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Tuesday 28 September 2010
IT Joy Timor Leste, Day 11 of 11. 28/09/10.


11th/LAST Day

only while boarding the plane did i realise, 'our trip has concluded.'

spent 3/4 of our 3hour flight translating songs, 20mins staring at our team, 5mins spacing out, and the last 15mins chatting with a Japanese civil engineer who stood behind me while queuing to get on board the plane.

haha.

土田さん was apparently in Timor to help with road improvement supervision. we chatted about our jobscopes, basically.

learnt that my course (nutrition) in Japanese is 栄養士。

helped him around Changi Airport a while before going off for dinner with Bernard and Kent. ate at Aston's at T1 while missing Erica. she flew off to Japan without telling me. =.=

served by Anand, who juz came back from the US for NS, but is having some cock-up with registrations, so he's juz waiting around doing nothing.

cabbed home.

well, i guess that concludes the 11-day community involvement project in Timor.

hahah. not a very well-written journal, but oh well.

this trip had lots of ups and downs.

there was insufficient planning and preparation due to poor communication abilities between Singapore and Timor Leste, printer toners being packed and sent wrongly, parellel cable, extra OS, etc not being prepared. it was still an enriching experience, however.

like what Daniel said(at least, that's what my hazy memory tells me), shortcomings are inevitable, but they are what made the trip fun and enjoyable.

okay, now i'm juz copying from the finale minutes of the last debrief that Jane sent me.

this trip has truely taught me how fortunate we are to be staying in Singapore, where everything is available at whim. we have tech shops, convenience stores, fast food restaurants all over the place!

life in Singapore is soo comfortable! we can even drink out of the taps!

in Timor, there are few street lights, 2 Singaporean-owned supermarkets, bottled mineral water that tastes funny after 3 hours, and the only decent food available are the hotel restaurants and a Singaporean-owned foodcourt!

here, we have buses, trains, cabs, all air-conditioned and clean.

in Timor, the people were hanging from outside the buses. even in Chennai i did not see them soo packed! there are no trains, cabs have no air-con, the seats are all rotting, and the rearwindows are pasted with posters and other paper things where the glass should have been.

i really thank God for LeeKuanYew at this moment.

if Timor had someone like him, there's no doubt that they'll be as booming within 10years. they have oil, land, resources, aid etc. the only thing Singapore had was people.

hopefully Prasanth would actually make it to be Timor's first non-residential prime minister. ahahha. okay, i'm making no sense.

anyway, going back to the minutes from the final debrief.

in order to improve future overseas projects, different leaders should be appointed to be in-charge of different things. eg, one person to pack the parallel cables, one to secure the software over, one in charge of adapters, another in-charge of banners, etc.

each member should also put more initiative into the things we do, take up responsibilities and be accountable for them, and be more sensitive to each others feelings.

yea, there was a bit of bullying and teasing going on, but it was all good fun in the end.

the DPA students of our group talked everything through and agreed that we were juz silly, and are still going to be.

even at Aston's, i was spitting daggers at Kent, and laughing at Bernard for eating sauce.

xD~!

Vicky, thankyou for choosing the 13 of us out of 30+ to go for this wonderful trip.
Michael, thankyou for being our guide throughout the entire 11 days, renting the vehicles, bringing us out to eat, bridging the communication between us and them, and taking care of almost our every whim and fancy. next time, it'll be our turn.

Space, Shakey, Nata, Prasanth, thankyou for handling all the techinical stuff, eg when the computers cockup, your jokes, spaz, and all that jazz.

Firdaus, thankyou for lending me your shoulder and being the butt of my 'affection'.

Phillip, thanks for the final day's intrusion. really, cuz there's soo much to thank everybody for that i forgot what i planned on typing originally. veggie boy, i forgot what to thank you for liao.

Daniel, you cheater, thanks for showing my how the game of Bridge is played. i don't think anyone can ever copy your style.

Roy, Kent, Bernand; DPA group. thanks for spamming the food orders, etc. there's this silent, really lame fun that's going on, and i don't really know what it is.

Jane, last, and most importantly, thankyou. you were such a generous roomie and pal during this trip, especially in the later half, where things juz started shitting themselves up for me. i never told anyone about my dogs before, and i probably won't. so please keep those moments of whining and senseless yabbering on my part hidden and locked away in your forgotten memory.
thankyou for everything.

i guess that's everyone.

Thank God for this wonderful trip.

hope to go for more.





now to sort through the 860 pictures in my camera. seriously! i didn't even take the beautiful ones yet!

Fieary. 28/09/10.


17:20
when will my dreams be fulfilled??