iProject - Commitment of Hearts




Sunday, 25 March 2007

Learning Moments

I have gained invaluable experiences when I went for the OCIP trip to Vietnam. These experiences include how to deal with unforeseen circumstances such as lost passport. These experiences reminded me that we have to constantly keep a lookout for our students and their safety is always ours utmost priority.

Looking back, there were some challenges along the way. One challenge was to be sensitive and respect the Vietnamese culture. Vietnamese believed that a child’s soul will be captured in the photo if his/her photo was taken. Hence, we had to ask for their parents’ or siblings’ permission before taking any photos. This made me realize that an action viewed as common to us may be viewed as a sign of disrespect to the Vietnamese.

As we made our way to TaVan from our hotel, we passed by children, ages ranging from about 5 years old to about 14 years old. They were walking along the road barefooted and some of them, as young as 10 years old, had to carry their younger siblings on their back. My heart went out to them as I realized that the heavy responsibility of taking care of their siblings was placed upon these young and small shoulders. In addition, these tribal children had to walk barefooted for a few hours from their homes to the hotels to earn a living. Their source of income is to persuade and coax foreigners into buying the souvenirs. Despite having no formal education, they were well aware of the value of money due to the arrival of visitors.

One of our contributions to TaVan School was to build concrete pavements, toilets and to paint a building. These were done in the morning and teaching was done in the afternoon. One challenge I faced here was to withhold my teacher-self in correcting my students on how to conduct a lesson. There were times that I felt an urge to enter the room and teach my students how to carry out a more effective lesson. However, I managed to hold myself back and let the students take charge and learn. There are times that as teachers, we had to let go of their hands and let them stand on their own feet. And these are one of the few times that we had to do so.

My students grew up and became more matured after the trip to Vietnam. They do not take things for granted and have learnt to value things in life such as the food they get to enjoy in Singapore. And with that, I hope that my students will continue to grow and be a better person tomorrow than today!

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「 11:00 pm 」

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