MOB photos, and an update (:

THE PHOTOS ARE IN! :D here's a handful of them (not in order of events), enjoy! :

Our little outdoor picnic outside auntie nellie's rented place. eating with our hands from banana leaves. it's kinda cool, albeit the annoying mozzies and flies


This is the famous ROASTED CHICKEN! it is to die for, really. especially when you eat veggies and rice three meals a day for almost 2 weeks... heh


Group photo on our last night at the hostel


At Chiangrai international airport


the transit at bangkok airport when we were gg up. clem and gabriel played soccer with the san zha i bought (which is meant for consumption). they played with those 3 pieces so much that the colour got darker and darker.

this is tanuk. he's the youngest kid in the hostel. it's really amusing when he gets angry and starts raising his voice, like some mafia gang leader.. hahah


this is from the BBQ we had on friday night


yimin and clem sharing a private moment :P


jam run, tanuk and chan chai. jam run's name (pronounced zam lern) has since been turned into some kind of cool swear word, thanks to clement.


auntie nelli helping tanuk with his school u. their shirts have buttons at the end so when they tuck in , they can button the shirt to the shorts so it doesnt come out. tanuk was so shy cos auntie nellie asked him to loosen his shorts so that she can tuck it in and we were all standing around cos we were sending them off to school. haha

yimin holding snow with disgust. snow just went swimming in the irrigation channel and got himself all muddy and dirty. the only reason why yimin would pick him up is that snow kept running off to find trouble with this big dog in someone's house so we had to carry him away.


the guys acting cool with their new purchases...

auntie nellie's giraffe soft toy from barang barang. haha. it's super nua. haha

that's lorraine from ARPC with gao cheng (hostel parents' son) and snow.

snow! (: he's the hostel dog. actually he's auntie nellie's dog but he stays at the hostel. a lousy guard dog who's easily bribed by tummy rubs, but he's brought joy to many of the kids there, esp those who have hurts in their lives or even those who are homesick, etc.

jiw (jiu2) and gao cheng. dont you think she looks like a mixed blood kid? we found out that she is! we asked auntie nellie and she said jiw is half mien and half.... (we were expecting some ang moh blood or smth) northern thai. haha. it was so anti climax when she said that.


this was taken outside mr and mrs phin's house (pronounced fin but i dunno how to spell) up in palay while we were waiting for the soong teow to come pick us. mr phin is the village head man and the church is to the right of his house (down a stairway further back). they also take care of auntie nellie's other dog, scottie.

the hostel parents, Pii Jed and Pii MeiChing and gao cheng. taken at the queen mother's palace (which is like some big botanical garden with many nice flora and fauna, and nearby is the queen mother's house which we couldnt take photos of)

this is auntie nellie, always looking good for the camera! (if you are from bartley and dunno that, shame on you! tsk. haha)

team photo at the queen mother's palace, where we all have upsidedown-flower hats (:

mel posing with a sign that is SUPPOSED to read: toilets inside, 5 BAHT. haha. at the irony is that it was at mae sai, the myanmar border, which is a tourist area and yet... heh

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aye. the past week has been so zz without amy and sharon around! like now with amy gone, her work is kinda split, so me and glory have to shoulder more work on top of our usual stuff... (it used to be, underworked and overpaid [or so we felt] and now it's overworked and underpaid). everyday we cant wait to go for lunch or head home cos it's so chiong hei in the office now. even our planned teabreaks (to prevent us from dying) are not able to pull thru. haha. how sad. thank God it's only a month till our internship ends :P

playing for pnp on wednesday. im kinda excited but at the same time quite scared that i'll screw up somewhere (which will most likely happen).

OH and i finally got a wolfsound eliminator for my 3k baby. ANNOYING-WOLFSOUND-NO-MORE! hooray!

gg to s'pore flyer tmr. how exciting :D

Sawatdee Kha!

I’m back from my MOB trip! Time passed so fast even though we thought 12 days will be a while. Here’s a recount on what we did there:

Day 1
Woke up early to go to the airport for our flight. Glory stayed over the night before (: met yf people at the airport and prayed before we left. The transit between our SIN  BKK flight and BKK  CHIANGRAI flight was like 4 hours! And we didn’t know what to do. So we ended up at the transit cafeteria and ate and slacked there.

Pii Jed and Pii Nellie picked us up from the airport in the truck full of veggies for the hostel. By the time we reached the MOC (ie the hostel) it was already 4. We had a short introduction to the hostel parents and then the kids started streaming in back from school (: I was glad to see some of the kids again but I think initially they couldn’t really recognize me till I introduced myself again and asked if they remembered me from my previous trip. Haha. We had dinner (OH THE YUMMY ROASTED CHICKEN FROM MAECHAN IS A MUST TRY!) before a short introduction with the kids and a game of wacko to get to know each other’s names better. We did our puppet show and a short devotion too (The Good Samaritan)

Since it was a Friday night, the kids got to watch a movie. So we watched this Korean film called “Grandma and Me”. Most of us were quite tired out from the travelling that halfway thru the movie we had to force ourselves to stay awake, especially since the movie was dubbed in Thai and there were no subtitles so we couldn’t understand the dialogues -.-

Bedtime was good (:

Day 2
After breakfast, the kids had to do chores so naturally, we had to join them. We cleaned up the windows and swept off a lot of bugs. Lunched, and the kids had study time. Here’s where the guys packed up and headed off to Palay to join Pii Gao Tim for the weekend. The girls stayed back at the MOC to have the weekend with the kids. Played volleyball with them in the evening. It’s quite nice now that the hostel is at the MOC cos they have plenty of land around it. So there’s like a makeshift volleyball court and a soccer field. And there’s still a lot of empty space around. Haha. Post dinner we had time with the kids for the evening. Then a more in depth introduction of ourselves. The older kids were quite concerned about study related stuff cos they kept asking us questions about whether it’s stressful, difficult, etc…


Day 3
Church was cool. The hostel works like a house church, so they have Sunday school in the morning, followed by a service, led by the older girls/hostel parents and someone would preach a message. This week, Pii Jed preached a message about Daniel. But it was in mien and the 5 of us were like quite distracted cos we couldn’t understand much. Hahah. We came to learn of the sponsorship program ARPC has come up with to support the kids in the hostel. So we helped to translate the kids’ letters to their sponsors from thai to English with the help of the older hostel girls. Through that we got to know more about the kids by reading what they wrote in their letters. We also went for a walk around the area the hostel is in. Quite a farm based area with paddy fields and corn fields.

Day 4
Start of the week. The kids woke up at 5.30 (!). After sending them off to school, we cleaned the toilets that we used and packed our stuff to go up to Palay to join the guys. Also got the chance to talk to Lorraine and Baoyi (APRC people we met at MOC) while waiting for Tzewen (ARPC) to return from the market with Pii Jed.

Up at Palay (Pii Jed brought us up), we met the guys and Pii Tim. He shared his testimony about how he came to know Christ and his struggles with drug addiction. Lunch was at a little noodle shop up the slope. We had cubes of pig’s blood in our noodles. The thought of eating pig’s blood is quite gross. It’s quite tasteless and putting small pieces in your mouth is fine. But larger pieces are a bit psychological… hahah.

We cleaned the walls of the church and washed the floor after lunch. It took us the whole afternoon. The amount of rocks, dirt and dust was appalling… it’s sad that the people there don’t really bother to keep it clean cos to them it’s already cleaner than their own house. At night, we had a romantic session in the dark with Auntie Nellie as she shared about her testimony and her ministry amongst the Mien. It was a real eye-opener for me cos in my previous trip we didn’t have such opportunities to hear more about the ministry of these missionaries so I was really in awe of the way God is working there.

We also had these little snacks… they look like muruku but are not. And they are rather addictive… like opium. Haha. You’ll just keep eating and eating. Auntie Nellie said they were really unhealthy though, cos they are fried in palm oil. And if you put it to the flame, it’ll keep burning like a matchstick cos of the amount of oil in it. She showed us. It was quite fun watching it burn. Despite that, we continued to comsume this unhealthy snack while the older people (ARPC folks + Pii Nellie) had their sunflower seed fellowship (coined term… hahah)

Day 5
Major working day. Me and Vanessa cleaned up the ramp while the others started painting the church. Lorraine and Baoyi helped to clean the house. Mel and Van scrubbed the steps that led down to the church too. Painting the church was quite fun though kinda tiring. Auntie Nellie cooked a nice dinner for us (as always (: ) a fast passing day.

Day 6
Packed up for our return to Maechan and took a walk around Palay while waiting for the Soong teow to come pick us up. Lunch was at a noodle shop down at Maechan after we put our stuff at Auntie Nellie’s house. We went to visit this missionary pastor, Wen Kun, and heard his testimony about his ministry amongst the Mien in Vietnam, Laos and China. It was really inspiring! (:

Went sightseeing at the golden triangle also. Dinner at a steamboat place in Maechan. It was good team time. Quite fun (: haha.

Day 7
We went up to the King’s Mother’s Villa for sightseeing. It’s like this huge flower place. 10 times better than the botanical gardens. Hahah. The flowers were really pretty and well maintained. Pii Jed and Pii Meiching and Gao Cheng came along too. It was photos and more photos all the way. Haha. And they have these pots of water along the routes for consumption where you use a scoop and take the water to drink. Cool stuff. Then we went to Mae Sai near the Burmese border for lunch and shopping (supposedly) but didn’t buy much anw. We had ROAST CHICKEN for dinner again! :D whee! Then team time on the parallel between painting and service.

Day 8
We packed up again today to move back to the MOC. Bummed around while the adults went to the market to buy food for the BBQ. Someone cooked pad thai for lunch, dunno if it was Auntie Nellie or Pii Meiching. We talked to the hostel parents after lunch and prayed for them too. And then we practiced our dance. Helped to prepare for the BBQ and pulled out weeds to plant kangkong near the well. The kids enjoyed picking out worms and showing it to us. Haha. It was quite gross but you get used to it. It was outside the building, with 2 pits and mats around it. Interesting, nice and simple (: Pii Tim also joined us for that one. We watched national treasure 2 after that too. Most of the kids went off to bed halfway cos they couldn’t understand English that well (dunno why there was no thai audio or subtitles). It was a nice movie but we were all quite zonked by the time it ended. Some of us fell asleep halfway. Hahah.

Day 9
Similar schedule to the previous Saturday. But we also helped to clear the cut grass around the MOC. There were many frogs in the field and the kids were so brave, especially the younger ones like malee and chanchai. They would pick up the little things and show it to you in your face. And the ones malee caught were always so big. It was quite disgusting. Haha. They would offer it to you to hold in your hand like some new found pet.

Volleyball was a bit different. We had s’pore vs Thailand. Haha. And j low was the only guy amongst all the girls. And we didn’t tell him about the things they do for forfeit should a team lose the game. Hahah it was highly amusing. We also played this game called contagious disease. It was so embarrassing I tell you.. haha. Details shall not be revealed here for the confidentiality of the team. Haha

Day 10
Jon did a sharing for worship service. And a similar schedule to the previous Sunday too. Haha. Yup. Clement got a fever and his left foot started swelling a bit… didn’t do our dance as planned. The guys started hallucinating about meat products… like ramlee burgers and BK, lagsane, etc.. it was hilarious hearing them spout nonsense over dinner while trying to finish the food on their plate. One must understand that the kids eat a lot of veg cos it’s cheaper than meat. So every meal is rice with one dish veg… although the cooking is really nice, you kinda start missing the taste of meat thus the weird hallucinations. hahah

Day 11

Another new week. We helped to hang out the kids bedsheets in the morning and went to tesco (supermarket) after that to buy stuff. Lunch was the yummy chicken again. There’s just something special about the taste of the chicken. It’s really delicious. Arooy mak mak! We met a mien pastor whom Bartley supported thru bible school. Lunch was picnic style with banana leaves again. Took a walk out to meet the kids after school and walk back with them. Dinner was early today. Our last night with the kids: thank God we managed to do the dance despite clement’s increasing foot size. Rachel and myself shared out testimonies and then we had phototaking.

Day 12
mel’s foot started becoming like clements :S we gave out the cards to the kids before they left for school and took more photos with them. Area cleaning for our sleeping areas before we had team reflection and then off to chiangrai for a bit of walking around. And then airport check in and home sweet home!

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It was a good experience and many new things learnt compared to my previous trip there. It was nice getting to meet up with Auntie Nellie and the kids and see familiar faces again. New faces were also good to know and the kids just make you smile. I really wanted to be able to speak their language and communicate with them. I miss snow (the dog) and gao cheng as well. Gao cheng is 1.5 years old and he’s very intelligent. He’s super cute, especially after dinner when he’s had his bath and got powder on his face. He’ll strut out of the hostel parents’ room with neatly combed hair and he’ll put his hands behind his back and ang2 shou3 ting3 xiong1 and walk to the centre of the circle when we have our program with the kids (: haha. Will post photos soon. Oh and there’s this kid whom I’ve met the previous trip but I didn’t realize how much she looks like Christina teo! An uncanny resemblance in their looks man.

I got to know more about the ministry amongst the Mien and how things work up there. It could just be the recent-ness of the experience that is making think about missions and whether that’s what God wants for my life. That’s why I shall stick to what shaun ong said during one of his sermons at tm: prepare to be a missionary until God tells you “no”. the whole trip and what we learnt cannot be put into words but I’m so thankful to God for every inch of the trip :D I really enjoyed it, despite the days getting more and more tired.

a long post

hello hello, what an exciting 2 weeks we had in the office! cos it was like 3-day work week (saturdays are not counted although technically it is a workday for me) for 2 weeks: last week cos of vesak day (we had tues off) and this week cos of leaders retreat (on fri, ie out of office). yuppers

last week me and glory had to do alpha marriage gifts. so we did the test tube thing thing with words inside on transparency and filled them handsoap and glitter. sadly the glitter colour came off.. hahah. and we made little ladles to reach into the testube to scoop out all the foam and bubbles which were taking up space! ya. kinda messy but fun (:

and this past week was prep for leaders retreat. plus some bday celebrations. hahah (: i kop-ed from glory's blog:

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shukun and sharon gave bobo and i a treat at country manna (THANK YOU UNCLE AND AUNTY :D) and the soup there is yummy. and since it's so yummy, we are going to have instant food day next thursday and make it too!! pastry soup. YUMMMYYY. we bought back vanilla and almond dreyers ice cream with sara lee cake and honey flakes and milo nuggets and pokey sticks and made a wundaaarrFULL desert :) the 4 of us...younger generation of the office had our share of fun and noise with sharon around.

bobo and i had our share of fun too. i hid bobo's pig sweets under her jacket. I WAS HOPING SHE WOULD WEAR IT AND NOTICE IT. BUT THAT BLUR BOBO BIRD TOOK FOREVER TO WEAR THE JACKET. SOOOO...i had to instruct her to hang up her jacket...but i couldn't make it too obvious...URGH..here's our conversation:

-glory- : stop warming ur jacket with ur assss
(bobo removes jacket off her chair and hangs it up..without noticing the surprise.)

glory: now ur ass is heating up the chair. look at how ur chair has melted. har har
(seriously...if i were her i wouldn't even take me seriously..but that's just the way i am)

glory: u have a hot asss

bobo : (: nonsense... hahah

glory : LOOOKKK!!! ur chair is drippinnggggg black stuff...it's meeellltttiinnnggggg!!! QUICK..STAND UP
(even i would be suspicious of me...so it's no surprise why bobo didn't want to listen)

bobo : oh shut up.. hahahah

glory : haha

bobo : if it were melting i'd be on the floor by now.

glory : OH FINEEEEE ...BE THAT WAY..STUBBORN

bobo : lol

glory : i warn u first...dun fart or u will regret it later

bobo : ? y fart? what are you talking about?
(the sweets are in direct fire of her fart hole.)

glory: u see la!! see where u fart... just stand up
(she stands up WITHOUT LOOKING AT HER SEAT)

glory : stand up, turn around and see where u fart

glory: on ur chair!!!
(now i feel exasperated!!!)

glory : i spash some secret chemical that can reveal where u fart

glory : QUICK STANDDDD!!!

glory : TURN AROUND AND LOOK AT THE CHAIR LA BUFFOON
JUST LISTEN!!!
( by this time i am terribly exasperated with her. haha)

she finally does so and it took her some time to REALLY register the presence of the surprise #1. haha. then she burst into laughter....so do i

and i really mean BURST. cos we laughed till our eyes exploded with tears...and our stomachs exploded with hurt from all that laughing.

sooo..we continued our sane work after that...when the office had this birthday celebration and tea party and thus we were all merry and happy. thus the second surprise bobo had in 1 day :) we had music playing in the background all till the day ended. and the office was no longer quiet.

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it was uber retarded. i felt so goon to stand up for no reason and look at my chair? (cos i didnt know got sweets mah)

silly pacey. it was really hilarious. ahha. we laughed till our sides ached.

yeah that was wednesday (:

thurs we went to olive vine for lunch. ie me glory amy and ps joe

we happened to come to the topic of dating and stuff. and cos the day before i found out i got rejected by nus med. so i told the staff that morning that i'll most likely be gg overseas. yup so ps joe asked if we were dating anyone. and out of the 3 of us, im the only one. so we tried to let him guess who the guy was. and when we mentioned his name, ps joe's face was one of shock and like "WHAT?!" plus the shaking of his face really fast. hahahah it was so comical! and we couldnt stop laughing at him cos after that he had to drink water to try and calm himself down. we laughed so loud the other customers were looking at us with weird stares. hahaha

the afternoon was mostly spent typing out bill hybels for leaders retreat. by the end of the day i was really bushed. practiced with suyin and ps joe for 'from the inside out' before gg for cello lesson. it was mighty fun, the lesson i mean. only for the beethoven sonata part though. ahaha. crazy composer. seriously.

by friday i was alr quite dead. went for leaders retreat. thank God i didnt get thrown into the sea cos i had this huge rash wound on my leg from the night before. it was really bad it hurt to even bend my legs. yeah. matthew was trying to catch this tree lizard and initially he was so scared his hand was trembling so hard even tho he was so close to picking it up. hahaha. when he finally plucked up his courage to pick it up, he named it lenny. hahah.

kelvin leong tried to do a kissing pose with it (camera trick) but the lousy photographer ended up having kelvin eat the lizard's head off. hahahaha. yeah we let it go in the end.

went back home to wash up before dinner at seafood paradise (: it was okay, not a very nice dining exp but yeah. we had to wait almost 40 minutes for our food, and in the end only the crab was worth waiting for (crab rocks! :D ) and i was so gong la, i wanted to wear a skirt cos of my rash. and i ended up wearing di's tube top (which can really pass off as a skirt cos of the poofiness) yeah. but i didnt spoil it of course! ;)

sat was cg outing. i had to drag myself and force myself to go. ended up terribly sunburnt, with many unglam photos of my poster coloured self and my cg. hahah. it was such a colourful and memorable experience. had oreo cheesecake :D yes. and we played many games, which made me feel good cos i convinced myself it was exercise (eh running on the sand not easy okay!) we played captain's ball, vollyball (which kinda failed), frisbee (only in small group passing) and touch rugby! touch was the funnest. too bad we were on the sand, quite hard to play. but that was the one we played the longest (: makes me feel like joining it as a cca in uni (: hahah.

it was a good time of bonding with the j1s and some of the other cg people. yup. i was supposed to go for my own cg's outing but by the time we came back to vivo i was utterly bushed, struggling to open my eyes alr (and not like my eyes are very big to begin with). we had subway for dinner and headed back home.

slept early last night. it was so uncomfortable. with the sunburnt shoulders especially. im gonna peel so bad. like a banana. or maybe a snake (born in the year of the snake). then can collect snakeskin and make handbags... and sell and earn money

YA RIGHT.

MOB IS COMING! like in 5 days... glory is gonna cry cos she'll be missing me so bad! i offered her pictures that she can take and put on her wallpaper, in her wallet, frame on her table. but she put on a brave front (i know you want la pacey, you just have to ask... ;) )