ocip `07

warning. extremely long post.

it's been a helluva trip in my opinion, and i'm so so glad i managed to go on the trip in the end.

well, i figured i shouldn't procastinate and start talking about the trip while it's still fresh in my head. i suppose i'll make it a little commentary-ish with thoughts in between and all.

first off, thanks for all who wished me. and special thanks to yanni and jenny and all the others who chipped in to do that muffins celebration thingy, it was really cool yep.

well the first thing we did when we hit chiangmai was to go for breakfast, where we were introduced to joe, tom, za, penn, and beau. joe's like our guide, while the other 4 were faciltators, who pretty much took care of all our meals and stuff. then we dropped by the Big C supercentre to get supplies the village. following that, we popped by the Park Hotel for a pretty nice buffet lunch, then went on to the hilltribe village museum, which was pretty boring, so shaun, zeri, jian han and i pretty much sat at a table and shared jokes.

it was a long ride to the village in the toot-toot, but it was made shorter guessing murder stories with just yes-no questions. going through the dirt path was madness as the dirt was flying everywhere and all the toot toot except the first were covered in dirt after a while. it was weird dusting soil off your jeans and bags, but funny to a certain extent. we stopped halfway to transfer to the villagers' pickups, and began the steep bumpy rollercoaster-ish and thrilling ride up the mountain, which was uber fun in a bumpy, funny way.

when we reached the village, i remember some of us being rather surprised with the actual place. we were sorta expecting a flat ground kinda village, but then again, it's a hilltribe village no? accomodation was equally shocking, with nazri, shaun, chun han, zonghe, manraj and i squeezing in one of the rooms. the girls had it much better, but who's too complain during an ocip trip?

well to be honest, i did think to myself, gosh. i'm not too sure if i can survive 8 days out here. it's probably because electricity seemed like such a scarce utility, and the toilets seemed really unpleasant in the beginning. heh. looking back i feel really stupid thinking like that.

dinner was pretty nice. i remember the uber nice and juicy bean sprouts that were so juicy and nice that when you bit them juice came out and it was nice. i think the meals were great in general, save for one or two meals. special mention goes out to the egg with cucumber, the tom yum soup, the hardboiled then deepfried egg, and many more. gosh you made my stay there so much better. special thanks also to tom beau za and penn for cooking and helping to wash the dishes and mentoring us when we had kitchen duties.

the next day, building started. it started with the local pros using really simple tools to mark out the positions of the pillars. and i just realised i didn't take any photographs of it. argh. this has been a terrible trip in terms of photography. maybe i'll talk about it later.

well the majority of the work involved us preparing and mixing cement, as well as pouring it and levelling it out. there was a little bit of patching of walls too. the roof was left to the pros, as well as the unpleasant job of rectifying everything that we made a mess of.

i was on kitchen duty, so i spent most of my time at the eating area plucking veggies, cutting veggies, deboning chicken and washing dishes. i did pop by the site now and then, and by now the children had started coming out to play with us. this sorta carried on for the rest of the trip, and they became a large part of our stay there.

the days there were pretty relaxed. life there is relaxed in general, away from the oh-so-polluted city. a typical day would be something like, waking up at 3, then falling asleep again, waking up at 5.30, light-sleep all the way to 7.30, then chiong to breakfast and realise there are people later than you still. start work at 9, lunch at 12. chiong provision shop. resume work at 1.30 or so till 4.30, playing with kids in between all the work. taking a shower in the bloody cold water, then dinner at 6.30, followed by reflections at 8. of course, the heart 2 heart sessions till ten. heh.

well i have to talk about this. the chickens there are extremely irritating. they crow at the most ungodly hours and you can't do a shit about it. we, or at least the guys, get up everyday at like 3 or 4 just to hear the cocks crowing like a crow. worse actually. the most irritating chickens are those that go under hut and crow right below us. perhaps that's how kentucky was inspired to make friend chicken. i don't know. oh, and right next to us there's this pig sty with two grotesquely overweight pigs. they stink. they snore. what more can you ask for.

throughout the time there, most of the interaction with the locals were with children. the teens and adults seldom came out, or were seldom there. the kids there were really super super fun and nice to be with. they seemed to be really happy just running around barefoot, playing with their old school wooden tops and broken toys. it just goes to show that materialism may not be that ideal after all. some of the kids that left a deeper impression were kids like atitaya, songsup! chong rui, shan chai, and who can forget the uber adorable chaklit. why chocolate when you can have chaklit? okay that doesn't exactly fit but he's super cute so i don't care.

i'm kinda glad i'm in educomm. okay i'm actually really glad. On the 5th day we went down to the school to do some teaching. in a nutshell, they learn the alphabets and the alphabet song, the head and shoulders knees and toes song, making paper shakers and teaching the older kids how to play the recorder, and making friendship bands. oh and i did a mini magic show courtesy of yirui's props, which i think they really enjoyed. while teaching, it sorta hit me about how fortunate we are to be able to teach them (not that it didn't hit me before, but really hard this time). they were really simple things, but to see the huge smiles on their faces, to see the enthusiasm and happiness in their eyes, it's something that really touched me. even though it wasn't planned as well as i had wanted it to be, i still consider it a success judging by the response. so thanks to educomm and all the helpers, for making it a successful session :)

cultural night was pretty cool too. the little dance by atitaya and gang, the show and tell, the dance, lighting up those traditional hot air balloons, the krathongs, the fireworks. it was a really nice atmospher with all the villagers around in their traditional tribal costumes. ah. nostalgia.

okay i shall talk abit more about thoughts now, rather than just commentary.

first up, joe and the 4 facilitators. their selfless attitude really got my attenton. joe was constantly looking out for us and making sure that we didn't have anything to complain about. the 4 facilitators became our chefs and dishwashers of sorts, and didn't really give us jobs unless we asked to give us some. they made sure we finished eating and all the dishes were washed before they began eating. pretty much the entire day was dedicated to these two duties, and they did them without any complaint whatsoever. really appreaciate their help.

i also thought that we weren't efficient enough. there was too much idling time between preparation of batches of cement, and in the end even though the structure was completed, we didn't have time to furnish and decorate the place. i think if we managed to get another container for mixing cement, things would have been much more efficient, and we would definitely be able to finish the job faster so that we can do the furnishing. but like what mr najib said, we shouldn't be disappointed with what we accomplished. the actual laying of the pillars, making the floors, curbs, steps, walls. despite the drizzle, cultural night was able to continue due to this little library cum community centre that we built.

life there is really nice. i'm missing it. time isn't much of a concern, and you do what you like. if i had to make a choice between life there and here, i would probably choose life there. however, it's only a practical choice when you are born there. after being exposed to modern life, it's kind of hard to make the switch over, perhaps only if you're old and retired. you don't think about making it bigger than all the other modern rats in the modern rat race. life is slow and nice. and peaceful. i'm going in circles.

leaving the village was a sad thing. i really miss the folk and the kids there. i was actually expecting lots of tears, but there wasn't. i have to admit, the moment the village was out of sight, i felt like crying. i didn't want to leave the place at all. but i guess we all have to move on, whether we like it or not. i want to go back there someday.

after that, we went for bamboo rafting before watching the elephant show, then went for lunch, where we rode the ox cart to the place to ride the elephant. basically, the rafting was boring, but it was fun imagining the entire journey was fake with shaun, zeri, tracey, audrey and zong. we tried to convince ourselves that we were actually travelling on a rail, and that the stones and waterfalls along the way were fake. oh and the fact that the song of the birds were played by hidden speakers.

as for the rides, and show, i really didn't enjoy them. i felt that it was really inhumane. it's weird to sit on top of this wooden cart pulled by 2 oxes that aren't that big, getting pulled up a hill and the trainer just slapping them on the back. i kinda wonder how you're actually supposed to enjoy it. i felt that it was a little bit more reasonbale on the elephants, and it was pretty fun to be honest, but somehow i still think that it isn't right. the show was the most "wrong" for me, as it started off with me seeing a trainer whacking an elephant with the bullhook. ah screw it.

the orphanage was slightly emo for me. the breaking point was when i saw this volunteer who was giving out those little explosive tadpoles that make a sound when you toss them on the floor. when he was giving them out, a group of kids just surrounded him, and were desperately reaching their hands out to him, yelling, papa! papa! it was at that point in time that i realised the reality of it all. all these children have no parents, have no one but each other and the workers/volunteers. it made me realise how lucky i am to have a family.

went to have dinner in the end, and ended up sitting with a table of girls with shaun. turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the guys table had a serious shortage of food. losers! heh. emo time as joe and the 4 facis said the emo thank yous and stuff, some tears as well.

hotel was cool. i bunked with shaun. shopping was sorta fun as well. i don't shop, i confess. it was fun doing it in a foreign country though. i bought mainly shirts, about 3 of them. oh including the big bird shirt that's 4. zong and xingzhong can seriously bargain. for eg, xz managed to bargain a 300+ baht slipper to 170 baht. when shaun wanted to buy from another store, he just told the lady: hey i bought mine at 150 baht. my friend wants to buy. you want to sell him or not? and guess what, the lady said yes! doh. champion.

went back to ms chia and ms wu's room for a final reflection. shaun was wearing his new tuna shirt, while i wore my coma shirt (basically spoofs of puma) and people thought we were gaying. i didn't care, i was uber happy with my buy. ah. thinking back, the reflection sessions aren't THAT reflective. or perhaps i took it in the wrong way altogether.

later on, the teachers went out to ta pao macs for us, and we went to zeri and zong's room to eat. watched some shitty dog horror movie. fell asleep and woke and decided, gg. go sleep. think i only slept 3 hours. same for the night before, the last night in the vilage where we had the real heart 2 heart heh. oh something funny happened. shaun had a dream and ended up knocking the lamp over. i semi-woke up and found a lamp on my shoulder. so i put it back up and slept again. when i woke up the phone was on the floor upside down and it was separated from the dock. (i have a feeling i did this). the lamp covering was on the floor and the wiring inside sorta snapped. no we did not do anything to each other, if that's what you're thinking

went down for a quick breakfast, then headed off to the airport. TPJC's OCIP was on the same flight. we sorta knew as we met them the previous night at macs. apparently they were in Laos, where they took a 17 hour coach ride down to chiangmai for the retreat. madness. at the airport, za, tom, pen and joe were there to see us off. it was a pretty rushed farewell, as they tried to usher us in quickly. apparently there was a VIP arriving in Singapore about the same time as us, so they wanted us to board on time so we can fly of quickly and arrive on time. unfortunately we couldn't, and ended up waiting for an additional 25 minutes before taking off.

one thing about tiger airways is that the air crew are so easy to talk to. we could have little conversations with them, and shaun even managed to tell them lame jokes, which made the malay guy slap his forehead and go omg twice. rather funny IMO. i decided to try one of their meals, which was rather silly as it was 8 dollars, but i thought ah for the heck of it. it was pretty good actually. but not worth 8 dollars for sure.

well then we arrived in the airport, got our bags, took some photos, and that pretty much sums up the whole of ocip. pleas be patient with the photos, i have 881 to QC as well as to process those that pass QC. it'll only be ready at best on friday.


i miss Ban Pha Mon. to the max.