13th entry - Memoirs of an ex-Volunteer

A Straits Times special report dated 2 Apr '05 titled "Hands up for Volunteers" is pinned up at my office cubicle. From time to time I will gaze at it and be reminded of my past experience with volunteering. It also reminds me of my desire to return to volunteering.

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My earliest exposure to volunteering was during primary school. My mom and her friends visited nursing homes and orphanages during Christmas to sing carols and distribute gifts, and I sometimes tagged along. My mom is my role model in this aspect. At one stage my mom regularly volunteered at a day-care centre for elderly persons near our residence. She will look after them, talk to them and participate in the daily activities. I went with her on a special Christmas Day celebration and was amazed at how she remembered everybody's names and peculiarities.

In 2001, an opportunity came for me to start volunteering. Through my colleagues, I learnt that Gracehaven Children's Home needed adult volunteers to give tuition to the residents at the Home. The Home was a haven for children who were sentenced for minor juvenile offences or for Beyond Parental Control (BPC) cases. I was apprehensive at first because I dont enjoy teaching academic subjects, and it was also a long while since I had any contact with those subjects. What if I taught them the wrong thing? Putting my fears aside, I went ahead to register myself with the Home and began my first volunteer work.

The child assigned to me was a 11 year old boy. I was supposed to tutor him in English and Mathematics. Piece of cake, I thought, since its only at primary level. Little did I know that my academic knowledge was not the only thing put to the test. My boy was not motivated academically, and had no real interest in learning, so I had to try to be extra patient and understanding. He frequently veered off track by asking me all sorts of questions, including personal ones like whether I liked my job and whether I had a girlfriend. He also shared with me fascinating stories apparently from his colorful past. One account I remembered distinctly was about how he sometimes ended up sleeping in some sewer that was a hideout for members of a gang/secret society that he had joined. I was his tutor for a few months, before he tried to run away from the Home and was later caught and placed in "lock-up". After that the Home reassigned me to another boy. This boy was 15 years old, much more sensible and respectful. He and I got along very well. On Teacher's Day he even gave me a gift - I was so touched that I nearly wept. I tutored him for almost 6 months until he took his exams. Then I started a new job that demanded greater commitment at the office, and I stopped giving tuition at the Home. During my stint at the Home, I also helped out at a charity fun fair organised by the Home. I also got to know some of the staff and other volunteers at the Home; one of the staff even organised a camping trip and BBQ at Pulau Tekong (an offshore island north of Singapore) for the volunteers, which I enjoyed because it was ages since I had been on a camping trip!

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Between 2001 and 2003, I was involved in 2 short-term volunteering projects. In 2001, through a university schoolmate I learnt that the Singapore Adventurer's Club (SAC) and the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) were doing a joint overseas volunteering project in Myanmar, titled "Project Myitta (Love)". SAC is an established society involved in adventure sports like mountain climbing and white-water rafting. SIF is a government-supported initiative to introduce young people (below the age of 25 years) to local and overseas volunteering. The purpose of Project Myitta was to help build a medical facility in a Yangon village. Prior to the trip, our group organised a few activities to help raise funds for our project. Our group was then divided into 2 smaller groups that left for Myanmar in phases, each one lasting 2 weeks. Each group brought medical supplies and other things that we had collected as donation for the villagers who we were going to help.

When my group, which was the second batch, arrived in Yangon, we were brought to our accomodation on an old bus that looked like a Frankenstein revived from a junkyard of old buses. Our home for the next 2 weeks was the YMCA building in Yangon, which served as a community centre for a handful of Yangon residents as well as a "students' hostel". We slept on old judo mats laid out in a multi-purpose hall until the first batch of volunteers vacated their rooms so that we could move in. We were briefed about our work and what our daily routine would be like, and some of the volunteers from the first batch shared their experience with us. It seemed that many of them fell ill from diarrhoea, heatstroke and flu, and all of them appeared worn out and tired, as if they had been through a Survivor program (the reality TV show). When we sent the first group off on their last day, I recall seeing their relieved and happy faces, as if they were celebrating their "release from prison".

As part of the program, we got a chance to visit several places of interest in Yangon. We also needed to organise 2 public functions that involve Myanmese residents. One of them, a cultural exchange performance, was held at the multi-purpose hall. The Myanmese gave a mesmerising ethnic show comprising a beautiful traditional song and music performance using the Myanmese harp, a lively dance that showed the exuberance of Myanmese youth, and a puppet show. We put up a skit to depict "a typical day in the life of a Singaporean" in a humorous way, and engaged the audience in a song and dance; I think everyone, including some caucasian guests putting up at the YMCA, enjoyed themselves a lot.

The village that we were helping to build the medical facility was 40 minutes ride from Yangon city. Living conditions were slowly improving but still relatively poor. It was a farming community made up of several villages and the site where the medical facility was being constructed was located in a central township that had a school and a Buddhist temple (I understand that villages in Myanmar were built around temples, which were the foci of most towns). We were told that the idea initially was for us to stay in the village but due to political and safety reasons we were advised otherwise. On hindsight, I think many more of us would have become ill if we had stayed in the village, as electricity supply was erratic, hygiene condtions were poor and there were lots of mosquitoes. This was made apparent to us during our 2nd week there, when we held the second cultural exchange program in the village. This was a cross-cultural dinner, where we would prepare popular Singaporean fare for the local villagers while they would prepare traditional Myanmese village fare for us. We took half a day just to prepare Hainanese chicken and rice and a soup, but it was still hard work. Our dinner ended at nightfall, and we had to finish our dinner in dim candlelight because the power was cut. Mosquitoes were buzzing in swarms around us and it was nearly impossible not to get bitten even though we had worn thick clothing.

Used to the fast pace of work and modern technology in Singapore, most of us were shocked to learn that we did not even have wheelbarrows, and basic tools like shovels were in short supply. The first batch of volunteers had spent nearly a week mostly just moving sand and bricks across a ditch that had separated the construction site from the main dirt road. We spent our 2 weeks days finishing the sand filling, constructing wooden and steel supports for the walls, pillars and ground floor ceiling. The slow pace was hardly surprising, considering that we had only woven baskets and old woks (yes, those iron woks used for cooking) to move the sand (which was needed to build a foundation for the facility) and the bricks (which we then had to use for erecting external and partition walls). A lot of time was spent waiting for materials to arrive at the site, as delays of 1-2 days were very common. However, the waiting was fun too, as we got a chance to play with the children in the village. I took a picture of my group playing with the lovely children during our breaktime (at the top of this Blog entry), and one of me getting the metal rod in shape to make a steel support for the pillars.

To me, the most memorable part of the trip was working hand in hand with the villagers in construction. I never once heard them complain about the hardship that they faced. Instead, they appeared happy and content with whatever they had, and were grateful for the fact that people outside of their closed world cared enough about them to endure 2 difficult weeks so that they could eventually have proper medical treatment in the village. I was told that the construction was completed 6 months after we left.

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Another short-term project that I had participated in was a tuition project for needy students. This was started by one of my colleagues together with his church cell group. We started giving weekly tuition at a MacDonald's restaurant and later moved to a church building nearby as the group of students grew larger. The fact that this was going on concurrently with my stint at Gracehaven meant that I was able to compare between my experiences at both places. The main difference was that the needy children were more motivated to study than those at Gracehaven, but the residents of Gracehaven demanded more than mere academic knowledge, which made it more challenging and thus more rewarding for me. I was involved in this project for about 1 year, ending just before starting work at my new job.

Looking back at my past experiences I realise that volunteers sometimes gain much more than the people who are receiving help. Putting aside time and energy to volunteer makes us think less of ourselves and more on others, and thus helps us become more patient, compassionate and considerate. We also learn to be more thankful for what we have and to share what we have with others.

I hope I can start volunteering again soon. If any of my guests reading this Blog has any organisation to recommend, please let me know.