Cambodia Trip Return to Singapore

On the last day, we have to wake up early for the morning flight. We will miss the children at the dumpsite and the memories we had. At the same time, we miss home and look forward to be back in Singapore and Punggol Secondary School.

Cambodia Trip CIP Day 5

Today is the last day of our CIP project.  In the blinking of an eye, we have been working on painting the T-house for 5 days. In order to ensure the painting to be completed on time, our team left the hotel slightly earlier than usual.  

Once we arrived, we immediately continued the final painting of the T-house.  Today also marks the last day of our interaction with the children.  To our delight, some of the children were already wearing our school's former PE t-shirt which we gave out the day before.  They looked happy to be in the same outfit as their friends. 

Since it is our last day with the children, we took a lot of pictures with them.  When it is time for us to leave the T-house, we felt heavy tugs on our heartstrings.  We have built a strong connection with the children for the past few days, and it was hard to finally say the final goodbye.  The children were very good students who possess a good attitude and very eager to learn.  We will miss them terribly.

After leaving the T-house, we headed straight to the Girls’ Brigade Headquarters office to check out the items we have bought for the children at the T-house.  Using the fund which we raised prior to the trip, we had purchased the following items for the children :

- a whiteboard

- a steel cabinet

- 95 text books & work books

- 100 exercise books

- 576 cans of milk power that can last half a month for 40 children

- 60 cartons of packet of soy milk and 20 tins of biscuits that can last 4 months for 40 children

- 40 mosquito nets for the children's families

- 67 sets of bread & condense milk

- 50 cans of sardines (donated by Punggol Sec staff)

- the rest of the funds went to purchasing of paint, sealant, equipment etc.

Once we have transported our donation items to the Girls’ Brigade, we went for our lunch before heading down to the Central Market for shopping! The Central Market was huge, selling a large variety of items!  We were given sufficient time to browse the Central Market and do our shopping. We bought bag-full of purchases and had a great time!

Time flies by so fast.  It is now the 6^th day into the trip.  In the blinking of an eye, we are departing from Phnom Penh Airport tomorrow in the morning.  It has been an enriching trip, and has opened our eyes to the realities of life.  We have learnt to better appreciate what we have in life, and not to take things for granted.  We have also put into practice our school values of Propriety, Righteousness, Integrity  and Self-Respect through our service learning. On another note, we can’t wait to see our families back home!

Cambodia Trip CIP Day 4

The final day of the CIP project started off smoothly as usual.  When we arrived at the dump site, we quickly got down to work.  For today, the teaching team taught the Cambodian children how to tell time on an analogue clock.  After which, the Cambodian children were taught origami.  They learnt how to make paper birds, aeroplanes, water lilies and caps. 

The children enjoyed themselves folding origami, which is something relatively new to them.  The coloured papers also caught their interest and enthusiasm.   At the end of the day, the children happily brought their origami home with them.

The painting team continued with painting the T-house.  For the more difficult areas to paint (the areas above the protruding window ledge), we thought of a way to overcome it: to attach the paint roller to a long wooden pole, and paint the difficult areas from the adjacent window.

Before leaving the T-house, we distributed a baguette and a tin of condensed milk to each of the Cambodian children.  Even though the food was relatively simple, they were nonetheless delighted with the food, and seeing them beaming brightly warmed our hearts too.

Today is supposed to be the last day of our CIP project.  However, as we ran out of white paint, our team decided in unison to forgo the Royal Palace visit tomorrow but to complete our painting instead as we feel that it is important for the children.

 Once again the day ended with discussions and a reflection session back at the hotel.  Despite being tired from the 4 days of hard work, we are looking forward to completing the project tomorrow.   Tomorrow will be the last day we’ll being seeing the children before departing from Phnom Penh this Friday. We will miss them very much.

Cambodia Trip CIP Day 3

We’ve come to the third day of our CIP project. The day started off bright and sunny. To finish up the painting quickly, we separated ourselves into several teams; each responsible for a particular wall. Now that we’re into the third day of the CIP project, the team is now more familiarised with the routine, and hence got down to painting in no time. For today, we painted the walls outside the T-house with white paint, and also managed to apply a coat of colour paint on the door ledge.

  

Our teaching teams were creative and tried something new today. They taught the Cambodian children more advance English vocabulary, as well as mask-making and colouring. The children enjoyed themselves and had an enjoyable time creating their own unique mask to take home with them.

We ended the day with a reflection session back at the hotel as usual. Coach shared with us about values and emphasized its importance.  We also discussed ideas on how we should go about painting the more difficult areas of the walls. We are looking forward to see how our completed project tomorrow, which is the last day of our CIP project.  

    

Cambodia Trip CIP Day 2

Day 2 started off as a wet morning as it had rained the previous night. As a result, the CIP site was thoroughly muddy. However, we are very eager to see the kids again and continue with our tasks. As usual, we separated into 2 teams; 1 team is responsible for painting the T-house while the other team is tasked with teaching the children.

With this being the 2nd day, the children are now noticably more comfortable with us. The chilren were enthusiastic and even volunteerily taught us basic Cambodian language (e.g. cap, table, chair, staircase, key etc) during the lesson.  Our teachers also guided us along in teaching the children and provided us with tips on how to improve our lessons.

We continued with our T-house painting project under the supervision of our teachers. For today, we completed scrapping away the old paint and applied a layer of sealant. The purpose of the sealant is to fill gaps in the wall, make it more water- and corrosion-resistant, as well as to provide an adhesive effect for the fresh paint. We enjoyed working together as a team towards a common goal.

Despite getting tired and dirty at the end of the day, we are satisfied with our progress and are looking forward to seeing the end product of our project.

Cambodia Trip CIP Day 1

The kids are excited and happy to see their young teachers for the first time. We got off to a good start with ice breaking activities followed by lessons. They were actively engaged in our English lesson. It was our first try being a teacher and we have done well.



We also have first hand experience in scrapping old paints off the wall in preparation for the second day's painting. We were all very tired but happy with what we have done at the end of the day.



Cambodia Trip Historical Tour

Departing for Cambodia! Good news! Prior to the trip, our students have raised the target donation amount of USD1700.

We have seen how the Cambodian gone through the painful history and find out more from one of two remaining survivors of the S21 Genocide Museum.

We went to the actual site where prisoners of S21 were brought for execution. The Cambodian have now let the dead rest in peace and managed to forgive and work together to rebuild their country. This gives us higher motivation to start our service learning project the next day.