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!