LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
LO7: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Project week has definitely been one of the most enriching experiences, not only in my high school career, but my whole life. Although the planning and investigation stages helped me develop my collaboration and organisation skills, I think that my biggest learnings took place in the action stage of the trip. As a whole, the trip ran very smoothly and it taught me the importance of going the extra mile of planning before. Everything was set up for us when we reached, from airport pick up, to the hotel people knowing exactly who we were the moment we stepped in the door, just through good communication prior to our arrival.
However, we did have one big problem in the trip. On out first day at blue dragon, Kylie had left her bag unattended, but on a table the staff at blue dragon said was safe, and all of her cash was taken out of her wallet. Later, after looking at CCTV footage, we realised it was one of the blue dragon kids that we had even talked to during the day. More than the practical aspect of losing all of Kylie’s money, this took a big toll on the morale of the group, as suddenly there was a breach of trust between the kids we were working with and us. After talking to my parents that night, I realised that it was very important to keep the spirit of the group up. It is often much easier for one person’s negative energy to dragon dow four other people than vice versa and I realised that we all had to be strong and work together to stay distracted and engaged. The next couple days at Blue Dragon were not as productive as we could have imagine, but definitely by the last day everyone was in good spirits and we had a lot of fun and made some great connections.
This lead me to one of my biggest learnings from the trip. Often we think that we are bordered up in our own little bubble of Singapore and we t
hink that these kids would be so different to us. I learnt, however, that we have so much more in common with these kids than I would have ever imagined. Sometimes we would just be seeing together in the drop in center and the kids would go on youtube and watch the same videos that I watch sitting here in Singapore. I was even able to connect with some of the older kids on social media and realise how similar yet different our lives can be. This really made me more aware of the physical countries boarders do not actually prohibit connection being formed.
Lastly, while working with Blue Dragon, it was amazing to see that even with such difficult lives, the children can have such positive attitudes. We visited some of the areas where a lot of the children were found and it was astounding to see the way some of the kids turned their lives around. Also I noticed that sometimes, we felt most productive when there was no agenda. These were the times that I made the best connections and this made the trip much more meaningful (and a lot less ‘voluntourism’) Whether this was just sitting with a kid and making rainbow looms in the drop in center for half an hour or walking around the lake in hanoi city, there were the most special moments that helped me really appreciate the opportunity I had been given and the city I was in.
