Project New Dawn

goodbye is the saddest word to say

2008-08-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hi people!

Thanks for lunch and card yesterday. :) I will miss everyone especially the times we had in the village :(

Do visit me in December during your semester breaks.

My contacts as follows :)

Lao: +856207779118

Sing: +6594567112

2008-06-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

im back from an incredible experience of a lifetime.

from spore to KL. to Vientiane. to Luang Prabang. then to Muang Kham village. from Muang Kham village back to LP. then back to Vientiane.

15 fulfilling days.

from Vientiane to Vang Vieng. then back to Vientiane again, followed by KL and finally spore.

adding 4 more memorable days.

in total, 19 beautiful priceless days.

it's not easy trying to putting those memories into words. much less try and let others have a taste of the ups and downs, bitter sweet, happy sad experiences, with lifeless words. photos may speak a thousand words. but i feel it's the subtle things we experience in life that get uncaptured, yet we still can remember for a long time to come. it's the raw feelings emotions that it's never easy or impossible to encapsulate in words with the limited vocab skills i have.

i love the feeling of working together as a team. the feeling of caring and looking after one another. the feeling of encouraging one another on. the feeling of sharing almost anything even our deepest secrets. the feeling of trusting relying on one another even in times of adversities. the feeling of laughing crying teasing singing stargazing sleeping whining dancing together. the feeling of falling sick and ls-ing together.

it's not about just one person. it's all about us, 23 of us, plus xai. it's about us, with the villagers of muang kham. it's about how our lives have interwined and forged together for those nineteen days, despite any differences. it's about the warmth the love the care the concern that transcends those language barriers. it's about the mountains trees flowers cloudless blue skies starry nights. it's about it's about the footprints we left behind - be it on the soft ground or in their hearts, the laughter in the wind, the tears in the sand.

yea im suffering from laos withdrawal symptoms. are you too?

- pam

Reminiscence

2008-06-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

Reminiscence

You guys are really good at writing!
Well, I prefer to draw. to paint. to decorate the photos. to recall the good memories.

Reminisce through thoughts. pictures. feelings. videos. singings.

~ yetfeng

2008-06-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

I Want the Pink One

we were browsing through some stuff in the shopping mall today

when a kiddo had a little outburst

I WANT THE PINK ONE!!

whatever she wanted to buy

i don't know,

but i thought if i were her mum

i would bring her outside and say

scream again and you're going home.

and then i thought about ban muang kham and its children,

when we armed ourselves with a few hundred pieces of balloons -

yellow, pink, red, blue, white, green, orange...

i had expected the kids to come up to us asking for a "colour change",

or perhaps when we were distributing the balloons,

gesture something like

no, i want that colour (points to green)

but they didn't,

they didn't because they were happy with everything they had,

happy with everything we had given them.

they watched us pump the balloons with that controlled excitement,

they waited and didn't complain if another child were given a balloon first.

they waited for us,

and that made me want to work

ten times faster.

- fengyi

Khob Jai Der!

2008-06-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

22 May, Thursday English Night Class

We are from Tai Dumm, as you may know.

We'll decribe the events, in the lines to go.....

Yesterday night was not just a show,

we are grateful for the support that you have shown.

Fully packed was the dining hall,

you overwhelmed us with all your warmth.

You greeted SABAIDEE! We said HELLO!

Our horrible pronounciation tickled your toes,

the same thing happened when you spoke....

A joker named himself beer Lao, another took a photo with a Sao Lao!

while "ah lic" acted like a clown...

Laughter throughout the night has grown,

into memories that we'll never forgo.

With this Tai Dumm bears the hope,

that our actions will influence your children in the years to go....

Jewel of the Mekong

2008-06-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

A realm of wonder,

of genuine warmth and sincerity.

of toothless grins and wide eyed innocence to melt and capture the coldest of hearts.

of creativity and adaptability

of a people who may be of humble backgrounds, but carry themselves with the utmost dignity and have every reason to stand tall.

of rolling hills of green, of towns and shanties, of lonely huts with stories untold

of running streams, of crashing waters pooling into steps of flowing jade

of giant stone sentinels silently watching over the land

of hammers and sickles fluttering proudly in the wind.

A most wonderful journey, (that cannot be possibly encompassed in words)

of bottomless, endless pots of rice

of giant unseen geckos

of garang scars, garang shoes, garang slippers, garang gloves; welcome to the garang club

of drooping candles and flaming joss sticks; of prayer and hope and laughter

of friendships forged under the burning sun; affirmated in intertwining bands of yellow blue green pink and black

of cloudless nights and starry skies

of wizened faces chanting blessings; binding the soul from wanderlust

Thank you people of Baan Muang Kham.

Thank you, the special 22. The deep. The leader. The angelic. The fighting. The strong. The (high) screamer. The observant. The jolly. The (high) princess. The brick. The cool. The affable. The spunky. The reflective. The (pirated) facilitator. The holy. The pro. The half-Laotian. The Laotian. The whiny. The random. The spontaneous.

Places will change. Memories will fade.
To quote Morpheus, Omina Mutantur

and for me
the best way to remember this whole experience
to is live differently
with their heart in our actions
with their spirit in our minds

Everthing changes, but nothing is truly lost

-wenhao

Sabaidee

2008-06-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

Another day, another smile.

Every morning, every snore.

Never tired, never lonely.

Always shining, always playing.

Sabaidee Singapore.

Welcome back home.

-zhihan

2008-05-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

16 may, fly away,
to muang kham village
doing things which i've never done before.

"doing business without toilet paper",
seeing new things, hearing new sounds.

eating new food and maybe diarrhoeing/falling sick.
blogless but still loving and having fun.

maybe worrying, fearing,
smiling, sharing,
missing, writing,
thinking, feeling.

maybe living, experiencing,
remembering, forgetting,
having no one and nothing to stick to but
all of you,

would i get sick of seeing all of you
or would you get sick of
all of me?

=)

i'm really glad to be in this team with everyone and i hope we'll have a wonderful experience in laos!

引颈期盼

(looking forward excitedly with a long neck),

fengyi

2008-04-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hey all!!!

This peom is written by a team member from my previous Laos YEP team. I am profoundly moved and I was awash with waves of nostalgia and wonderful memories. I found that this peom is a real work of art and really capture those food of thought that you all can ponder upon right now. How do you feel about your personal expectation and perception of Laos, a developing country before embarking on the adventure. Take a moment to think hard about it and I hope that everyone can gain some insights from this poem as we inch towards 16th May where our voyage towards more self growth and discovery will begin!

Of Knowledge

I know your country is poor.
I do not know the shade of your skin colour.
I have packed sanitary wipes.
I guess poor means dirty.
I slept on the plane,
I must recharge to bring cheer to you.
I guess poor means sad.

This is how you look like,
there are so many of you.
In long skirts, long pants and long sleeves,
Are you hot?
t is blazing in your country.
Yet, you bring out your rope of rubber bands,
jump and laugh,
you have examinations tomorrow.

We taught you past, present and future tense.
You giggled and looked curiously at us,
strange formations at our lips,
unfamiliar sounds and
alien faces.

You taught me about the present when I looked less obscure.
I have a digital camera,
we took a photograph together.
The present is now,
The future is later.
In the same clothes you wear everyday,
you carry a beautiful smile.
I have a big wardrobe at home,
I hate that my shoes are not colour coordinated.
I smile when needed, what is it like to smile
unconsciously,
the way you do.

We held hands and
laughed a lot
when words become sounds that mean nothing.
We like weaving thread around pencils,
running in pools that form after the rain,
I am surprised I am having fun
without my laptop and wireless network.

I look at the candid shot of us in laughter.
My friends and I from our developed country
are to help you and your friends in your less developed country.
I guess you are poor,
I am right.
But all my other guesses were wild and wrong.
In your little hut with no furniture,
you have everything we long for
and need.

Running in circles,
chasing the start point,
not knowing where it is,
or how to get there.
You knew all that already
because the present triumphs the future.
You understood that.

-Rubber Dust Singapore

With love,
Eric

Paper Chase...

2008-04-05T03:33:00.000-07:00

Alright since i (sirliang) got home the earliest, for obvious reasons, nicely showered and all, i shall post some photos from today's newspaper chase!!!!

The stash...

And more stash...

Wen Hao bullying Yet Feng

Going from house to house

Jackie with a fan

One of the uncles who helped us

Eating at the void deck when my home's just 5 minutes walk away

"these would make great Chinese new year clothes"said Hui min as she toyed with the idea of "kopping" some clothes for her cupboard....

Wenhao, insisted on walking on uneven terrain to test out the 4 wheel drive capabilities of his trolley.

the loot....

Kudos to everyone "for your limitless fund raising efforts =)"
- (zhihan, 05/04/08, 06:44pm)

More photos please!

- P&P Team

2008-04-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

The Thai Music and Dance performance: "From Classical to Folk Music of the 4 Regions in Thailand" was held today at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Orchestra Hall at 5pm. As our thai dancer and musician Sir Liang was part of the act, 6 of us (Aravin, Mehraj, Gibson, Fengyi, Victor and Wenhao) overcame numerous trials and tribulations and made it to the event on time.

Needless to say, our star performer put up a fantastic show with his fellow SE 3221 classmates. Beautiful hand and leg coordination plus a bamboo pole dance! It was Saturday Night Fever on a Friday afternoon/evening. I am sure many of us present wished they could be up there performing. (vicsky did!)

Pics stolen from the man himself.

Angklungs!! woot

Our superstar (far right) with his line of avid fans

We were also treated to various performances by Chulalongkorn University. With a wide variety of instruments (from the salo to pii to ponglong to angklung and more) and dances, it was certainly a visual and audio feast. I am sure everyone who went will agree that words simply wont do the event justice, for you had to be there to experience it yourself.

-Wenhao

2008-03-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

on 29 march saturday,

the yao and taiddum tribes went for a short local cip at vsa singapore.

as part of a gift exchange between the students in singapore and laos,

we guided the clients of vsa through the creation of a photoframe.

the Very Special Arts Singapore is a charity launched in september 1993

with the aim of integrating people with disabilities into mainstream society through the arts.

http://www.vsa.org.sg/

some simple steps,

like first painting on the background,

stamping patterns onto the frame,

and then attaching the photograph

(of orchids, of merlions, and the singapore river)

the final product,

a pretty sight to behold indeed.

we will be conducting a similar arts and craft session with the students in laos,

to have the other side of the photoframe completed laotian style

and then brought back to singapore =)

- fengyi

Muang Kham Village

2008-03-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Our world is defined as one that we can experience.

Sometimes we forget that besides our own existence, there lie billions of lives on Earth. It is nice to remember that besides our own house and nation, there are many people so much different from us, living a way of life we may never get to experience.

Sometimes, it is nice to try and understand these differences. Sometimes, understanding is just not enough. We must emerge from our own world; put a hand across, reach out and touch their lives.

This year, we will try our best to reach out to a small community in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, a village named Muang Kham off the Mekong river.

Ban Muang Kham is about 30minutes boat ride from Luang Prabang town. It has a primary school (above) for children, with a kindergarden section. The school has 4 classrooms and 4 teachers including the principal. It has a current enrolment of 88 students. The school library is poorly furnished with only a stackful of Lao language books. The children are taught Lao language and mathematics. No english is being taught at the school.

The field outside the school is bare and gets very waterlogged and muddy during the rainy season (July-Oct). There is also a steep climb up to the school which might be hazardous to the school children. A proper flight of stairs and a concrete court will ensure the children's safety and increase the school's ground usability.

The villagers of Ban Muang Kham harvests riverweed (something like seaweed) from the Mekong and dries them with seasoning. It makes a tasty snack!

- Zhihan

pictures from the Recce Jan 08

2008-03-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

We would like to thank Mr/Ms Anonymous for being concerned with our project. We definitely appreciate your interest. ^_^ For people/fellow expeditionists who do not know what I am talking about, here's the scoop. Mr/Ms Anonymous has raised a couple of very important questions in our chatbox which we might have overlooked in the frenzy of preparation for the expedition. Hence, let's devote a post to reflect on this project, and step back to take a look at the bigger picture.

22 Mar 08, 22:34
Anonymous: What is the breakdown on how the raised funds will be used?

zhihan: 35% of all funds raised will go to participant cost. The rest will be for our beneficiaries at Muang Kham Village =)

24 Mar 08, 21:06
Anonymous: And the long term goals in helping Laos?

zhihan: There is really no long term goal. However, if we are able to make the children have some interest in English, then that may go a long way. We can only talk about long term goal if there is a sustained effort in bringing teams over to the village every year. However, we cannot say for sure that people will rise up to the challenge to take up the role as leaders to lead another team. I can only hope for the best. This goes back to the issue of: why are we going there in the first place if there is really no long term benefits (concrete). I believe this goes back to the individuals of what they set out to achieve as active participants of a Youth Expedition Project. I cannot answer for the participants. Yet on the other hand, I hope participants have a open heart and mind in this project, because really, there is no limit on what you can learn on such a project.

-PnP Team-

Orange T-shirt -- by popular demand~!!

2008-03-11T06:37:00.001-07:00

Wassup ppl~!! By popular demand, Lai Kuan has modified her design to fit the highly-popular orange T-shirt~!!

This is roughly how it will look like... Zhihan ordered this to be put up for your viewing pleasure... The "around-the-globe" design will be out shortly... Good things are definitely worth the wait ya?
-PnP Team-

2008-03-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

MINDs MYG FAMILY DAY - 23rd Feb

it was my first time volunteering for MINDS and i must say it was an insightful and humbling experience. contrary from what i have heard from my friends & siblings, the experience was not as frightening or shocking as expected. probably due to the fact that the IDs from our group were high-functioning (actually im not too receptive of this word cos it makes the IDs sound unhuman, like some kind of machines/robots?) and less dependent on us. in fact, some of them looked so normal to me that it was difficult to differentiate the volunteers from the IDs. however, this is not the case for the other MINDS groups. it is heartwrenching to see such deformities on another human being.

from this experience, i must say i've gained quite a bit out of it. even though the weather was atrocious (super hot!) and with the steep slopes, typical singaporeans would have just walked straight out of there. but not with these IDs. even though most of them had troubles walking, they perservered and often, not complaining at all.

also, it marvels me that they still enjoyed themselves, from the cheerful grins from their faces. a simple outing to an almost nothing to see place, can make them so content. even im ashamed.
swee ling (if i rmb correctly) held onto my hand and i was her big sister (jie jie) for that 4 hrs. it's a feeling i cant describe holding her hand. cos it brings me back memories from other volunteering experiences with children, holding those little hands. but swee ling is 38 years old. i just cant help feeling, sad? but i dont think i even have the right to pity her. cos i believe that in her world, she is happy enough and living well, most probably even better than me.
it's time to reflect on how i should lead the rest of my life.

thank you, swee ling and rest! (: (of cos to jackie too!)

- pam (sorry for the outdated post, just to share some of my reflections.)

Banner

2008-03-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

Behold! finalised version of the banner

Sent in for quotations, hopefully we will be able to get everything (including T shirts out by the end of 3rd week of March)

- P & P team!

Pre-retreat bonding session at Kbox

2008-02-28T08:03:00.000-08:00

It started with this ad:

Hey people,
Are you tired of all the lame games that zhihan make us play every week? Come join us for some real bonding fun @ ktv before the madness of uni-life catches up with us~!!

We managed to get 1/4 of our team for the kbox session! (if you prefer the figure, 5 people rather.. haha..) Thank you for coming and to those who have given us moral support.

Venue: Kbox Suntec City
Date: 28/2/08
Time: 2.30pm-7.15pm

Let's look at some pictures taken during KTV:

Victor and Sir Liang singing "笨小孩".

Sir Liang, where's 笨小孩 Victor? (vic, go blame sir liang. he made me change the name.. hehe..)

Ho Ling "友谊客串" singing Hokkian "如果我有一百万".

Ho Ling and our dancing diva Huimin.

Yummy food!

Group picture: 2 hulks and 2 babes

Photos of me are not well taken. So I rather not post them online.. PnP peeps, I've more undisclosed photos and videos of you. Better be nice to me.. hehe..

For detailed description of this KTV session, visit Vicky's blog at http://nobodylikesvicsky.blogspot.com/. And for the result of taking cab at Suntec after KTV session, visit Sir Liang's site at http://readthisonlywhenfree.blogspot.com/. Btw Emogirl, I didn't know you've got a blog?!

posted by gibby

Har Paw Villa with MINDS

2008-02-28T08:01:00.000-08:00

Met up with Jackie and others at Haw Par Villa for MINDS (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore) family day. They had organised treasure hunt for the participants in the compound.

I was allocated a buddy, Chong Wee. He's a happy-go-lucky guy who has many friends in the school. When we went around Haw Par Villa, many volunteers would stop by to chat with him.

From this event, I know more about how a voluntary organisation, MINDS, reaches out to the underprivilage. Not only do they provide training for the intellectually disabled, they also do regular house visits to understand their backgrounds and possible problems. Some of the volunteers have served the organisation for 12 years. Their dedication in reaching out to underprivilages deserves our respect.

The event ended at 5.30pm. When the participants boarded the bus, I could see the smiles on their faces. This is the reward of volunteerism.

gibby

NB: Jackie, you might wanna add in some pictures. Pam and Mehraj, anything you wanna add?

Banner version 1.01 is out~!!!

2008-02-25T10:49:00.000-08:00

Harlow people!!! We proudly present to you the first of the first versions of our project banner!! *roaring applause from the crowd*

(click the picture to see it in clearer details)

Pls leave us your valuable comments!! You can either leave ur comments in the chatbox (on the left) or drop Victor an email. Thanks!! We luv u all!!

-P&P team-

T shirt design polls!

2008-02-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hi people!

Time to do polls again. Designs courtesy of Lai Kuan (applause...) are as below...

Please select your favurite:

No.1 Logo for the front of the T shirt

No.2 Design at the back of the T shirt

No.3 colour for the T shirt

Tentative matrial of the T shirt would be dri fit. Will bring a sample of it on the next meeting.

-PnP team!

Reminder to Sign Off

2008-02-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

PnP team would like to remind everyone to sign off after every post to allow us to identify the source of the post as we are not the only ones posting as well.

Thank You Zhi Han. Oops. haha

-PnP Team!

Today at Ubin

2008-02-25T06:31:00.000-08:00

Today at Ubin, Eric and Zhihan were discussing about the retreat when suddenly, Eric banged on the table and shouted,

Are you people looking forward to the retreat?

We hope so!!

-ZHIHAN

PS: P&P team is something like a Union now. Pls be careful.

Most updated version of cover!!

2008-02-25T02:51:00.001-08:00

Huimin!! Is this ok with u?

Huimin's :) reply:
Yesterday i played around with the features of photoshop and came up with a few modified version from victor's design.

Victor, are these ok? hehs

Feel free to comment everyone. :)

-Huimin (P&P Team)

Cover Page for the polls!

2008-02-24T08:39:00.001-08:00

Hi people, before i go on, on behalf of the PnP team, first of all let me welcome Eric back to Singapore (YEAH...)

Below are the designs from Victor for the cover page of our handbook, please select the one which you feel is the best design. We will add in the blue coloured heart which we had initially designed for the T shirt on the bottom right hand corner.

aaaaaaaCover1 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaCover 2

aaaaaaaCover 3aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Cover 4

-P&P team!

ICE CREAM FOR A GOOD CAUSE EVERY STICK COUNTS!

2008-02-13T08:53:00.001-08:00

HELLO PEOPLE! Here's the photos from our VIRGIN fund raising activity! Maybe the Fund Raising team would like to share with us the results of our hard work?

HUG FROM A LAOTIAN STALL HOLDER ANYONE?

Ice cream was too nuah, but we still get the money anyways

HURRYYYYY your last 5 minutes to help the Kids in Laos. EVERY sTICK COUNTS!

Prices went down in the final hour like new year goodies in Chinatown

HORＨＯＲ　偷吃

-P&P Team!

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-07T04:42:00.000-08:00

新年快乐！

Happy Chinese New Year, this blog was born today!

Please look forward to seeing

An additional page of introduction to Laos or the school in particular, as well as some basic facts about the trip.
A tagboard
A better template

After it's done, I will invite all the other Project New Dawn members to this blog so everyone can start posting =)

What i will need:

Photos of Laos/the school (Sir Liang, do you have any?)
And i was thinking, perhaps it would be helpful for our P&P team to decide on a few theme colours for the project. For example, orange and green? or black and red? Or any other pair or group of colours which will look nice together.

I think it will be visually more pleasant and memorable if we could have some theme colours for the project. This way, we can standardize the T-shirt, blog template, handbook, banner, and posters, so that everything will fit together and look like they belong to the place =) and over time, we will be able to identify with these theme colours and associate them with our project.

Please let me know what you think of this idea, and if you think it'll work, please also suggest some colours (it would be better to give the exact shade e.g. FFD700 for Gold. you can visit this site for reference! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors)

Meanwhile,

wish all an enjoyable chinese new year! =)

Cheers,
Feng Yi