Reflections for the YEP trip to Napa Village

We embarked on a YEP trip to China, Yunnan, Di Qing Province, Napa Village. This journey taken proved to be a memorable one and I have learnt many lessons from this trip.

We have three objectives to fulfill on this trip to Napa Village, namely, 1) to dig waste pits in the mountains to ensure a more suitable way of waste disposal, 2) a door numbering system for their mail and 3) equipping the village’s adults with adequate communication skills for foreign visitors. We have also planned to find out what other problems that the villagers faced over there, and think of suitable solutions to tackle those problems.

To achieve our goal, we planned several activities before going on this trip. However, we realised that we do not have sufficient background information, and hence our planned activities may not be useful to the locals over there. Therefore, we have to edit our proposals there and then to better suit their needs. This had thought me the importance of obtaining sufficient background information of knowledge before starting to work on them. This can serve to minimise time wasted to change the planned activities. With that in minds, it is also very important to be flexible in planning. If it is realised that the plans are not appropriate, it needs to be changed quickly based on the situation at hand.

During the planning of this trip, we kept having this mentality that we are going there to the village to teach them our knowledge, to equip them with skills which they lack. However, it was only there when I realised that they are our teachers as well as students. They learn a different language from us, but at the same time, we learned their native Tibetan language from them as well. Although our knowledge is better compared to theirs, but our hands are clumsy with tools, while they can work nimbly with tools that take us a lot of efforts to hoist up. Their physical abilities are astounding and the manner in which they work without complaints under the hot sun with heavy loads on their backs was admirable. How many of us in this generation can endure all these?

On this trip, we have achieved all our objectives and contributed to the village, but what we all took away from them and this trip is so much more. They are a group of passionate people, warm and sincere at heart in welcoming us to their village. This trip has really made the entire group grow and mature, make us appreciate the opportunities that we enjoy here in Singapore and most of all, not to discriminate people according to their education level, but to learn all the different qualities we can observe from everyone.

PLEASE READ THIS :)

Hello! 

It has been a month plus since we came back from Napa Hai and we have around 2 more months to the end of this whole project. The post-expedition phase is just as important as the expedition itself and we have to do it well so that NYC will disburse the remaining project grand amount. 

This blog is specially created for us to share our experiences and reflections on the 14 days that we had spent there meaningfully. do check out the photo gallery too:)

As part of the project write-up:

a.   Please share with us (with inputs from your team members):

·         benefits/impacts to the host community (both local and overseas host)

·         any challenges faced by parties involved e.g. host community, the YEP team etc

·         the tools used to draw out learning from the team e.g. group facilitation, journaling, and dialogue session with host partners

·         your team’s understanding of an issue(s) faced by the host partner/community (local & overseas) and the systems/policies behind these issues. Are the systems and polices supportive or challenging?

              e.g. Issues pertaining to the special needs community, education system, street children,

       migration, health services etc

·         the relevance of the learning gained and applied from:

(1) the local pre-expedition service-learning engagement to the overseas expedition

(2) from the overseas expedition back into the post-expedition service learning engagement

·         any particularly meaningful/ significant experience(s) worth celebrating? e.g. team has deepened understanding of humility and reciprocity

·         how can participant(s) / team apply what they have learnt?

(Team is encouraged to use narrative, visual images, artwork, video and/or quotable quotes from participants, leaders and host partners to support your write-up.) 

I will be compiling and including your reflections in the project write-up, so please feel free to share with us anything regarding the trip! :D 

A short paragraph would be fine too :)

Lastly, jiayou for A levels! :D