The Gods Must Be Crazy

The trip to Batam was more of a retreat with the family kinda trip. Not too much to 'report' on so I won't say too much about it because there isn't really much to be said about it.

I mean it was nice to just get away from the craziness of living in Singapore and life, and just enjoy the calm relaxing atmosphere of Indonesia. But when I was at the hotel, there really wasn't all that much to do because the hotel was basically situated in the middle of who knows where, and all the 'facilities' we could use were the pool and the beach (besides the pool table which I'm pretty sure you would have to pay for). So we ended up just staying in our room playing the board game, Risk. Yup, just my mum, Amoz and I. It was fun. We haven't really done any of that in a while because we all seem to be leaving the house and we are really getting too occupied doing our own stuff. So heading out to the middle of no where did us some good.

Looking back at our family history, I think we've had many more experiences as a family than many other families out there. Now, I don't want to brag or anything, because I know that not many people are as blessed as our family and I really don't mean to brag or anything. But I just want to point out that our family has gone through a lot in life, and even though we are still very 'young', there is still so much in life that we can still experience on top of what we've gone through already. I think compared with many other kids (now, once again, I don't want to brag. I just want to make a point), we have been exposed to a whole lot more and have experienced many things which many kids/people wouldn't be able to experience till much later in life, if not, at all.

The most memorable and life changing (and also traumatising) experience would probably be our stay in Myanmar for half a decade. I believe that was the turning point in our very young juvenile lives. It taught us a lot about values in life as we can't complain about what we do have because what we do have is so much better compared to what the other people of Myanmar do have. This experience is something that cannot be taken away from us and cannot be given to someone else unless they go through the experience themselves. Something I will cherish and hold dearly for as long as I live.

I can strongly say that it has changed the way that we thought because it has given us a wider view of the world that there are places where people are extremely poor and poverty reigns in the country. This was one of the reasons why our family has learnt to be content with whatever we have and not get too greedy with what you cannot have. Also, we have been able to work through difficult times together because as a family, that's where comfort comes. There were many times in Myanmar when there would be power-outages in our house. Most of the time, they were at night, so we would have to venture out into the dark rainy night to check the live power lines to see if the rain had knocked out our power supply. Thankfully, we had many Burmese workers who would help us get the power back by knocking the exposed live wires to get it connected again. Even though they did most of the work, we helped wherever we could.

This was an experience I do not regret and would never reverse to take back because it has been a wonderful experience growing up as foreigners with our parents who always managed to keep us safe. Our dad would usually bring us to the arcade once a week to keep us merry and joyful during our stay there in Myanmar.

During the time, I didn't realise that he was in fact doing it for us because all I wanted to do was to have fun. We would go to the arcade, play a few rounds of Dance Dance Revolution, Time Crisis, Shoot Flying Discs, then, after getting bored with 'kiddy' games, we would head off to join our dad at the Caribbean Roulette where we would gamble with our tokens. The tokens there were really cheap, so we were allowed to 'gamble' there, but our dad continuously reminded us that this was purely for amusement only because the odds are always against you. You may win once or twice, but sooner or later, you'll lose them all. So every time we played games like that where a bit of gambling was involved, it was just for fun. Nothing serious. Just for the thrill of winning once in a while. Of course there were times when we would go crazy and bet everything we had, but it was just for the sake of amusement.

Overall, it was heaps of fun. Sometimes we would win heaps and decide that it would be time to go home with our winnings. Then next week, we would lose them all. All for fun.

Anyway, our mum later told us that our dad brought us to the arcade week after week because he wanted us to be happy there. We would go to an arcade then eat at a restaurant afterwards. That was just his way of showing us how much he loved us and how much he wanted us to be happy in Myanmar because we were kids. Kids who could easily make his life a living nightmare because if all three of us decided to rebel, it would make him go crazy; especially how he was in the ministry. But now, having been told from our mum that he did it for us, I can't help but feel loved. Thanks dad.

However, I believe it was God who really contained our 'kiddy madness' which could have exploded at any time. It was God who prevented us going crazy which would probably give our parents a mega-headache because on top of ministering to the people, they have to tend to us as well. So with God helping our parents, we didn't drive them up the wall all that much; I hope. Even though I remember some terrible stories when we were in horrible trouble with our parents (but they weren't really serious problems like us taking drugs, or smoking or anything terrible like that), I think God really changed us to be more aware of what is happening with our parents and that we should all look out for each other. If a member of the family is busy, we shouldn't create more problems for them and should try to solve it ourselves.

Our parents were the core to our sanity back in Myanmar. Without them, we wouldn't have been as sheltered - even though technically speaking, we were being exposed to the life in Myanmar. Our first school in Myanmar was a school our mum worked in, so she could tend to us at any time. But our second school was an International school and it was there that we were exposed even more. I'd say 98% of the students. Oh, let's just make it 99% of the students there were Burmese, so you could say we were basically going to a public school. There, we were exposed to much more, and there, we were under fire for being the 'outsider'. I know I was.

I had so many encounters there as being the odd one out. The classmates and even the teachers made fun of me during some stage of my stay there. It got pretty depressing for me at one stage. Let's just say that I didn't handle it very well.

Out of all the friends there, 1 or 2 of them would look out for me. But with the others, they would tease and make fun at me. There wasn't really much I could do about it because I was part of the minority (being the only foreigner for a long most of the time), and if I did anything wrong, the whole school would be against me! So it was there that I learnt to keep my mouth shut when not needed.

And yeah, for the record (I dunno if I have posted this before but I'll just do it anyway), out of all my years of schooling, I have been to a total of 7 schools from Kindergarten (not including Nursery) to Year 12. Try imagining 7 'first days' of school. The 7 days of my life where I suffered. By the 7th one, I was still suffering! Not so much as the last 6, but it was still something I don't like doing because it sucks! Sorry guys from Christian College, but I still don't like moving to new schools. I wouldn't wanna do it again, so I'm so glad it's all over. Let's not talk about uni.

Anyway, with all my blabbing about Myanmar and life experiences and stuff, what I wanted to say about this trip was that when we were travelling from the ferry to the hotel and back, just looking out from the car into the countryside, it had jolted some memories about Myanmar again. Everything about the villages there especially. It was almost a replica of life back in Myanmar. The cars, the people, the shops, the ground.

Travelling those few kilometres was like travelling a few years back in time. There is such a huge difference in development with Singapore compared to Indonesia. In all fairness, this was not the capital city of Indonesia, so of course places like these will not be as well developed as the capital, but in contrast to the development of Singapore, the differences are vast. That really makes me grateful for what Singapore has to offer. The beautiful nature of having easy access to the bus and train here in Singapore is something I must not take for granted because in Indonesia, if we got lost there, I don't think I would live. Quite literally; I would probably die!

The hotel was practically in the middle of no where! The nearest 'developed' city centre is probably 50km away. And to get there, you would have to track some really dusty deserted country roads. Not the best place to get lost.

So when I got back to Singapore, seeing those painted dark roads with bright green trees in between the lanes really made me feel glad that I live in a city like this and not somewhere else. Something I hope I won't take granted for a long time to come.