Sparkles of Life

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Mongolia Summer Camp 2010

In a blink of the eye, the summer camp is now over. The realization of a dream of a long time simply feels so surreal to me and time just accelerated every step of the way towards and during the project.

Thank God for His many countless blessings, that...

Somehow through various channels, the sum that we prayed for just came in and all was sufficient for the camp...
I had just the perfect team for this camp. Lots of team dynamics and just the right people with the right skills for the various tasks needed at camp...
The day trip to Terelj unintendedly became our reccee trip for the camp as the campsite turned out to be just in the national park and hence we could arrange for the hike and horse-riding session for the kids...
When we still could not find translators just 3 days to our camp, our tour guide whom we met at our day trip in mongolia before the camp agreed to work as our camp translator and we found out that our guesthouse owner is an english teacher and she helped us to get her student to be our camp translator as well. All in a few hours, we found 2 good translators who played vital role in our camp...
Despite some communication issues and inefficiency, all the arrangement for transport, food and logistics still materialized, and all was transported to and fro campsite with the limited vehicles...
I could share about God and encouraged the kids in His ways and edify them in their walk as all the kids at camp happened to be christians as well. Thank you for the initiative that they took in asking us about our religion, which allowed us to find out that we share the same faith. And how I miss ending each day of the camp with praise, worship and prayer time...
All children, volunteers and mongolian camp staff all had a great time at camp and greater understanding of each other was established, inspiring the mongolian staff to do their part and help these kids as well...
We met a boss of a korean restaurant whom have been helping out street children and the poor living in the landfill for the past 5 years. Thank you for the wonderful opportunity that she gave us to visit her children shelter and to follow her to the landfill to feed the poor.
Thank God for equipping me all these time for this trip and giving me the right people to assist me. Thank God that I picked up korean which turned out to be so much more useful than english in mongolia.

While its pretty heart-breaking to hear of the children's living conditions and to see the harshness of life reflected in their worn-out eyes, it's also heart-warming and inspiring to know the dreams that they hold and the love that the children have for each other and for us. I guess everyone of us was moved by their love for us (always taking care of us and putting in their best effort to be good children and student during the camp). And I'm just really really happy to know that these children have had a wonderful summer camp which they had so much longed for, and from which they had gained much love and knowledge from us.

God bless these your children. Keep them in your warm embrace and be their refuge and strength. Open to them doors of opportunities and empower them to achieve the dreams that they have.

world cup fever in UB

Just the first night in Ulan Bator and I've taken a little tour around the city square where the statue of Chinggis Khan sits and another of their national hero is, scaled the city hill to soak in the night skyline of UB and finally the highlight of the night catching the world cup at one of the city's biggest screening spot.

Thanks to the two lovely hosts we had:

And watching the world cup tonight was just so awesome and exciting and gratifying. The crowd was just so spontaneous with its loud whistling, table-drumming, and heaps of shouts and cheers. Not to forget the pints of beer and heaps of grill. It was so so good. Even watching the matches in pubs back home in Singapore simply couldn't match up.

The place where the madness begins:

The little world cup fan:

With all the wonderful activities, it really just feel so surreal to be in UB. So much like a fantasy.

Summer in mongolia

After the tragic flight delay which caused all the 12hrs of faithful waiting at the airport to go futile, I'm finally in the land of Mongolia. Fortunately the delay was accompanied by the airline's thoughtful free hotel stat for the night till the next morning where the flight was rescheduled to.

Anyway, looking out of the window as the plane flew pass Mongolia was just magical. The vast green pastures dotted by white tents scattered in clusters n the speck of buildings where cities were spelled the fulfillment of a long time dream. Just amazing.

But once out of the airport, reality set itself in. Ulan bator is just simply out of my imagination. The supposedly breezey summer was a myth. Instead I was greeted by the sultry heat waves that clings and envelops the air. Where's the breeze? It was just hot air. It's so amazing how a country can have both extreme ends of weather. N besides the weather, i also found that yak meat was just such a myth.

But anyway im happy. Thank God that though the buildings were shabby, the interior of my guesthouse is decent n my new Mongolian friends cum guides were really sweet.

So here I am blogging on my phone in my cosy sauna like room.

- Posted from my iPhone

The Professional Gold Digger

I'm really graduating into a professional gold digger with this project. 3 consecutive days of bazaar is just no joke. Feel the warm humid air sticking onto your skin as you try your mighty best to flash your most customer-appealing smile and sweet talking them into buying more dresses. Suppressing the surging rage cos of the heat and incessant bargaining. Feeling the pinch of selling at insane obscene cheap prizes.

days back home

The days back home in this sultry weather feels really surreal minus the positive nuance of the word. well but not all negative too. but i do miss the carefree laid-back days and cool comfortable weather of overseas.

And stuck without any internship or jobs, I just find myself oscillating between idling and becoming really busy over the fundraising and preparation work for mongolia summer camp, which i would say ended really well for the fundraising gig. Despite the loomy pre-event ticket sales, the turnout that night went beyond expectation and donations were pouring in with every call for freewill donation and purchase of intermission snacks at any amount.

The bands whose performance soared above my own expectation as well

Late Comers

Sideline Universe

Grey Area

BLUT

the night's lovely MC a.k.a me :)

The awesome sexy dance by Blast!

The snack bar that brought us much cash. Thanks to David for his lovely yummy muffins too!

Lovely flowers from lovely friends. and of cos not forgetting the lots of other sweeties who turned up that night to give me their support! so sad that the night was so busy for me to have any pictures with everyone of them!

And now that the gig is over, it's just down to more fundraising, more gold-digging, and more prep work before I fly off in another two weeks or so. Yay!

But of cos there's also lots of slacking time in front of my computer catching up on gossip girl, and getting addicting to movies at gold class and becoming crazy enough to drive the BMW as my learning car.

And thank you to my sweet friend for the polaroid camera gift! Lots of pictures will be taken in mongolia at the summer camp! :)

Stressss

STRESS in caps and bold.

gosh never been this stress over a project before. not in my scouting days of doing endless projects.

stressing over the funds

stressing over the gig

stressing over the ticket sales

stressing over the textbook writing

stressing over the camp program

stressing over the volunteers

stressing over the nitty gritty stuff

and the dire need to learn mongolia.

I'm taking up the faith challenge. ~Pray and have faith~

missing you

Really missing US.

or maybe it's just the people and all the fun times and laughters shared that I miss... but i really miss the sun (but far from being hot!), sea and the relaxing culture too.

gosh i sooooo miss the the slightly chilly weather, relaxing at the beach, chilling out with friends at cafe and yogurt bars, doing silly things, cooking meals together, church and just all those lovely peeps whom I left.

and i'm so gonna miss chan ik when he enlist in the army. aww~~ as he left US to return to korea, I just get reminded of the same nostalgia and sadness I felt as our car left San Diego and then finally the last night in the hotel room of LA where the months of memories just come flooding my mind and just causing my eyes to brim. I'm really a strong person but goodbyes are just exceptions.

Fundraising Gig

Having a concert this 30th May at Young Musician Society to raise funds for the Summer Camp Project in mongolia.

Folks do show your support and come for this event. Tickets are up at $20. I'm desperate for your cash so don't disappoint me. Don't worry an empty wallet enriches others (the mongolian street kids and orphans).

To book your tickets, simply drop an email to mongoliasummercamp@gmail.com OR text to 96150098

Taiwan

Home sweet home and everything that happened just felt so surreal. Good holidays always just passed too quickly. so here's Taiwan the last chapter of this exchange cum holiday.

Did nothing much except eating all day long.

queuing up for the famous soybean milk and yu tiao

one of the many lu rou fan we had

not to forget the famous xiao long baos from Ding Tai Fung

and the Shi Lin Night market which was a disappointment and thus no photos

and also the famous toilet theme restaurant

Becoming gluttons aside, we also became professionals at vegetating, indulging and just "wasting" the day away

one the many massages we had

arcade time

But we still bothered to turn on our tourist side and did some proper sight-seeing

Mustered enough cultural capacity to go visit the Zhongzhen Memorial Hall

and tourist spirit to go scale the Taipei 101

Visited the Fisherman's Wharf

And took a long train ride out as well to enjoy the Hotspring!

test of faith?

sum not coming in... numbers dwindling. Last minute pull-outs. Is this a test of faith?

Should I take a leap of faith?

this really feels like the right time... though I'm not sure.

US finale

All passed too fast for me to be able to update in time sadly. and in a flash the chapter of schooling and exploring the US has come to a closure.

so the mixed feelings on leaving US asides, here's the highlight of the intense 3 weeks of traveling US

In Michigan, visited the automobile museum and holocaust museum in detroit, drove up to New Berry of the Upper Peninsula to see the Tahquamenon Fall (2nd to niagara) and chilled out in this small town of untouched nature paradise.