CoIncident: Ecoventure 2015 - Background & Pre-Trip

Sabaidee! (Hello in Laos)
Yeap, I knew that I MIA for the longest possible time lol. Last post was from CNY and now we are already in the another half of the year d. Opps :P *Run*

Let us get this latest blog done asap while my memories still fresh :)

As a lot of you knew, I went to Ecoventure 2015, organized by Earthlink NTU under EEO Portfolio (Events Executive Overseas). So what is Ecoventure all about?

Background

Ecoventure started since 2004 and it started as a "guided nature walk" (for nature and trekking enthusiast) in different countries. Slowly, it evolved and the "Community Service", "Information and Cultural Exchange" and "Rest and Recreation" elements were incorporated into the project. The team went to Indonesia (2011), Cambodia (2012), Nepal (2013) and since 2014, Laos has been elected as the destination.
(More details here: http://clubs.ntu.edu.sg/earthlink/web/EcoVenture_2011/past_ecov.html)

Where we GO?

So for Ecoventure 2015, we headed to Lao PDR from 14 June to 28 June 2015 :) Together with our partners, we have installed solar panels, lights and fans in a primary school in the village named Ban Phongsavang, located across the Nam Khan River, 4-hours boat ride away from Lang Prabang city. The village is located in Oudomxai Province, where electricity is not easily available.

PS : This is what you got when you try to Google the village.

T__T

What we DO?

Our project aims to improve the standards of education environment for students who live in this rural community. By installing solar panels and energy saving appliances, we actually hope that we could provide a more conducive learning environment to them. Can you actually imagine how the people there live a life without electricity? Being put in a place without fan and light, I guess a lot of us won't be able to stay for long?

Besides the installation of the solar panels, lights and fans, we also conducted lessons for the kids there :) We had English lessons, environmental classes, sports day and we did some science experiments :)

And must mention, actually all of us that joined the trip, are to learn, through our services, from our host. We are not there to teach (we are not even near to qualified to be teachers), but to learn, learn from the locals, the kids and the mother nature :)

Who we ARE?

So this 24-man team was led by our leaders, Kah Hoe and Shu Huey. Not all of us from Earthlink but all of us got selected through an interview. That is why most of us don't know each other before the trip, and so we had few team bonding activities before the real trip to Laos.

This looks like it going to be very wordy, so time for photos :)
Thanks the team for the photos :)

Activity 1 - Pulau Ubin 2D1N Team Bonding "Camp"

The first time that we had the full team, and regret to admit that I didn't really step out from my comfort zone for this. Missed the chance to know the team better :'( But still we had good time in Pulau Ubin :) Let's go cycling again? *wink*

Activity 2 - Flea Market
To raise fund, we collected shirts from friends and we sold them at the flea market. Definitely new experience to a lot of us and for the first time we had the same target to work on together :)

Activity 3 - Pre-Event at NTU Herb Garden
In order for us to experience hardship and to prepare us to face difficult situation, we had our pre-event at NTU Herb Garden. Just helping out and being part time farmer for like half a day, all of us got so exhausted and tired. But definitely a great workout and at least after the pre-event, all of us managed to better prepare ourselves mentally to handle difficult situation :)

Activity 4 - Meeting, meeting and meetings.
So after exam, we had weekly meetings on every Sunday. Besides weekly updates, we were given chance to meet up the rest of the team also. We too used the time for packing (for flea market and our trip), dancing practices and etc. However, have to apologize to our leaders cause we never have full attendance for meetings. Sorry bosses! Photos below taken during our last meeting aka the packing day!