BINTAN OVERSEAS SERVICE LEARNING

Bintan Overseas Service Learning

Service learning.

It’s defined as a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

Here in Evergreen, our school conducts an annual 4D3N Overseas Service Learning trip to Bintan, Indonesia. Selected students from the Secondary Three Cohort are chosen each year to take part in this event.

The main aim of this event was to give back to the community, as a lot of Singapore’s resources and supplies came from other countries. Although we were students, we tried to give back to the community in our own way.

For example, two groups helped by building a toilet, while other groups repaired the volleyball court, and helped to tile the parade square.

For my group, we repaired the volleyball court by using cement. It was probably the first time in our lives that we actually personally mixed the bag of cement powder and water to make cement to repair the volleyball court. It was an enlightening experience as we realised that it was actually not as easy as we thought it would be, and through this we learned to appreciate the efforts of the construction workers in Singapore.

Later on, my group also went to help out the group that was tiling the parade square for a school. Like the volleyball court, we realised that tiling the parade square wasn’t as simple as we thought as there were many things to consider before tiling the parade square.

Firstly, we had to make sure that the sand was flat before placing the tile on the ground, or else it would result in uneven flooring which could be dangerous to the kids who studied in the school. Secondly, the tiles were hexagon-shaped, and because of uneven gaps between each tile, some tiles couldn’t fit into the gaps later on. Thirdly, since everyone was tiling the parade square at a different pace, the tiles started to clash, and leaving gaps that were too big to ignore, yet too small to place another tile in.

These considerations and challenges put our problem-solving skills to the test, and we then wracked our brains. After a while, someone came up with the solution to set a certain distance as a target, and that people who have already reached that target should wait for the rest to catch up first before carrying on.

This was to prevent there from being too many gaps, and to be able to remove and replace the tiles earlier.

We also helped to paint two rooms for the school. As we were painting the rooms, the students of the school excitedly came to the windows of the room and chattered amongst themselves.

They seemed to be talking about the room, as they were seen pointing excitedly at the walls and smiling at us. It was probably a first time for most of us to paint a room, and it was tiring, but somehow the smiles and look of excitement on the faces of the students were our motivation to press on.

During the whole process, the sun was scorching hot, and it was buzzing with mosquitoes. However, it was heartwarming to see everyone reminding each other to take breaks and to rehydrate. Many expressed that they were touched at the gestures of their batchmates.

Besides the service learning aspect, we also had other activities like high and low elements. We were able to conquer our fears there and to step out of our comfort zones. The activities included “skywalk”, where we were supposed to walk and balance ourselves on a stick between two coconut trees, and then later jump down. We also did coconut tree climbing, rock-climbing, and flying-fox (into the water!).

We were also given free time every night after dinner, where most of us spent it on the ledge near the seaside with our friends. Some of us also spent their free time by playing soccer.

On the morning of the last day in Bintan, we also took a marine walk into the sea where we saw various marine creatures like crabs, starfish, sea cucumbers, etc. This was something we would definitely not be able to experience in Singapore!

Generally, it was a refreshing and eye-opening experience, and many of us learned to be appreciative of what we had in Singapore. We also developed resilience, perseverance, and camaraderie with our batchmates.