Same sky seen in a different light
The trip to Laos was remarkable for me. It was my first time doing service learning in another country, with a group of like-minded friends. I have been looking forward to the trip ever since I applied for ISLE, and it certainly did not disappoint me. Although I have been on the recce trip, spending two weeks in Laos with the entire team is pretty much a different story. It was livelier and more entertaining. More importantly, the trip changed my perception of service learning.
The team had done the necessary preparations in Singapore to make our trip a worthwhile one. Even with that, we came across several obstacles. One main obstacle was communication with the locals, particularly for me, since I am not one who is blessed with good communication skills. Coupled with the fact that the locals spoke in a foreign language, it made it harder for me to interact with them. However, doing service work, especially overseas, is really about stepping out of one’s comfort zone. With some encouragement from a few friends, I managed to engage in small conversations, though aided mostly by gestures, with some local children. Looking back, I realised language barriers can be overcome easily if you took the extra effort to understand what the other party has been going through.
Construction work was tough, as plastering walls involves many steps taken initially to form the cement. Despite this, none of us were complaining, and some even looked forward to it. I believe this was due to the sense of satisfaction from seeing the walls being plastered one by one. This kept us motivated to carry on, because we knew in our hearts that we wanted to provide a conducive environment for the children to study. We knew that even after we leave, the plastered walls will continue to remain strong. Many of us volunteered to do the last shift of construction, because we wanted to see the fruits of our labour. I felt at that point in time, the team has really matured.
Engaging the children during lessons was energy sapping. They never seemed to run out of energy, compared with the children in Singapore, who seemed very obedient. There were occasions when the children went out of control. Yet it was due to these times that made the teaching experience memorable for me. Learning how to cope with these children is an essential part of our project too, and it was these occasions that made us reflect and developed into better teachers and role models for the children.
Living in unfamiliar conditions for two weeks allowed me to experience for myself how the locals live their lives. The hospitality extended to us made up more than enough for the lack of technology. This was especially obvious during the Baci ceremony. We stayed for just two weeks, and in terms of construction, the locals could probably do much better than us. In terms of teaching, the children would probably have learnt more from the teachers who could communicate better with them. The locals certainly did not think that way, when they took turns wishing us the best and tying strings on our hands.
I never thought I would miss a rural area so much when living in a city seems to have provided me with everything. But strangely enough, I did. Thinking of the time spent in Laos brings back many wonderful memories. There was one which stayed glued to my heart. I remembered one night when I was looking at the night sky. It was covered with stars. It took me a while to realise that I have been probably looking at the same patch of sky from Singapore. There was a stark difference from the two locations. Because of the bright lights in the highly developed city, the stars can never be seen. It left me wondering, if someone lives in his own world forever, would he get the chance to know how the outside world look like? I thought I knew the harshest reality of life, but now I realise how scary ignorance is. If I have never gone to Laos, I would still be living in Singapore thinking how easy teaching or construction is. Sometimes it is easy for us to overlook certain things in life because they don’t affect us. It probably doesn’t mean a lot if you get enrolled into a school in Singapore, but in Laos, it could make a difference in someone’s life.
My perception of service learning has taken on a new direction. Learning comes after service but it is really what you have learnt that determines how much you have gained from the trip. For me, I realised that service learning is a never-ending process. True service is never about quantity, but quality. The ISLE trip is just a mere chapter of the service learning journey that I’m sure many of my team members would have. I hope each of us would go on to serve others in our own capacity after ISLE, after JC. I believe this is what ISLE intended for us to do, to remove the veil of ignorance covering our eyes and be able to spot all those people in need out there and help them, not just those people around us.
This time round, as I look up into the night sky, the stars are shining.