C21 Cambodia day 3

Day 3:

Distributing clothes to villagers, painting school, talk by war survivor.

Painting school- Dammit, I really wanted to interact with the kids. Sway ahh! Ai ya, nvm, im the IC for the painting, no kick. Just boss around. No la , just kidding. So we were given face mask for the sanding. Really damn tough sia, scrub scrb scrub, particles fly, go into your eyes. I tell you what, really regret not bringing goggles, IT STINGS!!( BTW, last years batch did a great job. They painted the whole classsroom with blue paint. Quite appealing. ) I wont go in depth. Paint, paint drip onto you, you get sticky. Drop on shirt. Sway lo. Im gonna cut this short Tomorrow need wake up at 3:30am to watch sunrise at angkor watt. So , just imaging. Sticky, tired, sweaty. Imagination brings you a long way....

Talk by war survivor- Sad story. How he saw his whole family being killed infront of him. Can you imagine? A 13 year old boy had to go through all this. He saw how his fathers head got chopped off, how his brother is being clubbed to death. How his mother is being stabbed to death. Its so sad. He was the only survivor of his family because fortunately for him, the soldier who was executing the people by stabbing them, had missed him. He survived. Infact, he cried in front of the mass grave for 3 days 3 nights before escaping to Thailand Before leaving, he made 3 promises infront of the mass grave.

1.To avenge his family.

2.If he fails to accomplish his first promise, he will become a Buddhist.

3. If he fails to accomplish his first and second goals, he would stay far away from Cambodia.

. Sad right? :( So after the war, he became a policemen and returned to the village intending to make a revenge, but ofcourse, since there are so many Khmer soldiers, his attempt is bound to fail. He did not accomplish his first promise. And he also cant be a Buddhist because he was a policemen. So he left to Canada and accepted god into his life. After that, he returned to Cambodia to forgive his family killers. He gave them a Cambodian scarf to represent his forgiveness, his shirt to represent his love for them and a bible to represent his blessing for them. broke all his 3 promises. He now builts schools for poor Cambodian children so that they receive an education. Such a nice guy, we need more people like him so that our society will become a selfless one.

Distributing clothes to the villagers- During the bus ride, we were taught simple conversational terms like hello, thank you, in Khmer. What we do when we greet them. Eg. Clap your hands together and say :"Joom Rip Sooa " when you are greeting them. We were also taught about the effects of the civil war on the people. I really don't understand whats the purpose of war? To prove who is right? As the saying goes :" War does not prove who is right, but rather, who is left." Futhermore, the Khmer promised to improve the lifestyle of Cambodian people and bring peace to the coutry. Okay, so where is the peace you promised? Everyday, they would execute people, in faact, the first people they kill would be the professionals(Doctors, engineers, teachers) In fact, the people lived in fear everyday. They would kill everyone, even those who are innocent. Their campaign:" Rather kill wrongly than regret later." They wiped out 3 million which is half of the citty's population. did they accomplish what they promised? Hell no! In fact, because they killed all the professionals, they country cannot develop and caused the people to live in poverty. When we were donating clothings,I am saddened to see the lives of people living in developed country. The hardships they face, the difficulties they face in order to survive in one of the worlds most unfavourable conditions. Hot weather, insufficient food, insufficient clothings, no accesss to healthcare, dirty kitchens. In fact, they are exposed to infectinos and diseases in the everyday of their lives. Can you imagine? A 12 year old girl have to take care of 2 younger siblings, no job, no house, no food. Thankfully, her neighbour is nice enough to build for her a house, provide food and helps her take care of her siblings when she is in school. Sad right? No one deserves to live in this kind of conditions. Children malnourished, doing hard labour, carrying a 8kg bag of rice, digging soil to plant and grow crop. How many of us can survive can do these kind of labour? How many of us can even survive living in this kind of conditions? How many of us can tahan these kind of life. We are very lucky to be born in Singapore, we just struck a lottery, you know Toto? You either strike or dont strike. You dont srike you can be one of these children , you strike , good for you, you will be born in countries like Singapore. In fact, do you know how rare is it to even be born in Singapore? everyday, hundreds of thousands of babies are born? Whats your chances of being born in Singapore? Very rare right? All of us are lucky to be born here, we just struck grand prize. Wait, being born in Singapore is even more rare than striking the grand prize. Who has struck Toto here? No one? The truth is, all of us did! In singapore, you break your leg, easy, call ambulance. In countries like Cambodia where there is no access to healthcare, technology convinience, they have to Tahan the pain you know? Almost no one can afford the hospital bill in Cambodia. We have everything, technology, food, water, shelter, convinience, education, yet , we do not appreciate it at all. We take it as granted. We complain everyday :" Why is the weather so hot?" Why is the Wi-fi signal so weak? Even things as stupid as:" I have too much potato chips for the sauce, if I open another packet of sauce, Ill have too much sauce for the potato chips. Why cant we look at real problems? Problems like, starving children, poverty, famine. We are not willing to at all. The reason is selfishness. Most people living in first world countries are very selfish. We are greedy, when we have something, we want more. We are not willing to give, we only care about ourselves. Finally, it is ironic that people who are living in first world countries ,where we have the access to all of the worlds most advanced technology, yet, we are so stressed out and tired by either schoolwork or our job. workload therefore, we are very unhappy. Compared to people living in less developed countries like Africa or Cambodis, despite living in poverty, but, there i something that drives them going. It is this shear hope that tomorrow will be better. This hope drives them going, makes them perservere and to not give up. This can be judged by Singapores happiness rate. We are way below, compared to Cambodiass which is very high. Let me ask you a question. Do you want to live in a country where there is alot of material wealth but very unhappy or would you prefer living in a country where the people are not so rich but they live a happy life?