Karimun: 30th May - 1st June

pictures up soon.

my first ever mission trip, and its where my heart will always be. Oh and Karimun is in Indonesia if you don't already know. Its famous for its sand/granite exports and as well as prostitution (sadly)



ah ok so met Ian and Andrew @ harbour front macs at 6:30am to 'sort out' the logistics stuff. turned out that nothing needed sorting out. However, we did get good laughs as we tried our best to pass motion by drinking Mac's caffe latte and also at Justin's face when he realised he forgot his sleeping bag. classic! So..we met the rest of the team at 7am to board the boat =D



had a nice, long chat with Andrew and Sister Rachel during the boat ride about backpacking and all. Our plan: visit Andrew's house in december and go chill at a really cool beach. Anyway, we docked about 1.5hrs after leaving HFT and we got through customs without much hassle =D



The roads were killer! mad m-cycles and cars zooming everywhere (but then again its their culture) so we all crammed into 2 small buses with Benny & Firman (our 2 indon friends from batam) and went on our way! the ride took about 15min but the sights and sounds of Karimun were really interesting, very very different from those i'm used to in Singapore.

We got to the church, changed and headed straight for the slum (i was really nervous).

-SLUM-

it was really better than what i had expected (see its good to prepare for the worst) =D at first there was this air of 'hostility'. Its quite understandable cuz nobody would invite a total stranger into their home even if they said they wanted to 'help'. But they eventually did. Started off with teamA, headed by Andrew. Our task was to: patch up and paint the houses and thats what we did! HAHA MY MY I WAS TOTALLY HUMBLED BY THE EXPERIENCE. i thought i could saw well...but it took me quite a while to get a hang of it. Yes we nailed planks, sawed them into the appropriate shapes etc and painted them. Oh and please don't assume that its a guy's job cuz the girls did just as well! Noella especially, SHE'S THE MAN. Firman was really nice about it too especially when we hammered his fingers. LOL!

We managed to finish 2 houses that day and we then played catching with the kids around the slum after lunch! it was really fun =D running around the area. Could tell that the parents were really happy too cuz their kids were having a lot of fun. We all then proceeded to 'take a dip' in the 'river' . a really dirty one i might add. In the end only Andrew, Joey and I decided to jump in. Heh we rowed around in the styrofoam boxes that the kids used as boats. We ended up with cuts everywhere but it was really fun =D

Headed for dinner with 'tham tham!' underwear (i hope u get the joke). and the dinner was really dirt cheap! like $6 each for a big big dinner with nice fish! =D had quite a lot of fun talking to Firman and Bennny about Indonesia and their culture.

When we got back to the church, there was some major blackout so all of us checked into the hotel to sleep =D it was really wacky. having 7 guys in the same room with a lousy air-con. haha. Was sleeping during debrief too cuz i was so so tired. Went for a drink with Arron (Faizal), Andrew and Ian before sleeping though =x

anyway, will post about Day2 another time!