Lend A Hand If You Can

What do you do when you are given free flight tickets, free accommodation, free meals and an opportunity to do charity at the same time? You take it.

Along with a group of strangers from my workplace, we flew to Sabah. Our mission was to help build a school canteen at a remote village school in Semporna. And when i say remote, i mean you-live-in-wooden-shacks-in-the-middle-of-a-friggin-jungle remote. Every morning of our 4D3N stay, we had to wake up at wee hours of the morning for an over one-hour long journey from our hotel overlooking the sea to Kampung Sungai Tuhok.





Initially, i had doubts about going because i knew no one amongst those who got selected to participate in this voluntary project, but i'm so glad i did it. The experience was eye-opening!

Most of the school is made of wood. It's only one-storey and they have a few different blocks, including a tiny little make-do canteen (it used to be a store where they keep sports equipment) that is probably the size of my living and dining room put together. It really does make you realise how blessed we are in the city to have big schools with good amenities.

While the men were assigned to build a shaded pathway from the classrooms to the new canteen, the women received painting duties. And interestingly, the locals bought pink paint (i can hear the boys boo-ing already) for us. I swear, we the ladies, had nothing to do with their colour choice. It was a funny coincidence.

I am so glad to have been a part of this. To know that i'm contributing a teeny bit to make their lives better feels good. And best of all, i befriended a bunch of kids who i adore. My fellow volunteers kept laughing at me because i had a crew of school girls and a trio of school boys following me around!

Even though i struggled to understand their language, we still had a ball. We learnt how to give flying kisses, we learnt how to say thank you in Mandarin, we learnt how to make silly faces while taking pictures, and we learnt that rain makes the field really muddy.

Awesome holiday? Check. Befriended new colleagues? Check. Discovered new culture (at the Kampung, they serve curry puffs with fried mee hoon stuffed in em!)? Check. Charity work? Check. Put smiles on the little ones' faces? Double check.