...those 16 days... dekrakpha

YEP adventure part 2


our first event at dekrakpha was the children camp. i din participate actively during the camp cos my welfare committee was in charge of cooking for all 3 meals on the 1st and 2nd day of the camp. the cooking was fun especially knowing more people like the main chef , P ood, P seang, P toottu and noon bum. btw we have to address someone who is older than us as P and someone younger than us as noon. the 2nd day dinner was chaotic. it was like a mini funfair and the villagers actually came. so we had to cook for more people. and the preparation part sucks... we actually started preparing for dinner immediately after washing up for lunch. we cut, chopped and cooked the whole day. the detergent was useless cos it was not soapy and it was really hard to get rid of some stubborn oil and strain and GREASE.


my bunkmates and i formed this NJ gossip club and our teacher-in-charge is mr menon. hahaz... we always have our mini meeting everyday and we were recruiting more and more people everyday. hahaz...


there was a homestay before the teenage camp. the homestay was cool... it was a chance for us to learn and intercat more with the thai and understand their culture. =) we took a motorbike there. the feeling of riding on a bike rocks... going in the direction of the wind. cool... our first job was to cut rice at the padi fields. it was a tiring job. we had to bend our backs and cut rice. after cutting rice for sometime, our backs ached and we had a few cuts. we got tanner too.. yeah... but we were too tan until my skin turned dry. ahhh... my homestay family is the village chief. he treated us very well. they prepared mattress, pillows and mosquito net for us. we were so touched. the father of the house known as pual in thai realised that i had alot of white hairs and prepared hair shampoo made of lemon and salt for me. he told me it can cure the white hair. so sweet... i was still cutting rice on the second day of the homestay. i will treasure rice more than before. dekrakpha's principal has a dog name bobo. it has human instinct. it was with me at the homestay. late at night when the 3 of us went to the toilet, it accompanied us and it waited for all of us and followed us back to the house. i finally understood why people always say dog is man's most loyal friend.


the teenage camp was fun and enriching. this time round, i was more invloved during the camp. we had this buddy system and my buddy is so handsome. hahaz... but he is only 14 years old. how sad right... it would be better if he is of the same age as me. hahaz... he is a very quiet and reserved guy. he does not talk much to people. i needed to initiate a conversation with him and pushed him along to be invloved in group discussions and activities. by the way, his name is jesada. hahaz... besides knowing my buddy there, i met other new friends there too like nod, toy, ah-cat, goi, aom, eye, tak, bee, bum, the drama kids and many many more...


the first and major crisis that the YEP team encountered happened after the homestay. a few of us had fever and started vomitting. they threw up quite a few times. some even vomiited blood. omg... we din know what's went wrong. reika had a tick on herhead for 2 days and thought it was just a mosquito bite. omg... in the end, she also had fever but she din throw up. things started to get out of hand and the illness seemed to be spreading and affecting more and more poeple. so our dearest and funniest expedition leader, mr menon decided to send 5 of them to the hospital. one of my bunk mates, xiaotian was admitted to hopsital too. i could not slp that nite. i was very worried for them and i felt weird without xiaotian in the bunk. the next day, the environment team came to dekrakpha to check on the health condition of the remaining people. they still could not find out what is the main cause for such a woo ha.. they only suspected that it could be food poisoning. the next day, i had a little fever. i was scared out of my wits. luckily i din vomit. i quickly took the fever medicine and the temp went down. =)


on the last fri night at dekrakpha, we celebrated lor katong. it is a thailand festival which they used banana truck and leaves to decorate a float. they will release the float into the river to thank the river goddness and hoping that their bad luck will be washed away. =) besides that, we had another culture exchange activity. they taught us how to make tie dye. hahaz... mine was ok lahz.. not as fantastic as others. they actually used mud and leaves to boil the dye. nature lovers xia...


the last activiy was the sports carnival. i thought it would be very crowded and hectic that day but the number of people joining the sports carnival was average. mainly were the children and teenagers who attended the camps. we played games like volleyball, soccer, captain's ball, frisbee and poison ball. we ended our sports carnival with a telematch. i was glad that the participants enjoyed themselves. =)


the night after the sports carnival was our farewell night. we sang songs and danced NJ mass dance to the song that thing you do. not forgetting, maha, jilline, meera and shamila indian dance to the song pretty woman. it was entertaining and funny. hahaz... the most touching part was when they started their prayers for us, wishing us to have a safe journey home. after the prayers, they took some white threads and tied them around our hands. it was a form of blessings. i was so touched that i cried. both old and young, friends and strangers gave me their well wishes. we din bear to remove them. all of us wore them all the way to spore. i still keep them in my journal.=)


on the last day, we packed all our bags and were ready to go. though i wanted to be home ASAP, i could not bear to leave dekrakpha too. conflicting thoughts. i cried again when we were on the truck, on our way to the train station. it was my first time sitting on a train and it sucks... i am stuck in the train for 6 hours. omg... it was damn boring... when we reached bangkok, we had 3 hours before pour flight for shopping and having our dinner. omg... that's really mad rush. we just grab anything. haizz... v sad... so little time. i din have time to shop for myself. ahh.... nvm... i can always go back to thailand again. the shopping centre that they brought us to was HUGE. i think it is bigger than taka.


when we arrived at changi airport, i was overjoyed when i saw my mum, my dad, my brother and his girlfriend. i really miss all of them. i was jumping and jumping and jumping. hahaz...


i miss everything and everyone at dekrakpha and khaoyai. i will treasure the times i spent there. i will take with me the lessons and experiences i had gained forever and ever.