CtYF NTM 10 - Caroling, games & more buffet

9 December - probably the last day for fence making and by then, we have reached the other side of the perimeter... as in we did the length then breadth and now length. When it was finally over, we completed about 3/4 or so.. or maybe 4/5 to be exact... haha... Thot i share two photos of how hardworking the girls were in this aspect.... tho during the NTM echo video, it was shown as if the girls did nothing. And so... here they are:



Btw, it was this day that ah hwee cut his hand....this was recorded in my journal but i must say there were others who had cuts and bruises too. Thank God for their joyful labour despite injuries :)


Oh no... looking at the "incorrigible" handwriting of mine (in my diary)... realised we went for massage on this day and not 8 Dec. Anyhow... the story remained as told with no changes :)

Today was rather uneventful... i had nothing written for this day except the caroling.

Hey.. realised i am pretty tall here...hee!

For one, i was the first to bathe today....as in the girls side. The rest played volleyball till they forgot their time. Didnt manage to tie the girls' hair as in pleating it coz we had no time. And i think the girls werent as enthu as the first night caroling. Ji Sheng puked before truck left, he also puked halfway. He came back earlier than the rest of us and aunty Leah gave him some medicine. For the rest of us, we were back at 12midnight and i visited Ji Sheng. Gave him some medicine and told him to come and find me if he didnt feel well in the night. He did. He came at about 4am. I was woken up with AUNTY ALEN, AUNTY ALEN. Thot it was a dream but it was real. Jumped out of bed and went out to attend to Ji Sheng. He said he puked many many times.. countless to be exact and diarrhoea too. Whow...i thot i needed to bring him to hospital. Checked his tongue and it didnt seem too dry. Advised him to keep drinking water no matter how much he puked. Poured a cup of warm water for him but before i could hand over, he ran off to toilet. I waited in the cold for minutes before he came back. I didnt want to go in and disturb the girls by the opening of the door and so i endured... of which i was quite proud of myself... hahaha... considering how useless i am in cold weather.

He seemed quite cheerful despite doing in and out so many times and not having a good night sleep. I gave him diarrhoea and vomiting medicine again and one flu tablet (for sleeping). Told him to take them and go to sleep. Sleep it off is the best. He did and thank God he didnt puke after i attended to him. God was good... He knows we are both tired, esp Ji Sheng and so He gave us rest. In the morning, i see God's healing hand on him... tho slow but steadily. By lunch or night time the next day, JS was doing fine. In fact, he joined us for the one and only BUffet with BDC kids at Rimkok resort. This was the long-awaited buffet.. the one that Lemuel ate and ate in 2007.

Before i write about the buffet, need to mention 10 Dec morning as the day BDC people bought fried chicken for us to eat. Shing didnt get to eat much coz he was still not feeling too well. In fact, he ate very little for this NTM trip. And our people too. Strangely last year (2007), we didnt have much food left over but not this time round... perhaps due to the fact that Lem was not with us???? I wonder.... heee....

Also, we had the interactive games in the morning. We did the spider web thingy, the ball on towel (replaced with ping pong on black trash bag) and the communication game. It was fun for the BDC kids as they had never play like this before. They interacted with our people and we had fun too. Here are some pics to show how cute they were and one of our people too:

The Buffet was sumptuous... as in you would have noticed the spread during the NTM echo video. Our people ate and so did BDC kids. Then eld boon said he wanted the BDC kids to present two songs after the eating...oh no.. the piano and stage again. He asked me to play the piano the Bon Law Lo song and My Heart your Bethlehem. Oh boy.. i didnt really know the first song and so i asked JJ to try. He didnt seem keen too coz he said he needed to figure out and after eating, he was nowhere to be seen. I knew then i had to play. Went with Warunee to the old man at the piano to ask him to let me play. She sang the song while i tried to figure out the chords... then the introduction and then Eld Boon called them up to the front. Played to the best i knew how and thank God for enabling. The piano was really quite out of tune but hey.. who were listening besides ourselves... some guests eating.

After a very full lunch, we came back for a testimony session and then short caroling practice. Then it was time to get ready for 3rd caroling in the night. The YFers knowing it was their last night in BDC played and played. No one really wanted to go and bathe, this was despite uncle Chalaw announcing that caroling would start early tonight. By7pm, their people were all ready but not ours. As usual, they left in trucks and just us. Sigh.. we chased everyone and the last to come was Jamesy!!! And so we did the last caroling. It was really totally not cold at all. I was just wearing one long sleeved tee.... hmmm.... But i was upset in the beginning.... there was no guitar at all!!!! No one remembered to bring. BDC thot CtYF will bring. CtYF Thot BDC will remember. It was super embarassing as we reached the first destination with no instrument. Had to borrow from the owner... thank God it was a small church or something and they had a guitar. IT wasnt acoustic but it was at least something. I was disappointed with the guitarists who didnt ensure their instruments were there.

Uncle Chalaw did the amazing thing. We sang two songs and prayed and lo and behold, he was back with the two guitars!!!! Yes.. it was nearby but still... he travelled in lightning speed!!!

Another thing happened....never before!!! The guitar string snapped (B string to be exact)... the one Iz was playing during caroling and it hit me on the arm. Thank God i was wearing long sleeved and so didnt feel much sharp pain. I learned my lesson.. dont stand next to guitarist!!!! ahahha....

Some of our people were too tired and also the younger kids in BDC. Uncle chalaw announced some could go back and so our girls went... Joanne, Sheryl, Simone, Jolene and Hilda. It was at about 11pm when eld Boon asked uncle Chalaw how long more, he said another 10 houses and so the rest of us stayed while Elton, Abel, Xin Hao & Ah hwee went back (i corrected it here already, hwee). But we soon realised his 10 houses seemed like ages... it was like 20 over and it was almost 12midnight. I was tired and so were some of our people. Aaron was not feeling too well with a bit of gastric pain.. actually all my gastric pills were taken up by hwee, myself and aaron. I had no more stock that night. When we finally clarified with uncle Chalaw, he said another 10 more....this time we knew it would mean 20 or more and so we decided to go back... Eld Boon, myself, JH, aaron, Xiao Fen. 6 of our people very gung ho and stayed back. They were: Jamesy, shing, sean, iz, jj & norman. They returned at about 2am!!!

Whoa... what a night. I didnt have the stamina to stay. Heard from them that after we left, it was a really small group and things sped up. They sang only one carol per home and prayed. Then some homes were joined together and so they managed to finish pretty early. I salute the lahu people for the long hours in standing and our 6 young men!

Oh boy.. will take one more entry to wrap up this CtYF NTM!