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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.