Shir Lin's Reflection

Just a few days back I was writing my letter to self and looking at the pencil cases we brought home, and I realized that we didn’t even try if the pens were working before we put them in. It felt a little slipshod, as though we were trying to finish packing and that’s it. And then after that it occurred to me: how will the kids react when they receive them? Do they even have pencil cases similar to these over there? The stationery inside may not be worth a lot but something tells me that they’ll like it a lot. And then I wondered how a typical kid here will react if we gave them those pencil cases. The drastic difference in their reactions tells so much. Back from the trip and I realised I learned a lot. Honestly speaking, I thought that the one day trip wouldn’t really be of much use but apparently it isn’t the way so. The two hour boat journey made me feel a little sick but I liked the mini buses we took after that because it felt like we all returned to our childhood years:D We had a short hour and a half to walk around the village and the life there is really different to what we have in Singapore. It’s so difficult to communicate and understand what the others are saying when you’re in a foreign area but luckily Izzah was there, and we found out that fishing is the main livelihood. From what I saw, it felt like fishermen were more well-to-do because they had concrete houses. We saw smiling faces almost everywhere we went, were offered fresh coconuts, and I felt very welcomed. I think if given a chance, I might want to stay there, probably will a better sanitation system or something. Their life is simple, but at the same time they’re happy with it and I think that’s the most important. The kids over there are not afraid of strangers, in fact they get to know them quite fast. We played a couple of games and there was the language barrier again so it was a little inconvenient. And I think that our games weren’t really suitable for their age because some of them thought it was difficult and they decided to stay away instead, but the “London Bridge” game we played after that was enjoyable for them. All in all, I felt that the trip was really fruitful for us even though we didn’t really do much for the people over there and if I was given a chance to start this all over again knowing that there’ll be all the cancellations and hardwork, I will make the same choice:D:D