Reflections

I have brought back presents, memories and lessons from this trip.

I agree with Thaddeus that this trip is an unforgettable one because I experienced helplessness. I remember one of the nights where our teammate got into some condition? Apart from the joke I have created, I felt helpless that night while we are travelling out of the village because I don't know how to help her there. From this incident, it made me relies that we actually have no control in certain things. However, Vihbu's 1 hour non-stop conversation during the trip with the casualty made me realise that there is always ways to help in certain things even when we have no control of it. I have always believed that "when there's a will, there's a way", this incident indeed bring out this point.

The village life made me realise the huge contrast in the facilities in the city and village and also human's adaptability to the surroundings. When I am in the van travelling into the village, I came across many houses where there are pool of water around them. The hut we stayed in also got 1. I kept wondering why every house have 1 pool of water until Ms Wong actually told us that it is the Cass pool. It sounded kind of disgusting initially because we are just resting, eating and playing beside our own waste. We would never ever imagine ourselves to be flooded with waste water around the HDB flats, would we? However, as time passes by, we did not really bother about the Cass pool and some of us even walked through the pool. Thinking back, it's amazing that we lived 16 days beside the 'shit pool' and it's even more amazing that villagers live there for their whole life.

Our life in Singapore is a luxury. Even in camps, we get to eat canned food. However, in the village, it is rather inaccessible for the villagers to buy raw food from the market. Even the nearest supermarket is in Phnom Penh which is a 3 hour ride from the village. Compared to there, we can find provision shops and supermarket at our doorstep. From this, I appericate Singapore even more.

Lastly, I would like to say it's rather hard to type out this post because this trip is hard to be described by words.

Looking forward to seeing all of you again!