bzse bee's reflections.

Check out what other people say about the trip!

Live to impact and inspire.
- Derek Lee



Open your eyes to see the world, open your heart to see the people.
- Steffi Lee


The only thing constant in this world is change. We need to be flexible, adapting to changes to keep up with the world and not stay stagnant and be left behind.
- Michelle Koh

If you think your life isn't good enough, you haven't seen the world yet.
- Jefred Shi



Opportunities not to be taken for granted of.
- Calise Choo


People tend to forget about what they need after having what they want.
- Nan Han Siang


The ability of us taking things for granted is great.
- Joy Chiang


True happiness is something which comes from our hearts. It is not measured by the number of things which we own but by how we live out our lives. Treasure what you have because someone else out there is suffering from something which you have been taking for granted.
- Ong Hui Peng


** Check out another post i've done in the Red Camp Blog. Click HERE!

bzse trip: Bacolod City

After sharing about my Pre jitters and Post trip thoughts in the previous post, let me share with you what I did in Philippines.

The objective, of this trip is to actually visit Gawad Kalinga (GK) villages, and to know more about what GK's work, mission, business framework as a Social Ente

rprise. Apart from that, we're conducting a research project, for two of our modules -

Introduction to Statistics and Research, and Introduction to Social & Environmental Studies.

Together with 4 lectures and 38 of my classmates, we embarked on a 6 days journey to Philippines, not exactly knowing what to expect. We spent the first 3 days in Bacolod City, Philippines. Bacolod City is the capital of the province of Negros Occidental in Philippines.

We arrived at the village on a sunny afternoon. We were greeted and warmly welcomed by the villagers and the kids in GK ERH Village. We rested for a short while after traveling almost the whole night before that and we were given a short introduction of the village. We also toured the GK ERH Village.

We were given 3 empowerment talks each day in Bacolod, with topics on "Hope, Honour and

Hero". The talks were given by different people who are working with GK, in different managerial roles such as the caretakers, the founder, the volunteers. It helped us in getting to know more about the organisation and even know the different perspectives of people from different managerial roles.

Not only that, we also went to another GK village, GK Paraiso, to interact with the children there, and help build houses. We went on a tour around the village and I honestly was appalled by the state of the village.

On the 3rd day, we had a Christmas party organised by the BZSE students whereby we performed magic, song performance, dance and traditional costume parading. Students and residents of the village also performed a few items for us.

The 3 days ended so quickly that the impact of everything only occur to us after we leave Bacolod. 3 days in Bacolod have already impacted us so much. We left for Manila the next morning.

The next post will summarize what we have done in Manila. Do check it out! :)

pre trip jitters and post trip thoughts

When told that we are going to go to Philippines for a service learning trip, I was pretty excited and I was already looking forward to the trip. Hearing so much from the year 2s about their experiences, the things they did and the lessons learnt there, I was already anticipating for the trip.

Prior to the trip, my (and my family's) biggest concern was safety in Philippines. Typhoons, landslides, crime rates are issues regarding the safety of Philippines. My parents didn't allow me to go for the trip and it took a lot of effort to convince them. However, while doing some research work on the Philippines, i did realised that the crime rates are pretty high in the Philippines. It got me worried for awhile because i knew that through out the 6 days we will be staying in a village and i was quite worried.

Another concern will definitely be the cultural difference. One most important difference was language barrier. Although i know that most, if not all, filippinos speak english, they usually still speak in Tagalog. Bearing in mind our research project -- survey, that has to be conducted, i cannot really imagine myself carrying out the survey to 60 families and not knowing what to say because i don't know the language.

I think that now that i've come back from the trip, i realised that Philippines is not as bad was what i thought it would be. After visiting numerous Gawad Kalinga (GK) villages, i feel that safety isn't much of a problem in the villages. In fact, it is quite safe. A group of my friend actually went to survey families in 2 of the GK villages we visited and found out that there are almost no, or little crimes in the villages and if there are crimes, it is usually outside of GK villages. Yes, it might be true that Philippines has a high crime rate but since we're staying in the villages with the villagers, I feel safe throughout the whole trip.

Not only that, language isn't really a big problem. Most of the villagers are able to communicate in simple English and thus communicating with them wasn't a big headache. One of our intention is to conduct a research there in the GK villagers, and my group prepared surveys for the villagers to fill it up. We prepared it with Tagalog translation and there were also translator who helped us along.

I was also worried about the toilets. Who can survive without it? I expected the toilets to be very dirty and honestly, problematic. I was also worried initially about not having clean waters to bathe in. However, i realised that the villages have proper toilet, although not as good as those in Singapore, but at least there is a proper toilet. There were also water, although not as clean as what i wanted it to be, for us to bathe in. The water we bathed in was had a rust smell, and I feel that i'm cleaner when i didn't bathe. However, after asking the villagers, we found out that the water is actually clean, except that the water pipes are rusty, which resulted in the clean yet rusty water.

After one or two days to the trip, i found my pre trip jitters fading away. I think it is a good experience and i'm glad the villages are so much better than what i expected it to be.

back on a hiatus

it's been a long time since i've last blogged here. you O level peoples have finished your examinations, congratulations for that!

well for me, i'm into my second semester in BZSE right now. assignments are still piling up like crazy. that pretty much explains why i'm on a hiatus. besides assignments and common tests, the last major event that i've been involved in is the Ngee Ann Poly's RED Camp 6 that was held in November 2009.

RED Camp always holds a special place in my heart. It was when i attended RED Camp 5 last year that I knew of this course. The seniors told me so much about what the whole course is about, and what they do and it got me interested. I'm still glad i'm here.

Well, if you don't know one awesome fact about Ngee Ann Poly, i'm going to share it with you. If you know this fact and doubts it, i'm going to tell you how true it is. yes, one amazing thing that NP has to offer all, and i really mean ALL, students one chance (well if you're lucky you get more than one!) to go overseas. NP subsidises every NP student one overseas trip, be it study trip, overseas immersion programme, leadership/adventure trips or even service learning trips.

Why tell you this fact? Well, i've just been on a BZSE philippines study trip just a few days ago. I'm so going to share this with all of you in the next few days.

Meanwhile, its the Christmas season so enjoy your holidays people! Be blessed!

Till then!

xoxo,
Nianting