I can't help but keep comparing this Overseas Service Learning Trip with last year's Leader's of Tomorrow Camp. Both were school camps overseas and both were in sub-standard conditions. Even though this OSLT was much longer and with a smaller team, I don't feel as much for it compared to LTC. LTC wins handsdown.
Maybe it's because the activities in LTC revolved around fun and for this OSLT, the main purpose was to serve. It's like comparing an apple to an orange, though both are fruits, they are different.
Not to say I didn't enjoy OSLT. There were fun moments, rare-sights, and was another experience for me.
This isn't gonna be a day-by-day post, nor is it gonna be in chronological order. I'll post what comes to mind.
To recap, in one of the post I mentioned we will be going to a village in Sri Lanka to teach basic English, organise some games and build a playground for the kids. Well, change is the only constant in life and instead of building a playground, we plucked weeds. Plucked weeds to clear the field for the playground equipments. Gotta admit I'm disappointed as I was all geared up to do some construction work. But I'm not complaining. During the days while working, I kept telling myself, "I'm here to serve."
Wow, a heart of service already huh?
Enough of all these service objectives, lets move on to the experiences.
Without connection with the world, everything seemed to move at a slower pace. The place we're staying was a place for displaced tsunami victims. Not exactly the best of conditions. The water we used was taken from the well and trust me, it runs out easily. Hell, the first day we were there the water ran out and we couldn't shower. The toilet was manual flush and those squatting kinds. The food we ate, well, wasn't bad but were repeated after awhile.
All these anomalies aside, I loved it there. At 6am, the sky was already well-lit. The morning breeze was so soothing and the animals were a part of the village life. Out of the village nearer to the town, cows on the road were like stray dogs in Singapore. Wait, I take that back. There were MORE cows there than stray dogs in Singapore. The nature there was beautiful. I got to see rain falling from the clouds far away on a particular area only, travelled on a dried up lagoon, chatted under the starlit skies and best of all, saw shooting stars. To complete the postcard-perfect description, I see sunrise and sunset almost everyday. The village is one of the only places on Earth where you'll get to see both the sunrise and sunset from the same spot. Oh and an added bonus, I got to see a rare vague rainbow, as if to just join in the beauty of nature.
Of course the best part of this trip was to see the smiles on the faces of the kids. They hardly get visitors so to them, we were VIPs. We mingled well with them and hoped they loved the games we brought them and learnt something from the lessons we taught them. The simplicity and innocence of life and be seen in them. I had the chance to played some ball games with them, even as simple as throwing a tennis ball across the area. Their strength and speed and night vision were an eye-opener to me. I bow down to their physical prowess : size ratio. Lol. And when we had nothing to do, we just sat at the swings and chat. A real chat, not going online and chat on MSN.
Outside of the village, we visited a nearby school. But better still, we went to Pasikudah Beach, one of the tourist attractions of Sri Lanka and a 4 hours bus ride from the village. It lived up to its name. It was beautiful and the water was blue. Really blue, unlike those in Singapore. Nearer to the village, we visited a Tsunami-hit village where most of the houses were ripped out. There, one kind local climbed a coconut tree and we had coconut juice as refreshment. :) As it was near the sea, we just went into the waters and rode the waves. This beach was more beautiful than Pasikudah in my opinion, and the beach was empty. So we had the beach all to ourselves. The sand was pretty and we bottled it back. :) One rare sight was a cow by the sea. You don't get to see it in Singapore.
Most of the unforgettable sights were at the rural areas. Back at Colombo, the capital, it was forgettable. A church visit and some shopping later, we're back in SG.
To add, this trip had the longest bus rides I had taken in my life: to and from the village. The first one was 12 hours, the second one was slightly better. Thankfully, we had our own form of entertainment.