i'm back! Part 1

i just got back frm Kunming last nite... & there's just so much to say about the experience.. suffice to say, it was simply awesome..

the s'pore side of the team (siew min, jasmine & i) met up with the m'sians (andy, maureen & suet beng) at the airport. Jing flew earlier cuz she was on thai airways. we met her at Kunming's Wujiaba airport in the evening.. hmm noe what? she actually left half her money in another bag that she decided at the last min not to bring to china. den her mum called me b4 i left for the airport to ask if i could bring it to china for her hehe.. luckily we managed to get the money for her b4 we flew off. =D

we were met at kunming airport by the Roberts.. den checked into out hotel. hmm considering that we were supposed to b on a mission trip, this hotel was a sheer luxury! & honestly, it was pretty good.. the beds were nice & comfy, not too hard, not too soft. hehe.. & we got free oranges every night- 2 per room! good ya! ok, so after a brief talk with the roberts, they left us to rest. well, being the young, adventurous pple that we are (haha!), we decided to head out to the city for dinner. we bought a china sim-card & called penny, who was already there doing her medical elective. so she brought us to this quaint little shop along one of the streets where there was also a night market. our first taste of real Yunan food! & it was v v good! haha.. yummy although quite oily.. =/

2nd day: orientation at the roberts' place.
there we met some m-pple & had lunch with them. they shared their experiences, what they were doing etc. & we had a 'talk' on security issues, what to say & do, what not to say & do.. after that, we went to visit the Project Grace clinic- that's where they treat paitents for minimal sums..

hmm i tink there's really too much to say.. i shall just talk abt the impt bits..

3rd day we went to Wen Shan.
met the Findlings & helped with a christmas celebration.. the team was split into 2 grps. 1 was to help Karen F in her english teaching classes & p walk the govt offices. 2 was to p walk the red light district & give out presents at night. (i was in grp 2).

when we went to p walk in the afternoon with the F's helper, the 4 of us (sm, sb, mau, & i) were really deeply affected by the darkness that was over the place. some of the girls there were not there by choice, rather that circumstances placed them there. sigh.. we walked around the area twice, praying silently inside.. later we sat down by the river near that street & prayed together.. the thought of how so many girls, just like ourselves, many our age, were so deep in sin brought us to tears. but God taught us to hate the sin, but more imptly love the sinners. at night, we came back after dinner to distribute gifts to the pros there. many of them were initially hostile to us, even to the point of ignoring us when we first entered the shops & introduced ourselves. alot also couldn't believe that we were offering presents for free, they thought we were trying to sell them products or cheat them. but after the initial hostility, when they realised we were genuinely trying to bless them with Christmas gifts, they opened up & accepted the gifts. so many told us that the present that they received was the first ever in their lives. we managed to share abit of the gospel to about 4 girls, but after we mentioned Jesus etc. they kinda shut-off & wasn't really responsive. But, that's ok.. we planted the seed & that's what's impt!

after Wenshan we headed off to Meng Zi.
gosh u noe what? we all took motion-sickness pills on the bus & were happily in lala land, when were were suddenly awoken by the lady on the bus & told that we had reached Meng Zi. we stepped off the bus to a 'cowboy' town- i.e. dirt roads, bullock carts, pple in traditional costumes, noisy, dusty etc. u get the picture. & we couldn't even find a person who spoke Mandarin- everyone either ignored us or answered in strong dialect that we couldn't understand.. we looked so obviously out of place, the 7 of us in dark coloured jackets with our bags all around us. But God was there hehe.. He knew we were in trouble.. & so He sent us an angel (we think la huh..).. cuz we found this lady sitting in her shop reading a chinese classical novel. so andy & jasmine went to her & asked her where we were etc. & Thank God she could speak perfect pu-tong-hua! PTL! =D we managed to get to Dr Diarra's clinic in the other side of town. & as we sat in the cab driving on the dirt road, we were shocked to see how modern the new town was! a major difference from where we were dumped by the bus!

in the evening we headed off to Jin Ping, 7-8hr drive on bumpy road. actually its oni 145km away, but cuz the road condition's so bad, it takes that long to get there. we stopped over for the night at another small town ( i can't rmbr the name) & the next morning arrived at Nan2 Ke1 Xiao3 Xue2. there we were to distribute blankets & new bedding for the children. they were all dressed up in their best, most in traditional costumes, to meet us. cuz there were govt officials travelling with us, they were told by the principal to look their best & even their rooms were cleaned & tidied. but later Dr D told us that actually most of these children didn't even have blankets, & prob took the best one from home just to bring to sch for this occasion. some families didn't even have enough blankets for each member, most just shared 1 among themselves. it was really saddening that we didn't have enought time to spend with the children. the 'handing over' ceremony took far too long. sigh.. to us (the team) it was just so much of a show to the govt, & to make it seem that it was the govt that was so generous & good, when in actual fact, the bedding stuff (which cost ~$15K RMB) was donated by a Singaporean doctor in Kunming (Dr Tan Lai Yong).

worse still was when we had lunch after changing the beds for the kids. we were served a luxurious meal: eggs, 2vege, peanuts, 2 meat dishes, 1 soup, rice. but the children were only given meagre fare: peanuts & vege in water-'soup' & a huge mount of rice. When we saw what they ate we really couldn't bring ourselves to eat what was offered to us. but we were told that we had to, cuz we had to give the school admin pple 'face'. =( Dr D's helper told us that the food the kids had today was already very good compared to their usual cuz we were there. it really made swallowing so so hard. i tink all of us hardly ate the meat at all knowing that. so we quickly finished eating & brought out the bowls of meat, eggs etc left to distribute to the children.

after eating we spent some time talking to the children. before we left, a group of girls from the Hanyi tribe sang us their traditional song. when i heard it, i couldn't help but cry cuz i could hear their love & longing for home in the song. these children boarded at school & only went home on sat, only to return on sun. most had to walk up to 6 hrs to get home. many of them asked us if we were coming back again. i didn't know how to answer these poor, hungry for love children. to say yes could very well be a lie, & to say no would probably have broken their hearts. i could only tell them that if i could i would. we left the school admist tears & song..

*andy video-ed them singing.. & even till many days later when he played the video to penny & again later to the roberts, each time i heard them sing it made my heart feel so sad for them.. & even now when as i blog this, the song is running in my head...

there's just so much to tell & blog.. i tink i shall stop here for now.. perhaps will continue tomorrow...