{......ThinKiNg pOsItIvElY Will Get u sOmEwHeRE.....}: Vietnam blues....

To all my love ones,im goin to tell you my long story while i was away to Vietnam. so bare with me...lolz

As some of u knew, i was away for a 2weeks so-called "holidays" to Vietnam. Back last year, i went for an interview for this trip. Here's A SHORT background on what's the trip was about...

Tittle: Project Companssionate Touch
Place: Cu Chi,Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam
When: 5th March'08 to 20th March'08
Project Description:

Project Companssionate Touch is a project organized both by SA,NYP and the NYA(Nation Youth Association). The project requires students who are willing to sacrific their time and put alot of efforts to provide love, care and concern for a Christian Orphanage, Thien Phonc Orphange, which comprises 60 plus metally and physically disabled children from as young as a few months old down-symdrome baby to as old as 16 years old mute and deaf girl. The Chistian Orphange comprises about less than 10 "Sisters" caring after the 60 odd children. The project also requires us to come up with activities with the children that will help better their living condition in the orphanage and also stimulate their minds eventho they are mentally and physically challenged. To sum up, it is just lessen the work of these "Sisters".

these are some of the photo out of he 8000plus photos taken excluding videos.:) enjoy!

Lena & Shi Jin at Changi Airport, 0600am at the Food galery in the departure point. We have to accompany Shi Jin who felt super hungry that morn. But of cos lena n i was hungry too but we came early n ate BurgerKing.

Shi Jin and Me in the Plane...We took a budget airline; Jet Star. We flew at 0715am and reached Ho Chi Minh City at 1030am. It was lucky for us to get the sit next to each other....but unfortunately Lena sat in the row in front of us and missed out our craps along the way. Even when we about to touch down, Shi Jin and i even discussed why there were cows and helicopters barracks along the runway. We came up with all the possible reasons, the cow are they as if it was the country's favourite pet lolz but actually they workship cows as part of their religon, as a buddist country. And as for the helicopter barracks because they built it there bcos of past wars? who knows... it was jus me n shi jin's craps cos we were bored on the plane... Lena who was sleeping also said that we were super noisy.

Us with Rizal....new friends found....shi jin had a difficult time pronouncing and remembering his name until he have to spell it out to her den she gets it...haiyo!

We've reached HCMC!!!! Felt really excited that im in a totally difference political country.

Lena and Me at their new renovated Vietnam International Airport. The environment was Better then expected!

Us Again!! Waiting for Dr Param and Frankie aka Cheeky Boy (Vietnamese Guy from NYP) for some imigration matters.

Moi!!!! Never forget the "peace" sign.

Team NYP Project Companssionate Touch' March'08. The banner was so cute but im still curious why there's this little jap look alike in a Vietnam project?

We in the van...us three cramped at the back with all the luagages are queezed just behind us. I must say i always enjoy ridding the van. the uncle driving the van is very skillful in avoiding any jam and will always able to drive thru heavy traffic very fast.

On the 1st and the last 2 days i ate at this One n only appetizing "Halal" indian food restaurant located near our logging place. Was very grateful that i was able to eat meat whenever we are in town. Other then that, i ate vegetarian food with some fish dishes and pasta at the orphanage cooked by my teammates throughout the 16days there.

This is the road just outside our "guesthouse". See those wires? that's their electricity supply. so complicated. i've stop wondering why they have frequent electricity shutdown once a week. *sigh.

Spot me? lolz Just wondering how to get thru this 16days here.

We reached the Christian Orphanage Thien Phonc on the 2nd day where we did some area cleaning at the place where wer are going to stay for 13days. there were so many spiders, lizards, water flies and many more. Michele, one of my SBM team mate even called them "kaka" when ever she saw one insects crawling. "kaka" direct translate in tamil or hindi is "Shit" so to her is a "crawling shit"lolz.

Anyway, this picture above is me with one of the children in Thien Phonc orphanage. this boy looks like a normal malay boy right? but he is actually not MALAY... and he is physically disabled. he cant really walk. but he's determined to walk so whenever he saw one of us, he will crawl and grab our shirts or hands to pull himself up. thats is one good determined boy who wants to walk but do not have the ability to walk. so we called him THE WALKY boy!

This is "Fatty". He loves watches. so whenever he see someone wearing a watch, he will just dash to the person and grab his hand with the watch and ask the person to sit with him so that he can admire the watch. you can always get away from him but u must be fast if not, if you jus pull ur hand aways he will jus sretch ur face and worst pull ur hair!! *Warning given!

So our main objective is to keep the children occupied but also let them learn something new. so we did some sing-a-long session with them, hand-painting, drawing lessons, balls games and dance games. These activities is to let them stimulate their minds and encourage movements for exercising because they spent their normal waking hours watching in appropriate shows on tv not educational at all such as "god monkey" movie.

Putting up the successul hand painting activity that we done with them as giving the final product as a gift.

Moving on, we called this boy "THE FLASHER". from the meaning of the word reflects it all. He is mentally disabled. he loves striping his bottem and top. there is one time when he saw new guest visiting the orphanage, he just took his pants down and took off his pampers. so revealing so the " Sister" have to put his pants back.

Other then entertaining the children during the day, we taught English to the "Sisters". But there's a catch. we are also required to learn Vietnamese. so during our stay there, we are required to converse with them in Vietnamese and they have to converse with us in English. Tough! cos the only words and the most helpful words are that i know are, "Khong"=No, "Co"= Yes, "Sin Chow"= Hello, "Chow Bui Siang"= Good Morning, "Noi Son"= Sit down and "Khan"=Towels. yea i think thats all. i must say this, all of my SBM Teammates said "Khong" at least 100 times a day to the children cos they are always so hyperactive towards us!!! A DAY u know...

These are the alphabet mat that was donated by the People of Singapore. we put the mat together and put it on the floor so that they can still sit for comfort and also remind them of ABC and the things we taught them.

We also put it on the wall.

This what we bought for them and taught them with. They were really good students.

This is baby Dung. He is a down-syndrome baby boy who was abandon infront of the orphanage gate by his parents. the fact was he is sick and needed treatment by the doctor twice a week. so i guess the parents cant afford such treatment for the baby.

Shi Jin n Moi...with baby Dung on the 1st day at the orphanage.

This is us, me and Jessi at the back helping them to hold the umbrella. Shi Jin and Michelle at the front. One small umbrella for 4 pple impressive...luckly our "guesthouse" at the orphanage is jsu next to the orphanage.

One considerate person, left her slipper in the mud but did not stop and walk all the way to the house and turned back to fetch it back. Shi Jin you r e most considerate person ever...i know u dun wan us to get wet but there is not different when all of us in one small unbrella cos we were all wet afterall... lolz...

Laughing our asses out....really funny loh.

Jump shots for the 6 guys at he roof of the HCMC historical palace.

Us girlS too...Weee!!

On the last night there we had our last English and Vietnamese Lessons and celebrated with Chocolate puddings that was prepared by the "Sisters". In Blue uniform at the back is the main head sister. Very firm and protective of the whole orphanage!