Wednesday, May 30, 2012 11:12:00 AM
FASS OCIP 2011/12
The Dạy Project
12 May 2012 -
28 May 2012
The trip to Da
Nang was perhaps the most fulfilling trip I have been for the past 19 years of
my life.
Rather than giving
me the answers to the questions I sought to answer, the trip provided more
questions marks as to what is OCIP. I went there with the intention of
striking out the things to do on my giant checklist of "Things to do in my
Uni life" with the good old "once in the lifetime" rationale and
with the purpose of self-fulfillment and self-improvement more than providing
aid to the needy. But I daresay, I've already gotten more than what I bargained
for.
This trip wasn't
exactly smooth sailing for us for we had to entertain many changes in terms of
programmes, and I've lost track of the number of times we had to step out of
our comfort zones in order to do what was required of us so that as not to seem
rude to the Vietnamese side.
Personal Growth
On my side, volunteering to be in charge of the mass dance, to
teach the team and then to teach the kids of the three schools (including the
mobile library school) and the orphange was something I've never dreamt that I
would do, for I was always a follower and never a leader. Though I was
initially hesitant and shy even when teaching our own team, the encouragement
and support everyone, especially dear progs head Cass, managed to give me the
confidence to keep going. It became much easier to teach after we gained experience
from teaching the first school. It was a pity our dance was one which was
adapted from other schools. If given another chance, I would like to try to
choreograph our own dance, one that the kids would enjoy and have fun with, and
at the same time one which we can acknowledge as our own and feel proud of.
"Don't stop, never give up...", as the lyrics of our mass dance song
goes, would be an apt description of such feelings.
Cultural Shock and Cultural
Exchange
The first opening
ceremony held by Le Van Tam really gave us a cultural shock for we did not
expect that we would have to sing and dance that much. It was ugly sight when
the Vietnamese side passed the microphones over and each of us kept passing the
microphones around and arrowing others to sing as we did not know the songs,
didn't know how to sing or just felt that it was fine that we didn't take up
the job for someone would have to step up anyway and it didn't have to be us.
We didn't handle it really well and we could tell that the Vietnamese side was
slightly disappointed. However, picking up from there, we were more prepared
for the rest of the opening and closing ceremonies and some of us volunteered
ourselves more readily for the songs and dances and the guys took their roles
for the games in their stride when asked to play them. In some instances, we
even had fun dancing and interacting even though there were language barriers
and we were sweating like mad dogs after dancing to a few
songs consecutively. It was only when the PDs told us that we were dancing
with the those who might be the future leaders of Vietnam (with reference to
the teenagers that went to the second school), did I realise that we must not
belittle the abilities of those whom we cross paths with, for they might have
the potential to do something big or good for society in the near future. Every
different encounter has a different impact on different people. We should also
not belittle our abilities to bring about change in the society, no matter how
small the change may be.
The Vietnamese Kids
The kids from the
schools were such darlings. Everywhere we went to, we were given special
attention. We felt like superstars every time we were in school or were just
walking across the courtyard to get to the van. Just a simple
"Hello!" and a shy smile from them meant so much to me. They made me
feel warm and fuzzy inside and it was such a nice feeling.
(a) Teaching
the Kids
Teaching the children english was a fulfilling experience. What we
taught was merely basic English. To us, even the education of the language
might have taken for granted. But to them, it was additional lessons that they
willingly (or unwillingly) came back to school after exams to attend. From
issuing the name tags to them, getting to know them, play games with them, teaching
them time, months and animals etc via various activities, songs, dances and
games, watching them try to make sense of what we were doing and teaching them
to count up to a hundred, and teaching them how to dance… to watching them
enjoy the activities that we organized such as paper plate masks and the making
of shakers, testing them on what was taught previously during the recap
sessions and feeling that sense of satisfaction when they remembered how to pronounce
certain words like “fifteen” and watching them graduate during the closing
ceremonies. At that point of time, we felt like proud parents watching our kids
receive their prizes on stage and graduate, even though we were only there to
teach the two schools for 4 days each. It was an indescribable feeling of joy.
But at the same time, it makes you wonder if they would remember what you
taught after 2 weeks or a month, or whether it would be able to spur them to
want to learn more about the language and upgrade themselves. Or would they
just resume their lives as though nothing happened, leaving our time spent
there merely just fleeting encounters. I couldn’t help but question the
sustainability of the project. Even so, I was rather sad that I had to leave
the kids behind, especially my three daughters from the second school whom I
had taken care of from scratch and grown attached to during the 3-4 days of
teaching.
(b) Mobile
Library
Although there was no academic purpose or whatsoever in the third
school (the mobile library school) and we were solely there as saikang warriors
to put up the boards and photos and to entertain the children so that the event
can go according to plan (if any), it was fun interacting with the kids and teaching
them mass dances. Their willingness to learn new games, despite it being from a
different country, surprised me. I remembered this little boy coming to me and
pestering me to playing pepsi cola one two three with him for the entire day, a
simple finger game I taught him earlier that morning. A few moments later, a
few kids came up to me and they too stuck their thumbs up to initiate a game of
pepsi cola with them. I vaguely remembered the three girls and the boy who
refused to sit till I sat with them during the story telling session (which
they were not paying attention to), them attempting to tie my hair in a yellow
rubberband, them fighting to play finger games with me, one of the girls, showing
me how to do a double star with one of her many rubber bands on the wrist,
another one offering me a bottle of mineral water which ended up being shared
among the 6 of us. It was a nice feeling to know that you were being accepted
into the hearts of these young kids who barely knew you for an hour.
(C) The Orphanage – Family Four
and Family Five
Our trip to the orphanage was a heartening one.
On the first day, we tried to carry out what we planned there but
received rather poor response. Much as some of them liked to take the photos,
not all understood the meaning behind this phototaking session which was more
of a cultural exchange kind of thing where photos taken here would be exchanged
with photos the kids in Singapore took. They also had to write about themselves
and their lives on a piece of paper. The mass dance session was also a pretty
failed one as most of the boys were more interested in watching their own
videos in the room than us dancing outside. It was during OTOT where many of us
got to interact better with the kids, to talk to those with a better command of
english, play sports with them , draw with them and even just finger games and
piggybacking with the younger ones. With much reflections on our side, we
decided to edit the programmes for the next day to allow the kids to do
whatever they liked such as playing sports, and set up two stations (one for
the building of photoframes using ice cream sticks and the other to bind books
using magazine as a cover page) for them to visit.
Among the many kids at the orphanage, 3 of those kids touched me
the most during my short stay there.
One was a girl wearing a pair of black specs which had a better
command of English and was only there on the first day. When asked what she
wanted to do in the future, she told us that her dream for the near future was
to go to university and study English. She also told us that her command of English
was better than others because she was in a programme with people coaching her
and one person with the best results in the programme would be able to study in
the US. All I thought at that point was that it was a noble dream and I urged
her to continue studying and not give up the dream. Little did I know that I
would be so emotionally unstable when I heard her reflections, which was in
English, read out by another girl in the room where the kids’ reflections were
kept. At that point of time, I didn’t know that what I read was the reflections
of the girl I had just spoke to. Curious, I scanned through it and caught a
glimpse of what she had written. She wrote that she was so jealous of us because
we had what she didn’t. It was heart wrenching and I couldn’t help think of
everything we had taken for granted – our family, education etc, and how
fortunate we were as compared to them. I also made a comparison to the kids in
Singapore who were so pampered and unappreciative of what we/they had despite
having so much more than them. I knew that I was probably being unfair to the
Singaporean kids but I couldn’t help but think that way. Many of us who read
that letter broke down too. That girl didn’t appear in the orphanage the next
day as she went to collect her results from her school. The only thing I could
do was to wish her all the best.
The second was a girl who had accompanied me through my tears and
just sat there to draw with me until she had to leave on the first day. And
when I asked her the next day where she liked drawing, she said that she didn’t.
She preferred sports like badminton. I was touched by the fact that she was
willing to stay around and do something she didn’t like as much in order to
comfort a random stranger rather than to go outside to join the rest in their
games. An entire afternoon was spent with her and Xuan Ying the next day,
doodling in her book, where more was discovered about what she liked and didn’t.
She liked Kpop and English music more than Vietnamese music. This made me realize
that to connect to be able to connect with someone, we didn’t necessarily have
to speak the same language. We could use universal languages such as drawings
and pop culture in order to get our ideas across and feelings through and reach
out to the other party. It was hard, but the language barrier could be overcome.
The third was a boy who built a house made of ice cream sticks
entirely by himself with only a pair of scissors, ice cream sticks and tape for
a member of our team. The fact that he was so patient and willing to put in so
much time and effort into building something for someone he barely knew was
something that touched the team.
At the end of the whole orphanage trip, we couldn’t help but
wonder if spending 2 days there and playing with the kids was really the right
thing to do. Walking into someone else’s life, giving them hope, making them
happy for a day or two, and then leaving them so heartlessly again. It was such
a cruel thought that I ended up questioning what I was doing in OCIP. However,
to me, at least we did our best and made it count while it lasted. To have made
or attempted to make a small change or to bring about happiness in their lifes,
even if it was for an hour, would be, in my opinion, better than nothing. Every
minute and second counted, as it would at least make them feel that they are
not being forgotten by the people out there, and that they should be strong and
not give up on themselves just because they were lacking in some aspects as
compared to other kids.
The English Academy Club
Enthusiastic students who participated in activities our heads
planned for them. Though some of them were more reserved than the rest, we
managed to carry out our activities and go through what we wanted to do. Kudos
to the heads doing a good job!
I personally enjoyed interacting with the group I was sitting with
in the park, for they were more willing to share about themselves and learn new
things from us, such as simple orientation games that we taught while waiting
for the actual game to start. I compared this to the group I interacted with
during the leadership course and was rather disappointed that that group was
less willing to give us on inputs and that the few Singaporeans in the team
were dominating the discussion. My takeaway from this would be that sharing
brings about more knowledge and foster closer bonds. Though some of the
students were aggressive and over-enthusiastic at times, you know that they
appreciated us being there to teach them skills they use utilize in the near
future, or for other reasons. You could feel it from them.
Cooking
Cooking was something new to me. Mass cooking was something even
newer to me. It was an interesting experience, from haggling and bargaining at
the wet market, searching for chicken sausages (which there aren’t any) at the
supermarket, trying out Lotteria for the first time in the trip, to the actual
cooking frenzy in the kitchen where I got scolded by the cooks for the wrong
disposal of waste down the drain and the cutting of vegetables where even the
kid in the kitchen was afraid for me, to the tasting of our own dish, and
finally the washing up and cleaning up of the place which took horrendously
long to clean up, not to mention the fact that accidents do occur in the
kitchen which might require us to clean for a second time. What I felt then, was
that even though I was getting scolded and probably laughed at by the cooks for
being a useless person in the kitchen, I had to swallow my pride, be humble and
to learn from the more experienced people there. Size and age didn’t matter.
Miscellaneous
I’ve experienced many things during the trip. Things that I would
probably miss the most from this trip would be the marvelous drip coffee that
we would not be able to replicate in Singapore, Café Saigon, our baguettes for
breakfast and Bola Bola Granny, who was always so happy to see us come back in
our van. Of course, not to forget the stroll down the beach, the talk with the
New Zealand couple who came specially to Hoi An for the beach, the food hunt
experience looking for good roadside food in the rain with the food hunt team
and the not-so-many HTHTs that I had with different people during the trip.
Things that I didn’t miss so much was the bathing with the hose that we would
usually use to clean our asses and squatting beside the toilet bowls to shower,
the fact that any moment the water supply would be cut and there would be no
water to bathe in after a hot sweaty day, how it was so damn hot in the
morning and I could literally feel the heat from the sun rays in the morning,
how I had to handwash my own clothes, how the mozzies would rape you when you
were sleeping at night and how communal living meant that you sometimes had to
deal with people who don’t exactly know how to or can’t be bothered to take
care of other’s wellbeing or clean up after themselves. But all these
contributed to the the experience of life away from home and made me appreciate
the comforts of home even more.
Interactions With The Team
Although I couldn’t help but feel left out sometimes, I felt that
the decreased interactions with my closer friends allowed me to spend more time
with other people to allow to be get to know them and understand them better. This
I felt was a blessing in disguise. Although there were bound to be conflicts
among the members, I have tried as much as possible to remain neutral and to
try to look at the larger picture and not hurt the team spirit. As much as
possible, I tried not to judge anyone and not let their judgemental statements
affect me. Tried. Lunches and dinners together in school was a good way to bond
the team. So were the many nicknames and shared lingos that we used, like
pokemon names and stuff that don’t make sense such as “Tham My Ah Dong”.
Therefore, I feel that the team is overall quite bonded (except for cracks here
and there) and these shared experiences in Vietnam will serve to bond us
better. I’m hoping that this feeling will not fade away so soon.
I’ll miss the place, food and the people there. While we may not
have made much of a difference to the lives of the people there, I daresay they
have made a difference in mine. Sustainability of such activities still remains
an issue though.