After all the leisure sight-seeing and great 30 course meals, it was time for us to lose some of those calories and start work on the basketball project. I had initially thought this project would be easy-going but it turned out to be exactly what i had imagined, but at least the fun factor still stays =) It was indeed a rather exciting prospect as this would and might just be the once in a lifetime experience for all of us, as living in a prosperous and wealthy Singapore would not entail us such a rare opportunity to do such laborious yet meaningful work. We started off the day with a nice filling breakfast of ‘you tiao’ and soya bean soup (though dilute but at least better than starchy soup). A nice breakfast indeed makes the day all better! =)
We reached the school after a 30 min bus ride and I think it was a lot more furnished and better than I thought it’d be as a totally desolated and run-down building (maybe made of simple bricks and straws hahax). We proceeded to work almost immediately after dropping off our ‘barang barang’ in the principal’s office( it was small but cozy as it kept the warmth inside =) Each armed themselves with a shovel and started heave-ho heave-hoing, transferring stones and leveling them to form the very base of the basketball court just above the light brown coloured soil. It was my first time using a shovel!hahax and i realised it was super heavy but got used to it as the day goes by. It was and is still taller than me xP. After that, we mixed pile after pile of sand and cement throughout the rest of the day which was really a backbreaking task for most of us. We pushed ourselves to the limit as we mixed sand and cement. Initially the water supply was simply pathetic as we had to fill pails of water from a small tap. Luckily, they devised a more efficient way to obtain water from a well. Even when every inch of our muscles ached, we pushed on and persevered. However, the end result was only about a very minute portion of the court and we were doubtful if we could finish the entire court by 5 days. Despite that, I think we did a ver commendable effort as we did our best and worked together as one. We definitely bonded as a team and I’m indeed contented and happy after a hard day’s work. =)
Catherine_