I've finally come round to blogging about my OCIP trip to Sarawak :) I've been really sloggish lately. Hahaa. Heads up, it's gonna be a loong post :)

UNO
Sooo, we left on the 16th, last Monday. Met Amy and some of the guys for a hearty breakfast at le airport which included the usual suspects aka toast and Milo. The flight was reaally short; like about an hourish. First time taking Jetstar though. I hate it that they don't provide food; I'm such a foodie. Haha.

At the airport, we were met with two guys who brought us onto our bus. It was a one hour ride (same duration as the flight haha) to Braang Payang, the village. The village's like 60km from the airport which is like the length of S'pore haha. So one of the guy was like a tour-guide-ish and talking on and on about EVERYTHING we drove past. Thankfully I was sitting at the back cause his droning put me straight to sleep.


The sky's really pretty in Sarawak. The colour, the clouds, everything. I'm pretty obsessed with it :)


The place where we stayed! (The hut-looking thing on the left's like the dining area and the longer shelter area's like this little handicraft shop and classrooms)


The main road adjacent to the place we stayed; we were venturing aboutz.


The longhouse! Aka where we lived. This is like the corridor, leading to rooms. But a few of us (braver souls) slept outside though :) It's cooler (literally) and more eggciting! Haha. Plus we were well-equipped with my LAVENDER-scented mosquito coil that kept all le mozzies awayyy :)


Our sleeping uh materials. Haha. The pillow's like a piece of log with a little cushion tied to it. I thought it would be really hard and give me neck problems but it was realllly good. It really holds your head and apparently helps to improve your posture! I used my spongebob plushie on the first night as a pillow but he was so smooth (and so was the surface of my sleeping bag) so he kept sliding around and I woke up with a neck ache the next morning. So I swopped over to the awesome log-pillow :)


The pond near the longhouse.

So after our tour of the area and dinner, we had a briefing and were told that all of us only have about 20 kiddies to teach! That's like major shrinkage. We were supposed to have 20 kids per level which makes it a 120 in total, but it was cut to a sixth. New headmaster, new rules. Apparently he'd some trust issues with us? And we couldn't go to their school to teach. The students had to come down to us to be taught. So we had to regroup and revamp our lesson plans - the P1 groups merged with the P4 group, P2 (yay) with P5, and P3 with P6. I have to say, I love my group! We are awesome, seriously :) I've had so so much fun with you guys. So yeap we spent the whole night coming up with our lesson plans for the next day :)


DOS
After breakfast, we tried on traditional Dayak costumes and took photoz. I thought it would've been a snore-fest but it was pretty entertaining with the jokes around.


Sebby, JO, Stephen. Hahaha Sebby and Stephen are cross dressing btw.


Yummy tea prepared by aunty Maria. She's like our mama-san; taking care of us as though we're her own kids :) And her cooking is SUPERB.We have like FIVE meals a day (breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and supper) and every meal's soo good.


Cool car parked outside :)

So after the yummy tea, we went off for our trek to the waterfall!


After our little (like really little) warm up exercise to get ready for the trek :)


We had to cut through a village to get to the trail to the waterfall.


The muddy and narrow trail which didn't extend all the way to the waterfall. Like nearing the waterfall, we were practically walking on leaves and dangling over the edge of a real slippery hill. Scary stuff for someone's who kinda scared of heights, aka me.


Random padi field in the forest with a little wooden house in the middle. Haha cute.


Le Waterfall :) The water was c-c-c-c-coldd but it was a nice swim after the trek. Oh yes, something traumatizing happened. We were happily playing around when the guys decided that they wanted to jump and do somersaults and what not from the waterfall (not the top). Though the area near the base of the waterfall is kinda deeper, there were like certain parts with rocks jutting out more than others. So all the guys jumped safely except for Stephen. When he went in, he took slight longer to come out and when he got up, blood was POURING out of the side of his head and he was like staggering and he stretched out his hand, saying, help me.. Ohmygosh that scene will be etched in my mind forever. I've never seen so much blood gushing out from a person before. It looked exactly like a scene in CSI. Trust me, tv shows are NOT exaggerating. I was so stunned that I couldn't even scream or do anything. Thank God for Sebby who's trained in first aid and stuff. Gosh, I'm like holding my breath as I'm typing this now. That's how traumatizing the whole thing was. Even remembering it is scary. So now Stephen has 11 stitches, 2 scars and a story to tell everyone :)

We then went back to the longhouse for our first lesson with the kiddies. I was still really shaken up then though.


Our kiddies! We have like 7 of them and 6 of us. So it's like almost one-to-one teaching. I love our primary 5s. They were so enthusiastic and real friendly :)


TRES
We visited a pepper/fruit farm in the morning. The walk there was pretty tiring cause the weather's ultra humid there. Like if you leave your papers in the open overnight, they'll turn like soft and slightly damp. Not exaggerating. All our mahjong papers were so limpp :/


Look at how low the clouds were that morning. Pretty neat huh.


We saw quite a few churches along the way :)


Pepper plantation!


Peppercorn :)


We were at the banana tree plantation when this happy man carrying two durians was coming downhill. Apparently, he was picking out durians from the durian trees uphill. Then he talked to our guide for a while and suddenly, he took out his parang and started cutting open the durian for us! Ahahaha so sweet of him.


Parang in action


Durian!


We then went to a river nearby and helped clean it up. It was pretty nasty and we were only given rubber gloves :/ Lotsa rubbish thrown in by the locals cause the river runs behind one of the villages so it's like convenient dumping ground. So after that we rushed back to the longhouse to wash up and teach the kids! :) We were pretty pooped by then.


FOUR (I don't know what's four in Spanish cause U2's Vertigo stops at tres hahaa)

Bamboo-rafting day! Our group was awesome with Sebby, Ogy and JO. Hahaha. After making our rafts, we raced! Our raft was like the slowest ahahah. But it was the steadiest! Guaranteed to not sink! :) And lessons in the afternoon once again.

FIVE (Okay, I should probably check what it is in Spanish.. nah too lazy)

CAVE DAY! Apparently, the level of difficulty of the trek to get to the cave was a 3, compared to the waterfall which was a 1. So good job to us :) I really really enjoyed it though. I thought it would be so tough that I'd hate it but really, an open mind's all you really need. Everyone was really helpful and supportive so it made everything so much better.


Ceiling of the cave. Pretty cool eh.


Vandalismz on the cave walls. You probably can't see it but there's a piece of vandalism on the top right hand corner that says NEO NAZI. Hahaha.


Oh yes, and before heading to the caves, we detoured to check out the unopened Rafflesia (bio student can't help it haha) aka corpse flower in Indonesia (according to Ogy). Apparently it smells like a corpse when it opens. Well, I sure wouldn't wanna be there when that happens. I thought this part was pretty disappointing though, considering all the trouble we had to to go through to get to this area to merely see an uninteresting brown ball-like thing.

So we flew back to the longhouse cause the kids came earlier that day; we had to juggle between eating, bathing and teaching. It was really tiring, but so fun. That was the last day we saw the kids :( I was soo emotional, together with Amy. We were like the only ones who cried. Mildly embarrassing much.


I love our kiddies ♥

SIX
Last day :( Packed up and left pretty early in the morning. We were brought to the city (Kuching) to kinda like sight-see (which wasn't much given the fact that we had to be at the airport by 12ish). We went into some museum which I didn't really see much cause my nose was sensitive to something in that place that made me all. So we rushed to the airport on time, to find out that our flight was delayed by THREE hours D: So after lunch, we bummed out at Starbuck's. Slept for nearly an hour there then woke up and joined the rest for taidi and other silly games :) They're really such a retarded bunch; it's quite hilarious. THEN, we were told that our flight was delayed AGAIN. So we boarded our flight at about 7pm (effectively waited at the airport for like 6hrs plus).


All in all, I have to say that I really thank God for putting me on this trip. I have zero regrets going for this trip though missing out on like so many trainings. I know this sounds reaally cliched but I find myself now being extraordinarily grateful and appreciative for everything I have (or do not have). I've even learnt to love Singapore more and even school. I know how we always complain about how hectic and stressful live is here but really, we should be thankful that we even have something to be stressed out about. Life is really so different over there and my heart really goes out to the people there. They're the warmest and most welcoming people I've ever met; treating strangers they've met for less than a minute like family. I pray that God watches over these precious people and keep them safe in the palm of His hand, always.

So yesterday was Gretel and Darren's wedding! Missed all the tea ceremony stuff in the morning cause of OCIP meetingz. According to my brother, the pre-tea-ceremony was quite uhm hilarious. Like they made the groom and his best man(s) go through 'obstacles' to get to the bride. They were made to eat stuff like bittergourd, chili padi and garlic?? And drink a whole cup of vinegar, soy sauce, etc. And do other really retarded stuff. OH YES AND THEY CUT A ROASTED PIG INTO HALF AND STUFFED ORANGES INSIDE. I don't know, are these Chinese traditions? Call me ignorant and rude, but I'm quite positive I'm not gonna do these stuff for my wedding. I'm fine with the whole tea ceremony thing but the line's drawn at the pig and fear factor thing. I'm really sorry but I can't take this kinda stuff. I'm no vegetarian, but I really hate seeing the head of the animal I'm eating (except fish).

Okay so we went for the solemnization ceremony first, which is basically them signing the marriage papers. Then after much waiting (as usual), dinner began at about 8.45ish. A full 8-course meal. So the dinner was pretty entertaining. As with most reunions with my mom's side. I love my aunts.They are so so funny and insane, I love them. Oh and it never fails to amaze me how radiant the bride always looks on her wedding day. Gretel was practically the sun, I'm not kidding. And her and Darren make such a cute couple; I feel so so happy for them :)

Speaking of weddings, check this out. This is majorly cooool.


I love weddings. I'm think I'm gonna go watch 27 Dresses now, again. Haha.