NUS Rotaract Club has carved many unforgettable memories into my university life. The Volunteer Camp 2007 receives notable mention because it is one of the earlier few events that positively made me who I am now.

Mao Mao

Publicity Director (2006-08)

Our trip to Cebu, Philippines was a memorable and beneficial one. I learnt and experienced many things from this trip, some of which will remain in my memory for the rest of my life. Aside from experience, I also gained many new friends and contacts.

The crux of the trip really began when we started fundraising by selling donuts and having a carwash. Equipped with just my tongue and wit, I tried my best to convince people that what we were doing was for a good cause. Despite countless rejections, I had lots of fun working with the team and being the “kiasu” person that I am, I attempted to outstrip everyone at fund-raising.

The long exam break after the fund-raising was followed by packing and rehearsals for our performances of bottle blowing and dancing. It was an excellent time to truly get to know all my team-mates thoroughly. While it was really hard learning how to blow bottles and gyrate to a groovy Indian song, it was a golden period to get to know everyone better.

We left for Cebu soon after, and upon arrival, was bombarded by series of activities that left us sleep deprived. I felt that we could have gotten some rest before embarking on the daily activities but in the end, we managed to pull through fine, despite some glitches in the bottle blowing.

The following day was the carnival for more than 20 children from Mary Help School. It wasn’t too hard to manage, but the kids seemed quite bored with my word-linking station. Due to their below average command of English, it wasn’t an easy game to play. While waiting for lunch, a few of us got together and performed magic tricks which I felt made the kids happy. Thank goodness we had a translator in the form of Charlene or the kids wouldn’t have been able to understand us.

We went up to the mountains to Cabunghan Elementary School the next day and having a carnival for them proved to be far more challenging. Personally, I felt that it would have been possible, to just have more stall games (eg. Water bombs, Pin the Tail on the donkey) for the children instead of separating them into mass games and carnival games, but having two separate activities worked as well. As the speaker for “Simon Says”, it was hard to manage, mainly because the children didn’t understand English. They were following my actions more than my words. I think a series of easy actions should be pre-planned if this game were to be played again next year. Also, a second mass game that is easy to understand would help.

The next activity was the visit to Comprehensive High School. Upon arrival, we were given a robust welcome by the students an teachers with a series of performances lined up for us. While the performances were very entertaining, I also felt that such an extravagant display was not necessary for such a simple visit. After lunch, some of us went around the school to interact with the students there. They seemed exceptionally happy to talk to us and I think interacting with them should be part of the planned activities as it was the only time we were really connecting with them. The rest of the activities that followed did not seem to involve much community service or charity, but seemed to be more for own experience and enjoyment. Nevertheless, painting with the students and playing sports was fun and entertaining for us.

Following the visit of the high school was our visit to DSWD, a home where they teach skills to disabled and poor people. While the girls went to visit the home for abused girls, the guys were spilt into two groups: one for painting and the other for building the foundation for a future gazebo. I was part of the latter group which mixed the cement and poured it into the ready dug holes. It was hard work and I found us to be more of a nuisance rather than helpful. I think the workers agreed because after a while, they took over most of the work although we stuck around to help out. After all the hard work, we stuck around for a series of performances by the people of the home. We ourselves performed and I feel that for future groups going for this trip, a bit more preparation on the performances should be done. I also felt getting everyone to sing together is not a good idea and that getting one or two good singers to sing together would actually be nicer. Perhaps a nicely choreographed mass dance (e.g. JC mass dances) would be nice. I also managed to slot in a bit of interaction with the disabled people at the home. I felt that it was necessary to actually get up and talk to the people at the home as that was one of the reasons we were there, rather than just sit amongst ourselves.

The next day was a relaxing day where we kicked backed and relaxed a little. We went to the University of San Carlos (USC) for a visit in the morning and we greeted by a bunch of enthusiastic student-tour guides which took us around the place. A few of us actually interacted with them and got to know them better, much to the chagrin of some of the members of the trip. Despite certain allegations thrown at a few of us, I felt talking and interacting with the USC students was better than just sticking to ourselves and not opening up. I also felt it gave a better impression than the usual anti-social attitudes of Singaporeans who normally stick to their groups. Following the visit of the university was a brief but enlightening tour of the city. The tour was very enlightening and helped us understand the history and culture of Cebu and the Philippines better.

The second last day of our trip was the excursion to Orlando Island where we visited an elementary school, a village and went mangrove planting. The children at the elementary school were delighted to see us were more than happy to receive the new school bags that we distributed to them. I felt the time we spent there was too short, as we had to leave soon after we gave them bags. We barely had time to play and interact with the children. We went to a village after that where we gave out meals of porridge to the villagers to eat. Despite the porridge being simple and plain, it was evident that the people of the village were very grateful to receive it. After spending about an hour at the village, we proceeded to the mangrove planting on the island. We were taught about the importance of mangroves to the environment and proceeded to plant tree saplings in the muddy mangrove soil. It didn’t take much effort the plant the saplings and soon, we off on the boat back to the mainland with a nice suntan. I was a little disappointed that swimming in the sea was cancelled as I was actually looking forward to it, but I suppose the opinion of the majority wins. Damn…. Democracy sucks…..

The last day in Cebu was spent mostly for relaxation and shopping although we did visit the Mother Teresa Home in the morning. The children there were all abandoned and a substantial number of them had defects or deformities. I took some time to play with them and talk to some of them, and to me, the environment there was acceptable by Filipino standards. The rest of the day was spent for recreation and shopping, with a visit to the mango factory in the morning and shopping in the afternoon. All were interesting activities and it was a good way for us to wind up the trip. We left for Singapore later in the evening and arrived after midnight.
-By Low O-Wern