i am back.
dun feel lyke doing any work now. it's just natural i guess. i mean everyone is already mugging lyke crazy already and then for me, it felt as though as reality just hit me hard on my head. yes, i need to mug. shit. okae, i will, in the afternoon. not now.
ocip batam... at first i was quite reluctant to go... really, felt obligated because the entire exco is going... so i just tagged along, not even knowing what to do during the trip itself because the fund - raising committee has lyke completed their work from the beginning. at the same moment, i was pissed because have to lug my luggage to the ferry terminal all by myself. it felt as if no one cared about my trip. haix. okae, that's just me. it is also saddening to know how close friends can also forget that you are going for the trip and perhaps just a msg to wish bon voyage. no. nothing. the worst thing was that i received zero msgs from my family. sianz. perhaps they really forgot that i was at batam. maybe they think that i am in sentosa.
batam is a nice place. full of tourist and non - touristy places. i like the people there, they are nice and friendly to you. and then especially my primary 3 students. the P3 girls there are really very nice... i started playing with them on the first day... and from then on, they started to ask for me... eight to nine of them. my teammates call them the 'Pauline's fan club'. they are really very nice... they taught me lots of games. like the do mi ca clapping song, pepsi cola one two three in Malay, sitting around in a circle and chasing each other around and around. not to mention five stones with old golf balls and another super bao li game... london bridge plus tug - of war (which is super violent, d people are the strings to be pulled from one end to another). :)
haix. i miss those games and those times. so simple and nice. no worries about block tests, though simple, yet fufilling, forgetting about the troubles in the past and not thinking about the future... taking a step at a time, you enyoy the moment now. enjoy everyday at a step at a time. and maybe ending up as a happier person. haix. i miss that feeling. suddenly, that kind of feeling is gone, replaced by harsh reality, mugging people and unfeeling notes. where is my 'fan club' ? i miss them so much. my p3 girls are so cute, they were crying so hard yesterday that i din not know how to comfort them... looking at them cry, my heart melted and i started crying too... they were so nice, buying me one of their ice blackcurrent drink even though they do not have much money to start with, buying me one ice-cream when it only costs about 10 cents each. really. it's not the money that counts, it's the thoughts that count. even though they are so poor, with only about 2000 - 3000 rupiah a day, which is lyke 40 to 60 cents only, they are still willing to share it with me... giving me some of their toys that they treasure so much... rings, bangles, stickers, chains, hair extensions.... haix.
i really do miss them. i wonder what are they doing now.
perhaps the worst thing over there will be the language barrier... limited and broken Malay enabled me to teach my P3 class and also interact and communicate with my P3 girls. to me, the rowdy and noisy P3 class did not come as a surprise to me, coz i have met worst situations while teaching tuition. it's a universal thing, primary school kids are naturally lyke that. i was able to handle them to a certain extent... but still needed the other teammates to work together and teach the kids. throughout my entire trip, i just kept on using this few Malay words over and over again... "diam", "tuduk", "terima kasih", "apa ini?", "satu dua tigga", "lagi", "nanti","sidigit sidigit", "saya da dao"... the other words that the children say... i will just act as if i know and smile at them... that's how i do it. :) they love to sing songs too... so we sang 'twinkle twinkle little star' over and over again, lyke 10 times and even presented it to some education minister of Batam! that's how i lost my voice now... cannot talk already. nvm anw, i am used to it, and besides, i dun feel lyke talking now either.
through this trip, i discovered the best way to communicate with the kids. whenever they talk to me anything in Malay that i did not understand. the best way is to add a word "apa" in the front, followed by any word that i could pick up amongst the long line of Malay... they will then know that you do not understand, and will look very exasperated... but will still try means and ways to explain the word... until i understand. haix. i do miss them. like there was once, they told me "pantai"... "kepantai" then i was lyke 'apa kepantai?' then the next thing they said was... 'swimming pool!" oic, they were actually talking about the sea. :D
On our last day, we had a small handing over ceremony, then what shocked us was not only the principal came up to shake every single one's hand, he even made the entire school - 200 students to come up to us one by one to thank us... omg. it was like super magnificent. together with the sayonara song that they sang, it was a super touching scene. i will never forget that in my life.
my teammates were all very nice, other than the j2 excos... the J1s were all very nice also... altogether the 19 of us, plus 3 teachers and 1 rotarian. ms chua is nice. ms liew is funny and laughs at every joke, funny or not funny. mr liw is the best, super approachable, yet, to the extent that we are unsure if he is a student or a teacher. he dances the mass dance with us, dances apollo dac dance 2006 with us... and cracks funny jokes about birds or even disguised racist jokes. haha, shall post up the group photos up one day when it is compiled. :)
the trip was truly fufilling, it gave me more than what i expected. to me, it was better than my previous ocip trip at khao lak. i really never knew that i will miss my 'fan club' that much. they provided me with a kinda of life that i really needed. away from school, away from troubles that i once had, away from everything. just smile and play, and life will be that simple. perhaps they will not remember me a few days from now on, but at least i knew that i once had those memories.
and that's all i need. <3
