from the mountains to the goats!
from the everest to the roads!
i love nepal. i was so glad to be posted into this for service learning (SL) and now that i'm back, it's time to share.
dayone
met at changi airport T1. the china SL were also gonna take the same plane as us nepal (SL) to bangkok and after that it was to our seperate ways. we're gonna sit THAI AIRWAYS and only had about 5 mins left to rush to our gate to catch our flight cause mr lim said a prayer. though it was short but it was due to all the checking that ook up such a long time. annette got her nail clipper confiscated when entering the gate. whee. we're all so excited! my seat was near the window seat and the person sitting beside me was chuan hao. he got the window seat! behind me was fengyuan and huda. across the aisle was yiling. and so, chuan hao became my new friend. the first on this SL trip. he was a very friendly person. we talked about some people and he became frustrated with this particular person. we talked somemore and there was this part about BGR. he asked me whether i had a boyfriend and i told him_________. he asked why? i said cause i don't really go for fairfield guys. then he was like, wa your standard high sia. haha. i think i'm just scared as to having a boyfriend who's in the same school. it's just my fear. there definitely be infatuations but it wouldn't last long. it doesn't really bother me actually.
anyway, the flight was 2 hrs. the last 30mins, he slept and he took my pillow. how then could i sleep. on this trip, it was like everybody whipping out their ipods! there were a few creative Zens here and there but mostly IPODS. ipod shuffle, nano, mini,... mine's green nano(2nd), chuanhao's black nano(1st), khaidan's ipod video, fengyuan's ipod shuffle, wenhui's blue nano(2nd)...
at the bangkok airport, it was time to bade goodbye to our friends going to china. on to our next flight on board THAI AIRWAYS. i was supposed to sit beside christabelyeo and jingjie but i moved to besde wenhui and khaidan to play card games. throughout the flight, they taught me games that i completely sucked at, example RATRACE. so confusing, i could only depend on my power cards. anyway, it was a 3hrs flight from bangkok to kathmandu. cards all the way!
at kathmandu airport, it was HOT. no fans no aircon but anyway, i have my friends. clearing the customs was an extremely long process. the waiting time was LLLOOONNG. when it was finally done, mr ow told us that there will be people outside doing all means to help you with your luggage and of course, it'll require MONEY! we all became scared. and as we pushed the trolleys out, the scene was a little frightening. with all those FACES staring at you. they all looked the same. was walking with joavan, yiling and joy and suddenly this guy came along saying that he'll help us push the trolley and joavan began to panic. yiling kinda bumped the guy aside and grabbed the handles together with joavan. when boarding the bus, we were given welcoming garlands. they smelled nice, unfortunately some people began to sneeze. haha. i don't have that problem.
the bus was HOT and warm. when i stepped outside to go into the hotel, the atmosphere felt great. though the journey had been filled with depressing sights, i was happy and contented to stay in a 2 1/2 stars hotel. we had to proceed to the 5th floor where they had some room to assemble. their 4th floor seemed like the 5th floor and 5th floor seemed like the 6th floor cause the lobby was named floor 0. anyway, my ow briefed us on what's gonna happen for the rest of the day. dinner was next. mr ow introduced mr deepak and his men. the rest of his other workers would be meeting us at the school in the village on the mountain.
the hotel room was 409. when i entered it, it was like a haunted house! the lightbulbs had blown. the toiletbowl flushed brown water, the shower gave metallic water and the base was all dirty, the aircon blowed HOT AIR. when re-entering the room, it was like a sauna. even the corridors ouside were cooler. i was like complaining and complaining. even a 2 1/2 star hotel was better than this. others had rooms better.
my 409 roomates were jeraldine and lilin. wow. two smart people bunking the same room as me.
i slept that night feeling hot but dinner was great. in the night of the tent, i had a wet wipe bath, then mosquito repellant, then a powder bath. ahha. yiling had wetwipe then a powder bath. we bathed our hair with powder too. MADNESS!
daytwo
ready to move to the village for 4 days 3 nights. breakfast was GOOD. i was so ready to check out of room 409. to the village was about 3 hrs ride. slept non-stop. i'm like that, i just feel so comfortable on buses, everytime i sit, i'll definitely fall asleep, and that's why i don't sit, i stand. i kinda woke up when nearing the school. there were some obstacles that the bus could not go through and the workers came out to help us. mr ow kept saying where's your service? you're here to serve others, not others serving you. anyway, we alighted the bus and was greeted warmly by the students. they stood on both sides in one straight line holding floweres for us. i accepted 3 from 3 little kids each. the smiles they shone made my heart feel warm inside. we were given a welcome speech under the HOT HOT sun and they postponed the cultural exchange.
lunch was next and it was GOOD. i love the way the nepalese people cook vegetables. we then had a nepalese lesson. it was interesting. it was real funny trying to listen to them speak english. the understanding was tough.
next. the girls and boys were divided. the boys went to start on the construction but first, they had to move all the materials up the the roof while the girls did the pitching of tents. there were a total of 30 plus tents. if i'm not wrong, yiling and i pitched up 6/7 at the end of the day while annette and her group pitched 9/10 tents. we stopped work around 5 plus and it was dinner. the sun sets around 6pm and so dinner was in the DARK. with candles on each table, we still couldn't see what were we eating. everyday, there were volunteer servers. while eating, i saw something on my spoon, there were some rice mixed with it. IT WAS A SPIDER! that damn spider made me and everyone around me lose our appetite. i screamed! it was a daddy long legs. went to back to the tent to sleep on a quite empty stomach. but before lights out, it was debrief with our respective teachers. 4C & 4D had miss eunice lee.
our water supply was from a well down the mountain and it was stored in many 20 litres bottles. to get water, you had to pour from the bottle into the kettle into your own bottle. heavy sia.
daythree
morning PT, a steep down slope walk and and uphill brisk walk that everybody just ended up running. breakfast and then work! painting team first sanded the doors twice over and the metal gate too. then painted them. for the whole day we just did that. we did not have to paint the walls again as the worker in-charge has already painted for us. i felt bad. man, we should be doing more. the building team had MUCH MORE progress this time. we were earlier told that we're gonna have a surprise and our surprise was a whole hotel booked at the top of the mountain just for us to BATHE! yahoo! most of us had a longer time to shower. while waiting for our turn, we took pictures! around sunset, it was time to go back to the school for dinner. yes, in the bus, we saw the sunset. everyone clamered to one side of the bus to take photos like we've never seen the sun before.
dinner was GREAT! i ate my dinner so fast and people kept asking me why? i just said, i'm not gonna have another insect sharing my dinner. and they also sped up eating. haha. every dinner there would be some kind of chicken soup with parsley and i would FORCE myself to drink down the parsley. i always thought of the nepalese children i had seen earlier that day, all quite so skinny. we had keropok with soup for appetiser i think. debrief then devotion team meeting and sleep. oh. earlier in the day, i chased after vincent caused he pinched me and i fell. -_-" hannkenn thought i was crazy cause i kept laughing even when my friends picked me up. the fall caused me a bruise on my left knee and a graze on my left wrist.
dayfour
morning. breakfast. food was delicious as well. this was the last day of work and we HAD to finish it. NO PT. immediately started work. we did the windows today. sanded it twice over and painted it. this was done for the whole day. lunch came and then nepalese lesson. man. so many of us were like falling asleep. so rude. i wasn't. i was the always attentive little girl. resume work then dinner. debrief, devotions meeting then sleep. powder bath with yiling again! haha. powdered our hair too. the whole time at the mountains, ppl were wondering how my hair and yiling's could still look shiny. haha. all thanks to powder bath!
in the night, you have to have a torch to guide you as you walk, if not, it's the shit you'll be stepping in. earlier in the day, some goats were grazing the grass at the school. it was really funny looking at the goats having sex. HAHA. push pop! they shitted around too. the cleaning team felt that cleaning wasn't enough so they decided to build a rubbish dump for the school. simply put, it's just a very deep hole. the students could throw their rubbish in and when it's quite full, they could burn it.
there was also a campfire. it was HOT HOT HOT! we taught the workers i've got peace like a river and the actions. they performed a dance with suba leading and 4g and 4h following behind. then it was 4A,B,C,D turn's to perform. mr ow was really funny. he could be a bouncer next time. he kept pushing us away from the fire while we were dancing and saying MOVE MOVE MOVE. haha. more celebrations continued and sleepy time. but a group of us stayed round to participate in the locals celebrations. this time, the women were singing. we ate potatoes and danced when we were done. haha. the potatoes were GREAT!
wth. the workers seemed to have THICK SKIN. they could just reach into the fire and take a potato and pass it to us. and we would be bouncing the potato in our hands. it was HOT!
dayfive
painting team had completed our job. building left a little more layers and the roof which could only be put on the next day, but sadly, we couldn't leave this place in a happy and carefree spirit cause the project wasn't really FULLY 100% completed. we helped unpitched the tents. around 10pm, was the volleyball match. 3 years ago, fairfield had come here too and lost. this time,
we lost again! hooray! at least the nepalese school won fair and square. even if we won, we had to donate the prize money graciously to the school. the opposition vollyeballers were tall and powerful. it seemed that most of the nepalese ppl were short and ONLY TALL ones could play volleyball. so sad. some cultural exchange was carried on after the match. lots of dancing! of the many days i spent in the school, village, i made 4 good friends. 3 guys one girl.
1st one was Purna. he was 23 years old and a teacher at the school
2nd one was Aziz. he was around 4 years old and a smart student. SO CUTE!
3rd one was Shamilah. the little girl in the same class as Aziz. she always wore a purple jacket everyday.
4th one was Rachiz. he was around 11 years old. he was quiet the whole time we were watching the volleyball match.
then it was time to ago, everybody was so sad. the workers had a fun time lifting our bags up to the roof of my bus. there were three buses. and our bus was the first to leave. however, and hour later, the bus broke down due to a flat tire. lunch was at a restaurant in the city. we were teh first bus to leave and the last bus to reach there but just in time for lunch. boy was it good!
then, back to the hotel and yes, my roommates and i had a change of room! we were now in room 302. all three of us, were overjoyed! we had a functioning aircon! whee! by dinner, lilin was falling sick with a fever of 38.5degree celsius. so jeraldine stayed with her.
SHOPPING IS GOOD. in two hours, i bought lots of stuff about S$50 worth of stuff. S$1 is about 40.192rupees. important stuff i bought, pashmina shawl for my mother, shirt for my daddy, pink pouch for my sister and a letter N friendship bracelet for my brother. more friendship bracelets for my classmates and chruchmates. i still had so much nepalese money! it can't be changed in Singpore, i had to use it all up. when we returned to the hotel, the teachers told us that for the next day, if we finished our breakfast quickly, we could go out shopping! AGAIN!
when i reached back to my room 302, lilin and jeraldine were both sleeping. i packed my stuff ready for the next day. we're leaving te next day. i told them what happened at debrief. knock knock knock. i opened the door and there stood lisheng, wenhui and khaidan. then wanted to visit us and of course lilin, the one sick. miss shamsiah then came in and so did miss pamela tan. then chased the guys out. haha. miss shamsiah took lilin's temperature and YES! she could go shopping tomorrow! TIME TO SLEEP.
daysix
LAST DAY. happy day. breakfast was OMG, so GOOD. we rushed off for shopping with our guide chilling again. we were like mad ppl. rushing to spend all our money, cause it can't be exchanged in Singapore. bought MORE stuff. in the end i still had 700 rupees left, maple left 1k. oh. wenhui spent 7k rupees. that's crazy la.
at the kathmandu airport, we bade farewells to our guides and thru the gates we went in. nepal's security wasn't that good. their scanner were actually people touching you. man. i had to be touched twice! bad experience man. i shall not elaborate on this part.
in the plane, i was beside chuan hao again and beside him was jiawei. on my right was rachel gong and beside her was rachelgong and joelgoh and rahul. i taught them this game of SLAPJACK and man! jiawei's fingernails wer SHARP. he pierced my palm's skin twice. the second time was huge and it bled alot. jiawei also taught the both of us magic tricks. tricks that he learnt from joash. haha. the funny part of this trip was that the unglam position of rachelgong sleeping. WILL NOT ELABORATE ON THIS PART. i'm a nice friend. another funny part was this guy, whom we taught was drunk, came up to talk to joymolina. he wanted her to be his guide when he was in Singapore. the flight from nepal to bangkok was 3hrs.
on this flight, yiling was transferred to business class! in her salad, she found a live worm wriggling and she screamed. ppl round her screamed. soon there was alot of commotion and the steward apologised and compensated her by shifing her to the business class!!
we had only 15 mins to proceed to our next flight and the thailand airport is SO HUGE! by the time all fairsians alighted the plane, there were only 5 minutes left to dash to the plane. i seriously think that the distance we ran was about 1km. everyone RAN! by the time we reached the other gate, it was onto it's final call. we were all perspiring from the run. haha.
in the plane, i sat beside wenhui and beside him was khaidan. mr ow sat infront of me. we played card games again. FUN! for the two whole hours, it was non-stop fun. taking pictures of people as they walked pass. haha. the only frustrating thing was that i asked for a pack of cards for MANY TIMES. the stewardess all said okay. till i asked a steward, he said okay but i waited and waited till i gave up. just as i was alighting the plane, the steward came up to me saying that he was very busy and that there were no more cards on board the plane. he searched high and low for a pack of cards just for me. i was like so shocked and said thank you and sincerely as possible. touchdown at singapore, we went into those duty free shops and sprayed ourselves silly with perfume. haha.
soon, it was time to part. hugs went round and goodbye! daddy was the only one there to fetch me home. we bought burger king back. i missed the onion rings and coke. i slept at 2.30am the next day and woke up at 2.30pm. :)
photos:
high above where?
shopping khakis!
an example of airplane food. yummy!
the sights of nepal
my haunted room toilet.
the 4d girls that went to nepal. the whole did not agree to bring our class shirt but somehow we all brought and then agreed to wear it.
roommates
what you see is what you get
a line of girls
a flower in my hair
nepali lesson
the tents
lisheng and christopher teaching
build it higher and faster!
painting is back-breaking
morning exercise. their school starts at 10am and ends at 4pm!
me and wenxi
our shadows being casted
one of the many pictures of khaidan and yiling
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