Friendships and Memories and More

Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a life time a phrase Peiqi quoted and one that I could agree with more also. Well what happened on the trip is truly on of passion and understanding not only of all the people on the trip but also of all the people we interacted with during our trip be they Filipino or American.

Looking back I realize on thing all of us be it the team or the people we interacted with did one thing on this trip showed one thing and passion for what we do and compassion for each other. This can be seen by the gracious of our hosts and what they did before and during our stay there, the Americans from the Peace Corps who were willing to give up 2 years of their lives for people they don't even know and even for the other Filipinos like Mayor and Dr. Banias and even Mrs. Laura G. Villarico who played a gracious hosts to us on more than one occasion and through our willingness to actually sacrifice a holiday just to serve the people there seen in the sacrifice all of us made at some point of time on the trip. For me I also took it that when I signed up it was form of dedication to go over to the Philippines to rough it out or to put it harshly suffer.

But when I came I was all ready for something to and that was to receive while I served. I was hoping that I would be able to serve more than we would receive. Well when I look back I realize one thing about and that is I gained more than we expected and gave less than what I hoped to give. Firstly, because we failed to set up the computer lab due in part to the failure of the computers to arrive on time. Secondly, because as I look back I really feel that whatever i did was so minute as to what everyone else did as a whole. I now see myself more as a piece of the puzzle and not as what I would think as one who made a big sacrifice.

I also learnt a whole much more whether being on time or even things like even if you want to speak you should learn to be more tactful when voicing your opinions as well. I also learnt not to be so idealistic as well. I believe these lessons would also be a crucial in life. I learnt this through feedback from Miss Nellie Chew and Mr. Leow and others in the camp. I also learnt that I should be a better listener as seemed as though I was a person that practiced a lot of selective listening.

With Regards to some of the things I learnt from my fellow participants, I learnt how to take care of the handicapped when I was helping out Navin and Yuen Ping participants from Teach Me Inc. He also reminded me about how I used take care of my grandmother. This helped me to be more patient and also to help him improve himself. This also helped look at things from a different perspective that I have not used in many years, Navin and Yuen Ping and the people from the Association of Differently-Abled Persons, Iloilo allowed me to look at things from a disabled person’s perspective and to see the certain challenges they faced and how they solved and countered them.

In conclusion, I am thankful and grateful for the honour, opportunity and privilege to be part of this team that went over to Iloilo City in the Philippines. Friendships and learning experiences are truly the things that make us better persons in life and without them we will all be stagnant beings. Most importantly, I learnt that it is true about another phrase we heard a lot in camp and on the trip, One Team One Spirit One Soul, without this the team would have broken up as this was something we lived by.

Iloilo City will forever remain as a memory in my mind, For all the treasures as well as friendships that i cultivated and built over the trip and all its meetings before and after.