March ~ April 2014

1. A publication of March ~ April2014 ~ WE ARE FAMILY ~

2. NYPPRIMERS OSLT COMMITTEE 13/14 Kenny Foo (Team Leader) Ng Huishan (Group Facilitator) Bobby Tan (Student In-Charge) Low Yu Ting (2nd Student IC/Publicity) Stella Loo (Treasurer) Quek Zhan Jiang (Administration) Lim Zi Xuan (Medic) Quek Wei Pang (Medic) Bryan Chua (Logistics) Sebastian Teo (Logistics) Kleeve Hoi (Publicity) MARCH ~ APRIL 2014 • 3Editor Writes • 4Pre-Trip Preparations • 6 Living Conditions • 8 Building • 10 Kids Carnival • 12 Facilitation/Sessions 13 Rest & Recreation 14 Short Takeaways 16 Appreciation

3. The Editor Writes We are a family! In this edition of OHANA! I will be going through with you our very first Philippines Overseas Learning Trip (OSLT). We went there to build a house for a family of 5! We raised funds for this trip through our sponsors, and each and everyone of us are grateful for you for being making this trip possible! A big THANK YOU TO YOU! More than just building a house, we went to visit the church in Toledo . We take away so much more valuable life lessons that money couldn’t buy. Want to find out what these lessons are? Want to find out what did we do in the Philippines? READ ON! (: ~Kleeve Hoi OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 03

4. Pre-Trip Preparations In our training, We have a deeper understanding of what service learning is. During one of the training, we learnt the importance of having goals, roles, process and relationship in a team. Huishanused a numbering game to help us understand these terms. During this activity, we made mistake together, we discussed and we overcame the problem together and somehow we got closer to each other.  We slowly improve our target from finishing the activities from 3mins to 40 second.  From this activities I understand the importance of setting goal, knowing your roles and fulfilling your roles.   At that point of time, I finally understand why I couldn't complete my school project on time and do it well. because we ignore our roles and we didn't set a clear goal. We also have a round of touring to little India to understand the culture of other races through our five senses. Indians love to eat spicy and sweet food. Most of them are very friendly and kind. Even though we didn't manage to clear our worksheet assignment, I believe that all of us benefited a lot from this trip. I believe that as a group, we still have a long way to go because just from this little India tour ,I felt that some of the members are quite shy towardseach other. We were so blessed from this little India tour, because we get to see what we usually do not see and we could understand better what people from other races behave and usually do. I’ve learnt, in this trip, to appreciate other cultures and believe that we are all special in our own ways. ~ Bobby OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 04

5. Pre-Trip Preparations Prior to this OSLT trip, we are required to do some preparation so that we can get ourselves ready for the trip. One of the most important part of this preparation is the fund raising for this trip from our friends and family members. Initially all of us hesitated about asking money from our friends. We thought that it is something that is not achievable and that why would anyone actually donate money to another for a trip that they want to go. However due to our own financial status, many of us were forced to approach our friends. To my surprise, many of them actually donated money to me. I realized that many people might seem to be mean on the surface but on the inside, they are kind hearted and are willing to help us in such trip as much as possible. We also went for our vaccination trip so that we can reduce the chances of falling sick because of this trip. Many of us were afraid of the pain of the injection, but we were still vaccinated to be eligible for this trip. ~ Zhan Jiang OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 05

6. Living Conditions Before the trip to the Philippines, my initial thought is that we would be staying in a simple house made of wood, with a room to sleep in, without any furniture or beds and only a ceiling fan in the rooms, and nothing else. But when we arrived at the area of lodging, the house is indeed made of wood, but there are beds in the girls’ room, and what really surprised me was that there was air-conditioning. Also, back in Singapore, no matter how humid it is at night, I do not even get the chance to turn on the air-conditioning in my room, so the 12 nights there is considered quite a luxury to me. It didn’t felt like a service learning trip to me on the first day, which is the day we landed in the Philippines. I always thought that Filipinos like to eat spicy food. I thought that we would probably be having a lot of vegetables and maybe some rare meat for a few meals, and I might be unable to suit to the taste of the locals there. But I was totally wrong. For every meal, there would be vegetables, meat, soup, rice and fruits; a full course meal which even I do not have back at home at times. I am really thankful towards the cooks, who went to the market to purchase the ingredients every two days, rushing over early in the morning at around 6am to prepare our breakfast, only leaving after we have settled down for dinner. ~ Zi Xuan OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 06

7. Living Conditions During the nights, the lights was very dim because there was only a light bulb in the room. It might be that the locals do not have muchnight activities They usually sleep very early and the sky turns bright very early in the morning. Washing our clothes was a big challenge for us too. At our home, we always rely on the washing machine. But in Philippines, we got to wash our clothes manually. It is not an easy job and it is just one of the housework. So, we should appreciate people doing out housework. I think that doing housework can train us to be an independent and responsible person in future. The place that we stayed actually could be considered as comfortable because it was a resort. The house was quite big compared with my imagination. We didn’t need to squeeze together during our sleep, we still had space to turn around ourselves. I felt very blessed that we were able to stay in such a nice house for the two weeks. Also, we learnt to appreciate what we have in our home country (that we really live in a very good condition). ~ Wei Pang OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 07

8. Building Overall, the house building process was a tiring but meaningful one. The key steps in building the house is laying the foundations and building the walls. Building the walls, was a tedious process as we had to ensure the bricks are properly laid, before filling cement in it. The process was important as if we put a brick wrongly, the wall might just collapsed. Hence, we have to make sure we don't make any mistakes, which was quite difficult as we do not have experience on building the walls. While building the walls, a lot of cement is needed and making the cement was quite difficult and if the cement was not made properly, the bricks will not stay together. After laying the bricks out, we have to plaster the walls. it looks easy but it wasn't. Ihad problems trying to make the cement stick on the surface of the bricks. The cement dries up very quickly and the cement will start to fall off. We had to fill the gaps between the bricks. Filling the small gaps was hard as we have to do it carefully, or else the first layer of cement will fall off. We had to take in huge rocks for the foundation of the house. The 2nd layer was the soil, after the rocks are thrown in. We had to lay soils and some cement to make the floor smooth, flattening the soil was the main difficulties, as it was hard to raise the soil to a certain height. ~ Stella OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 08

9. Building Throughout the whole building process, the part which got to me the most was the laying out of the stones and sand, it was a very tiring and backbreaking process as it seems like the ground was never be completely covered, but the thing that got me thinking during the whole process of laying out the stones were the importance of a strong and steady foundation. The importance of a strong foundation in our life, in life we need a strong foundation build a strong solid inner self, everyday we are building our path towards our goals and dreams in life. ~ Bryan OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 09

10. Kids Carnival Preparation With the limited budget we have, we tried to buy as little game logistic as possible so that we can buy more prizes for the children. Like an auntie, I ran around a few shops to compare prices, trying to analyze which kinds of sweets or prizes will the kids like more and which sweets are more affordable and nice. I took the courage to ask a Filipino shop helper a few questions such as “What snacks does the kids in Philippines like the most?to understand the kids in Philippines better. Planning We have a rather short period to prepare for this trip, Kleeve and I were being assigned to plan for the Kids’ Carnival just 1-2 weeks before our departure. I had to hurry plan the logistics list for the carnival to be passed to the logistics team. The funny part was that the both of us were joking amongst ourselves that we do not like to do planning at the previous training and after that we were assigned as in-charge. But knowing the purpose behind this Kids’ Carnival, which is to bring joy to the children in Philippines, we just took up the role. ~ Yu Ting OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 10

11. Kids Carnival Actual Day & Kids Responses On the actual day, I was very afraid as to how many people would turn up, as the pastor said there could be 10 coming, or perhaps 80 over children. We planned the carnival for roughly only about 30 children. Thankfully, there were less than 50 children on that day. When they won a station, we gave them, sweets and chocolates. Such simple gifts to them can instantaneously put a smile on their faces. When we gave balloons to them, they were overjoyed. Living is simple. Smile. ~ Kleeve OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 11

12. Facilitation/Sessions Facilitation and having session is a daily routine during our trip at Philippines. To me it is time to come together and learn something meaningful out of it. Every morning we will come for a session of devotion, devotion was a time where we get to learn certain values, such as diversity, resilience, share and patience. During this session, we get to share among ourselves on the things we experienced during the time we work together and how this values can be put to play whenever there’s problem arising. Through this session, I’ve learnt many values. At night, we have facilitation sessions and games which taught us what it means to live a meaningful life, the kind of games we played were rat race, follow the leader and watching movies together. Through this games and movies, I’ve learnt things such as in life we are like in a rat race where we just keep chasing somebody without knowing why. I felt rat race impacted me most, it taught me to have to a dream and not chase after people dreams, it also taught me what success meant in life. ~ Sebastian OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 12

13. Rest & Recreation Church On that Sunday, we woke up earlier than usual to get ready to go over to a church as it was a 2-3 hours car ride over from Tuburan. When we reach the pastor's church, we were greeted and welcomed by the pastor. The pastor invited to his house for breakfast and introduced us to his family members. We talk to his children and friends, exchanging and understanding each other’s culture and life During service, the pastor commented that he was inspired and touched by our heart of service for willing to give our time to come to Philippines to bless the people of Philippines who are affected by the Typhoon. It was that moment that affirm my true in physically come to Philippines to do the work than just giving the money to them as we being in Philippines has caused a greater impact than what we have even expected. The pastor challenged his church members to come up with a project similar to ours to help those in need. The Last Day We went to a shopping mall in Cebu city, the shopping mall is huge and as we went in, we had to have our bags screened by the security before entering into the mall. Most of us were shocked when we entered the toilet; it was just like the one we see in the shopping malls in Singapore, which was very different from what we see at Tuburanthe past few days. All around us were shops and branded goods. After that, we went to Fort San Pedro , a military defense structure., to learn about the history of Cebu. ~ Bryan OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 13

14. Short Takeaways “We came with a mind of wanting to just experience how life is like in other country. But we actually inspired some of them to think of the work we are doing and because of what we did, they are inspired to step up to help serve the poor and needy as well. Through this trip, I had experienced much valuable experiences that can never be replaced by money or time.” ~ Zhan Jiang “’Good is the enemy of great.’ Instead of settling and be satisfied with being second best, push ourselves to our fullest potential, to be best that we can be! We are all made to achieve great things, and I feel that the most crucial point for us to achieve great things is to believe that we can, and we will.” ~ Zi Xuan “We spent almost 2 weeks to build the house and the house is so beautiful. Because it is made by the combined strengths of the locals and us. I believe the house is able to be built because of love from various people.”~ Bobby Tan “Although our money is able to build more houses if we are to just donate the money, but us spending time here and taking effort to contribute to the house really make a difference. This is because our story was used to move the people in Philippines'’ city to play a part too! As more people play a part, more people will be bless. ~ Yu Ting “To me, this trip is not just understanding the needs of the victim of HaiYan, the typhoon, rather is a self-discovery journey on my weakness and strong point, also understanding that each individuals are unique in their own way and how unique character helps to complement each individual weaknesses.” ~ Sebastian Teo OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 14

15. Short Takeaways “I’ve learnt the deeper meaning of the 3 Primers value of CaShaWa. Care, we give concern to one another by ensuring each other are well and also encouraging each other. Share, sharing whatever we can offer like food but more importantly, our lives. Wait, we must be patient with each other as each of us have our fair share of weaknesses and strengths.” ~ Bryan Chua “I learnt to have good relationship with others. Nowadays, we always work hard for a better life, so we have to sacrifice the time with our love one. In the end, we will have the life that we want but cannot share the joy and love with them because they have left us.~ Wei Pang “Seeing the kids picking things up from the floor such as leaves, twigs and having so much fun with it, taught me to be content with what I have, I have so much, but am I happy? Being happy is an easy thing, money can’t buy happiness, it can be achieved by cherishing what you have and not buying things just because your friends have it.”~ Stella Loo “It ain’t much, but it’s a start.” ~ Kleeve Hoi OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 15

16. OHANA! MARCH ~APRIL 2014 | 16