Finally, I'm here to update about the OSL Batam trip. Have been wanting to update it, in fact, I've edited the pictures a few days ago, but didn't have the time to pen down my thoughts because I was busy editing the video with Mansur and Malik.

Yes people, I've finally mastered iMovie. Not exactly a pro, but I'm in the intermediate stage, haha. Come to think of it, this is so embarrassing. I'm the teacher-in-charge of Infocomm Club and yet, I knew nothing about video-editing. I've always wanted to learn it, but I didn't have the time to sit through the entire duration of the training to master it. It's always giving suggestions to the students how to improve the video but I'm not the one doing the editing.

But it's a different story for the Batam video. We really started from scratch, and I learnt how to upload the video and edit the video for the first day. We called it the beginner stage. Three of us literally sat there for the whole day till 5 plus to edit the video. Iqbal was the expert and we consulted him when we were unsure of the steps. haha.

On the second day, we proceeded to the intermediate stage. Haha. That's when we learnt how to include music and wordings. Haha. Still have a bit more to master before we can complete the video. Hence, to be patient for the debut of our masterpiece during assembly next year.

But I guess the advance stage has to be put on hold till I come back from Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Anyway, Mansur and Malik have been a great help. They are really such good boys. They did not even grumble or complain when the lazy teacher was late for both days, made me feel so guilty.

Haha, I'm really addicted to video-editing. We can do so much enhancement to a simple video that we have taken during the trip. Ok shan't go on and on about it. The main focus of this post is the trip.

That's the beach at the resort where the students had their ice-breaking games. A quiet and serene beach, not exactly that fantastic compared to the beach at Phuket, but it's good enough i guess.

That's the picture taken on the ferry. The top picture was taken on the upper deck with the strong wind blowing as the ferry cruised across the sea. The bottom picture was taken in the air-conditioned deck of the ferry.

That's the group picture that we took at the resort lobby before we went to the orphanage. The Hello Kitty toys that the students were carrying were gifts for the orphans. Tan Huong liaised with Mercy Relief, a charitable organisation to ask for toys donation and they gave us two boxes of Hello Kitties. I guess McDonalds donated the remaining stock to Mercy Relief back then. To think that there was a mad rush at that time when there was the Kitty craze. Haha.

Another group picture to add to the collection. These were the wonderful teachers who have taken the challenge to bring those students on this service-learning trip. Haha. We called it challenge as they were NA and NT students, but I completely changed my opinion of them after this trip. Although some of them were quite mischievous and not as enthusiastic initially, they were quite helpful and forthcoming in doing their parts for the less fortunate orphans.

These two pictures above were photo collages of our students taken with the orphans. Even though they do not have parents to call their own, those children are well-manered and polite. They look so bright and adorable.

That's the group picture of our students and the orphans at the entrance of Betesda Orphanage at Batam. Notice the ice-creams that the orphans were eating. Those were ice-creams that Miss Gopal had kindly bought for them from her own pocket. Oh, you should see the delightful and blissful looks on their faces. They don't get to eat ice-cream often and even though they were just Wall's ice-cream, it could make their day. Some pampered Singapore kids don't even give a hoot to Wall's ice-cream anymore. They will only eat Ben and Jerry's ice-cream or Haagen-Dazs Ice-cream.

Those were group pictures of the teachers and the students who were in their groups. For my group, I have Malik, Mansur, Jun Wei and Ming Kwang. We were having our dinner at the restaurant in the resort.

Oh, Jun Wei was sitting next to me during dinner and he was such a nice boy. During dinner, he didn't take much food, rice and only a tiny portion of chicken because the food wasn't to his liking. Seeing that he only ate so little, I passed some vegetable and chicken to him. As much as he didn't like the food, he still ate what I've given to him on his plate.

After dinner, he even took desserts such as cakes and fruits for me, and later more servings of desserts for the whole table to share. He even made a cup of coffee for me after those delectable cakes. Wow, unbelievable right. Don't worry, the coffee was clean, I didn't have diarrhoea after drinking the coffee.

I must give some credits to Jun Wei. Before this trip, I only had a few encounters with him in school, and those few encounters were not entirely pleasant encounters to begin with. Those were 'negotiations' that concerned my students and his friends.

From his appearance, he's just like some super beng pai-kia who walked around the school with arrogance. But after those two encounters, he was not that bad an ah-beng, not those unreasonable and irrational pia-kias, but someone who is reasonable and righteous.

During the trip, I witnessed the good side of him. Even though he tried to behave in a hostile and unfriendly manner, he was actually very helpful and obliging. I guess it's only the words he said that gave people the wrong impression of him, but he's really not as pai-kia as what he tried to portray.

Several times when we needed help to carry any thing, he will be one of those few students who would take the initiative with his usual 'I give you face' excuse. If we go by his logic, that's more than just giving face, that's giving a lot of face. haha.

Somehow, I feel that the hostile side of him is just a false front that he's trying to portray to act tough. There's really a hundred times kinder side of him that he should demonstrate to more people. This boy is definitely a piece of gem that is not polished yet. He seems to have some leadership quality in him as he has the presence of a person who can lead. After all, he's not the vice-captain of the Hockey team for nothing. There must be something about him that Irin has seen to choose him as the vice-captain.

While editing the video with Mansur and Malik, we would smile naturally when we saw his expression. After he had finished his reflection, he gave such a captivating smile, not once but several times, and winked at the camera, a smile that could easily capture the hearts of many, at least it captured our hearts and smiles. Oh yes, we had included that golden moment in our video, and you would be able to see that classic expression. With that expression and his brown t-shirt with that interesting caption 'Make someone happy today', he's such an amiable person, so unlike the arrogant ah-beng in school.

Oh, did I mention that he looks like Louis Koo? Haha, that's beside the point. Jun Wei, please portray the nicer side of you more often in school k, so that teachers will learn to appreciate you as a nice and helpful boy, instead of that super dao and super beng pai-kia. It will really make everyone happy everyday, and not just make someone happy today only.

That's some pictures that I have taken during the reflection at the resort's meeting room. Let me share one interesting observation about Harris Resort. Everything about the resort is orange in colour. There's a lot pictures around the hotel. All the pictures are black and white in colour, but there will be a specific selected part that is orange in colour. The resort stationery is orange, and even the papers that they use to photostat the room arrangement list are orange!











On the second day, before we proceeded to the orphanage, we went to the shops to get more things for the orphans.

On the first day when we went there, we presented the old clothes to them that we have collected from our donation drive in school, six big packets of them. We also gave each child a pair of Hello Kitty toys, 25 kids were at the orphanage during that period. They were so glad when they saw the toys and even displayed them on the shelves. We also brought along two boxes of English and Malay storybooks and we arranged them neatly on the shelves. We also took their feet measurements so that we could purchase shoes for them.

We bought school bags for every child and packed it with stationery, lots of stationery, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, rulers, colour pencils, notebooks, enough to last them for a few months, toothbrush, towels, etc.

On the second day, we bought shoes and socks for them too, and we managed to get it at a good bargain. We bought tubes of toothpaste and washing detergent too. We even bought 10 loaves of bread with many different kinds of spread and sardine so that we can prepare tea break for them.

While waiting for the kids to come back from school, we took some group pictures.

I was quite impressed with the care and concern that some of our Malay boys have shown to the orphans. Malik, Mansur, Afiq and Haries were so patient with the kids and gave them undivided attention. I remember telling Patsy, those boys that she had brought along for this trip were so fantastic, no problems with them at all in terms of manners and attitude.

Patsy was saying that those boys were good boys, no discipline records, just that they were quite unmotivated in their studies. She was hoping that after the trip, the students will learn to appreciate that the chance to study does not come easy for some people, so they must learn to treasure the opportunity and put in effort for their studies, especially when they will be taking the N levels next year. Boys, must work hard ya.

Jeremy was wonderful too. He was playing the role of a big brother very well, taking good care of the kids. All the teachers were full of praises for him.

That's the family portrait that I've taken with the 3T1 students and the evil mama in the middle. This photo did not come easy. Poor Vengadaz had to take the picture so many times because the evil teacher was so fussy about how she looked in the picture. Hence, the need to double-check that her double chin and fat legs were not captured in the picture and that her small eyes did not blink when the picture was taken. Super troublesome ar, haha.

That's a picture of my favourite kid at the orphanage. She is so cute and beautiful with her long brown hair and beautiful eyes.

Another picture with the beautiful child. That was taken after she was crying non-stop as she had hit her head against a wooden plank. It's so difficult to get her to sit still, let alone take a picture. On the first day, she was running around the orphanage, inside and outside the orphanage like nobody's business without any shoes at all. We were so worried for her safety, but she was so at ease in her territory.

The mystery is finally unravelled. This child is called Kevin. He's not an orphan, he's the caretaker's son. Yes, it's a boy and not a girl. We were equally surprised too, that we couldn't believe it when we were told that he's a boy. That's because he has such nice features, that of a sweet and beautiful girl. We were simply not convinced, to the extent that we were contemplating whether to do a check, until he peed at a corner, boy's style, that we were convinced that he's a boy. haha. No doubts about it, no need for a check anymore. haha.

Another group picture of the teachers taken with our tour guide on the extreme right of the first row and Kevin with his sister.

After spending an afternoon at the orphanage, we returned to the resort where we needed to get ready for the highlight of the trip. We hosted a barbeque dinner at the poolside for the kids. We prepared party sets consisting of the party mask, the clapper, popper and etc for the kids, and a bottle of bubble for each child so that they can blow the bubbles at the poolside.

Tan Huong even taught our students balloon sculpting so that they could transform the balloons into hats, dogs, flowers for the kids. We also prepared aeroplane models and insects models so that our students could assemble them and give the 3D models to the students.

All of them were dressed smartly in the jersey polo t-shirts that we have gotten for them, and not forgetting their new shoes and socks.

Those were the pictures that I had taken of every student with his or her buddies. Don't the kids look smart and adorable? Haha.

During dinner, our students did not eat that much because they needed to take care of the little ones. They had huge responsibilities that they needed to carry on their shoulders. They had to feed them, made them feel at ease and most importantly, ensured that no kid ended up at the swimming pool. That's really a huge challenge wo. Haha.

After the dinner had ended, everyone gathered to take a group picture. Oh it's no mean feat to get everyone ready for the camera, especially our little children. Haha.

Every child had so many gifts to bring back to the orphanage. It's like Christmas has come early especially for them.

After the whole event was over, and after we had taken so many pictures of the students and their buddies, time for the teachers to pose for the camera after a long, busy but fruitful day.

After we had done our reflections for the day, one that was not as solemn as the previous day, we went back to our rooms for the long-awaited bath. Phew!

Then after that, we all gathered at room 217, that's the room that I shared with Angela, for our usual coffee session with Milo Mocha, Lipton Milk Tea and Ruffles potato chips.

We told the students the time for lights-out was 12 midnight, and that we would do patrolling to catch those naughty students, which we did on the first day where students were not in their allocated rooms after the stipulated time and were still walking around or playing pool at the resort lobby.

And guess what, we have students calling us and asked when the teachers would be patrolling and how come they were not here yet. Haha.

We had so much joy talking, doing our usual 'sharing'. Haha. Our dear Tan Huong was so cute, always extending the conversation with his last question, second last question and third last question. Haha, to the extend that we did not realise that time had passed so quickly. It was almost 4.30 when we finished our last question. Haha.

To think that Tan Huong can have a question on his mind for the past six years, and it was finally answered on that day by Miss Gopal. Think Tan Huong can have a good night sleep after that. Haha.

Goodness, I'm not as patient as Tan Huong, if I have a question, I wouldn't wait till six years later to clarify my doubt. I would have asked my close friends about it, especially Patsy where her antena is forever super powerful. Tan Huong's radar probably was not functioning properly because the signal was blocked by some UFOs. Haha.

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On the third day, it was time for shopping. The tour guide had a weird sense of humour that we couldn't appreciate at all. Several times, I was giving Siraj the 'duh' expression. I did something really evil, haha. When the tour guide gave us his contact number in case we got lost, I saved his number under the name 'Lamer'. Sssh...

Anyway, the first shop that he brought us to was the Polo Ralph boutique. The price of the polo t-shirts was only a third of the selling price in Singapore. Our good Papa and Tan Huong bought clothes for their wives and children, and yet, did not get anything for themselves. Patsy called them the good husbands who are close to extinction. Haha.

Then we went to a shop where they sold the local products. We bought a lot of keropok, the fried and the unfried ones. We spent close to a few hundred thousands of rupiah over there, about 250 ooo rupiah to be exact. Don't wow, it's only about forty sing dollars. Haha.

After that, we proceeded to the Golden Prawn Restaurant to have our seafood lunch, a sumptuous spread of fish, sotong, prawns, omelette, kang kong, curry vegetables, soup and Crab. Yummy!

After lunch, we went to the markets to get those dried seafood. We didn't buy much there. Next, we proceeded to the Megamall to shop. It's a lot of shops there, but the teachers weren't exactly enticed by the variety of shops. We were so spaced out. Probably, the late-night was taking its effect on us. Haha.

Then, this super big donut cafe caught our attention. There was a wide variety of donuts. We bought half a dozen and tried it. It was simply marvellous, to the extend that each of us bought two dozens of donuts back to Singapore. Haha. Given the taste and variety, it's a good buy at about 50 cents each.

After round one of J.Co donuts, we proceeded to round two of A&W. We grew up in the era where we loved their root beer float and curly fries, but we could no longer find A&W outlets in Singapore anymore. Hence, we each ordered a root beer float and indulged in this simple pleasure.

Yes, it's really greedy of us, but once in a while it's ok right? Haha. Then after that it was time to return to Singapore. We went to Batam with our own bags and many bags and boxes of stuff for the orphanage. When we came back, we each had our bags, and three extra bags for the teachers. Haha, one bag of twenty-four donuts, one bag of two boxes of Kueh Lapis and one bag of keropok. Haha. Well, to redeem ourselves, the food are not only for ourselves, it's for our friends and relatives, so we are not as greedy as what we have portrayed. Haha.

Just when we were thanking God for the safe journey to Batam and back to Singapore, our school bus nearly collided with a taxi when the bus was just outside the school gate. The taxi uncle just turned right into the school and make a U-turn, so reckless right. Our bus was in front and had signalled to turn right, we should have the right of way, isn't it? Luckily, the bus uncle managed to brake in time, if not, the consequence would have been disastrous. Phew! Finally, a safe journey home...

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