I seriously don’t know how to start blogging about the sichuan trip becos there are too many photos and things that have happened there ! But i guess i will blog about how i felt instead of trying to recounting every little things that happened. The photos here are prob 10 % of the total but if u guys wanna, can always go take a look at my photo albums up on fb 😉
In all honesty, I was expecting really bad conditions before reaching the place. But i guess a lot of us were proven wrong. Because we were pretty well taken care of and in fact has more than enough food to eat all the time ! But a lot of people cldn’t get used to the cooold weather and fell sick. I’m glad i didn’t, been religiously taking vitamin C pills everyday and using my nasal spray 🙂
The first school we went to is called 油榨小学 and we did 3 mural paintings for them, one along the student dormitory, one in the library and one at the canteen. We also helped revamp the library by re-arranging their books, bringing them new shelves, tables and chairs, as well as a LCD TV.
Apart from the painting, we interacted with the primary sch kids and taught them lessons on simple english, origami and songs on saving water. We also organized a cultural carnival to let them play with traditional games like chapteh, hopescotch… and packed kachang puteh in little paper cones for them ! It has been really fun becos all the kids are so adorable and eager to learn. Oh and there was a mini sports day planned for them too !
Not forgetting the fun we had teaching pre-school kids songs and dances…They all have puffy red cheeks and some of them wear the cutest animal hats ever 🙂 The sight of them will totally melt ur heart…
During this period of time when we are at this sch, our lodging was at 知味饭店 where we had really yummy meals everyday. Although 8 of us girls were squeezed in a so called ‘banglah room’ with a clothline hanging across the middle, we were snug and cozy living together. 14 girls on 1 floor and there’s only 1 toilet (which you can’t shit in btw, you have to go to the pig sty downstairs for big business) so you can imagine the bathing queue =P
Before moving to this fan dian, we tried camping in tents in one of the classroom but even with the thermal sleeping bag it wasn’t enough to keep the cold from the floor away 😦 It got better after we moved though, cos at least we had beds to share. Funny thing is, we keep ‘upgrading’ rooms throughout the trip.
Anyway, it is reeeeeeeally cold in the morning and i always felt SUPER reluctant to get out of bed each day haha. Mind you, i sleep in my long johns, top + bottom & top off with yee’s down jacket everynight, with heat packs activated and wearing 2 layers of socks. haha sounds v kua zhang right, but at least i didn’t have to open the thermal sleeping bag. i just hid under the thick blanket haha. So yep i look like a nerdy wrapped up dumpling everyday. I so regretted not bringing contact lens though. haha.
Sometimes we eat in sch so we can have more time to work on our paintings and when we do, it will be together with the kids and they wld be running abt or standing ard with their BIG bowls of rice. Any kids there wld be able to beat me hands down with the amt of rice he or she eat haha. That is how much they eat.
Talking about food, sichuan is well known for their 麻辣 so of cos a meal wld be hardly considered complete w/o the usual spicy dishes. Some had really nice flavour but others were simply too spicy for our weak singaporean stomachs. BUT i think i had developed a new threshold for spicyness after coming back hahaha ! The worst was a night when we had （麻辣）鸡火锅 and 雪花啤酒 (or some other beer) together. My stomach totally felt queasy that night. But we sure were quite high on singing halfway through the meal lols.
The day soon came for us to leave 油榨 and some of the kids wrote us letters and made cards to express their gratitude 🙂 I must say their chinese characters are v beautifully written ! Makes me feel ashamed of mine haha. Think we were kindda 不舍得 to leave as we have afterall spent abt a week there…:( Hope the kids there will have chances of pursuing better education in the future.
We bought our own fireworks and 孔明灯 and set them off after our last dinner there…was the first time i saw fireworks so up close i felt like they were falling down on me. And nice seeing the 孔明灯 with wishes written on them floating bright in the sky…:)
The next day we had our R&R at 平乐古镇 for half a day where we walked ard, shopped a little, tried out a variety of food before setting off for our next sch, 通济中学.
Btw, digressing a bit, China has the cutest dogs on the streets/ indoor ! BUT, they are also v timid haha =P
Similarly we did 2 mural paintings there, one for the counselling room and another for the multi-purpose room. We brought in new tables and chairs for them too, i think LCD Tv too ? Can’t rmb…
Originally we planned for a campfire night with santa claus dress up competition for the students but eventually all the planning went to naught as the school authority/ ministry of education didn’t allow it 😦 But ahh well, at least we had fun planning, kindda pity that it didn’t materialise though.
Nevertheless we got to interact with some students through painting and planning…as we only had limited time in this sch, interaction time with the kids were rare. We had a crazy and unforgettable christmas celebration that night though 😉
Oh this is abit random but i forgot to mention that blackouts are apparently VERY COMMON in China. I still rmb the very first night we ‘upgraded’ to a 3 person room with bed heater and personal toilet…it BLACKED OUT. Super sian ok, after looking forward to a warm bath and beds, only to return to blinding darkness. The electricity didn’t come back until the next day so we all slept early. booo.
Ok back to the sch, we had a friendly basketball match with the teachers too and they are ZAI lor. I think those who played had fun but they look really shagged running ard in the cold weather. Later on at night we had a ‘political’ dinner in which ppl keep coming round to 敬酒 so we 以茶代酒 if not dunnoe how drunk we’ll all end up. Sometimes I think they drink more than they eat. =P
That kindda spells the end of our work at the schools so we had another round of R&R at Chengdu this time round ! It was shopping, eating and hair-washing at saloon haha. Really felt kindda weird to see so many shopping malls and store after living in the countryside for almost 2 weeks. But of cos i became accustomed to it really fast hahaha.
OH and we actually went clubbing !! in the most lok cok attire EVER. Makeup-less, wearing specs, in track pants, track shoes, and with long johns peeking out. I think the clubbers there must have thought we’re crashing form a pyjamas party or something. But oh well, it wasn’t planned, purely a spontaneous decisions. We had fun at 热舞 though 😀 but somebody merlioned at the end opps.
The next day we went to 文书坊 and also visited remains of some sites affected by the 512 earthquake. Some of them were indeed quite a sight to behold.
And before we knew it, we’re on the plane back to SG. Then it was home sweet home. I know i said at the start of the entry that i wldn’t recount things that have happened but i realised that it’s quite hard to reflect w/o actually recounting. So the account above is just some of the things that i rmb…might have missed out some details but that should roughly be it 🙂
On the overall, it has been a really good experience as it was my first time doing volunteering work overseas. Although this is not my first time to china, it is my first going to such relatively rural areas. I kindda like how peaceful and simple things are there, w/o the technology which keeps us busy and up till late at night, but at the same time i felt like i wld nv be able to get used to this kind of simple lifestyle. I like having time to truly interact, share and bond with people. Simple as it sounds, how many of us truly can afford the luxury of time everyday to do so ?
It was good to be away, to take a breather and to reflect over there. It was good becos i learnt to be less selfish and more sensitive to other ppl’s needs. It was good seeing and being with the kids, who despite all that have happened, still have that sparkle of life, hope in their eyes, their cheerful chuckle ringing and their enthusiasm which can hardly be contained. I think they are all very brave, and keeps themselves contented with what little things they have. 🙂
I know it’s cliche but i feel lucky to be in s’pore. To live the life i’m living now, to have what i have, and just…everything. I’m glad to be back home, but at the same time, i know i would want to venture to even more places out there in the future, be it to volunteer or to visit. The world out there is so big, we can never stop learning and experiencing new things everyday.
Our spread of food might not look all that appealing but they were v satisfyingly yummy ! We had Sushi, Cookies, Old chang kee snacks, Tuna & Crackers, Chocolate bun, Drinks and a UBER BIG Pear you’ll see later haha.
LittleMissLola 
