Laos (Part 3/3)

Ok final instalment lezzzgo!

Wow I haven’t written so much in so long but I shall persevere because the memories are still fresh in my head!

(Edit: I don’t actually know what to write anymore, sigh.)

Maybe I should write about the kids. Yup.

This is Ban Hong, who is one of the sweetest girls in my class. I remember walking down to the convenience store along with MK, Anna, Siying, Lynn and Cheryl and we walked past her house. I saw her and gave her a huge hug.

She happily returned it! I was elated. She then gave each of us flowers in our hair.

Look how beautiful we all look 🙂 Heh.

This is Poon Yong. His favourite teacher is Ryan but I think I come a close second, considering he knows my name! *pops confetti* He is a very bright student, always being one of the first few to volunteer his responses. He sits in the front row with Lucky, who is one of the brightest kids in the class too.

Here’s another photo featuring some of the boys in class:

From top to bottom, L-R: Kamkel, Boonlet, Zheng Ti, Poon Yong and Lucky. Mango the Cat also makes a special appearance.

On the first day of class, we went “jao si niang” (what’s your name) and tried our best to romanise their names. That’s how “Lucky”, “Boonlet” and the Chinese-sounding “Zheng Ti” etc. came about. Lisa whipped out her Instax subsequently and they were all visibly excited.

“Dai hoop!“, we would shout, and they would jostle to be as close to the lens as possible. The night before our flight back to Singapore, Wenbin shared his thoughts regarding the kids’ reactions to photo-taking. The kids enjoyed seeing their faces on camera, which Wenbin thought was because they rarely saw vivid reflections of themselves (Wenbin please correct me if I’m mistaken). Perhaps owning a mirror is considered a luxury? I’m not sure.

Interacting with the village kids gave me unparalleled joy. For the first time in my life I actually felt wanted, because the kids would just voluntarily hold my hands and request for me to bring them around. I gladly obliged. How was it possible that a stranger could make them this happy, euphoric even?

One burning question all of us had was: How was it possible for us to want the best for them, even when we barely knew them?

Love.

But why do we love them so much?

Hopefully I will find the answer someday.

—

Lastly, thank you for the memories. All of you are special and capable in your own ways, and I have learnt so much from every single one of you in the past two weeks. I hope we will be able to make a return trip back to Na’Learng in the near future. All 20 of us. We will still continue playing bridge during our free time, sing along to Love Yourself/Perfect/I Want It That Way, shower in ice-cold water, have our meals together, drink Double Black like it’s water, indulge in sinful Vang Vieng pancakes, take bumpy tuktuk rides, do pre-construction warm-ups, say “sabaidee” to everyone we meet because our Lao is that limited… Also, maybe Sabaidee Baby/Mucus Boy/Kam Ken/Boon Mi will be the next village chief!

From top to bottom, L-R: Serena, Naz, Siying, Xiwen, Mag, Lynn, Jermz, Zims, Cheryl Goh, Ryan, Lisa, Cheryl Sim, YX, MK, Anna, Michelle, Yours Truly, Victor, Yuwei and Wenbin.

(Also featuring the hole we couldn’t finish digging. Apparently the depth is supposed to be taller than me, yup.)

As Xiwen said in our last reflection session, parting is truly bittersweet. I wish I could have spent more time in the village, but that would make parting even more difficult than it already is.

Phohp gan mai, Laos! :’)