Berakit Mission Trip 13-16 June

Berakit Mission Trip photos! Gonna be quite internet traffic intensive, so please be patient. And do click on the photos for better view on them :)

Day 1

Whole team gathering at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal early morning.

Wow loaded with cards..

90min boat trip!

Took the chance to "eat air" at the back of the Ferry.

Monkey Face 1. While waiting for travel agent settlements upon arrival at Tg Pinung.

Monkey Face 2. Samuel joins in.

In high spirits despite the initial waiting time.

Even had time to do some tidbit, ice cream shopping.

Thereafter proceeded to Pelangi Hotel for lunch enroute Palong village.

Hungry.. but the food was seriously not bad.

Ok, stomachs filled. Time to move out to Palong village.

2 hrs later in the village. But everyone feels a bit lost in translation at first.

First, we had to clear up the church which was to be our shelter for the 3 days.

Cleared up and now to be cleaned up.

Oooh the church window view towards the open sea.

Oooh, Sam Fung's glamour shot with priceless background.

Our neighbour's houses.

The initial part of the long bridge leading to the church (while was built over water).

Time to check out the area which we had to build the new shelter.

Veron and village headman, as he gives his instructions.

Time to start work!! Clear the ground and level it first.

We need to draw and carry water from the well to drink and bathe. Tough work man.

Thats me .. 苦 中 作 乐

Yep.. 苦 中 作 乐 again.

真 的 好苦 啊!!

Back at the church, our neighbour loaned us his sampan for leisure.

OCX and I, enjoying the sunset.

Day 2

The boys smelling the early morning breeze.

That's breakfast. Excessive egg diet. Made us develop serious egg phobia after that.

Start work again. OCX knocking the planks in to hold the concrete in place later.

Needed more sand, so Algene, Nat and Sam Fung took a sampan out to grab more.

Concrete mixing time! Our first time doing that.

We were a bit slow at the first round, but subsequently got quite adept at it.

Juz doing my share of the mixing.

The kids playing on a pile of sand. Laid back lifestyle.

The simplest of things could be their toys for the entire day.

Sam Fung's award winning shot.

The headman leads by example. The villagers were seriously amazing skillful at their crafts.

One of the few charcoal producing dome ovens in the village.

Laying and leveling the concrete.

Yes, they love us!

Subsequent concrete mixes were much prettier and faster. Much thanks to the villagers.

At the end of the day, we were rewarded with a nice relaxing sampan ride back to the church.

Some guys took the liberty to take a dip in the water.

Uncle David trying hard to save the sampan after some nifty boat-rocking action by Dan Fung.

To no avail though. Haha!!

Quite bath and enjoying the sunset soon after.

Day 2 debrief!

Day 3

Another self made morning breakfast using purely charcoal heat.

Our pig sty.

Braving the extreme sun and heat to start work.

Finally the concrete is done in the morning. But someone ran over it!

Time to make the benches and tables after lunch. Our own carpentry work.

Our masterpiece. Which needed further improvements but not bad for first timers :)

Its not all work. We took time to interact with the kids. Such as swings and soccer!

Joel found his favourite kid.

Just a few of the people who worked on the shelter! Mission complete for now.

Day 4

On our way back to Singapore at the pier. What a fantastic experience. Notice the new tan?

June Retreat 07

Wasn't the most memorable camp for me but very fruitful nonetheless! :)

We had to change our ultra-mini-van to a quite-mini-van. Hence this stopover.

See? Not very big. But no dampened spirits! :)

This shot was meant for cyrus and elaine. Oops

Lookalikes? Hmm.

Whole Church queueing to go thru a small gate to see disgusting unripe strawberries.

Nat's sense of timing at blocking photos are impeccable.

Does it again! See?

Christian and Nanaho!

Disgusting white strawberries. Looks like aphid infestation.

OCX bluffing small children.

Mmmm.. tasty!

Shalomie and heavy weight Zareth! :)

Nice purple-flowers-whose-name-i-cant-remember

Bees squeezing to enter the colony

Big fat sunflowers! Taken by SamFungster

aiSHAY!

Nicky Ho, my fellow Naruto fan! :)

Sweeeeeeeet flowers. Who wants?

The ladies favourite. :(

Oooh, my sexy roomate hahaha. Taken by Nat

Dialect's skit. Quite amazing and realistic.

Wei2 vs. Uncle Raymond

Sealing off a deal.

Secellites at Camp!

Remnants of Polar bear night!! 3.30am

Another Camp over. What's next I wonder?

Japan first impressions

My first impression of Japan (Osaka)? Its the land of pachinkos! Those small metal ball machines where you roll the metal balls from the top of the machines to the bottom? Yeah, they are ALL OVER THE PLACE. More than toilets?! What the..

Its been fun so far, went to Universal Studios Japan yesterday with Jess and OCX. Quite fun and although it was a Sunday, it wasnt too crowded. Ooops, checking out time now. Gotta go. Catch a train to Kyoto and maybe, just maybe can find some place to upload some photos. Bai bai! テンプレート

Missing in Action

That's kinda how I feel at the moment. I recall a few weeks before my exams had started I was all looking forward to my Japan trip, but now I think I'll miss everyone back home. And for one I certainly feel like I'll be missing in action, for runs, badminton, Secell, services, church and the very frequent coffee sessions! :)

So it is, I'll be flying off 5.15pm tomorrow on 18th and back at 7.30pm thereabouts on 29th May. Very soon, will have to travel again for Church camp from 4-8th June and a mission trip 13-15th June. Quite a fair bit of passport stamps in a single month. I think will have one more for Bintan with Uni lads somewhere in between the free days. Haha!

Alright, it's all set. Oh wait, I havent started packing.. Hmm I think I'll do it tomorrow. Everyone is asleep now anyway, and my things are strewn all over my temp house at the moment. First up, I need to find my luggage - tomorrow. Will continue to update this blog in Japan so everyone knows we're safe! Hope I come back in one piece :)

Love ya all,
Dan

Sorry

Sorry because of the terribly infrequent updates! Does that fact that I was in the midst of examinations justify anything? Hmm, I guess not. My Final Year Project presentation is due tomorrow. Final trip to school as a student. Finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I'll miss it. Terribly..

I remember some 12 years, I was walking into ACS(I) through the backgate, from the AYE, as every other morning. It was the first day of the 2nd term of the academic year. I was in Secondary 1. I remember doing the math while walking alone into school, counting the number of terms I will have to go through to finish Secondary school. 1 down, only 15 more to go!! I couldn't wait to graduate from ACS. But when the end of it all came, I really didn't wanna go. It's the same now, I know it'll all be dearly missed, this beautiful varsity life.

Silly Joel Chin posted some ultra unglam photos from our forgotten past in his blog. That's me in one of the photos, when I was 15! It didn't seem that long ago really, but that meant it has been almost 10 years now. Now, that's a long time. Things were a lot simpler back then :) But never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed how these 10 years actually turned out. Considering just how my last 5 years had turned out now, I'll put my money on the fact that the next 5 will only be as (if not more) tipsy turvy as its predecessor. Yet, I know it'll be nonetheless fruitful and enriching. Thank God!!

Starry night

Its a beautiful bright and clear starry night tonight. Somehow starry nights always bring back memories. Some memories I had in Thailand, some in Cameron Highlands during Bible Camp, and the many times I just laid on my back looking at the night sky.

It's marvellous really, when the clouds clear up like they do tonight. Everyone should just stop to look, even for a glance.