writing here is rare...but sometimes i feel like writing here again, for whatever reason.
well. after weeks of hectic travelling, finally i feel that things are becoming slightly more fixed again.
two weeks of not being able to attend church, one week i was in Bali, the next when I was travelling back to KL.
tmr i wonder where I will go...there are two churches just opposite my block, i wonder if i should try attending one of these...
there is another church 10 minutes away. Singapore is full of churches...i was joking once with a friend that if we decided to attend all the churches in Singapore one at a time every Sunday we wouldn't manage to in years...sometimes there are several church services going on in the same venue...
I miss glcc though. so tmr I will take a long morning walk to the busstop with a direct bus to SIM. And since my aunt is visiting my uncle tmr around lunchtime I shall be going for first service...
not that i mind. the sumba trip has cultivated in me a habit to wake up early no matter what time i go to sleep :) i am up latest at 8am nowadays, that does not count the fact that i naturally awaken around 645am, which was the time the earliest of us would all get up in Sumba.
On our last morning in Sumba I got up at 630am. The sun is already up at 630am in Sumba. I went to the stables because that is my favorite place in the world in the Pastor's house. It has a little clearing there, and the horses are in the stables...
my favorite horse of all, Rashky Ranger, is all saddled and ready for his training at 7am.
here is the horse i call the doggy-horse. He is nameless, but I call him doggy-horse because he runs around the compound on his own like a dog would. he is a greedy thing and ate corn leftovers from my hand. he isn't very pretty but he's my second favorite of all the horses, because i think i got to pat him properly :)
he got a little jealous when i rode rashky ranger and bit rashky, but rashky was very well behaved and didn't throw me off.
see how happy i am on a horse? :) the last time i rode was when i was in primary school, when i got 5A's for upsr and i got dad to give me a horse riding lesson as reward...i recall being about as happy, but since the lesson was about 2 hours long i also got wobbly legs after the ride.
here's another shot of me looking SO HAPPY to be on a horse :) I really have to thank kak Yon for letting me ride Rashky. It was quite a dream come true for me. And Rashky is the most beautiful, handsome and wonderful horse I have ever seen :)))) He really is so HANDSOME!! No honestly you have to see him to understand. Pieter said he ran 111km/hr the other day! Way to go Rashky!! I love you!!!!
Gosh I really miss Sumba alot.
Anyway these are the other horses in the stables:
I don't know his name...haha
And this is Atlantis, taken on another occasion, but anyway I like this photo because I'm in it. Atlantis is the prettiest horse in Pastor Andreas' house I think. Not handsome, but then male, but very pretty. haha.
Anyway, since I'm on the roll, this might as well be my post on Sumba...
Hola!! Meet the team! Handpicked by Chu Hwai, Qian Lyn, me and Lai Mei back so many months ago...some randomly selected, some with proper consideration, some because they applied and we needed people (i won't say who, but the few people in this category have been wonderful choicess!! hahaha who says things can't be done by fate?)...but seriously right now i cannot imagine having any other team...everyone rocked!!! and of course our tutor Hiro who looks quite heroic here right. This is the team at Changi airport, not sure who took the photo, someone's brother or boyfriend. Anyway it is a nice pic and I like the 出飞 at the back because it sounds like: We're OFFFF!! And so we were :)
I dare say I'm not much of a writer, but I'll do my best. If you want to know, the song playing in the background is 別再為他流淚 by Fish Leong, the only chinese singer I listen to consistently, and I suspect it's because I miss sumba alot. Alot like this:
yeah. I miss sumba alot. this was taken by radja on the last day (i think should be radja because in the photos i have of that time it's radja with the camera) and edited by yon to blurry effect...very atmospheric no?
but jokes aside i am missing sumba very hard now. why do you think i am writing such a long blog post on it?
Anyway, I will write as I always write, randomly...
We celebrated Hiro's birthday at the airport:
photo stolen from val's facebook...haha...aiks I miss vall!!!! Val I miss youuu!!!
Anyway I remember the frantic rush we had on that day, getting logistics settled, the earlier merpati airline scare, the withdrawal of some members of the team...i had butterflies all the way to the plane. uhm i don't have any photos of the air asia plane to bali, but i sure have some of the merpati plane.
meanwhile you can enjoy some unglam pics of everyone sleeping in denpasar. Val is right i think i derive some sadistic pleasure in unglam photos, even if it's of myself hahahaaa
anyway...first we ko-ed somewhere inside the departure hall.
the other half became ass-holes.
I find this picture very funny so here it goes.
then we ko-ed somewhere else. eventful night huh. photo credits of all unglam pics go to chu hwai with val's camera. i don't intentionally take unglam pics. I just post them, which is probably worse.
so here is the team going up merpati airlines...the one whose plane crashed a week earlier somewhere in Papua.
opposite is Batavia Airlines, of which 5 of our team switched to due to the news of the crash. Anyway, thanks to many prayers I do believe God kept us safe and we arrived in Waingapu airport safely.
this is view of sumba from the air...amazing right?
not a very nice view, but i find it very funny, so i shall post it. photo credits to chu hwai.
so my first shots of pastor andreas' home is of the stables...hahaha this is so me right.
Anyway, this is a pic of me and Pastor Andreas, who was so kind and let us stay at his place for the whole time we were there...behind is 17 year old lukas, he doesn't look 17 right? He used to have a goiter as large as his head, but he was brought to Singapore to have it removed. Now he stays at Pastor Andreas' house. Pastor Andreas is indeed a very kind and charitable man of God and we are so fortunate to have been granted the hospitality of his home!
This is the girl's room. I think Yon said it was his sister's room, but since she's not around they gave it to us to stay in. It is very messy right? Haha Qian Lyn couldn't stand it and kept sweeping the room...but it was still very messy. I realize no one took any pictures of the guy's room, so it is safe to say that their room was very much messier :P
This is a typical scene after lunch. I reallllyyyy missss theee fooooddd theerrrrrrreeeeeeee!!!
Meet Pieter. He was a wonderful and kind friend to all of us, and he drove us all over the place and was a constant bother because he had only one thing to talk about with me (ie uhhmmm) but anyway I like him alot. He hates to take photos so I am forced to take weird photos of him doing things like play guitar while lying on the floor and sleeping. Here are a couple more pics of him for good measure. Anyway thanks so much for everything pieter we miss you so much and please come in august and we will go makan-makan ok? :D
Apparently he's thinking of 'someone' here:
Anyway, all the best Pieter, and thanks for everything! :D
this is to make you happy, pieter....not that I need to post it since it's already all over the place :)
Anyway, I realize if I continue posting pics in this fashion, I will never finish this post and I want to have my dinner (it smells good).
MEET PROFESSOR TOBIII!!!!! This pic is so cute right? I miss tobi alot, I think the entire design team misses him a great deal. He is always SO patient and kind and humble when explaining things to us, and we learned so very much from him. I miss his quiet way of speaking alot...and I promised him I would go back to sumba and I will!!!
SO COOLLLL!!!
This is tobi and i at the wood place :D photo credits to renhui!
here is Tobi helping me do my handprint!! And this is the super chio handprint:
photo and editing credits to kak yon :)
Anyway, I'm getting rather hungry...so we did alot of things and saw alot of cows and pigs and went on reckee trips to bamboo forests and saw some cute jungle kids, and now very lazy to write already, maybe there will be a part two...
I go eat now.
Ok I am back and there won't be a part two i'll just continue here. now i feel obliged to write about everybody...but i think i don't quite have the patience...so i shall just write randomly as usual.
eh i like bikes leh. here is me on doken's bike:
here is yon taking me on doken's bike
This is val SO HAPPY with Femme :D
taken by yon in the same position as above...hahaha it's so funny how the different cameras take different parts of a story right? :D
here is another pic of me on doken's bike:
Here is a pic of alot of us with doken and tobi :)
doken and tobi make the best team everrrrr!!! we were wondering if they came in a package! Tobi is steady, soft spoken, and explains things wonderfully well. Doken is like energizer bunny, he sings, shouts, (MANTAPP!!!! AH HONG SIMEN SIMEN AH HONG!! C'MON LETS GO!!!) (Ku mau cinta Yesus selamanya...ku mau cinta Yesus selamanya...eh lagu lain dah) and he just gives everyone an energy boost when he's around :D
And I loved the long long bike rides all the way to nancy's shop and then to his sister's place and then to the place where his son has classes and then to another hardware store and another....hahahaha :)
I miss doken and tobi SO MUCH!!!
See Yee in particular had a special bond with Doken:
credits to yon's fb :)
see what she did for him!! SO SWEET!!
Eejia and I got Tobi some cigarettes and a metal cutter too...but we forgot to take pics of that :(((
But Tobi was very happy. Here are some more pics of Tobi:
eejia and Tobi.
Tobi and I
I'm promising to return to Sumba Island here.
Tobi and alot of us! :D
I miss them all!!
Meet kak Yon:
I guess I have to thank kak Yon for alot of things...being a very patient driver who drove us to all the hardware stores and stationary stores and having to endure my wrong orders and all sorts of stuff...yet he was very patient and was always ready with a smile or a joke.
this is a very cute pic of val throwing a stone at me. I know this is random but I'll go back to kak Yon in a while.
now this has to be the cutest pic of yon I have ever seen. Hahahaa. Anyway thanks kak Yon for so many things, letting me ride Rashky Ranger for one, teaching me how to play God is so Good on the guitar (very patiently, this guy is VERY PATIENT) and generally being just the nicest guy i've ever met hahaha!! Oh and this is my type of guy ok? hahaaha if you find any nice guys like kak yon, please intro thanks!! :D
Anyway, speaking of Sumba guys, meet ivan...
I was coerced into having this very scandalous photograph taken...and ivan is a cool guy ok? If he were older I would consider, but I am 6 years his senior.
C'mon what's there not to like huh? Can play guitar...
here is ivan teaching me how to play twinkle-twinkle little star.
can play drum...cool lah
too bad about the age huh? anyway, it's nice to be liked!
And more Sumba romances...this one a failed one:
the one eejia, val and i tried to woo throughout our two weeks there.
And failed...terribly.
perhaps we were aiming too high...too good looking already...
but it doesn't warrant this type of reaction...right...
:((((
Anyway, maybe he softened a little afterward:
thanks val for this pic!! :D
But still, we couldn't carry him at all despite our greatest efforts...
Now, I have to mention the beach. How could I not mention the beach???
Our first sunday...see how mad crazy happy we are to be at the beach!!!
val and I playing frisbeeeeee!!! I remember there were two kids there too and val gave them her frisbee and they were so terribly happy about it!!
seeyee, val and i jumping in with our clothes on. I was determined not to get my hat wet...but anyhow lah in the end hahahaa (photo credits to epi's fb)
the sunset:
breathtaking, don't you think? so terribly beautiful.
the second beach, and the second sunset:
starfish, and eejia's hands :)
gorgeous!
kak yon just updated on the kitchen!
so beautiful right? :)
and to think before it looked like this:
i'm so very very glad we've been able to do something for other people. I feel though, that we have received so very much more than we have given!!! but I feel here rather better than how i felt about sichuan, and this is just a wonderful feeling.
I think I will end this post now...I feel very sleepy. I know I've left out alot of important things, but anyway, I can always constantly update this post...
I feel like updating this post now :D Today, I will write about the dogs at the house.
MEET GEMBIRA AND HAPPY!! There was another dog there, his name was joy, but i forgot to take photos of Joy. Joy would go to church sometimes...and he'll walk with us back from church...he looked like he had rottweiler blood.
happy is the grumpy dog. I am SO HAPPY here because for the first time, the grumpy Happy let me pat him.
hey!! Rashky!! :D hahaha sorryyy i will go back to the dogs now...
meet Gembiraa!!! He is the friendly friendly dog! Everyday we will go to the backyard and call for GEMBIRAAAA!!! And he is not temperamental like Happy, he will always come and lick your hand and lick your face. He was the one took my first kiss. Hahahaaa...even my poochie never got a first kiss.
This little horse has a name now:
his name is luckyy!!! :D
Awww. I miss all of them SOOOOooo MUCH!!! Apparently, gembira has grown taller....hahaha, and i learned more about joy now. i wish i had a picture of joy...haha
