A trip back to Gia Bac

OCIP trip to Vietnam, Gia Bac

Carrying a heart filled with excitement and anticipation, our OCIP boarded the plane to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Going back for the second time to the same village, I felt a sense of nostalgia and a bigger responsibility being the leader this round.

Going for the first time in June as an exco member, I think it helped and prepared me for the Dec OCIP trip.The June OCIP opened my eyes to the environment in Gia Bac village which did not change much in the Dec trip.

View of Gia Bac

Also, it taught me various lessons such as sense of urgency, being a team and how to manage the relationships I had. All these were useful in the Dec OCIP trip as I encountered a few conflicts which were peacefully resolved in the end. Knowing how important it was to keep up with the pace and being exposed to the vigorous work schedule we had in June, it allowed me better prepare myself as this trip was longer and made resting times a priority for the trip itself. I also found myself giving constant reminders to the group. Being familiar with the environment allowed me to better schedule the bathing times and how to go about organising the team.

Sleeping Area

However, the trips differed as not only was the Dec trip longer, we had volunteers from SMU joining us as well. This brought the total number of volunteers in Gia Bac to about 70. However our daily routines weren’t affected as the SMU team had kindly proposed to work around our routines as we had arrived earlier. Working with them was a pleasure though we had disagreements initially.

Bamboo weaving for the library windows

Building the library walls

They were really friendly and being Singaporeans in a foreign country, it allowed us to relate to each other better.

Dinner with SMU on our second last day

Personally I feel that the main learning points we can take away from them is how humble they were in learning from us, they would seek our feedback and listen to us though they were much older. Also, the facilities that we had in Dec has improved and we have more toilet facilities which allowed us to solve our bathing problems with the arrival of SMU. We had a change in headquarters as the new headquarter is a house and thus we had more place and could eat indoors everyday.

Meal times

Knowing about the new facilities we had when we first arrived brought a smile to my face as within the 6 months, there was improvements made to the village and that could mean more people are now aware of the living conditions and problems faced by the village.

House for Hope: Building a kitchen for a family

In conclusion, both the June and Dec OCIP trips were memorable but different. The June OCIP trip was memorable as I felt that I have learnt more about Gia Bac and the situation in the village itself. The Dec OCIP trip on the other hand, taught me more about myself and I felt that I grew in terms of leading a group from the constant feedbacks given. Also, the Dec OCIP trip focused more on personal learning and development as compared to the June OCIP trip where it focused on the international community.

-Gio

Cambodia; Fulfilling and Fruitful

The experience I have accumulated in the June OCIP trip was indeed a great help for my end of year OCIP trip. The experience from June OCIP trip allowed me to be more familiarize with the preparation for the trip, having more knowledge about the purpose and aim of an OCIP and last but not least, to be prepared to deal with unforeseen circumstances – expecting the unexpected.  Knowing what to expect, I was also able to adapt to the village’s living conditions without much difficulty. In short, I felt that the first trip serves as a stepping stone towards doing greater community work.

As the Nov/Dec OCIP trip was much longer than the June OCIP trip, it was indeed more challenging, both mentally and physically – from building a kitchen (June OCIP) to constructing a library, building water pumps, preparing local dishes and putting up a cultural performance (Dec OCIP).  However, because of all these, the nov/dec OCIP was much fulfilling and more fruitful as I had more interactions with the local people and children there.

As a participant in the June trip, most of the arrangements were more or less planned by the ex-co then and I was simply had to follow their directions. It was rather easy then.  However, as an ex-co for the recent trip, much more planning has to be done by us and it was not as easy as it seemed. Greater role comes with greater responsibility, Being an ex co was not simple but after seeing how did things go on smoothly (team members are bonded, sufficient items were brought and etc), the feeling was definitely rewarding.

-          Louis

Cambodia 2011 ; Touching lives

Having gone for the June trip with advocates earlier this year prepared me for the trip to Cambodia.  It taught me the importance of looking out for one another (simple stuff like, does everyone have enough food?) and ensuring we do our best to serve the community.

However this trip was still very much different from the June Trip. Being an exco, I was given greater responsibility to ensure that the team was bonded, happy and able to work efficiently.

Also the trip to Cambodia was more physically demanding compared to the June trip to Vietnam, as we need to build many things. In total the team completed 4 water pumps and 1 library.

Building the library

Getting sand to build the library

Inside the completed library

We also had more classes of students to teach. The June trip gave me some insight of what to teach the students , what logistics to bring so as to give the programmes committee a better idea of how they should carry out their lessons.

Teaching the students

One of the major difficulties faced was the language barrier as there were less translators to help us. Thankfully, the children knew a bit of English already and we were still able to continue teaching them.

The best memories I have of Cambodia would be the times we played with the children. They were extremely friendly people and warmed up to us very quickly. :D

Games

One of the people there I met was the principal of the primary school. The pre trip Local CIP gave me some exposure to interviewing people and taught me to prepare more before interviewing a person.  He is an extremely hardworking person, having work in the school for many years. He was the one that helped to turn the school from a few wooden classrooms to the concrete classrooms we saw. The effort and dedication he put into the school really touched my heart.

Principal of the primary school

 It made me feel thankful that I went for the December trip as this trip gave me more opportunities to interact with the locals and do more things for them, like put up a performance for them

Yet despite the fact that it might have been tiring, everyone still put in a lot of effort and, the end result was awesome. I felt a sense of satisfaction, regardless of whether they appreciated or not, that our efforts had impacted their lives in a good way.

-Christina