Adele's final reflections

Well, our yunnan experience have marked an end officially. We’ve lived it and I’m sure we all loved it. After 9 months of preparation and also, the trip itself, I guess it time to think back of my first reasons to join the team. I joined because I want to serve, I’ve got a passion for community service, and I know that it will be a fantastic learning experience.

Before… After…
Before the pre-trip camps, I dreaded the meetings. I felt that it was so boring and we were so slow in deciding on minute details. After the trip and intensive camps, I want to have OCIP meetings and I want to see everyone in the team together.(I looked forward to the last meeting that we had!!!)

Before the trip, I thought that we will just be passers-by of the lives of the people that we will meet due to the short time that we will spend with them. After the trip, I realised that we did not just meet the locals, but we touched their lives. For me, the experience in Lu Cong was a very meaningful one. I realised that I can be an important person in the lives of the children as they learnt to say “thank you”, “sorry” and learn to queue up. These may be simple phrases to us, but to them, it is manners learnt.

Before the trip, I thought that the road building project(work at the project site) is going to be one of most important projects in Yunnan. After working at the project site, I realised that the manual labour that we provided was so insignificant. We were not needed to be there to help with the roads, the villagers can do a better job! BUT. The money that we contributed was the crucial contribution to the road project on our part.

Before the trip, I was on my way to Yunnan with 20 strangers (excluding those whom I knew before the project), after the trip, I forged great bonds with 27 people, got to make new friends and know the old ones better.

My Firsts
Upon reflection, I realised that though this is not my first overseas outreach, I experienced lots of other ‘first’s during the 14 days.

It was my first attempt to prepare a meal for 28. My first time to go into the mountains to gather firewood. My first time not bathing for three days. My first time doing business in toilets with such poor hygiene(esp the one in wan lv qing). The first time I really thought about the events that happened throughout my life and shared with 27 people(during LJ). The first time people actually asked for my autograph(at xiao jie).

The Memorable Parts
The visits to the schools was definitely the most memorable part of the trip. At Wan Lv Qing, i regretted that I wasn’t as proactive and did not build up close relations with the students there. However, the P6 class was definitely the best class in terms of discipline. At Yang Liu, I saw the poor conditions of the classrooms and it was an eye opener for me. At Xiao Jie, the kids there brought me the most joy and fun. I will never forget their enthusiasm and the chicken dance and songs that we sang together. At Lu Cong, I’ve learnt to interact with kids that were more rowdy and I would say that it was the most challenging class. However, it was the class which gave me a great sense of satisfaction.

The discussions that we had were memorable. I love the feeling of being able to share comfortably to the team my opinions and ideas.

The fateful night is one of the ‘highlights’ of the trip. Though we feared, though we were worried, I enjoyed the encouragements and love we showed for each other and I think that it was what pulled us through the night. That night really pulled our team closer together!

Dan shu was a source of entertainment too! At the expense of Miss Koh. But I really feel that he has brought us much joy on the trip…

Takebacks
I’ve learnt so much from the project…

Firstly, I’ve learnt that overseas outreach projects may create dependency and I should not show favourism towards any of the kids, even if I think that they are very cute!! I’ve learnt that sustainability of a project is very important too.

The life of a coordinator is tough, lonely and requires sacrifices, but they are very important and will make great impacts on the lives of people that they help. I really admire Zhao Bing and his passion to serve. His story motivated me!

Learning Journey was yet another event which I’ve learnt a lot from. I’ve learnt to listen to others and also to reflect on my own life.

I realised that we should not pity the people that we are helping because their living conditions are so bad, as compared to us. Because to them, their life is not hard. They grew up in such conditions and they have learnt things that we don’t. We should not pity them because I know our trip there to teach them will improve their lives, in one way or another.


In conclusion, I feel that the trip has impacted me, but not to the extent that it has a dramatic change in me I’ve learnt a great deal though… One thing for sure is that my attitude towards community service projects will never be the same, because I’m doing a service learning project, not a community involvement project!

Last but not least, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the yell team! You guys made this trip a really memorable one for me! To the teachers: Thanks for taking me through this enriching learning experience!