If anyone was wondering why I have not shared our 9 days in Sri Lanka, it is because I lost my physical notebook which contained everything I’ve scribbled and jotted down during the trip and I’ve been trying to get everything back together before Christmas.
After the trip, we resumed our normal life in Singapore, did housekeeping by submitting our photos to Triston Yeo and hoping that they would be chosen for the exhibition next year. Honestly speaking, I was feeling rather jaded with city life and felt mildly depressed for awhile when I came back. I made time and spoke to an old friend of mine, Kelvin Chin, who has been travelling to third world countries and is passionate about volunteer work. At the park opposite my place, he took a slow puff of his cigarette and told me a matter-of-factly that it was normal for me to feel that way. “It is especially so, when you have to step out of your comfort zone,” he added. Perhaps Kelvin was right. The only time when I travel to overseas was for luxurious holidays. However, it has nothing to do with the different accommodations that we stayed in Sri Lanka or the bum burning, long travelling hours from district to district. Hey, I may like to spoil myself but all these weren’t unbearable at all. In fact, it was a truly interesting and amazing out-of-comfort-zone experience that I have never had.
I guess the thing that made me uncomfortable was to witness and speak to the people who had survived through natural disasters and civil wars.
Us, as an outsider, who has all almost everything we want in our life, and them, whose basic needs aren’t even fulfilled.
Our first group picture at Singapore Changi Airport, 6.30a.m., before we enter the departure hall.
(The boys: left to right) Jack Yam, Alex Soh, Wally Tham, Triston Yeo, Tom Low, Damien Chng, Aaron Lim
(The girls: left to right) Ami Lee, Eunice Lim, Denice Lim, Jean Loo, Casandra Wong
Triston Yeo: Team Leader
Despite that he is the founder of this project, Triston has a very playful side which we got to see during the trip. In return, the girls he “bullied” made fun of his retro photo on his facebook account. Jokes aside, Triston is a commercial photographer by profession, a regular judges for numerous photography contests, and he has a lot of passion and determination in The Rice Project which made it what it is today.
Alex Soh: Team Leader’s partner-in-crime
Blessed with good singing voice, Alex terrorised us with his English-turned-Hokkien songs and jokes which made us cry for mercy. He was known as Mark Lee during the trip, but he is the co-founder of The Rice Project and an art director by profession. Alex spends a lot of time in photography, has a published book under his belt, and had created a lot of brilliant scenic pictures and images for print.
Aaron Lim: Winner of the photo contest
Unlike the bad uncles in their thirties, Aaron is a gentleman in his late twenties which we hope that this characteristic won’t change in the next 5 years to come. A videographer for a living, Aaron also enjoys photography during his free time and captures really heartwarming portraits of children.
Tom Low: Winner of the photo contest
As quiet as a mouse, we barely heard Tom spoke at the beginning of the trip. But something that he drank made him talked in length and left us feeling terribly amused. Tom was a man of few words, but he took care of us like a good medic whenever anyone got injured. Tom is a learning photographer who is always ready to improve his skills.
Jean Loo: Winner of the photo contest
With the cutest handwriting in this team, Jean is also the girl with the best personality around. Often an easy target of the ever-so-playful uncles, she has no qualms to call them nicknames to keep the game fair. She is our very own a walking jukebox with more than 2 decades old of song lists in her head. For a living, she is an enthusiastic documentary photographer cum journalist.
Casandra Wong: Winner of the photo contest
Often called as “roomie” by Jean, Casandra is our deadpan-looking girl who also happens to be the joy of our team. While she was often misunderstood under our first impression, she has an impeccable taste in music and movies which could easily beat anyone in the team hands down. Writes articles for a living, it was her first time photographing in digital format and she is loving it.
Denice Lim: Winner of the photo contest
She won’t be someone whom the waiter would pass the bill to at the end of the meal. But never judge people by their looks, for she is our hardworking member who is in charge of our group money like a physical ATM, and kept track of our group expenses during the trip. She’s the giggly one in our team and is an up and coming female wedding photographer.
Damien Chng: Winner of the photo contest
Although he is the youngest team member and winner of the photo contest, Damien is no little boy. After all, he behaved better than the uncles of the team. Straight-forward and candid, he is always armed with his camera and split-second fast response. Damien is a year 1 student in his JC school life.
Jack Yam
Don’t be fool by Jack’s solemn looks. He has a hidden talent which took us all by surprise. He could act and imitate people (especially girls) so well that we wondered why wasn’t he in the entertainment industry. We called him Jack “pei pei”. But seriously, his photography skills are pretty impressive and has an accent that Casandra claimed it sounded so good over the phone.
Lee Amizadai
The big sister of the girls, Ami is our kickass videographer from The Wedding Paparazzi who volunteered herself to document the trip. Always ready to document the events no matter how tiring the journey is, she often found entertaining herself with the different things that the team mates are doing in the bus. She is a go-getter woman with taste and humility.
Wally Tham
Helping out Ami is Wally, a man of good wit and mannerisms. Besides handling the serious stuff during the production, he always made sure that everyone could walk safely in the dark with his powerful portable light and exterminated any bugs that bothered the girls. He is a sweet husband of Ami who runs Big Red Button for a living.
And yours truly, Eunice Lim
Eunice is the self-made time keeper of the team. Although she was usually the last one who came for breakfast, she was often seen gathering the group and moving people around, keeping a little bit of order amongst random chaos. On the surface, she is rather cheerful and smiley. But most of the time, she is brooding over heavy thoughts in her head during this trip.
Like some of my team members, heading for this trip is totally out of my own comfort zone and it is the first time for me. Nonetheless, I’ll be bringing you all the news and updates of our trip on this very blog, because I firmly believe that whatever we have experienced, is definitely worth sharing!
Our flight just landed at 1.55pm today.
Thank you for all your support and encouragements. Our photos will be up soon.
Keep your eyes peeled!
This is our second last night in Sri Lanka and we’re spending a night in Galle, where Wi-Fi is available in this lovely hotel.
Despite of our intention to update the journey live, we were restricted by the limited internet access that is available here. Nonetheless, you’ll still be able to keep up with what we have done over during our stay as I’ll be updating them once I get back to Singapore this Thursday.
It has been my great pleasure to travel with Triston, Alex, Wally, Ami, Aaron, Jack, Tom, Jean, Cassandra, Denice and our fantastic tour guide, Walter.
As for myself, I’m just an ageless learner and my name is Eunice.
We are on our way to Sri Lanka now. Subscribe to us on your RSS for instant updates!