aloha Changi

Went out to recce the aloha Changi resort with Esther this afternoon in the name of having the best youth camp ever. A number of interesting things happened today:

1. I bumped into Jun on the MRT to City Hall (quelle coincidence). Turns out she was on her way to her friends' church to take part in this "Amazing Race" type activity where they would go all over the city looking for places. *sob* And there I was sacrificing part of my weekend to organize a church activity. Let's just ignore the fact that I'd have nothing really productive to do if I stayed home, except maybe Chinese "homework." Did I mention that Jun has a T-shirt with the word "Jun" on it? (not to mention "Jun Plaza" -___-) That's so unfair. Why don't they manufacture "Ray" shirts? Hmph.

2. I arrived at Tampines MRT waaay too early, at about 11:30 or so. This is because the train at Newton MRT came immediately, and the Pasir Ris train at City Hall arrived just as I was getting out of the Marina Bay one. So much for contingency timing. (Speaking of which, there were these funny articles in the newspaper recently about how the government had spent $400,000 on the branding of Marina Bay and finally decided to keep the name as Marina Bay. How weird it would be if they had to change the MRT name to "Merlion Vista" or something corny like that. Anyway, I am never going to complain about the school's $4,000 underground carpark again.)

I had to wait for a long time, wandering around the Tampines MRT area, until about 12:25 or so (I don't really blame you for this Esther, don't worry - it's not like my time nowadays has any opportunity cost). In the interim I managed to find the correct booth at the bus interchange, finally located the toilet in the DBS building (those toilet signs in MRT stations are unbelievably inadequate sometimes), drank a lime juice at McDonald's, read a chapter of "In His Image," and was approached by this Club Rainbow Singapore guy doing a charity pitch. Have I mentioned that these guys have absolutely the best charity pitch in the history of charity pitches? I met this woman outside Newton MRT earlier this week as I was coming back from Chinese class and she gave me the exact same dialogue. Here's about how it goes:

CRS person: Hello, may I just have 2 minutes of your time as you wait for your bus?
Me: Um... well...
CRS person: Just 2 minutes. We're only trying to raise awareness here.
Me: [curious since I've never seen anything like this before] Ah, ok.
CRS person: As you wait for your bus. Just go ahead when it comes.
Me: Ok.
CRS person: May I ask what is your name please? [o_O what a strange question]
Me: [feeling a bit awkward but impressed at their shock factor] Ray.
CRS person: Ok, Ray, well I'm from this organization, Club Rainbow Singapore. Basically, [pointing at a colourful piece of paper they are holding] some of these children you can see here... [etc. etc.]
Me: Alright. Yeah.
CRS: Am I correct in saying you are a student right now?
Me: Yeah I am.
CRS: Well Ray, all we're doing is raising awareness. But I hope that when you are older and more able to financially support yourself [whoa, that's totally cool, a charity organization that actually understands we're not spare change machines] then please remember us and try to make a small donation.
Me: [making a mental note to blog about this so I won't forget] Sure.
CRS: Thank you. Have a nice bus ride.
Me: Thanks.

Ah, and everyone's happy. Such nice smiley people. No guilt. :)

Oh, yeah, there was this part of "In His Image" (by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey) that was a real shocker. I was reading Chapter 8, "Transfusion"; this is an extract:

"An American black man, Charles Drew, solved many problems of blood storage and shipping, making possible a nationwide Blood for Britain campaign during the second great war. Since then a labyrinthine network of blood supply depots, refrigerated blood banks, trucks, and planes has grown up - in ironic technological mimicry of the body's own circulatory system.

Some barriers to transfusions, however, lay beyond the scope of medical science: in one of the cruelest twists of medical history, Charles Drew died after being refused a blood transfusion in a North Carolina hospital because of his race."

Tragic.

3. We passed the old Changi General Hospital as we were exploring the Netheravon Road area. We must have looked pretty weird to the passing cars, standing in a remote area of Singapore in the rain and taking pictures. It's not a very friendly-looking place, that hospital.

4. We found Fairy Point Chalets 2-4 and Fairy Point Bungalow 3 (along Cranwell Road - long way to walk). We discarded FPB 3 as an option after we saw a bag of rubble on the front doorstep and the dusty, messy, dark interior. We probably made the people in FPCs 2-4 uncomfortable when we walked multiple times around their chalets, commenting on the appropriateness of the setting and the nice view, and taking some pictures. Mwahaha. As a side note, Pulau Ubin is just across the water from the resort.

5. Esther was talking about the possibility of walking to the main road to take a taxi (which I may or may not have been able to support with the money in my wallet) when at that very moment bus #29 came to the bus-stop. Talk about divine provision. Whew, thank you God. Of course, we could have saved about 20 minutes with the taxi... hm.

Well, it looks like youth camp will be held at aloha Changi this year. The theme is "Fellowship of the Cross," followed tentatively next year by "The Two Testaments," and then "The Return of the Christ" (we're so clever, haha). Hopefully I'll be able to attend although with NS coming up that's not very likely.