whoah. im back from east timor! i shall try to be as brief as i can about it. ( psst, will add photos and videos tmr.)
18-11-07
we all met at the airport at 4.30pm. checked in our luggage and Ps Guna prayed for our trip. then we all went to have our dinner. well, i just ate a cheese pancake. then when the time was up, we went to the boarding gate. i was sitting with isabel for my flight to Bali. we told lame jokes and then we played stupid games with joshua. those that go 'the leaf fell this way that way..blah' or the 'bangbangbangbang..who died?' kind of games. it was so fun coz it's like only joshua, joellee and i knew how to answer correctly. we reached bali and headed for the hotel for our one night stay. it was quite good since they actually had complimentary drinks for us. however, it's a bad idea to really start the trip that way as we get distracted easily that way. slept only at like 1+am that night?
19-11-07
i woke up late!!! i always feel super guilty and bad if i wake up late. but well, at least we were still in time for breakfast and all that lar. went to the airport for our flight to ET. finally. i sat with shalyn this time. slept for this flight as i was really tired. whee~ we reached east timor! lalala~ im not the kind who expresses alot of excitement when i reach a certain place i guess.. or maybe i was just super tired. we first went to Happy restaurant for a drink. then we youths headed to our Backpackers' Hotel. isabel, shermin, shalyn and i shared a room. it was like a 2-room flat to us lar. haha.. then there was a short briefing and introduction by alisa, the missionary that agape's sponsored. then while some of them went out to get the goodie bag stuff, the rest of us stayed in the hotel to practise the skit. dinner was at Happy restaurant. at nite, we had this factory production line to pack the goodie bags. i packed the Eyeglass. heh. it went very fast. haha.. we packed 200+ that night. isabel and nat were busy doing the arts & craft samples. then we had to help draw out shapes for the kids to stick too. it was a tough job! everyone had to help out. then there was a de-brief session before everyone continued with the drawings. slept at like 1 plus again? but that's east timor time lar. in s'pore, it's 12 plus. yea.
20-11-07
i woke up late. sigh. again, i felt guilty as 6 pple had to share the 1 toilet. but oh well.. in the morning, we went to the school to conduct the arts & craft. nat and i took the pre-II class. their craft was to stick teared coloured paper onto the pics that we've drawn for them. we only had 4 sticks of glue-one for each row. so in the end, both of us walked around to glue the pictures for them so they can stick the paper on immediately. the children were really adorable, as in the way they did their art. they didnt complain bout their pictures at all. just plain happy and contented with what they had. after our class were done, i went to help out at the P6 with shermin, isabel and xuan. they were a fun class to be with too! as they speak a lil of english, it's still okay to talk to them. i like this guy Domingoes. he's 10yrs old i think? yar.. he's a sweet boy. haha.. he drew a nice mask too.
in the afternoon, after lunch, we went over to isabel's house. some of the guys went to get the soccer and goal post items while some others went to get the goodie bag stuff that we were short of. the house was just left with nat, shermin, shalyn, joel lee, don and i. so we played cards outside the house as it was much more cooler. first we played daidee? or was it bridge? oh whatever. then the six of us played Stupid. gosh, i actually was S-T-U-P- lar. haha.. anyway, when the rest of them were back, we went to pack the goodie bags again. then we went over to see the guys set up the goal posts.
dinner was at an aussie restaurant where they had a table tennis table and a pool table for us to play. after dinner, i played once-table tennis. gosh, i sucked. it's been 4 yrs since i've played i guess? and i wasnt very good at it in the first place anyway. good thing sam kept giving in lar. haha. that nite, we practised the storytelling. yep. then bathed and slept.
21-11-07
woke up later than planned to again. it's always been like that lar. urgh. well, that morning, we went to Shalom School again. but it was the guys calling the shots for the Sports Clinic. the girls + josh were supposed to be packing the remaining goodie bags. but josh and i had to take the photos of the kids. as in he took the photos while i was to record down. haha.. yea. it wasnt boring but rather fun to see all the children lining up and looking so brightened up to take the photo. walked around the school to interact with the children after that. took photos and got to know a few small girls. there's this vanessa from my pre-II class. i remembered her as she kept bringing her artwork to me. haha.. soo cute rite?
photos of the children!
surrounded! (see that boy looking at the camera? that's domingoes!)
joshua's little army.
some of them going home or out of the parade ground.
we also mingled with the older ones. there's a point of time during the soccer game, a huge group of kids just gathered together and we sang loron ida nae, maromak diak and other songs. in return, they sang back for us too! =DD it was a nice song. heh. after that, we girls went with alisa to rackey(is this how it's spelt?) the village mate lahotu for our party site. yea. came back and continued talking to the children. then jeanette and i had to go back to backpackers for a while to grab balloons due to some last minute changes. yea. when we came back, together with lunch, we heard the P6 class singing that nice song again. here's the video!
i think it's a photo taken when they're singing. (the P6 class!)
them praying before dismissal.
in the afternoon, we went to mate lahotu to conduct the party! the party wasnt really as good as we all expected it would be lar. and we all reflected on this note and decided that once again, we didnt pray enough and leave things to God instead of taking things into our own hands. yea.
games with the younger ones at the mate lahotu party.
photos before we left the village. (some repeated ones hor..)
at night, we had our usual de-brief and then retired to our rooms. oh, isabel had to pump balloons for the deco at the school for the party the next day. the guys helped out lar. yar. gosh, it's difficult to tie those long balloons. i really salute isabel! haha.. then bathed and bedtime.
22-11-07
in the morning, while the rest were busy decorating the room for the party, josh and i continued with the photo-taking. when we were done, we went to help out too. in the end, we started the programme late. we were given only like half an hour to carry out the party. but well, despite the limited time we had, we sang our songs, we played the game, we did the skit. and it really ended off well. Praise the Lord! =) after the children's party, we went class to class to give out the clothings and the goodie bags. they all liked them very much. heh. yep. then we took photos and all that again lar. went to the P6 class and requested for a farewell song. their songs are really nice. yep.
then we had a ministry time with the teachers of the school. Ps thomas shared a word then we all prayed for the teachers. nat and i prayed for this lady teacher. even though she didnt understand english, you know the presence of God was there as she was tearing as we prayed for her. so were many others too. yea. then they presented us with tais and prayed for us too. so it's like we've received more than what we can give to them. yea.
after that, we went to this same dessert cafe we went to 2 yrs ago to have icecream. then we went to this same market place where they sell tais and stuff. yea. i didnt buy any lar. yar. after that, we went to the beach! at the beach, we played the game of throwing the stones and seeing how many times it can jump. before that, we waded in the water. yea.
for dinner, we went to this restarant by the beach. sang this new song jeanette taught us.
'HOHOHOHO-HOSANNA, HAHA-HALLELUJAH, HEHEHE-HE LOVES ME, I'VE GOT THE JOY OF THE LORD.' and you can either keep going up and up or down and down. it's very good warmup song. heh. isabel and i sang it over and over again. haha.. i ordered beef bolognese for dinner and the portion was super huge can! it's like double that of pasta mania! haha.. it's needless to say i couldnt consume every morsel of it. on the bus ride home, isabel and i sang the song. gosh..my voice kept cracking. just shows how long ive not been singing choirish songs. haha..
i bathed the last that nite so slept the latest, 12.30pm. had to wake up at 5.15am the next morning. but...
23-11-07
guess what? my phone was still in s'pore time so i had to set it at 4.15am. i woke up and saw it was 4.53 so i thought there's still time! but hey, it's actually 5.53 ET time lar! so all of us were late to climb the Jesus Statue lar. climbing it this time and singing simultaneously appeared much more tougher than the other time. i guess we climbed at a slower pace the other time. heh. yea. so at the top, we did devotion there. then we had to go back down again. came back to backpackers and had our breakfast at the indian restaurant there. ate cheese prata which took a long time to come. and it was huge and not very sumptous actually. went back to our rooms to pack our luggage before having a thanksgiving sharing. yea. then we all had to head for the airport straight.
the Jesus Statue.
the beautiful coastline.
on the way there, we were told there were some stone-throwing at a refugee camp near the airport. thank God we escaped it. =) well, the flight to bali, i was sitting with jeanette and joel lee. joel lee is super funny lar. he stole jeanette's bun and kept peeking at cards. haha.. at bali, we had a few hours to spare so we got to go to a mall nearby to shop. walked around with isabel, shermin and shalyn. the stuff there are quite cheap considered. yea. bought reindeer hairbands for myself, jody and yeun to wear on xmas! =) heh. then shermin and i wanted to buy this polo tee from esprit but apparently it doesnt look good on both of us. yar lor. after that, we went to this cute shop selling cute stuff. yar. bought a strawberry printed plastic case for use as a toiletry bag. bought a pencil case there as faith's bday present and also a black notebook. heh. restrained myself from buying the earstuds. haha..
then isabel had to find ways to spend her money. yar..she bought a few stuff. oh, i found just the type of hairband that ive been trying to find. and this has got strawberry prints! it's very cheap! just about $1.65 in sing dollars! at first, shermin and i miscalculated and thought it was $10++ lar. haha.. then we bought krispy kreme! =) they're at a low cost too..less than $10 for a dozen. after buying, we ate at A&W. it's been eons since ive eaten there? there's no more outlet in singapore, sadly. sigh. then we headed back to the airport for our flight.
at the airport, i played bridge while waiting. yea.. sat with isabel and joshua on the plane. but there were some changes in seats after a while. isabel, don, jk and i played a few rounds of daidee and bridge before stopping the game. i read my book while some continued. then everyone stopped playing cards and slept. oh yes, i didnt mention this. my book seems to be very interesting. haha.. jeanette borrowed for a while, then samuel browsed through the entire book lar. and nat wants to borrow after im done. lol. it is interesting. The Tipping Point. =)
reached singapore finally and went home immediately with my daddy!
sarahluikitleng`
braces;
small&handy bible;