Day 1: Kuching

Today turned out pretty okay. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was the superduper cold shower that spoiled it. If only they had a heater in the mountain. There were many mosquitoes, bugs and insects there too! Gross.
After we arrived at Kuching, Malaysia today, we took the bus to St. Ann's Church, had our lunch, bought a few snacks, packed our things which we needed for our stay in Mount Singai Bau into a bagpack, boarded the bus and off we were to the mountain! Apparently, Mount Singai Bau is a retreat mountain whereby we did the Stations of the Cross as we climbed up the steep steps of the mountain. It's very cool. However, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th group had to stop at the 8th station as it started raining heavily. Hence, we had to skip the remaining stations and just climb up the mountain. The total number of steps we had to climb was 704! I do not know how did I manage to complete climbing it too.
Initially when I was at the airport in the morning, I felt like a total loner. Everyone had friends whom they can talk to whereas I was standing there alone as I barely knew anyone. Luckily I've made several new friends along the way.
When we reached our destination on top of the mountain, we were allocated to our rooms and we relaxed for a while before we started playing ice-breaker games. When we played the ice-breaker games, I knew everyone's names already and I was friends with most of them too. Everyone is nice, warm, friendly and they treat me really well too. They're all a fun and enthusiastic group of people to be with once you know them. They're all special in their own way and they bring smiles to many faces, including mine. Uncle Linus is the joker of the group. He's s super nice, funny, whacky, crazy and friendly guy. He's always making us laugh all the time!
After our games, we had dinner together followed by evening prayer. We then started on our caroling practice after dinner and we ended with a night prayer. I was so exhausted that I quickly brushed my teeth, wash up and headed for my pillow.
The next day will be brand new day for me and we're gonna do painting tomorrow! Hmmm, I wonder what we'll be painting.. For me, today was pretty inspirational. I've learnt how to view things from a different angle and I've a strong feeling that I won't regret the rest of my stay in Kuching. I definitely won't regret coming here after experiencing today as I was grumbling to all my friends and mum about coming to stay here and all.
However, I still do miss my family and friends in Singapore!

Day 2: Kuching
Today was FUN! It wasn't as tiring as yesterday. This morning, we made balloon animals, flowers and other toys for another group of people with many kids who are on this mountain and leaving today. They were very friendly to us yesterday, they kept on offering food and alcohol. But as we were underaged, we declined their alcohol offer. Seeing the smiles on the children's faces made me smile and I was really happy. It was really very heart-warming. After that, we went to paint the benches and railings. Boy! It was hard work and very exhausting! We had to paint in the hot and scorching sun and most of us were pespiring like crazy! At around 130pm, we stopped painting and we went for lunch. While having lunch, it started raining heavily! Thank goodness the benches weren't affected. Phew! We were allowed to rest and do our own things till caroling practice began. So we all went for a shower.
After caroling practice, we had an evening prayer followed by dinner and we went back to our caroling practice. Oh yes! We played a very interesting string game too! The game master was my dad. Lol. I shall play that game with my friends one day. Muahahaha! Hopefully I won't forget how to solve it. We had a ghost-story time before we went to bed too. Today was a really great and awesome day! Can't wait for another day of painting tomorrow! :D

Day 3: Kuching
Today was a pretty fantastic day. We had a good and sunny weather all day long. Okay, maybe it was a little too sunny. Surprisingly, it didn't rain at all today as it tends to rain at least once everyday. We painted the railings and steps today. It was even more exhausting than yesterday as the sun was sunnier. Alas, we managed to complete painting everything! Woohoo!
We had a heavy lunch after that as we combined our lunch and tea break together. Oh yes! We were given 1 hour in the morning to come up with a skit about christmas. Unlike the other groups which did a skit about Mary giving birth to Jesus and the Three Wise Men, we had added a modern twist to ours. I played the little girl who asked her mother to tell her a bedtime story and her mother told her about how people refused to give Mary shelter when she was in labour. It's really interesting! They said I could play the role of the little girl well that's why they gave me that role. Hahaha.
After lunch, we had a dry-run of our skits followed by caroling practice. Of cos, we had a shower just before lunch. Otherwise we'd stink to high heavens! We had evening prayer again followed by dinner. After dinner, we had caroling practice till we were up to standard then we played a few games, had supper and we were told what will happen when we go to Kampong Bayur tomorrow. They said that it'll be fun, but the way they said it out to be was pretty scary. So I shall find out more about it tomorrow then! That's all for now!

Day 4: Kuching
This morning, we started off with the morning prayer then we went on with our area cleaning. Now the place is sparkling clean! After area cleaning, we showered, ate our lunch and packed our things before we left Mount Singai. Climbing down the mountain was no easy feat! It's 704 steps, mind you! Some steps were pretty steep, so we had to bend more. When we reached the foot of the mountain, most of our legs were shaking! Hahaha!
After the last group arrived, we boarded the bus and headed back to St. Ann Church. When we arrived there, I went to a shop and bought a few packets of sweets for the kids in the kampong. After loading up our luggage onto the bus, we were off to the kampong! When we arrived there, almost the whole kampong were there to receive us! We went to the hall whereby we were allocated to our houses which we were to live in till Sunday. I was lucky to have switched places with Beatrice. I ended up staying in the chief's house with Joanne and Sophia. When I stepped into her house, I was like "ohmygosh." cos her house is bigger than mine! Our host owns a really cute dog and I like playing with that dog.
After that, we had dinner with the villagers followed by caroling! I made friends with many of the kids and teens there! The kids looked so adorable but looks can be deceiving as they're very very naughty! I had a great time caroling with everyone. I really enjoyed myself a lot and seeing the smiles on the children's faces really made my day. We headed back to the hall to meet up with the other group and we had a sing-a-long session with the villagers. I enjoyed that part the most. It was really fun! After that, we headed back to our host's house whereby we had a shower followed by a girl-talk before we went to sleep.

Day 5: Kuching
This morning, I was the first to wake up! Kudos to me for that! We had a really yummy breakfast prepared by the villagers themselves! It was really delicious! Oh yes! They planted their own rice! That's damn cool! After breakfast, we headed to the church near the kampong and we started painting and cleaning the whole church. the church was pretty small. I think it's as big as my host's house. Means it's only slightly bigger than my house. As it wasn't that big, I felt that it was really warm and cosy.
After painting and cleaning, Justin Cheong and Gabriel put up the christmas lights and we decorated the church. We stopped for lunch with the villagers at around 130pm. After lunch, we went to take our song sheets, props for our skit and other materials needed for the children's party. At the party, we played a few games with the villagers! We played musical chairs, squirrels & trees and the superman game! It was oh so fantastic! We had another round of sing-a-long session with the villagers before we headed to the hall to have our dinner. Afetr dinner, we went to change into our caroling shirt and off we went to carol our night away!
I played with all the little kids ever since we started caroling all the way till we met with the other group at the hall again. A group of boys were really naughty. While I was walking slowly, they pushed me from behind to make me go faster and when I slowed down, they pushed me again. They kept on doing that till we reached the hall. But it was fun playing with them, seeing the joy and happiness makes it all worthwhile.
As we were slowly walking to a place to play, someone gave those group of boys a pack of poppers (if that's what you call that) and they started throwing it at me! I kept on dodging and they kept on throwing till they ran out of it. When they pretended to throw it at me, I started chasing them as I knew they had none in their hands already and they started running away. We played with the sparkles too and one little boy pointed his sparkle towards me and I was running away from him. Oh what fun it was, it's just like a recap of my childhood all over again. As we were heading back to our houses, two little girls and two little boys gave me a flower each. One little boy even gave me his christmas hat! Awww, I was so touched! They're really adorable and sweet! We bade farewell and parted ways after that. Shawn and Justin Chua came over to my host's house and we played cards till 2am before they left and we went to sleep.

Day 6: Kuching
Ohmygosh! We woke up late today! We were supposed to meet at the hall by 715am but we woke up at 705am instead of 630am! We quickly rushed and packed our things before we went to meet the rest at the hall. When we arrived, 3 groups hadn't arrive yet and we thought we were the latest. So much for rushing.
After breakfast, we went to the hall for mass and we ended with singing a few christmas carols. All the girls and a few teens started crying, even Aunty Agatha cried! Surprisingly, I was the only girl who didn't cry. I could still distribute sweets to all the little kids cheerfully and happily with a wide grin on my face! As we boarded the bus, the villagers boarded with us too. After a while, they got off the bus and started waving goodbye to us. Some in tears still. I threw my flowers at them and a few caught mine. We then left Kampong Bayur and headed for the city to shop till we drop!
When we arrived at the city, we split up into our own shopping groups. Uncle Linus treated us to KFC! Thank you, Uncle Linus! It was really yummy! We then moved on to buy all the things which we wanted to buy before meeting the rest to board the bus and head to the airport. When we arrived at the airport, we slacked for a while before checking in. I played "Ouch-Orbi-Orbi" with them and the funny thing is, throughout the trip, I was the one bullying them but on the last day, I got bullied by them. Lol. On my left was Christopher and on my right was Melissa. Both hit me real hard once they got the chance leaving red patches on my thighs till now. Thank goodness it doesn't hurt anymore.
The flight back was the worst! Once the plane took off, I started having terrible headaches and due to the stormy weather, there was turbulence. The plane kept on going up and down repeatedly till I felt nauseous. It took some time for me to go back to normal after we arrived in Singapore. By the time we checked out, I was more or less back to myself already. I went home with dad's friend, Gwendolyn and dad.

Thank you to the most awesome people who made this Kuching trip fabulous!
Aunty Agatha, Dad, Uncle Linus, Aunty Joan, Joanne, Justin Cheong, Gabriel, Natalie, Averil, Gabrielle, Sophia, Gwendolyn, Justina, Melissa, Christopher, Justin Chua, Beatrice and Shawn.

God bless all of you, take care and good night! (:

Muchloves,
Nathaynia ;D