725- A well for all. 2nd hill tribe village

Alright team! Let's set out for our next task- Dig a well for the village! 

Make that two wells cos we split our big group to two teams :D

Same ol' same, we drove towards the border of Thailand from our camping site, took a boat and crossed towards the border of Myanmar.

Getting all the food supplies, digging tools ready!

Just in case you're wondering, why are we moving so much things?

Read me! Officially leaving the city behind!

But this time,

this village seemed to be even more worse than the first village we've been.

No sign of brick houses.

Even crappier toilets, somehow with just a hole with few leaves or wood planks covering outside while you settle your 'business'.

P/s The toilets above are the most luxurious one, which is at the entrance of the village. The worst ones are behind. Go on, keep on reading the article first :P

First we gather under the little hut near the entrance of the village, 

the village leader seemed to be discussing some serious errands with our group leader Mr Chung.

The location of wells I suppose? 

  While some of us played some chess and kill time instead! haha

Very original! David and Yee Ling :D 

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Discussion finished,

supplies all packed,

and here we go team! 

The lads are lucky enough to sit on cars...

While some of us sat on the most special transportation ever...

*Photo credits to KS Chay *

*Photo credits to KS Chay * 

It was surprisingly fun! 

For city animals like us, we didn't have a chance to sat on transportation like this before!

"Watch out! Deep mud hole ahead! Keep your feets up people!"

"Hold on! curve road ahead! Better don't fell out of the carriage!"

"Ahhhh some mud got on me!"
"Hahahaha good thing we wore sandals! Looks like we're gonna enjoy some mud pedicure today!"

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Here's where the real fun kicks in.

As you can see, houses in this village were merely built with woods, roofs made with leaves.

The living condition is far off than the first village we went.

Our mission is to dig at least 2 wells for them,

at least the villagers won't have to collect rain water for drinking purpose.

At least, 

the water from well would be a much better alternatives.

Why not use the water from mountains you might ask? Just like the first village?

Well, let's just say luck wasn't on their side as the village is not well geographically located near the mountains.

Plus, 

the village area  is very wide spread, hence water resources is not reachable to every household.

This well was previously done by volunteers and villagers.

And nope, it's still not the end.

The villagers still had to keep on digging deeper for water resources.

We couldn't even see the end of it!


Just. For. That. Cup. Of. Drinkable. Water.

First, we carried out a bit of site observation,
just to get a glimpse of what a 'well' should look like.

Second,
we split out team in two groups. The A and B.
Honestly saying, limited manpower is used while digging a well.
A well capacity can only fit no more than 3 person,
while the others wait aside for takeovers.

But luck wasn't on our side,
a sudden rain pour made the team to put aside of the task first as digging gets difficult.
Somehow,
in every scenario, a little sunlight and warm shed in.

The old lady quickly gathered as much rain waters as she could.
Without much consideration,
she led us stayed in her little hut for a while, just to avoid the rain.

Knowing that how precious rain water are to her,
she generously offered us the water for us to wash the muds off our body,
wash our hands,
clean the dishes.
(Of course we tried to use as less water as possible)

We do not speak the same language.
Neither Thai, neither Karen, neither English.

But love and kind to one another says it all.

And I will always remember the kind look on the old lady's face.
Knowing that, sharing, is such a simple and noble act,
 despite of your background or current living situation.

If she is willing to share, when she barely have anything,
what more excuses could we have?

Even the children in this village (just like the previous village children) decided to pop in and help :)

They really are angels.
:)

Of course, how could we forget the lads in our team!
Ray, David and Joe.
I remember when we started out the digging work,
the lads worked relentlessly and forbidding us girls to step in the digging zone.

Why?
cos there were red ants, ants, ants everywhere!
Sorry that you guys got bitten by ants a lot :(

But thank you!
we really appreciate that,
you guys truly are, the gentlemen of the year! (Thumbs up)
Aaaand that's why we girls should get the lunch ready for you guys hahaha

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Alright,
here's comes a little problem.
Some of us had to 'settle-own-business'
... .... ... ...
No sign of toilets anywhere,
so we asked the old lady, through body language

Body language: Putting hands on stomach, with sad faces, squatting down 
(I hope it's obvious enough!!!)

The old lady laughed with joy,
haha! the body language worked!

And she showed us where it was,
and we were shocked when we saw how it was.

*Photo credits by YeeLing*

It basically was a hole in ground.
With flies flying around.
And few wood pieces around it.
That's all I could describe.

Imagine,
how lucky we were,
to have comfy toilets to settle our business! (cry in appreciation)

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Back to work!
No harm having a bit of fun :D

We call this...
"Alice the pretty prisoner working on her daily digging task while being observed by 5 supervisors"

Good craic ;)

We even had a chance to drink some water from one of the wells which have been done.

We were quite reject towards it at first,
after all,
drinking water directly from a well? Seriously Mr Chung?!

When you're in Rome,
do what the Romans do.

And I was glad I drank some of the water from the well,
it actually taste pretty okay...
Much much better than rain water of course!

We then head to the local schools there,
where food supplies, stationeries will be distributed.

Once again, I would like to thank donors from Malaysia and Ireland,
With your help,
we have successfully distributed packs of rice noodles to TWO villages.

The children could now enjoy warm meals in schools :)

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*Photo credits to Adelene*

People say we were volunteers, with great love to help those in need.
But little we know,
the villagers are the ones who truly helped and inspired us all.

Everything in life,
every small little things,
from water, electricity, roof over our head, comfy bed even to comfy toilets,
suddenly became all so precious.

Things which we used to take for granted,
people we loved whom we used to take for granted.

See the lil angel in the picture?
She was playing in a pool full of mud after the rain pour,
she looked so content of the lil playground she has!
And that's how simple it is.

What more can you ask in life?


Be kind to one another- Ellen DeGeneres

725- Let's do this! 1st hill tribe village.

Just a bit before we reach this village,

that's how we managed to cross to the other side border...

And NOW,

the start of 1st day voluntary work... With "nature-style" alarm clock,

or what I would like to call it as 'rooster-howling'!

Woke up with a pretty sore backache, as we are all not used to sleep on hard wooden floors...

But no time for complaints! hurry up, time for breakfast! And get to work!

We quickly had a tour around the village we stayed in.

The local schools are run as boarding schools,

as children lived far away from schools, some may take up hours of walking just to get to school.

It is a good news to know that there are funded schools and dormitories for boys and girls :)

The girls' dormitory.

Getting fresh up for the day.

The girls' just sat beside to enjoy their breakfast instead...

Had a quick tour of their kitchen.

The children take two meals a day, which are 7:00 am and 4:00pm.

And from what I see, 

their meals are mostly the same. 

Big rice bowl with plenty of vegetables.

Vegetables planted by themselves, 

or collected from the mountains.

Here's a video showing you the plantation farm run by local children :)

Breakfast spotcheck! hehehe

The children are mostly shy, which makes them even more adorable!

Now that I think of the children in my local orphanage in JB,

boy... They really are a bunch of outgoing and crazy ones! :P

We then carry on and saw...

On-going construction of new school! 

I couldn't resist the feeling of leaping in joy!

Probably because of living in wooden houses and crappy environment, 

seeing such a well building being built for education makes me even cherish more and felt happy for the children.

We then carry on our journey,

walking beside lush and greenery forests.

And yes, we're still under close observation by the armed forces. 

Or what I would like to put as, positively, we're being protected! 

Passing by the principal's house, lovely little hut isn't it? :)

The local 'kedai runcit"/ mini grocery store with armed security! Even better than our local supermarkets, lol! 

With much introduction touring the village, 

here's where the real fun kicked in.

Our task for this village:

To dig a square shaped base for the built of water tower.

Water tower is then used for storing water collected from the mountains.

As shown from the picture above, long blue pipes were everywhere in the village. 

With perseverance, funding and three years' of hard work done by Mr Chong and volunteers,

the village is able to assemble long, blue water pipes and 

successfully obtained water from the mountains to the village,

with a 8 KM long of water pipes, that is.

Just to get clear and drinkable water, that is.

Aaaand that's where (the mountain part) the village got their water resources from.

And to think back of our metropolitan life,

we were troubled by the number of toilets, basins in our house, whether it is enough so that we don't have to fight over toilets,

even troubled by the different designs we should choose for our basins.

Whereas somebody else on the other side of the earth were worrying whether they could get clear drinking water today, tomorrow, or never. 

Now that we know their situation,

let's just lend a helping hand and see what we can do for them.

Here's a video of us starting the work..

We then continue to dig, dig, and dig...

Conclusion: Digging seems easy, but it ain't easy!

Luckily there are locals helping us out, 

(probably thinking...)

"Are you kiddin' me? No way are they going to get this done by dawn! Why are these city people so weak? Don't they need to dig at their homes for water at all?"

(Just pure imagination in my head) 

Even the children decided to stop their games and help instead!

These little angels do whatever they could,

even with their little effort, 

dug the soil with their bare little hands,

but little they know,

deep down, that's the real spirit of human being.

A little help doesn't count as little,

as long we are willing to give a helping hand to those in need.

Because a little from me and a little from you,

that would sum up as a pretty BIG little ;)

Oh and no harm having a bit of fun with the children while slacking away from the digging work hehehe

Say HI to my new Karen friends, Naw Hser and Naw Mit! :)

They may seem like ordinary teenagers to you, or typical high school age students.

But somehow, these two little girls have inspired me so much more.

From a far, local village away from modern education neccesities, 

they are still able to socialise and speak a few good sentences of English with me.

And how friendly they are! 

And I do hope, one day,

they would continue their journey of learning, 

empowering, inspiring more young women in the village for further education.

This reminds me of my favourite author, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, 

in her book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to lead,

 

she wrote:

'The courage to reach for more opportunities, sit at more tables and believe more in ourselves.'

Interested to find out more about Lean In?

Join the Lean In community here!

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Because a group photo is a MUST despite of the glaring sunshine and unbearable hot weather!

And a MUST after all the hard work done!

We then head back to our old school camping site..

As a volunteer English teacher at my orphanage, 

I couldn't resist seeing something new paste on the notice board...

Haha! EXAMS! 

I am very pleased to see the variety of subjects offered in school, 

Hygiene, English, Math, Myanmar language and etc,

well done! 

:)

Another shy boy leaning beside watching us ;)

She. Is. Just. Too. Adorable!

You might be curious, 

a place with no internet connection, sometimes without phone line at all,

or even to the basic - lights,

what does the children do to spend their free time?

Well, let's see,

planting, studying, played some games, cooking, cleaning and 

singing! 

Meet the boy band of Wai Ler Mu village.

And as promised in the previous article, 

here's the video of the children singing while we arrived to the village on the first day.

And yes I couldn't help and went 'kacau' the sleeping one behind nyehehehe

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The sign outside the old school.

Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Give Up.

A big thank you for readers who showed interest to our volunteering activities,

likewise,

if you're keen to participate, theres always volunteer activity carried out by Mr Chong every month, departing from Chiangmai, Thailand. 

And to different tribe village for different purposes.

For example, some may require water resources, light, solar power and etc.

Click me to our Facebook Group- Love Without A Border to find out more!

Stay tuned on this blog for our next mission to the other village, 

where their situation is in need of a more desperate help than we imagine....