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?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -
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
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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.
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....
