Finally! It’s time to relax and have fun playing basketball with the people there. Although we did not get the chance to play on the court we constructed ourselves, the experience was still memorable as it marks the end of our project at ZaoZhuang primary school.
It started off with the girls playing against the primary school kids in the beginning. It was a close match as both teams fought hard to get the ball into the hoop. Finally, the girls manage to pull away and get into the lead after great teamwork shown by them. Although somehow the match ended with a draw, due to several decisions made by the referee, we all know they are the winners. =D
Now it’s the guys’ turn to play against the teachers and principal! And not forgetting Clark who was on the opposing team. We were all excited and wanted to win! We realized that it was not easy playing on the sandy and uneven court as it makes dribbling doubly difficult and slows you down a lot. We had to get used to the cold and dry weather too. It was quite a struggle for us as we were stunned by the accuracy of the teachers and they are very strong too. It’s not easy to shoot when they were guarding you. As a result, the first half ended with us lagging behind by almost ten points. However, we never gave up. In the second half, we changed tactics and began to pass more so that we would not get so tired. It worked and we started catching up with them. We capitalized on each other advantages. For instance, Malcolm and Daryl would station under the hoop to get the rebounds and block their shots. This gave us the chance to counter attack if they missed the shots. We fought hard and finally won them by a free throw at the last few minutes of the game and proved that Clark’s theory of his team being the winner was WRONG! We were all elated that we won with an all Singaporean team! =D
Yongqiang
A bumpy bus ride marked the start of today’s activities, arguably one of the most memorable ones. The bus ride led us into a remote village, which was built on mountainous terrain. We were greeted by the friendly and approachable village chief, who was eager to show us around the village. Our first stop was to look at an ancient-looking grinder that was used to grind wheat. It consisted of a huge slab of rock with a groove cut into it to put the wheat, and another huge slab of rock cut into a circle shape. The circular rock was then rolled over the wheat to crush it. It was surprisingly easy to move the grinder.
The next stop was to see a gigantic reservoir that was built by Life Link China. It was built by blasting through the mountain rocks using dynamite, and the rocks had to be removed manually due to the difficulty in moving machinery up the mountain. However, it was most significant as it enabled the village people to be able to plant crops all year round, without fear that rain would not fall in time. This enabled the village to triple their income in the past year.
The breathtaking view from the reservoir also allowed us to overlook the fields in the village. The village chief took this opportunity to explain to us that wheat was planted from November to June, while corn was planted from July to October. We also learnt from him that the villagers are still leading a very hard life, as their children had to walk 3 kilometers daily just to get to school. The village chief also kindly introduced us to different kinds of vegetables, and even took the effort to pluck cotton and persimmon fruits for us. Later on, we visited his house and were welcomed by his wife who served us some fresh and unprocessed walnuts. They were so kind as to let us take the walnuts home. Just remember not to eat those “hairy” ones! The visit to the villager chief’s house allowed us to see up close the living standards of the people living in the mountain area. They may lead a simple life, but they are contended and happy.
On to the favourite part of the day, the sumptuous Mutton Soup meal! It was really delicious! (Or is it because we have been deprived of meat?) Most of us asked for seconds, and for the guys, thirds. It got to be one of the most satisfying meals we had there. After that, we left the mountain area to shop at the teashop and the shopping mall back in Zao Zhuang.
Shuo Yan and Zhiyong
After one week of construction work, it was finally the weekends and it was time for RnR :D haha i think we all needed that. It was a welcome break from all the shoveling and cement carrying -.-
aye shall talk about the trip to Qu Fu. It is the hometown of Confucius. haha may seem boring but it was actually quite fun. And yes, it was situated very far from our hotel, about half the distance from Zaozhuang and Jinan International Airport. So that morning we woke up super early to have breakfast and then set off at 6+.
We visited the Confucius Temple, Confucius Cemetery and the Kong Family Mansion. They all had their own distinct features and highlights. The tour guide who led us gave us clear explanations of what we were seeing. This ensured that we did not feel lost during the tour. I still rmb that there are different ways for boys and girls to go over the men2 kan3. I forgot le la i think boys use left then right leg while girls vice versa :S maybe it's the other way round oops :S:S
haha and the gates all had different names. Very meaningful and it made me feel as if I was taking a journey through history, as different gates were built at different times by different people with different aims. This made the entire visit to Qu Fu very interesting as I got to see and touch infrastructure that was built long long ago.
BUT HOLD ON! the next highlight was the MEAL that we had at the restaurant omg i forgot the name but aye nvm la the food rocked. haha we had an extremely filling lunch :D and it revitalised us for the afternoon trip to the Confucius cemetery.
There are many tombs belonging to Confucius's descendants located in the cemetery but we only went to one which is that of Confucius himself. At his tomb, there was a short description of him. And yes we saw the 75th generation of Confucius who was selling drawings. His drawings were very good and many of us bought them to bring back to singapore.
Lastly, we bought souveniers at Qu Fu too! haha most of us bought the stamps and fans that were on sale. The process of haggling over prices was super fun. It is an experience not to be missed! haha i think its super fulfiling when u get the price that you want =) haha then we left Qu Fu and back to our hotel to rest up for the next day.
It was indeed a well deserved break.
Marcus
It’s the weekend! School is out and fun is in!
This day, we were in for a historical treat as we were going to visit Qufu, the hometown of Confucius. As it is situated quite a distance away from our hotel, we had to wake up extra early (5am) to travel there. Nevertheless, it was definitely something to look forward to after 5 days of sand, stones and cement!
Qufu, the legendary birthplace of the great Chinese thinker and social philosopher Confucius, has 3 main attractions: the Confucius Temple （孔庙）, Confucius Cemetery（孔林） and the Kong Family Mansion （孔府）. Under the detailed explanation by our tour guide, we learnt about how Confucius lived and where he worked, with reference to the many ancient chinese architecture that we visited. An interesting point to note is that there is a huge difference between state of environment outside and inside the walls of these 3 places. Being listed as a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, these 3 places are especially clean and well maintained, as compared to the less developed area outside the perimeters of the wall where the locals lived.
When we visited the Confucius Cemetery, we had to walk through a long street lined with stalls selling souvenirs. The variety of tourist must-buys had us losing ourselves hopping from stall to stall, bargaining our way through the souvenirs that appealed to us. Highlights include traditional Chinese seals, where the stall owners would carve out our names on-the-spot and handheld fans with chinese sayings and poems written in ink on them. Interestingly, a painter who had set up a stall right beside Confucius’ tomb actually turned out to be the 75th generation of the Kong Family. Amongst out “oooh”s and “aaah”s many of us fell for the paintings as he painted them on-the-spot and decided to buy them.
At the end of the day, though exhausted from all that walking and bus travelling, we all agreed that it was, without doubt, an enriching experience and a much needed break from construction work.
Nicholas
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_