your attitude!Enjoyed all the talks that we had but not the yoghurt drink session.haha!

Yongming-Thanks for telling that the onions that I cut is of Burger King's chef's standards.Spurs me on to cut more onions at home...Must give Dickson and you credits for coming with the hot water bath idea.Kudos!

Dickson-Thanks for offering to walk in front when walking downhill...Three cheers to CJ,you and me for wearing slippers to climb a hill!!!

Sheetal-Wow,someone revealed her TRUE colours only on the gals drinkout nite!!!

Kelvin-Now whenever I see a red cap or top,I'll tink of u!!!

Lee Yoong and Yilin-You two are subsitutes for Anita and Ester.The way how both of you laugh,behave when you two are sick(somemore at the same time!) and playing UNO...it is really entertaining esp when we got no TV for 16 days in the village.

Ernest-Thanks for buying the pillows...it's good!But gotta tell u smthg,Viv and I haven pay you back if I'm not wrong!Oops!

Janet-Now you got a taste of Singapore version of UNO..that is why the game never ends...

Ronald-The return flight was certainly entertaining with Viv and you squabbling...I haven master the finger hitting tactic yet!

Jopy-According to the gals,you have an interesting night ritual that you will do before you sleep.I didn't see it...maybe you can share your steps on the blog?

Tedmond-I'm helping Yongtai to thank you bcos you'll make a conscious effort to take photos of him whenever we go...making him pose alone and say 'That pose is handsome!'

Yongtai-Great minds think alike!!!Thanks for all the efforts in taking photos and videos whenever we go...err,can remove the part when i climbing down the steps at Angkor Wat?

Yezhong-Glad to know you!!!It's GREAT talking to you!!!I must say that if William Hung's trademark is 'She bangs' then yours would be the bobo position and your killing conversation tactic!!!Diao..

Charmaine-Both Amanda and you love to kick me at night.What have I done to deserve you two as my sleeping partners?!From the partnership during hotdog sales to now,it has been fun to know YOU though I have vommitted several buckets of blood!Enjoyed the pre-sleep talks with you though I'll always fall asleep first..=)

Vivian-My buddy for 7 years and still counting...Glad that we both make it to this trip!Forever teaching me new things...what's next?It's amazing to see how our friendship has evolved over the years and you staying just the way you are!But there's a change in the status though!!!You have become a MOTHER!

See you guys at the last meeting and do post msgs up here though!

Yeeteng=)

Monday, January 02, 2006

Thoughts at Cambodia

"Ignorance is bliss"

The whole team with the Rotary Club of Phnom Penh had brought lots of new things to the kids. Sometimes i think are we giving too much and we can't promise more. It's just too sad then. I think we won't miss the things which we don't know it exist in the first place. We won't know what we want unless it exists. When we give and we leave, we have no idea what happen next.

Hope that all you children grow up to what you want to be. May you be happy always. Love all of you.

Yezhong

__________________________________________________________________________________
P.S. Hi all, I am actually jotting down my log at this site.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

pictures

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

-kelvin