I Survived!

Four days of stay in the "5* Hilton". Bathing the primitive way with a bucket. Sleeping on the floor with only a straw mat and a sleeping bag for comfort. Being woken up by cockerels and weird-sounding geckos in the wee hours of dawn.



Some consolation? At least the toilets were clean and I had my share of "good character training" by bathing in cold water late at night. Also, it was fortunate that there were no mosquitoes buzzing around. I've come back in one piece. I survived Jogjakarta.




I led a group of students to Indonesia for their 6-day service trip. Actually, it was only 4 as the 5th day was a leisure day of sight-seeing and the last day was spent travelling. The students taught, played games and painted murals. I think they learned quite a lot from this trip. It was quite a journey for me too. There were times when I wanted to intervene and tell my students that they are teaching in the wrong way, or they need to organise themselves better, or use more body language instead of relying on a translator, etc, etc, etc. But I realised that if I had told them what to do, I would have deprived them of a chance to experience and learn for themselves.

It was a very humbling experience. I guess I have learnt to appreciate the simple things in life and to complain less. Things we take for granted mean so much to them. Soft toys that we have discarded are like treasures to them. Unwanted clothes are like branded wear. Pencils (those that need sharpening, and not those mechanical ones) are still in great demand. Even coloured origami paper! I just wished I had carried more in my luggage to give to them!

Oh oh oh! And did I mention that I had a crash course on padi farming? I really appreciate the rice on my table now. I will not waste anymore rice from now on. It really is a back-breaking job. From plucking the young padi to navigating in the muddy waters with the buffalo to replanting the young padi to another site to harvesting to thrashing the grains. Ah.... we didn't even complete the whole routine in the 2 hours. We did not dehusk the grains! It definitely isn't a job for the faint-hearted. I had to step into dung-infested (and god knows what other insects are in there!) muddy waters. I've got no photos of my padi farming as pictures were taken only by our "professional photographer" on the trip with us.

More about our leisure day of sight-seeing in another post......