To start off the New Year in zapyou, here's a preview of my Laos OCIP trip and how I ended 2012 on a high. Happy New Year btw! And here's a video chronicling so much fun and joy I had during this trip to Laos. I know it's 15 mins long but it summarises the day to day cock-busting fun we had. Oh and yes, those are naked children hahahahaha.

For me, this trip to Laos was simply Magical.

I was enthralled by the splendours of this Southeast Asian country. No doubt poor, but truly majestic in its landscapes and enchanting with the company of its people. As every meaningful trip does, I have learnt so many things.

A friend once put it, "A place where we taught, and was taught, so much."

If you're unfamiliar to the term OCIP, it stands for "Overseas Community Involvement Project" whereby students like myself from Singapore go to SEAsian countries to help in the upward movement of their country through meaningful work like teaching english to the children.

Having followed my blog, most of you should know that I went for an OCIP trip to Thailand recently in May 2012 with my Hall friends and it was my first time doing such a thing.

This time round, I went to Laos with my friends from the same faculty as I am in NTU. Wkwsci, initiated by my senior, Carrie Ho.

NOW LET'S SKIP ALL THAT PR SHANANIGANS.

Goodness, for a moment I thought I was writing a proposal.

Anyway, in comparison to my Thailand trip, well, that's what everyone does when they've experienced both ways, I would say both experiences are different.

But in terms of preparation, my wkw team to Laos was definitely, way more prepared. And I most definitely feel like I did something and made my mark.

Fun wise, I had way more fun in Laos than Thailand because of the companionship of my school mates. I freakin swear, I love my OCIP group to Laos. I was completely myself and had grown so attached to the group that it was depressing to know that such bond and camaraderie would've only remained in Laos and a short moment in time. We all couldn't help but count down the days we had left in this beautiful country, before we made our way back to monotonous Singapore.


As you may know, before I left for this trip, I had several doubts and questions in my head.

"Why am I going for this trip? Am I truly helping them? Or are we merely invading their space"

So many worries that led me to feel apprehensive and uncertain about my decision to be part of this whole OCIP experience.

It was my trip to Thailand that caused me to think about all these things because while doing construction work, I felt like it was not our niche and doing it merely slowed things down for the locals and they would probably be better off completing the construction project themselves. Furthermore, our main purpose was to educate the students. Not construction.

It was all these questions and doubts that caused me to have a debate both with myself and someone.

He questioned our purpose for heading there and that there was no need for the whole group to go to Laos. He claimed it is way more meaningful and purposeful for one man to head off to do OCIP himself. And that it would ease off any time wasted with us doing construction work. He insists that the focus of the whole trip is to educate the students and only that. No point wasting time doing constuction work and going through so much administrative processes just to get so many people over there to do such work. Furthermore, he questions where all the money goes to.

Because of that, I was deeply affected by the arguments he put forth and it was deeply unsettling for me, a day before I was to fly for Laos. I placed my own arguments on the plate, but admittingly, was not too confident of what I had to say, coz there were elements of truth to what he had mentioned.

This trip thus, was a quest for enlightenment. Seriously. It was a personal turmoil for me and I was searching for answers and the meaning and purpose for my trip to Laos.

Throughout the trip, I made mental notes and took time just sitting alone to think about the day to day makings and the little things we'd done/

And I must say, I now have the answers to my prayers.

I can now put forth my own rebuttals to all that, that 'someone' had to say. I have nothing against him, it's just that I feel the need to defend a cause I feel so strongly for which he insists is of little help.

Well firstly,

He mentioned how going solo would be best when it comes to helping others.
But hey, you need resources to get there. Aone-man show won't do. When it comes to teaching, you cannot do it alone. You can't teach a school on your own. You can't facilitate a class on your own. You cannot. And when it comes to construction, we have strength in numbers. When I was in Laos, guess what, we were way more efficient than the Laotians. First of all, it was a good thing that they gave us work to do that didn't need much expertise. We did the finishing touches for them. They hadn't expected us to complete work so quickly and efficiently and it drove them to finish their furniture making for the school faster. It was us who drove them on. In a way, we brought with us the Singapore-style of efficiency and efficacy. Construction work turned out to be meaningful work for us.

Furthermore, you cannot only teach. What are you going to learn and take back? You can't only give. You must bring back home with you something valuable that you've learnt. And it's the interaction with the locals through work together that teaches you their way of life. You can't merely make your mark and thrash all of them with your knowledge of the English language. What will you learn from that?! You will never learn until you stop with your imperialistic i'm-here-to-help-you-muahahahah. It's fuckin condescending.

Also, with a group, you have the manpower to do canvassing to garner financial support. You wanna go alone? Then show me the money. You can't do it alone. Ask Government ah? Ask ga-pi ah!

Then he asks, where the money goes to.
The onus lies on your leader to do the checks and balances. Of course, if the budget goes way above expectation, then something must be wrong. And if you don't see the materials laid out before you when you reach there, then something must be wrong. Even when you go there alone, you have to check if these funds are going to where they're supposed to. Everything lies in the grey area and it really is up to you to ensure things are going according to plan.

Going solo has its ideals most definitely, but if you think of it in a wider scheme of things, going solo doesn't allow you to enjoy that bond and friendship you come out of after toughening through those days and nights together. You learn from your own friends and enjoy their companionship.

It was those nights that were truly magical, when my wkw friends and I would star gaze out in the open night sky. And we'd nestle silently with the stars and the bond we shared throughout the entire journey. Had it not been for my friends, this Laos trip wouldn't have been that special. And I am so damn thankful for that.

We had only spent 2 weeks there in the village. The imprint we made in Naphong Village, Laos, may only remain for a short span in time. But I came to realise that, if we look at it in a grander scheme of things, we are merely making a small mark in this journey towards helping third world nations. Other teams will come and go but the little input time after time, over time, will sail this giant ark and I am proud that we were part of this long yet fulfilling journey.

I learnt so much. I really did. From my own faculty mates and the people who lived in Laos. Pace of life... to live life slowly and simpler. To be contented and not be worked up over trivial things. The team consisted of Year 2, 3, 4s, thus my seniors offered a lot of insights and perspective to this trip. I really learnt a lot from them, not just about school like exchange but life as well. And my new friends. Cheers to them.


Let's talk no more, and I will show you all these people and the life that I lived in Laos. Here goes!

Vientiane-





If you haven't known, Laos is a communist state. Thus the communist flag flies next to its nation's flag. Sorry bout the waving flags haha.


Cope Center- First Stop



That's our kid leader.
Anw, Laos is a country known to still have thousands of land mines still embedded in their land. It was caused by the Vietnam War between the Americans, thus till today, there are still many land mines that haven't been discovered yet.

Cope Center featured the victims of UXO mines and provides jobs to amputees.


They've this cafe that sells homemade ice cream AND OMFG

IT SELLS THE BEST ICE CREAM EVER. I'm not even exaggerating. It was the best ice cream I'd ever eaten in my life. Probably because Cope Center's run by angmohs.


Off to Naphong Village!




Feast your eyes.






Waiting to cross the river



ACCIDENTAL ZOOM IN.







We eventually arrived at the village.

I must say, Laos has extreme weather conditions. In the afternoon, it is extremely HOT. But in the morning and night... OMFG TEMPERATURES DROP RAPIDLY. And it was so damn bloody cold that we had to wear jackets and thicker clothing. Crazy! I was expecting it to be cold but not THAT cold. Goodness.



Greeted by this thick fog EVERY MORNING. Imagine that! There's a mountain at the back but you can't see it coz... it's covered by FOG. Typo error and typed GOD. Hahaha, covered by God is scary.

The Dad says Singapore used to be like that. But no more. A lot of things, the older generation got to see in Singapore but not any more. Kinda sad that my generation never got to experience any of this in our own country.




FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!!!!!!
3 meals a day. And all 3 meals there's rice. Otherwise it's noodles. And we look forward to meal time everyday like pigs. Coz their food is SO GOOOOOOD. Bamboo shoots, omg, I'll show you later.


On the way to the school we were to teach,





Everyday, we were only given a one-way ride on the lorry to the school. Going back to the village, we'd to walk back. A 40 mins walk. Long it may seem, but the walk back will be one of the most memorable moments I had in Laos. We walked slowly, enjoying the Laotian view, and making small talk among ourselves. I really miss those moments. It's those slow quiet moments that I believe, all of us miss. Thinking about them makes me yearn to be back there again.

Lucky for us tho, at least we had a one-way ride there coz the afternoon sun is tormentuous hahaha.


At school,








You'll get to see the boy at the extreme left in the video coz he's one of the 4 sons of the village chief. Thus, we see him almost everyday hahaha.

Later on, they invited us to watch a volleyball match. Never knew they were fans of volleyball.




SCHOOL PRIDE YO.


The ride back to the village,




Face of an angel, but she really is quite a little devil hahaha.
Intention to throw bricks at cats and shouting at boys, she really is quite a feisty child/





Washing clothes the Laotian way,








3rd son of the village chief.

And yes, they're extremely handy and boys like him, 13 years of age already have developed arm muscles and a nicely arched back. I swear the girls in our group kept swooning over his nice body. Bonks. I guess it's something the boys here in Singapore lack. The boys there are so rugged. A way of life for them.


Off to farming,




Cutting weeds surrounding banana trees with parangs. Got several cuts from that.



Retarded Sianpei I dunno what she's doing. Says she wants to block the photo but complains about being in the picture afterthat. Whuuut??








Just one of those nights that I'd miss the most...




Our boys getting down and dirty showering in the open.
The NUS team was shocked about it coz apparently, they were promised that they didn't have to shower outside. But really, do as the Romans do, or in this case, Laotians, you gotta experience this man!!! THE LIFE.

Yeah, we were told that this was the first time all 3 major Singapore Universities were in Laos doing OCIP work. NUS, NTU, SMU were all there at the same time.


Where we had meal times..




Here comes those beautiful walks back to the village. With the sun rays shining down on us,




Showing us how he played the flicking of blade grass. Pretty cool. WATCH THE VIDEO TO SEE HOW HE DID IT.

After seeing all that, I really feel like my childhood is quite deprived.



Cheeky boy
And boy who knows Gangnam style. Look at that. All the way in a rural village, Gangnam style could be found. IT'S INSANE?!?!!! NO WONDER PSY GOT SO DARN FAMOUS. Sick.








He suddenly jumped on to my back. I never asked for him to be carried hahaha. But he was sucha cute kid. We all loved him, truly!



The glow of the sun setting on our faces. With my friend Emily. One of the craziest girls on the team. So glad to have met her.




Our home stay aunt learning english by writing in her own Laotian lang.
More about her. She's sucha darling.




Warming my feet by their stove. Cooking food the traditional way with firewood and metal pots. I watched how the aunty in the house made fire and she was so damn good at it. One puff and the whole thing lit up!!!! SHE'S A PRO AT LIFE SKILLS. Something we're missing out on.









Bat boy.
This was my first time viewing a bat so up close. I've never really seen one before and it is quite an intriguing creature. I observed it and realised it looked quite like a small puppy but with wings. I have to be honest tho. There are many things I dare touch like insects and such. Even my friends applaud me for that. But for some reason, I couldn't get myself to touch the bat. Or hold it in my hand. It looked scary but at the same time intriguing to me. Like I couldn't stop looking at it but I was afraid to touch it. Probably of the unknown. And maybe something I've always heard of but never got a chance to see and feel. And perhaps I've always not been afraid of any sort of creature, being scared of something was new to me hahaha.




We visited a lower class family as well to offer some Singapore dishes. They liked goreng pisang. Not so much of chikuteh and vegetables tho haha. Anyway, their house was superrr tiny as compared to the houses we were staying in. And from there we could really tell the hierarchical difference between men and women. Women weren't allowed to eat with men. Not even us. We had to sit with the women. And some of the women didn't even dare to sit with us. It's like pariah state or smth, that bad. Kids sat at a separate table. Oh wait, they didn't even HAVE a table. So there was still discrimination between the sexes in Laos.

We were talking about how the villagers must be quite shocked/surprised by the number of girls in our team. 19 girls v 3 guys. That's like... an overthrow. Hahah.

They also got this strange looking contraption out with tubes hanging out (seen in picture) and I immediately thought, omg sheesha because the men had this cheeky look. Turns out, it was only rice wine. But they were pretty ingenious to ferment the rice themselves in a plastic container. Impressive. Funny at the same time seeing how excited they got, thinking it's dope or smth.






Our homestay auntie. She is just the cutest thing.
Guess her age. You assume she's an ahma. But guess what, she's only 54. Like omg. We all thought she had to be older than that. With that comes a story behind it. We heard her husband passed away, dunno at what age, but we deduced that she probably had a tough life bringing up 5 children all by herself.... eventually, her face became weathered and her body, aged. Quite sad, but she seems to be in a perfectly healthy condition. Living in a place like Laos/

Oh and while we were there, there was one day that we thought that she was gonna go pray to her late husband coz she seemed to be dressed in her Sunday best and laid flowers all over the house. She was also holding this nice looking metal container and told us she was going out. But to where, we weren't sure, so we guessed. One of the problems with the language barrier, otherwise we could have asked.

And yes, that's her "dishwashing" area at her kitchen. It's cool to see how it works over there. The "floor" is made of bamboo and everything just splashes right down. No drainage system. It's through the gaps between the bamboos haha.





Shuqi playing with the dog at our house.

Yeap it's a dog. A puppy. It is so skinny, it's bones are everywhere. And it's so tiny that it shivers in the morning when temperatures are so low.

In Laos, animals are next to nothing. Probably ranked the lowest. Not surprising since animals are used for agricultural and necessitous purposes. Like food for example. They'd hit their animals and we'd be shocked every time they do, hearing the whimpers of the animals. Ah well, culture shock I guess.


BAMBOO SHOOTSS!!!!!!

Our favourite food commodity. Served during lunch time twice throughout our trip. And it is absolutely delishhhhhhhh. We had almost 6 bowls in total, the most, out of all the other tables on our first encounter with THE Bamboo shoots. Which ever bowl of bamboo shoots that couldn't be finished at other tables, ended up on ours. And our bellies hahahaha. It's absolutely awesome really! We heard they're used as emergency food like droughts and stuff like that.

Pin li, Atheena and I call ourselves the Bamboo girls. Coz we were so awesome at eating them.


Oh check it out. Ducks mating.
It was quite disturbing for us city kids coz we never thought.... I mean we know they mate but it kinda never really occurred to us that ducks had sex as well LOL LOL!!! Pretty vigorous I'd say. Watch the video for some soft porn action.


Pigtail day


Painting furniture.
Emily and I initially wanted to catch the rapist duck and paint his ass green or blue. Pin it down, pluck a feather then paint. But never got to. Coz the damn duck was HUGE. And its wings were powerfullll. Packs a punch. Or flap lol.





Pigtail girls.
And I love'em all!


Behold... Laotian kids.




I really like the next few photos.
 




The sun's flare and the slight silhouette of the tree and kids. : )

And the next, credits to Sianpei!





She's pampered and spoilt but she looks really cute on camera. And in person.
I love these photos so much.
Yanyu told me, it's nice to capture children from this angle coz it makes them look bigger and more powerful than they actually are.



She is, quite an angel.


The ledge everyone likes to sit on. Coz you can daze all day just sitting there and be wistful without feeling guilty. Life in Laos.


The Laotians gave us a break on a weekend and we were off for caving and BBQ Day! One of the most memorable days for moi.




In an open air lorry
Amos is a girl hahaha.






The gorgeous scenery. Quite hard to take it all in through pictures. When you're there, you can really feel the enormity of these mountains.







Caving!
It is quite exciting the first time going in, but after that for R&R, it just felt like the same cave over and over haha.


On our way to the house we were gonna have our BBQ at. Amos macam pimp siol.





Honestly, my favourite place out of the entire trip.

The mountains were literally breath taking. When I wasn't preparing food, I stood and stared at them. Imagine.... somebody lives right next to these mountains and wake up to the sight of them! We all agreed that the view when day breaks will probably be awesome. We'd never get to see it since we were only there in the evening and night for BBQ.



TAHAHAHA Bimbossss.

But I really like this picture. We were totally working it.


We were off to see the sun rise the next day. Sadly, there was no sun rise. The day just brightened and that was it. Nothing. Ah well. Still quite an adventure venturing further out from the houses we stayed at.


What they ate,


Grilled fish

And birds...



Gunshot wound


We have bird watchers in Singapore, but in Laos, they're bird eaters hhahaha. Amazing. Love these cultural differences. The birds are so pretty and we'd be fascinated by them. But Laotians think they're delicious hahahaha. Funny! Never got to taste it tho.

And yes, that's the homestay auntie's daughter.

It was very funny. How we tried to figure out who was who in the household. Since we didn't speak Lao and neither did they speak English, we couldn't communicate to ask who was the mother or wife or child and stuff like that. However, we knew how to ask for their age.

Throughout our stay, there were 3 people in the house. The homestay auntie, this girl and another boy. We deduced that the auntie was the mother and the girl was her daughter. Ok. But we couldn't exactly figure out the relationship of the dude with them. This girl here is 19, and the boy 20. On our first day meeting them, we thought they were husband and wife, since they were sleeping in the same room. Like which pair of siblings sleeps in the same room right? Disgusting. What's more, it ain't surprising since people there marry young. Then again, we thought about it and striked it out and finally deduced they were siblings because they showed no signs that they were husband and wife. Nothing at all. No kid to prove either. So for 11 days, we thought they were siblings.

Until the last day, when Peter our guide and translator was with us, he told us, "The auntie's daughter and SON-IN-LAW" And we were SHOCKED AND WAS ALL WTF?!?!?!?! So for almost the entire stay there, we thought they were siblings. Which means, our initial deduction was accurate. They were married!!!! F*******!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Married at 19 y/o fml! I mean, it's not a surprise, but still it IS a surprise hahaha. Culture shock. And the fact that they showed no signs of love or intimacy. Culture shock once again. They acted like siblings and nothing more really. Love this.





I was so damn lucky to have taken a picture with her. Because on the day we left, she wasn't around. She had told me the day before that she was going out. I acknowledged, thinking she was just telling me that she's gonna go to the market or something. Little did I know, she was actually going to the city with her husband for work related purposes..... and she never came back.

I was freakin devastated the day we were supposed to leave because I never got to say goodbye. After interacting with her and exchanging laughs, I felt so sad that I cried that morning. I shot the video of the house tour right after that outpour. Couldn't tell right hahaha.

And yes as you can see, she is so tiny right next to me!! The people in the village are generally quite short. I'm taller than most of the men there. Note: MOST of the men. Almost all. I'm not even kidding.

I remember one night while she, the aunty, Pinghui and I were in the kitchen. We tried telling them how beautiful the night sky was with the HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS of stars in the sky. We were enchanted... coz the stars were so beautiful. It was like looking at the milky way. If I could take one thing back to Singapore, I would take their night sky. Coz it is so light polluted here that we can hardly see anything. We pointed and made gestures but they didn't seem to get it haha. To them, stars must be nothing. Like, they see it all the time. Don't get why these stupid Singaporeans are so fascinated by dots in the sky hahaha.

But the stars really were amazing. I swear. I'd never seen so many stars in the night sky in my entire life. WE EVEN SAW SHOOTING STARS!!!! I didn't make a wish, but I took it all in when I saw a star shoot right in the open sky. Most visible in a cloudless sky which lucky for us, the first few days, we were able to enjoy cloudless skies and thus, a myriad of shining stars on those many mesmerising nights. I'll always remember my fascination and amazement of them. The world truly is wonderful.


Yeap, we're edging closer to the last day of the stay in the village already.

Hang in there hahahah.




Sorry for the thick skin but I do love this photo taken by me very much. I was so happy when I took it LOL LOL.

Anyway, we were off to cement a concrete pavement outside another school.



The old school. Pretty bad conditions. We didn't want to imagine what would happen when it rained.

This was what we were building and sandpapering furniture for.







New school and off to do some hard work!




I didn't get to capture much "working" moments because well, I was slogging it out and doing work DUH haha. These pictures of us doing work weren't even captured by me.




Before we even knew it, it was night fall. See, pretty useful huh my window pictures ;D Tells the time of the day.




Meal times were at the village chief's house.


And BEHOLD,
The cutest kid in the village. I swear she is the cutest kid EVER. I don't usually go crazy over little cute kids especially when everyone else is... but this one.. HOmg. She's the little devil's sister. They look alike. But this younger sister is suchhhh a cutiepie.




ISNT SHE JUST THE CUTEST LITTLE THING??!?!?! OMGGG

Hoodie and all which she doesn't usually wear. So when she did, we were all AWWWWW and melted to the Laotian ground. Such a sweetie.

But extremely dependent on her parents. Like she can never be alone coz she's damn shy and runs away or cries immediately upon interacting with strangers.

Therefore, it became our (sianpei and I) personal mission to get her to like us hahaha. Everyday was a joy whenever we saw her coz we'd stop doing everything and go right to her and offered her sweets and anything to bribe her.





Lookin' like a Chinese princess here.
And her dad is considerably good looking according to Laotian standards. Urgh I WANT HER.

Oh and kids over there look EXACTLY like their parents. Like you can totally tell that the guy is the son of that man. In Singapore, you can hardly tell that the kid is the mother's. But over there, they have so many similar facial features that it's quite fascinating.

Back to cute kid,

You CAN'T possibly get sick of her can you?

We said she was, "Ngam", which means Beautiful or Pretty in Lao and she smiled her biggest smile to us and was so shy that she turned to snuggle her face into her father's shoulder.



AWWWWWWWW!!!!
Beaming father. Like, "That's my girl alright".


Then we had our Farewell ceremony and Christmas party that night. Donned in our ethnic costumes, we were out partying all night. I swear, the Laotians know how to party. Blasting music to the entire village and dancing and drinking like there was no tomorrow. BeerLao is their official beer brand in their country. Really. You see it everywhere. The Laotians drink it like water.

It was slightly unusual since bed time for them was like, 8pm but they managed to last all the way till midnight for Christmas countdown. Fascinating. Just for us.





Yeap check out that hot SIA stewardess hahahaha. Representing the malay community in Singapore.



Pin Li! One of the gems I got to know through this WeeTrip
We did Secret Santa as well and I was her secret santa. She loved the crazy 4D ruler of dolphins jumping and swimming in the sea that I got for her. I loved it too. And she says it'll remind her of me while I'm over at New Zealand grazing with the sheep HAHAHA.

And yes, those strings tied to our wrists.

The Laotians have a traditional ceremony called the baci (pronounced ba-see) and it is a ceremony for both happy and sad occasions. For us, it was a farewell ceremony done by the Laotians to see us off on a safe journey back to Singapore. It was quite a touching ceremony because villagers from everywhere in the village tied knots by using strings onto our wrists and chanted well-wishes in their native tongue. 3 knots for 3 wishes. It really did pull at the heart strings and in that moment, you can feel the entire atmosphere and warmth from the villagers. We were all seated around a rectangular table with our backs facing it so that the villagers could walk one round around the table to tie the strings for us. Some of the girls in the team cried. Sianpei, beside me, cried buckets. I guess, it was the thought of how people who didn't know you, were sincerely wishing us well and bidding us goodbye. Words fail me, coz I can't seem to describe the feeling while I was there now. But I do remember it very well.

The baci is a ceremony unique to the Laotians and you can never find it anywhere else in the world. So nice to feel the kindness and warmth of strangers.

I was also in charge of the performance by our team to the villagers there. One thing I learnt was that the villagers take things slowly and are not as worried or uptight as us when things weren't going according to plan. For me, I got panicky and stressed. Over a stupid simple performance, when everyone else was chill and relax. I COULDN'T. I simply could NOT REST ON MY LAURELS. I was going freakin crazy. But my senior Xiangyun came up to me and told me to relax and that that was the way of life over here in Laos and to take it easy and leave it to them to settle things. I was really touched by how she came up to me with those comforting words. I never told her how grateful I was, but damn, indeed I was and still am. If there's one thing I learnt from the Laotians, it was this. I have to try to take things easy and not be too hard on myself all the time.




Atheena. Another crazy biatch. (Sorry for the bad lighting)
Everyone judged her by her looks and called her 'Queen Bitch' even before knowing her hahahaha. But guess what, she's INSANE and everyone never knew she'd be the kinda girl that she was, just looking at her FACE. Haha.



Ah huh. Loving this picture.
Lent her my qipao which fits her so damn perfectly well.


Soon enough, after all that sand papering, painting, farming, concrete slabbing, and teaching children, it was time to leave Naphong Village.


One last play with skinny dog.


This picture captured all of us in post-tears.
Even Eugene hahaha.

We sat in a circle with the homestay auntie. She spoke to us in Lao, and we acknowledged every word she said despite not knowing exactly what she was saying. But somehow, despite being lost in translation, for some reason, we kinda knew what she was trying to tell us. The moment we tied the friendship bracelet that I had made for her, tears started to fall from her eyes. I believe that triggered a gush of tears from all of us. She was genuinely sad to see us go/

Initially, we all thought she didn't like us. Especially Day 1. She was pretty nonchalent to us and gave us a slight cold shoulder. I remember her hitting my hand away when I tried helping her with the water boiler. We couldn't understand each other. Couldn't communicate. She must've felt frustrated. And so did we. But as the days went by, she slowly warmed to us as we interacted with her daily in small ways. I enjoyed talking to her. Well sorta, through charades haha. And she was so kind to us. Making sure we were comfortable. And that we had water to drink and shower in. We never had meals in the house with her coz the entire team congregated at the Chief Villager's house and she was there to help with the cooking. All these subtle gestures easily touch my heart.

For her, when Peter finally came over to our house to do the translation, we were told that, she was very happy to see that the house was full of buzz and noise again, just like the old times when her 5 kids were with her. She didn't feel lonely and must've felt good to be reminded of her children when they were still living under one roof. We were like her kids. And she, our mother. She told us to come visit her again in Laos. And she'd warmly welcome us back to stay with her again...

I'll always remember that one time when I sat with her on a small platform at the house, as we made small talk. She told me Singapore was beautiful and that Laos was not. I told her, "No, Laos ngam" and pointed at the mountain and all the trees and shook both my hands to tell her that Singapore didn't have all of that. She smiled like she wasn't quite sure. I had so many things I wanted to ask and talk to her about but the language barrier was a really big issue. But somehow we managed.

It was sad when all 7 of us had to part ways with her. For me, knowing that someone who interacted with you and touched you for a short moment in time was gonna carry on leading normal separate lives from myself is saddening. It's almost as if we never came into her life. And her into ours. But I know and will always remember that there was a moment in time, albeit a short one that we held something there and then.

It is beautiful yet saddening to know that this is how life works. People come and go. They make a mark and leave you. And the only thing that binds and connects everything together is an intangible memory.





Thank you Laos for restoring my faith in humanity. It sounds extremely grave but honestly, after enduring an arduous and heart breaking semester at school, I felt like I couldn't trust another human being wholeheartedly ever again. This trip has helped me in tremendous ways. The kindness of strangers and their love for people who are not their own.


One and many of life's lessons, learnt through this OCIP Trip to Laos.