When you wave goodbye,
boarding on the plane home,
back to the life you're familiar with.
Somehow, feelings and emotions gained from new journey stays.
Even better, friendship stays and continue to grow.
78 days have passed from our volunteering journey.
(Love Without A Border- Thailand and Myanmar)
I question myself,
what changes have volunteering brought to my life?
To your life?
After seeing the plight of others,
and the urge to help them,
because together,
we make lives better.
And today,
with all the hard work and funding from our 725 team,
We have finally made it happen!
The base for the water tanks we digged together and the funding has provided a reliable water mini-tower system for the villagers of Wai Ler Mu :)
37500 litres of water is saved for all villagers to use!
well done team :)
A big thank you to our leader Chong as well!
Continue to monitor the building process of water tanks while we already head back to Malaysia.
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| Mr Chong (Right hand side) Friendship Without A Border. |
From carrying the supplies over the river to Myanmar,
to buying food supplies for the village,
And how can anyone forget?
8 hours of bumpy hill roads from Chiangmai to the borders of Thailand!
It was all worth it.
Before I flew to Thailand to start this volunteering journey,
I panicked.
I have no idea what it's like to live in the wilds and camping,
I have no idea how to spend the night with mosquitos and torchlight,
I have no idea what it's like to cross the borders,
I have no idea what I should do to really help them,
But I am really glad to step out from comfort zone once again
and
it completely changed my life.
The sudden realisation,
city animals like us took water and electricity for granted completely.
I mean sure, you pay the bills you get water and light.
But what about places where
even if you wanted to pay but there just ain't proper systems at all.
Sudden realisation #2
I can actually be a vegetarian for 4 days?!
Hey when you're up in the mountains and there were only vegetables,
just eat what you have!
And surprisingly till today,
it led me to an every week grocery trip to Lidl (supermarket)with bags full of vegetables
because fresh vege got eaten up really fast! :D
Sudden realisation #3
Everyone around me has a story to be told.
Even the lovely tuk-tuk driver lady has story to share with me.
A strong, independent woman she is.
"You look very young! How old are you?"
"Ah no no! I'm 21, but we are all young!"
"Hahaha, my son is 20! He is going to university soon!"
"Ah you must be very happy!"
"Yes, very happy. I only live with my two sons. Very happy he can study more. And now I drive tuk-tuk, more free time with sons."
The power of love.
#Learning to listen.
Because I learnt so much more from stories of volunteering friends, villagers, local Thai people and so much more.
#Continue to listen.
Just like what Jean, one of our awesome volunteering mates shared with us,
"Volunteering is like a relay marathon,
every month every volunteering group is sent to the borders,
but we all share the same purpose,
building all our strengths together and continue every month passing on care and concern
and ultimately, brought happiness to the village
Volunteering, connecting more caring people together."
78 days have passed.
What is your new story to be shared and told? :)
Today,
I am proud and honoured to be representing Malaysia in attending One Young World summit.
What is One Young World you may ask?
- UK-based not-for-profit that gathers together the brightest young people from around the world, empowering them to make lasting connections to create positive change.
- Stage an annual Summit where the most valuable young talent from global and national companies, NGO's, universities and other forward-thinking organisations are joined by world leaders, acting as the One Young World Counsellors.
- At the Summit, delegates debate, formulate and share innovative solutions for the pressing issues the world faces
I sincerely hope to share with more delegates regarding the issue on the borders of Thailand and Myanmar and the concern of education opportunities for less privileged children.
Hope to be inspired by talented and passion young delegates from 190 countries!
From education focus, refugees, politics, environment,
we are all gathered here, today at One Young World, Dublin Ireland :)
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Pre-conference gathering night (Thanks to the British Irish Chamber of Commerce and Irish ambassadors who organised it!) And my sponsor to the One Young World conference 2014, Puan Sri Datin Agnes Chan Pui Leorn from Malaysia. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to reach out for more opportunities! Her great vision in hoping more young Malaysians in joining community development has truly inspired me. With help and support from caring people such as Puan Sri, One Young World is a great platform for all to gather and make impact to our country Malaysia, to the world, to ourselves. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Read, share and make an impact. Also big thank you for wonderful friends who inspired me throughout, from designing logos (Thank you Audrey!), giving me advices, encouraging me on blogging, so much to appreciate! So stay tune to this blog and I will be sharing my experiences in One Young World conference very soon :) |
