Orphanage Visit

HEY EVERYONE!
Alex D. here.Just wanted to blog about my orphanage visit experience:)

Well,at first it didn't really sink into me that we were visiting an orphanage for handicapped children or even adults until we were at the orphanage itself.We were welcomed by the vice director.She was very friendly and I felt comfortable around her. She led us to a classroom on the 2nd floor.It was pretty small compared to our classrooms. She told us about the history of the orphanage and about the children there. Most of them were mentally disabled and some were physically disabled. Slowly it started to sink into me that I would have to think of topics to talk to the children there.It was really difficult as we all didn't want to talk about stuff that they were sensitive about and the fact that they hardly understood English made it worse, but somehow we all managed to feel at ease when we met the children.A few of us cried and it reminded me of the blind and disabled children I met in Laos which probably were in a worse and more pitiful state.I think compared to the blind children in laos,their conditions were not as bad.

After touring around the school,we started work.some of us stayed at the classroom to build the library and the rest went to decorate the classroom on the 1st floor.we printed the photos we took with them on the spot. They were fasinated by the printer and some of the boys were helping Arin with the printing.I'm so proud of the library that we built for the children. It's good to know that we've left our mark at the orphanage and that's something i'm really proud of.

I think it was really hard for all of us to leave the orphanage.I was already very attached to this girl. We didn't really communicate but somehow I could feel this connection.I nearly cried when we were leaving.

I think that this was the most significant activity throughout this whole trip as it made me realise how much I've taken my abilities for granted. I really would love to go back and do more for this orphanage.

That's all I gotta say for now! See you girls in school next year!
Bye!
Take care!:)
Love,
Alexandria De Costa

Orphanage Visit

hello everyone ! it's vanessa anne here ! i am here to blog about my orphanage experience.

Honestly, i was pretty nervous when we reached the orphanage and sat inside the classroom because i really wasn't sure of what to expect and how i was going to approach the children at the orphanage. But when we were told that there were some of them who were our age and even older, i started to feel even more nervous because i was afraid that they would be more sensitive towards the things i say to them as it may trigger something in their minds or something.

When we went down into the classroom where almost all of them were seated at, I cried when they sang the " abc " song. It somehow moved me alot to hear them sing and i began to realise how lucky i was to have everything back in singapore.

When we started to mix around with them, i felt really happy knowing that we were all doing something good for them and we were actually helping them. Nicole, Ivy and I was playing with this small boy and he was taking many pictures with my camera.He was actually really good at taking pictures and i felt really happy seeing how much he was enjoying it. I enjoyed the whole experience over there as it was so overwhelming and moving. I felt really good about myself after the visit as i knew that i did something good for someone else. I'm glad to have experienced it :)





well thats about it ! and thank you everyone for making my trip a very memorable one (: see you guys in school ! take care

love,
vanessa anne

DAY 2 (continued!)

heyy everyone! 

the ride to Ha Long Bay was 4 hours, most of us slept on the way there. BUT halfway there, thank gosh there was a stop so we could get off our bums and walk around a little bit at the HANDICRAFT CENTRE! Mr. Loi told us a little bit about the handicraft centre before we arrived and this is the little that i know because i wasn't paying attention :D because the government did not want the disabled to be a burden to the society, they specially created courses i think, where they could learn how to make beautiful handicrafts and then sell it, which would help support them. they are also provided free housing, i think. anyway, so we arrived at the handicraft centre and WOW, the handicrafts we saw were gorgeous, especially the hand sewn designs on cloths, wallets and pouches. there were also, wooden crafts and jewellery boxes and others i can't really remember now. at the handicraft centre, there was this one man whom stood out, to me. he had only stumps for arms and one eye was blind AND YET, he was working at the cashier, helping another with dealing with customers. i really admire him for his perseverance. 

then once again we got onto the bus for another 2 more hours before we arrived at Ha Long Bay. then the only itinerary for the day was CAVE WALKING! i think the cave was called the Cave Of Surprise because the French, either found it by surprise or when they went in, they found it amazingly beautiful and huge. so yeah, there are 3 chambers in the cave with the biggest in the third chamber. oh and Mdm Frieda educated us a little bit about stalactites and stalagmites and how to remember them. stalactites with the C stands for Ceiling and stalagmites with the G stands for ground. and Mr Loi added on with his own way of remembering the difference, but i can't remember. hahah. so basically the cave walk was walk into the cave, walk up, see the view of the bay and walk back down again. and that's all for day 2! 

lovee Carrie :D

DAY 2-Morning

HELLO!!!
­we came down early today, a bit too early in fact, because we were late last night. HAHA. So that's why we're blogging. So anyways, last night in Kim Lien Hotel ­was pretty alright. They had nice channels and hot water. we watched hairspray and jimmy kimmel live! BUT it was really cold. So thank God for the nice bath. Today, we'll be going to Halong Bay, which is pretty far from here (about 4 hrs to get there). So, watch out for someone else posting about it!
loves bernadette and weiling:)

Photos for Day 1

hey hey!! joycelyn here. i have managed to put this pictures out in the blog so yay!!! :)
didnt managed to get all of your numbers, so add me in msn?
lyann-dolphin@hotmail.com



By the way, this is just day 1!!! haha:)

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Sights and Sounds of Hanoi

This lady offered us to take a picture of her. We were excited and started snapping our camera only to find out later she wants us to PAY FOR IT!!!! She forced us to buy the pineapples she had and charged us USD 5 for them!!! My God we felt cheated...

Wow! Can you believe this??? A haircut by the road side! Now can you beat that?! I cant believe this!

Day 1 - Arrival in Hanoi

We're getting ready to fly off to Hanoi, Vietnam.. For some of us, its our FIRST airplane ride!!! How exciting...

Yippee! Finally in Hanoi... We're ready to go! That was a smooth ride on the airplane... We even had ice-cream on board the flight. See the smiles on our faces?

We are on board our "helicopter" number 2308. This is our tour guide - Mr Loi or we can also call him Louie. Off to our first stop... Temple of Literature!

At the Airport...

Wow! Everyone's so excited to get on board SQ 176 to Hanoi, Vietnam...Some of our parents were there to send us off. Even Ms. Teo our VP was there to send us off!!! Check out our awesome banner and group photo...

Sincerely from our hearts to yours...

One of the highlights of our trip will be a visit to an orphanage in Hanoi. We will be setting up a mini library at the orphanage. This will be a chance for us to practise one of our school's values, which is the culture of compassion. Apart from story books, the staff in our school had also donated money generously. To date, a total amount of $945 have been raised. The money will be used to purchase items such as bookshelves, stationery, cushions, etc. in Hanoi.

3 MORE DAYS!

Hello everyone!
I'm guessing everyone's pretty excited about going to Hanoi, Vietnam!
3 More days people! :D

Just a few reminders, the weather now in Hanoi is pretty chilly.
The lowest temperature at the night is 13 °C!
Please remember to bring at least a sweater!

& everyone!
On tuesday right, please be at terminal 2(departure hall), outside starbucks at 7.3OAM! There will be a briefing by the teachers so don't be late!


Thank youuu,
Vanessa Leong :D

4 MORE DAYS!

4 MORE DAYS until we set off for Hanoi! Everyone's really pumped up as the countdown gets shorter and shorter. Preparaton has been pretty good. All of us have made mini booklets about Singapore to give the students from the school we're going to visit. We have also purchased colour pencils for the children at the orphanage to brighten up their day! To add more colour to their lives, we got an ABC puzzle mat which would decorate the floors and their brand new library corner which we'll put together when we get there. We've still got stuff to prepare for this trip(eg. brush up on our vietnamese) but we're still excited as ever!




Stay tuned to see how it goes!
Love,
Arin!

Our Plans in Hanoi

Hi everyone ! i'm Vanessa here !

Anyway, a few of us met up in school yesterday and we discussed some of the things we plan to do when we are in Hanoi. I will now share with you our ideas...

Firstly, we talked about the orphanage that we will be visiting in Hanoi. For the orphanage visit, we are planning to set up a "mini library" corner! At this corner, we'll be able to read books to the children and also at the same time, encourage reading and maybe help them with some basic English. If any of you have books which you don't need anymore and are the kinds with big words for little children, please do bring them along! For this corner, we were thinking of having a poster or banner with slogans like " Reading is Fun ! " and so on. We are also going to give useful things like pencils, sharperners, erasers and rulers to the children at the orphange !!

Then, we talked about the school that we will be visiting in Hanoi. The students at this school are about our age. For this school visit, we will start by having some ice breaking games just to have a little fun! And then after that, we will be having interaction time. For this interaction time, everyone of us has to create our own personalized scrapbook about Singapore so that they can know a little bit more about where we come from. We will have to talk about our scrapbook and tell them more about Singapore and ourselves during this interaction time.This scrapbook will then be given to them for their keeping :D Guidelines about this scrapbook would be given during our next meeting ! And of course, we will also be giving them souveniers from singapore !

That's about it so far! But if any of you do have ideas which you want to share, please do voice it out during the next meeting :D More details about the visits should be given during the next meeting. OUR MEETING IS THIS THURSDAY- 20th NOVEMBER @ 10 A.M. SUNKEN FOYER.

SEE YOU GUYS THERE ! :D

love,
vanessa!

First Vietnamese Lesson

So today was our first Vietnamese lesson with Katie! We realised that Vietnamese is not as simple as it looks. We thought we could just pronounce the words like how we pronounce it in Chinese or English, but nooo we were wrong! Most words do not sound like how they're spelt out. It was quite funny seeing how everybody was new to the whole pronunciation thing and how we were all trying our best to sound like Katie! It was definitely not an easy task for any of us but we still had a lot of fun! Everyone was really enthusiastic about learning Vietnamese. I don't think we can speak fluently yet, but i'm sure we'll get there! Thanks Katie! This lesson really got us more excited for the trip! WE CAN'T WAIT!

xoxo,
Arin & Geraldine

Media Literacy Workshop & Parents' Pre-Trip Briefing

On Thursday, 6th of November 2008, we had our first training session on Media Literacy which would help us with our main assignment for this trip. We'll fill you in more on this assignment later. Our parents also attended a pre-trip briefing session by our travel agent - STA Travel at 7pm. We presented to them what we expect to see, do and learn on this trip. We also received our pack list which excited us most. We're very excited for tomorrow as Katie our friend from Vietnam will be teaching us basic Vietnamese... Oooh how wonderful to be able to converse in simple Vietnamese to the locals as soon as we arrive. Perhaps its good to start by welcoming you to our blog page - "Chao mung ban" which means WELCOME!!!

Intoducing Our Blog Page

Hello everyone! This is a first ever team-blog to record a learning journey to Hanoi, Vietnam we are about to embark on in about 3 weeks time. This blog will record the preparations, developments and daily happenings prior, during and after the trip. We hope that you will gain some insights into this wonderful experiential learning journey to Hanoi on 2 to 6 Dec 2008...