OUR REFLECTIONS

jac said that we have to post our reflections by tonight. so i should start early.

though i must say i didn't consistently write my journal, but i do remember certain things that really left a deep impression.. first of all was the hike up the hill into the forest to gather firewood. by the time i actually got to the bottom of the hill.. i was really feeling exhausted!! it was really a long walk and i was quite surprised that they were still going on strong because i was dying and so the climb up was indeed worse than i thought. almost fell once or twice but i should be thankful that the few of them, i think around 6-8 of them who brought me up. of course i think i must thank gao yuan because he was the one who seriously stayed by me and made sure that i was safe at all times... so i shall add some photos! here we have them climbing up this STEEP slope.

steep beyond words and it did not have any steps but they still got up as if it was a flight of staircase.. haha. they tried to get me up... but figured i would be safer where i was. haha. they wanted to pull me up with a rope. HAHA. im too heavy for that. so i helped them by taking care of the firewood while they went around and found firewood. they disappeared and came back with LOADS of them. haha. i just stood there and tried to help with tying while taking photos haha. so here's a photo of all of them... i guess. and more. because by the time we reached the foot of the hill once again they met up with some of their classmates and so we took pictures..

we can't really see their faces... but haha that's alright. you know they are cute. haha. so i was utterly impressed by the time i reached back to the school. oh. they even made me carry all the light firewood while they carried the heavy ones. what gentlemen right?(: they totally made my day. really wished we could spend more time at that school because it felt like we were there for a really really short time and we didn't really have the time to interact with them enough.

okay i'm not going to write a long reflection like ms koh, partly because it's very late right now and i have tuition tml and also to make everyone's job simple (don't need to read so much). so next up. the other two schools didnt really leave me with much impact because we only went there for one day or even less than that. only that i do remember that the second school we went to, when we wanted to leave, they started to come to us and asked us for our autograph! like we were stars.. i think that's something we would definitely not forget. how many times do we actually get to experience that? but i felt so welcome and so happy that i was there, not only because of the signatures but they made me feel they want to remember me even though i was there for only that one particular day. so it really felt very heartwarming.

so next up, well. the last school, i guess left a deep impression to anyone and everyone on this trip. i'm not sure about other classes but i'm certain that in our class, yeechuin and amanda shouted like crazy to get them to sit down at their places. haha. i tried to shout but i think i was not having a good throat to actually shout so nothing came out, or at least not loud enough. it was indeed disastrous like.. they didn't really listen to us. they wanted to go home. they were very attention seeking and they made us do alot of stuff.. like drawings... and when we draw for one, we would have to end up drawing for all of them... or at least all who knew that we could draw. they were hyperactive.. they moved around in class and the four of us just couldn't handle them. jiahe was just too much like a loving father to them. i will always remember this rebellious one, ma zhao ran... yu ang's brother. from the first time i met him, he was already like against me or something. always finding trouble. not willing to do or participate in our event. so the rest of them decided that we should just not care about these people who do not want to participate and just focus on the rest of them so we made these people stand outside the classroom. somehow, i hoped that they would actually join in to these activities. so i stayed outside and talked to them and two of them went in to listen. while the other two, including ma zhao ran, wanted to take their bags and leave. they were trying to grab their bags through the windows. and after much persuasion.... i still didn't manage to keep him in. so he left. and disappeared. i wonder what was it we did that he didn't like, that he just didn't want to be in the classroom. were we boring? were we fierce? were we unfriendly? i don't know and perhaps would never. but yu ang brought me to him after the lesson to apologise. though obviously very unwilling. but i'm glad he actually still listens to yu ang.

i'm actually quite happy to go to four different schools, though i wish we focused on less and spend more time there. but going to four different schools showed me how four different groups of people actually react to us. the first school was more than welcoming. they were like treating us as guest of honours. the second school treated us like celebrities. the third school clicked with us almost immediately and the fourth school didn't really seem to like our attention. it's very different. perhaps it's the conditions of the village that makes a difference to how the children behave.

though i do know that no matter how much we thought that this 14 days would be very long before the trip, when we are on the trip, when we are at yunnan, this 14 days will pass before we know and then after the trip. you wished that this 14 days had been longer. it's funny. but... i really hope to go back there again with everyone(:

jumping.