Just so I don't forget

Okay I feel I have to write down somewhere my memories of my OCIP, before I forget the details of it in time to come, so here it is.

First, it was simply AWESOME. Not only because of the places and activities, but also because of the people I went with. Interact Club really is a great CCA to be in :)

The flight there was better than expected. It wasn't even a budget airline, it was their national one haha. Though the entertainment sets weren't working on our flight there.

We reached there at night, and just checked into the hotel then. And the next day we set out to the farm. The bus ride was about 1.5 hours. That really shows how isolated the farm or rural area is, from the city.

On the farm, they gave us a brief tour of it first, before we started farming. I'll say, most of us weren't sufficiently physically fit to do our tasks for hours, like what farmers usually have to do every day. Luckily our "work" was very little, and only and two or three hours long at most. The stuff I did were: Planting "baby" plants from the nursery in the farm area, plucking black beans from a big and wide field, sorting black beans (the good from the bad), and digging holes to put new plants in. Stuff that others did included cutting down banana trees. Which seemed quite fun (though very tiring). Sadly I had to be at the school while they were doing that.

On my initial visit to the school, before our actual sessions there, I learnt quite a lot about them. Like, they have two English lessons a week, each being one hour. And honestly, I don't think they learn much from it. Each lesson, the teacher writes out a 100 word-ish passage on the board, and the students copy it. Oh and the teacher makes mistakes in writing too, because she's just copying from the textbook. So the students just copy it too, and a few of them read it out loud. And that's the end of the lesson.

We talked to the teachers after that. They had some difficulties understanding us when we spoke at our normal pace, despite being the most English-proficient in the school (or the area for that matter). I later learnt what may be the root of the problem. These teachers, all they study in university is the English textbook that they'll be using to teach students. So it's very doubtful that they have a deep understanding of how English works, it seems like just rote learning. But it's not their fault either. This comes about because they don't see English as being very important, given that it's not their mother tongue. And the fact that most of them won't need to speak English, since they'll be farmers.

My first session with the students went quite smoothly I guess. Though we only found out on the spot that their English proficiency was really really low (this was the graduating batch, the oldest), we still managed to make it work somehow. We could barely communicate with them, given that they didn't understand sentences, and most words. So it was more of us saying words, and them repeating them. Well at the very least, they did learn some new words (though they would probably forget quite quickly), and they got more familiar with English pronunciations. They had quite a lot of fun with origami folding as well. I had to be taught by some of them on how to fold cranes, apparently they learnt origami in primary school haha.

The second batch of students we taught were younger, so it was slightly more challenging, but it was still okay I guess. We adopted the method where we teach them English, and they teach us Lao back, so it'd be more fun.

The last bit at the school, the cultural exchange, was also pretty good. We put up our ethnic dances, which thankfully went smoothly, and they put up theirs. Ours was kinda more upbeat and fast-paced as compared to theirs haha. After which, we presented them with our gifts, which included computers and playing balls, and they presented us with garlands. That was quite cool haha. They also really treated us like royalty, like though the meal they served us was simple, they lined the table with clean writing paper, which they probably have a limited supply of. Was really nice of them to do that, but we still tried not to dirty the papers and return it to them.

We taught them how to play captain's ball after that. The demo match was rather... fake haha. Just because we had to show what happens in different scenarios. After which we played against them. And this being a diplomatic game, we could not win. We had to lose, and by a thin margin at that haha. We kind of underestimated how well the guys would play, so though we let them get in a few scores at the start, we kind of regretted it because they really learnt quick and won us by a large margin later on haha.

Was quite sad when we had to leave the school for good, they were taking pictures with us and all, we were really treated like celebrities. Which was actually a little scary, because some of them added us on FB, and also posted pics of us there ._.

Oh and I haven't mentioned the truck rides have I? They were crazy haha. Our only mode of transportation from the farm to anywhere else was to pack 20 plus people in the back of a truck, and go at high speeds on dirt roads. I swear, that was an awesome experience. Taking the public transport back here seems like a drag in comparison.

There was also this night when there was a blackout. So while we were playing soccer with the locals, while waiting for dinner, we watched the sun set, and the sky get darker and darker, with no lights around. Fortunately the lights came back on just as we were about to eat dinner in the dark haha.

Staying in those houses on the farm was also quite fun haha. From showering in a cold, dripping shower at night, to getting used to the insects that just swarm around everywhere, to the choked up toilets (the highlight of the trip), to playing bridge every night before a voice downstairs told us to shut up and go to sleep, I'd say it was an unforgettable experience :D

It was also really sad when we had to leave the farm. Just when we got used to the slow and easy way of life there, just as we had made friends with so many of the people there. But all good things must come to an end I guess.

Spent the last two days touring the city. It was an okay tour, but we were all dying and falling asleep. This was mainly due to partying all night and not sleeping at all haha. There was the night market, where you'll get ripped off if you don't bargain, the organic food shop, which sold the stuff we farmed on the farm, the Indian restaurant we went to for dinner, another local restaurant for lunch the next day, and a bunch of temples. Of course, the Mekong river too. Our hotel was right next to it :D

On the whole, it was a simply awesome experience. I can't really describe that Laos feeling, when I was over there, with the rest of the OCIP people, but it was really a good one :)

So it's already 2013.

I know I haven't really been updating this blog over the hols. Well, a quick summary of my hols would be:

13 chalet, Laos OCIP, bunch of Interact stuff like the bbq and the bursary presentation, Mr Koh's wedding and the impromptu outing that followed. And meeting up with Keith, Sunda, and the rest tomorrow to watch Les Miserables.

All that plus doing the final publication for the Pulse (still not done), and revising for next year. Oops, I mean this year. Yea I know this year is gonna be hell with the A levels coming, but I'll still try to make it as great a year as possible. 

Despite the hectic workload last year, I'd say it was quite okay. I'd say I've met some great new people, like my CCA-mates, who made the year more tolerable. Was also nice to see how over the course of 2012, v13 has always been in touch. It's true that stuff like PW weren't really a great experience, but ah well, at least it's over. 

It's interesting, the future never turns out as we expect. And we'll always somehow make do with it. 

Though sometimes, it makes you wonder why we have these expectations at all, if all we're going to be at the end of the day is disappointed.

But I'm not gonna end this post on a gloomy note. Heck, it's the first day of 2013. This year is going to be great, I can just smell it, hehe :)