A message to Obama

"Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about “labor standards,” I’d like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html

After almost exactly 1 year...

Hi everyone,

I think it's time for me to post a bit of my reflections about this trip, in this pouring rain, on a wet Wednesday afternoon.
Like what puayki have said, we will miss all these fond memories of what we have been though over the short period of 3 weeks in Koh Krobey, Cambodia. We will definitely want to go back in time to the worry-free, fun-filling and enjoyable days with the kids in the village. However, in the reality, we will need to move forward. Things change and time flies… Some of us are now working, some of us still schooling and some of us, like me, started to look for work.

Nevertheless, we still need to reflect on ourselves, do we want MPX efforts to be just a one-time off thing? Even before the entire trip to Cambodia, I believe everyone here have slightly different opinions and also, different expected achievements that he/she wants to accomplish. However, personally, I believe that even we might or might not be comfortable with one another, fate brought us together once to the little village call Koh Krobey. In this little village, we cook, we laugh, we play and we sleep. To me, it’s one of the best trip I have ever been, without any worries and most importantly, stay right in one of the poorest country in Asean country, among the most kindest and lovable people in my life.

Although, from what I understand, we will still need to be committed to Rotaract Club for another 6 months or 1 year after the trip is over. We can still make an effort to help the villagers by doing what we can for 1 year, 2 years or even until we are in our forties or fifties . I believe we should not take for granted what we have been though. Personally, I know I might not have contributed much to Rotaract Club, but deep in my heart, I will really want to help as much as I can. For me, I am grateful that, in my lifetime, I have been though at least one of these trips. It changes my thinking and I am also grateful to the leaders (yongtai and yongmin) of MPX 3 for a chance of going for this trip. I will not forget this and to everyone who is reading this, thank you for all your effort to make this trip a success.

I strongly urge everyone here to help to donate to this little girl in this little village called Koh Krobey. She needs a bit of help to get to study for university. Interested parties can email Yongtai regarding about it.

Now, even though I can’t go back for a return trip to the village, over here, I hope the leaders and members of MPX 4 can carry on the joyfulness and laughter to villagers once again. I hope that there is MPX 5, MPX 6, and more in the future to cultivate more young people to be aware of the real world situation out there and ultimately fate brings another group of strangers together, once again, to the village of Koh Krobey, Cambodia.

I Miss Cambodia

Well the name said all...

I guess you all must be really surprise to read this.....i sure hits me.

I miss the holidays that you guys will have....to travel and have that limitless freedom and fun....no strings attached.

I missed those little boys and girls always waiting for us to step out of the house.

I missed having 19 other people in the house....always haveing people to talk to, make fun of, irritate...drink Asahi....joke...cook...emo talk.....

I missed the beautiful river....and the beautiful sunrise/sunset.

And....its weird to say this...

but i miss all of you guys too!!!!!

Graduation!!!

Look how nice we look!

The 1/3 of MPX3 team is looking as fabulous as ever!

Someone's looking gloomy!

Edwin must have had bad dreams last night!

Nevertheless he's in popular demand for the day!

the Laos team came to support him and Weiling (from my faculty too!)

Anyway i stole the guys for a moment to take this picture!

(wondering) Is Edwin sad to take pictures with puayki??????

Haha Edwin's girl girl is there.....must be careful loh :P

Kannan is distracted throughout!!!!!

Whats he distracted by?

Somehow in a weird way,

Edwin's gown is looking pretty in Pink! while mine's looking mansculine.....haha maybe we should've exchange!

Anyway, pretty fab that two of us graduate at the same time....not so lonely haha!!!!!!

waiting big time for the rest of you guys' turn!!!!!!!!!!!

Backpacking in June Videos!

Backpacking in June (Some Pics!)

Woah! ok long time never come here le.....haha...Here to post some pics of our backpacking trip back to cambodia! Enjoy!

There are some vids on the school that we helped built too. so stay tuned!

Some food that we wipped up for our host, Nikun and his family!
Got sweet sour chicken wings, xiao bai cai (vege), onion egg and also peanut soup!

Yongming's picture painting in progress!
Only one word. WOAH!







At the Pagoda! Played some games with the usual neighbours! Lotsa giggling and fun. This was after their sunday school! Sister Thearith was also present!


CHANTRA!!!!!!!!!!! Cute hor...haha...but now quite naughty...can hit his bro chantrea liao
MORE of chantra! Think kandan and pam can faint le....their cute little boy boy....sry...the rest cannot post le...cos need to censor liao...














And finally the school that we helped built


It's open!!! and look! one small little guy using it! We didn't tell them we're coming so this was a pleasant suprise that the library is set up and the racks have books that the kids can browse. They're all khmer books by the way.

Anyway...think the teacher paisei...cos after a little while the room became....

















Monkey God also came to flip through the books! haha...







Ok the next room is transformed (need to use the "in" word, transformers season mah) into sorta like a kindagarden school...quite cosy in my opinion. And at least it's used!
After our stay at the village the kids rode with us the tuk tuk (nikun's uncle one) to Phnom Penh City!!! It rained half-way but who cares man! All together there was chanti, thearith, phala, nikun and pearen! so it was quite squeezy!
In phnom penh, near the tonle sap river! Lucky the rain stopped.

tadah! and that's the end! :)

MPX 3 Youtube Video

NUH Chinese New Year Party!!!!

Welcome to NKF Function room where we had our CNY Celebrations.


Owen had a hard time blowing balloons.....hahha..




Nancy and I had some fun on the funny see saw cushions before clearing and decorating the room! LOOK i wore the MPX3 T!

This is after we put up all the decos....lena(the social worker) and I went around the beds asking the children to come and join us but we realised that many of the kids are bed-bounded...so we decided to bring the games to the kids!

Things to learn from (Games for kids have to be in more than one sets so we can bring around the wards and have to be mobile!)

Yongming ErZi and Stephen came...we have plenty of hands to make balloons for everyone who are unable to move about! Luckily coz Tengfu and i damn fed up with many of the balloons bursting after we made them :)


This kid won a prize from the lucky draw! There ain't many pics that i took coz many of the kids looked pretty ill....nevertheless they are happy to receive things from us....even when they are sleeping, their family are happy to receive balloons or stuff from us!

Things that i learnt:
1) Do not make balloons in the ward....it burst and i scared a baby
2) Try give attentions to all the kids ....coz hoh some children do not look approachable because they can't speak or they look too sick....but its wonderful to see the smiles on their faces....something new i learn :)








This kid is just the most delighted to see us! He's so cute! and one of those who's so happy to take a picture!







A Rotarian (spelled correctly?) came down to support us and also to give out the present! I use no flash for this pic coz of the kid's eye....poor kid but in good spirits!




This is the group that came down today...Yongming dress very shuai considering i have seen the worst of him,...tsk tsk those 'yongming' who just woke up in the morning haven't brush teeth yet...got pic to prove hee hee...

The cardboard is a collection of all the messages we have for the kids! NICEY!



THATS ALL FOLKS!

Come support the Smiles Bazaar by Rotaract Club!

Hey peeps! Rotaract currently has a bazaar that is going to be held on the 22 & 23 Jan!

and hey, they're using our photo!!! haha...never copyright..anyway this is how it goes...in order to raise funds, rotaract be taking a photo of the person donating and piece the photo together with existing photos to form a banner! Cool eh! at least i think it is lah, haha...

So...get your friends down to support this event! The funds raised will benefit the various beneficiaries stated in the poster! So do come down! :)

Corny Pics

Just put it that i didn't have enough of Cambodia but haha.....i just wanted to post something!

Just some corny pics.....

















This one can take pictures under any condition. And for the last picture.....he took it himself...













This one neh.....don't like to take pictures much...

















love taking pics of them, as inseperable as tweedledum and tweedledee from alice in wonderland (with more hoon kees in stow)....









Its Christmas time!!!!







let me fix that hat on you....













one hip hopper leading 3 blind santas....

the hip hopper says "i luv ya!"

"let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Programme Side of the story

One word - Exciting!!!

Here's a brief outline of what you all can look forward to =) [keep a little of the suspense for the moment =P ]

First up - On the day of slum visit (morning), we'd be doing collage in the afternoon. It's not the normal paper cut and paste kinda thing. This time, it'd be messier and funkier ;)

Next- Pasar Malam
Food
Quite alot of food. And quite alot of mess too :P
Rugs would most prob be required.
Games
5 at the moment. Creative juices still churning. Contributions to the pool of ideas and improvision (limited budget lah) welcome! More than welcomed indeed! =)
So far, we've shooting, throwing, jumping, kicking; wet games & dry games.
Be prepared to chip in your bit in the construction of this whole thing =) We'll have to man diff stns then... Would be sharing game ideas on the trip itself.
Get ready to have a wild and fun time. Haha...

Grand Finale - Christmas Party
What a party!
Just a peek into the itenary: Funky music, artsy deco, delicious food, interesting games and even a performance in the making. Of course, the most important to this whole event would be fun-loving people having a good time.
Ok... frankly, this one need FULL manpower. Alot, ALOT of work to do. Let your hair down and don't be afraid to look/sound silly. Hahaa... Just party away ;)
I believe this party would be a smash hit!!!

Cheerios! 2 more days =)

A tiring but fun day of packing and shopping

Hmm today me, lijiuan and yongtai went clementi to shop for groceries and the necessities that we would be bringing over to cambodia. Among our shopping list got items ranging from pasta sauces to bread spread to agar agar.. so we all can look forward to having a "feast" in cambodia! Hahaha. Our original plan was to meet at 2pm at clementi mrt control but due to some unforeseen circumstances, it was pushed back to 2.30pm.. Haha. We headed straight to NTUC to do our shopping then me and yongtai went to get the tapes and toothpastes before going to big bookshop to buy the sharperners and wrapping paper.

After we got all our stuffs, we decided to hail a cab back to nus. We waited for quite awhile for a cab at the bus stop outside NTUC and we saw an accident! Haha. Ok la its actually only a small one.. nobody injured but it was funny. The car U turned at a junction not meant for U turning and it crash directly into the green poles on top of the road. BUANG! haha. What's worst is there is a police car just driving behind that car! Too bad we did not manage to take down the car plate number.. can buy 4D. hahaha

We went straight to the student societies room to pack the stuffs and we managed to catch pamela at the ATM beside munchie monkeys. Haha Poor pamela she got dragged to help us pack our stuffs.. hmm but she has been a great help! Thanks for that! Haha. Edwin joined us afterwards and we managed to pack 10 boxes of stuffs to bring over to cambodia.. there will be more to come still. haha. In the end we left at around 6.40pm.. Its been a fun day packing and shopping really.. and we need to thanks Pamela for coming to help even after she just had her jabs and maybe feeling abit unwell.. haha and also edwin for coming down to help after his demanding project.. i'm sure he is tired too.. then there is yongtai who is always present guiding us what to pack and telling us what to do.. and last but not least lijiuan who sadly cannot go shopping anymore because she spent alot on buying all the things. hahaha.. It wouldn't have been so much fun packing and shopping without you guys!

Snippets of the banner!

hahah adding on to shine's descriptions,

here's some of e pics we took! =)

banner undone..

semi-done..

half-done..

well done!

the process..

close up..

hehehe, BIG thanx to qiurong, shine and pat for coming down to help! been a really funnie and enjoyable day working with u guys on e banner! yay! =)

Some updates on the expo

here's a poster from our beloved friend Thearith in Cambodia. It's on the Cambodian - Korean Expo!

Fyi - we're going for it! :)
























for those that would want more info,
you can visit http://www.angkor-gyeongjuexpo.com/eng/sub1/sub1_1_a.asp for more details!

Kelvin! you can fight for parking spot this way! Ahhahahahha :P

Parking Spot Fight One woman actually pushes another out of a spot.

YouTube Videos of Cambodia

Some spare time to relax myself so happen to make a compilation of some Cambodia videos for you guys!

These videos show a guy's vacation in cambodia during june 2006:
(Looks like Cambodia is an interesting place to visit!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dl0Qr92uPg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3mUdzLwFtA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4_CINZd-j8

North Korean Girls Dancing in restaurant in Cambodia:
(Cambodia is great! Where can you find North Korean Girls dancing in restaurant in Singapore?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap996Y2TUWM

M'Lop Tapang
(Interesting song, i think it's quite popular in Cambodia seems the kids like it, yt and ym heard the song before?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na-dtjzq0uo

Another guy's trip in Jan 2006
(Looks even interesting to visit Cambodia now, why the long queue of trucks at the side of the road?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqVvVgCuBVU

8 singaporean students visit to Cambodia
(Interesting to see that they actually make a video with a narrator)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Cs3JhnRuc

A Couple trip to Cambodia through the gritty border town of Poi Pet.
(Experience first hand of how is the 6 hours trip like!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEXcxBavZPU

A Chinese video showcasing a temple under the big tree
(hey... what is the spot called? Seems i saw this somewhere in MPX2 trip photos as well)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8L0rykW6zI








Now... watch some funny video to relax and wish you all the best to your exams!

Absolute Paradise

Hi guys...

I believe I've posted this b4! So who's interested?

It'll be a great way to gather after the December hols.



ok in case u guys didn't read it the first time when i sent it out...here's the details!

Date : 20 & 21 January (2 Days 1 Night)
Venue : D' Paradise Meleka
Cost : $55 (Excluding meals)
Activities : Canoeing, Cultural Show, Night Confidence Walk, Treasure Hunt and Telematch
Important : Kindly R.S.V.P by 19th Nov

Post your reply here!!! or on the tag board also can!!!
Cos they need to confirm the number of pple going..

For now, YM and me are going! Think it'll be damn fun lor if all of us go together...like a mini gathering!

Funny things for exam laughs!

amazing?

you all got funny things can post here...i saw this online just now.....haha

Scribblings

Coming… dreams about to unfold
Anticipation of fresh grass and
Morning dew; gentle and cool
Beckoning us each break of dawn
Over and over again
Dazzled by the
Immenseness of humanness
Anchored here

Inspired by all your emails... lol...
Don't mind me taking up space here with scribblings =P

Just felt warmed by something this morning...

When you feel the need to complain about the way things are, remember this. There's something you could be doing right now to improve the situation.

Before you spend a lot of effort looking for someone to blame, look for ways to move things forward. Consider what you can now do to make a positive contribution.
There's little to be gained by pointing out what is wrong unless you find a way to begin making it right. Instead of dwelling on the problems, focus on the opportunities they present.
Experience how much more satisfying it is to put your energy into moving forward rather than looking backward. Even when the situation is not at all your fault, the most effective option is to take responsibility.

What's happened has happened, and no amount of finger pointing can change that. Quickly direct your attention to the many positive and valuable things you can do now.
Instead of being grumpy, be grateful for the opportunities that are now available. Choose to take positive action, and there's no limit to the real progress you can make.

-- Ralph Marston

Puay Ki's Words of Wisdom...

ok...help puay ki post...or else outta place man, this thread...

Fed up with the posting...
Actually want to write something but i don't know how the hell this blog works....

Anyway, a bit of addition to Weiqiang's slideshow whicch i cannot see....is that..

ok..stories to tell.

Since the last plan for the video was a burst...Weiqiang mainly did the OSA arrangement for the Car Wash then thereafter we guys went to Com Science to give leaflets to ask the Lecturers to sign up. Only two signed up by the way(weiqiang pretty panic), which was a blessing in disguise coz we don't have to spend time looking for those cars. The Carpark is SO BIG....sure die carrying two pails of water everywhere haha.

Lots of things are blessing...like the two car wash we had....it rained just after we packed up and threw our stuff back at YIH. In Fundraising, its really the weather that is so important. If it has rained for both Soccer Fiesta and Car Wash...sure trashed. But all's well ends well. Thats really good.

From the car wash its pretty funny...Girl (student drivers) never let us wash. Guys are ok. But if i were those girls i may not let you guys wash too....hahahaha (its a girl's thingy)

But everyone's pretty cool. Shine is the water bearer....meiyin, keeyeh, Junkiat, Lijiuen, Pam...everyone really worked hard thank you!

p.s Pam's water bottle and Lijiuen or Meiyin's pen is still at the Rotaract's table :)


Before i end, here's a food for thought:

When i was asking for encyclopedia donation, i realised this thing that people have. They do not really want to give even though they do not use it anymore. Because they bought those books at a pretty high price.

So people put value to things. But where does this value really lie?
1) In the initial value?
2) In the utilisation value?

oOur Slideshow!o

Books...

went to bras basah on thursday with li jiuan, edwin and yongming.
Thought of getting some books to stock up the library, so went to this shop which the unkle gave us discount for the books. he charged us $1 for books that orginally cost $2, and $0.70 for those that cost $1...

anyways...we got a couple of them, enid blytons, fairy tales and stuff, got some posters too. Highlight was this where's wally book...wah....bring back the memories man...

after which we went to NLB to ask for donation of books, they say dun have...weird...anyway the counter staff asked us to email their office to request if we want to try, so yup li jiuan is settling it, and let's hope for good news! haha

lastly, we're thinking of getting a set of encyclopedias for them too. anyone has any lobang?

Our Recce Trip

ok...some more updates!

Yongming and me went for this recce trip in July to determine the feasibility of the site as well as to assess the situation in cambodia...

ok here are some pics to have a preview beforethe trip!

haha...














this seriously is tasty man...some spicy beef soup with bread...woohoo!















Nikun, probably the village's main guy and YM...extremely fun guy and talented too i must add...
















I have no idea what this guy is thinking!

















This is the library MPX II built last december...unfortunately it was school holidays and they've locked the place up...hopefully we can revisit this place in december. :)















Flooding in Phnom Penh...we had to help to push our tut-tut just before reaching our guest house....kinda fun i must add (think only i thought it was fun)
















ok nikun again....giving us a beating...the setting is in MPX I's school, which they built for the kids to learn english every sunday















ok let's have some intro here...

kid in pink
: Pearen...got some seriously good dress sense...he's da cool guy

kid in blue strip
: Chantrea...very lovable kid! wanted a watch before we left, so we gave him one!

kid at the left back (white)
: wern hong...wah...he's smile damn nice, eyes also not bad...wah....shit...i sound like a pervert...i should stop.

kid in the center (white)
:omni-present nikun....haha...no need intro liao lah.

back row...(left to right)
Boss (ruixiang, previous rotaract president), me, Yongming....

ok that's all, more to come when u "experience" it...haha

||yyt||

Fund Raising Meeting / Helping Carrying toys

Hi guys,

Just a quick update on what’s up today.

There’s a fund raising meeting today on 28 Sep 2006 at 11am although not everyone is on time, but still everyone did make the effort to come and it was great! We’ve discussed about various events, namely:

1) Soccer Fiesta Champions Cup 2006 (Confirmed)

2) Postcards (Confirmed)

3) Movie mania in Beaty Sec (not confirmed)

4) NUS Car Wash Day (or may be held in East Coast Park) (not confirmed but is in progress)

Some of us actually help out in carrying out the toys from Mac to NUS Campus and YIH Rotaract Club room; we are all sweating like hell! Luckily some guys (kelvin’s friends and some others I never get to know them! Hehe…) help out in carrying the boxes of toys up to the hall’s room. Thank you guys!

For movie screening, it’s very expensive to rent from the movie distributors so we’ve move the screening to secondary school. NUS Car Wash might need all the info and help to get this going as well (If you have any sponsor to car washing equipment or others please help us too!). Soccer Fiesta Champions Cup 2006 is already in the marketing progress and lastly Postcards is already in the progress of ordering as well

Currently the fund raising team is working hard on all the 4 events and hopefully we can get all these going after this week term break. Check out the yahoo group and blog often!

That’s all~ =)