wonderment

Have you ever tried to take a Mongolian swimming?

To me, Mongolia is the land of the perpetual cold winters where temperatures never go above freeze point. People live in “pau-like” houses, ride horses and always have foggy breath.

I even thought that most Monglians were illiterate, that is, until I met the Mongolian FEBC director with his American accent and realised that even though it takes a 15-hour transit at Incheon Airport to get in and out of Mongolia, there’s a booming city in Ulaanbaatar.

Anyway, back to my point - have you ever tried to take Mongolians swimming?

On the 2nd day that the Mongolian students team arrived for CCIS, one of them popped me a question: Where can we find a swimming pool around here?

Swimming pool … do you guys go swimming? Yes! Yes! We brought all our swimming stuff! Right …. well there are swimming pools, but all of them are in the hotels. Ohh… never mind then.

If you were there to see the crest-fallen look on his face, you would have felt sorry for the guy. I would have brought them home if I could, but I was barely surviving the 2nd day of CCIS. No can do.

I told my sis that the Mongolians wanted to go swimming and she laughed.

“They are so hot ah?”

I should think so.

So our dear Mongolian team battled the muggy December heat, piling on their lined costumes and mopping up buckets of perspiration.

Finally, when CCIS ended, Sarah and I dropped by the Mongolian house to see if they needed anymore groceries to last till Wednesday when they left.

We got there at about 10ish and everyone was just waking up. The moment we stepped into the house, we were embraced by the convection heat and I suddenly remembered about this little request they had at the start of CCIS.

On the spur of the moment, we asked if they would like to come to our house to go swimming and you couldn’t wipe the grin off the guy’s face then. You could see the eager smiles on the faces of the others when the news got translated into Mongolian.

They promised to be ready in 2 hours and within 2 hours they were dressed and raring to go! It was so funny to see them so excited over something as simple as going swimming. Even the team leader ran to the nearest sports shop to get a pair of swimming trunks.

In the train, they were like a bunch of children high on sugar or something. Sarah and I had never seen them so crazy before. We thought they were avid swimmers longing to go for a dip or something …

We were soooo wrong …….

The last time I used these arm floats was when I was three….

…. Now I see 10 grown adult kids sharing 2 arm floats!!

They have really cool swimsuits - most of the girls were in 2 piece suits but one observation I made? Their swimming ability matched their English. The 2 older guys (one holding the girl’s hand and the other at the back) spoke the most English and swam pretty well .. the rest who stared blankly at us when we asked, “How are you?” - didn’t even know how to float.

But what they lacked in swimming ability, they made up for the childish glee at being able to horse around in the water.

She’s looks like she’s 12 but you gotta see her contortionist act. It’s out of this world!

Boys will be boys … Thank goodness they don’t know anything about dumping the host in the water.

Anka is afraid of water so we had a fun time talking to her instead and finding out about her famous actor father, her love for dance and music and her ability to sing beautifully and play the guzheng.

A funny happy bunch of people

Satisfied and happy with homecooked lamb stew in their tummies - Bataa the team leader said that in Mongolia he couldn’t differentiate what kind of meat he was eating, but here in Singapore, he finally could appreciate MEAT! Not chicken … “No more chicken rice,” all of them said.

Hehe, they should all be home by now. Will miss our “Mongs”!

Just when you thought that one episode of your life had closed forever, not because there was a proper closure, but because time had already helped heal the wounds, something happens, like right out of a Korean drama serial. It’s the closure you’d been looking for all this while, but it happens with such a strange and comical twist you can’t help but laugh at how humourous God is.

18 months ago, I met someone whom I absolutely fell in love with. He was tall, dark, kinda cute, with a buffed body and strong. He had such an adorable lopsided smile that made you want to kiss him, and a heart for wayward youths that he would defer a semester at university just so he could set up a refuge centre for them. Not only that, he was a national athlete for one particular gruelling sport. I didn’t know him as a person then - I knew him from the TV, radio and newspapers, and me thinks I began to fall in love with a projected image rather than a real person.

Anyway, like all girls who dream to meet their Prince Charming, I hoped to meet him but I wasn’t all that crazy about him yet because he was a media hero and plainly out of reach for me.

However, as dramatic stories go, one day, an opportunity came along for me to meet him!

I happened to put my name in a volunteer pool and one day they called me up for a position as a volunteer teacher. At that time I didn’t know it was his centre, I just went.

So you can imagine the utter surprise that I had when I saw him doing the presentation - I had admired him for so long and here I see him in the flesh! Later he called us in for an interview … When it came to my turn, we talked and I found out he went to church! *DING! DING! DING!* You know what I mean, you meet someone you’ve admired for so long, but you don’t know if he/she is a Christian. You promised God, yourself and everyone who would care that you’ll only date Christians, so you expect this person to be Christian since he/she is doing this sort of work, but you don’t want to assume, so you ask hoping and praying that you’ll get an affirmative answer and when you do, your imagination goes into overdrive ….

Hehe .. .the whole tale is very long and it’ll just detract from the real story here so here’s a quick summary: Something happened and the volunteer thing didn’t materialise. I was disappointed of course, I thought I would have something to do with my time and … *ahem* of course, get to know him more. However, I also knew that more job commitments were coming right along, so not having to volunteer might have been better for me. I worked out my feelings with God and things went hunky dory … until ….

UNTIL…..

I got an email from him, inviting me out to “get to know me as a friend”, blah blah blah …

I was checking my mail at work while a friend droned on about nothing in particular and up to this day he doesn’t know it, but I was hyperventilating when I saw that email. It was a dream come true and I couldn’t believe my eyes!

We started hanging out, I began expecting his SMSes (which came at all the right times) but there were occasions where he did or said things that made me wonder about how much he was committed to purity or chivalry. The one thing that irked me the most was how he made such a big fuss about how much I was paid at the station. Like hello, it’s my choice?? Those things nagged at me incessantly but I kept brushing them off - blind love does that to you, I guess.

Things came to a head one April Fool’s day. A day never stood out as painfully humiliating as that day. Won’t say much about what transpired but by the end of it all, I was furious - I do not appreciate someone who initiated so much telling me that he actually has a girlfriend but because his parents don’t like her, so he has to “look for an alternative”.

I slammed down the phone without saying bye and he never called me again.

Sleep came easily that night. I tired myself out so much that the moment I hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

But the subsequent days weren’t easy to pass. Each time I passed by the centre, either on my way to school/work or back, I would turn away, bury my face in a book or crane my neck to look the other way. I had to walk faster past old familiar places where we spent time hanging out, before the old feelings hit. I kept bitching to anyone who would hear, but the more I did that, the deeper the hurt embedded itself in my aching heart.

Then, I began wishing I would bump into him accidentally, after all, we stayed just 5 minutes from each other. I dreamed that he would give me a proper answer so I could just close this rather embarrassing period of my life and walk on.

I prayed and asked but no matter how I looked or mistook other people for him, for 6 whole months, I never saw him.

This April marked 1 year of not seeing him and by then I had pretty much gotten over it. Yes, I still wanted to meet him to find out how he was doing, but now, I could bring myself to walk past those familiar places again.

Yet, I still didn’t meet him.

I moved away in July, now a half hour bus ride from whereever he was. He slowly faded away - just a reminder that I was once very silly before.

Work and ministry began filling up my days and then CCIS 2005 started.

On the second day of CCIS, I was just leaving the command post at Taka Civic Plaza to take the underpass back to Lucky Plaza to bring some of the groups over to set up. My watch read “18:27″, I had to hurry because I promised the leaders I would be there at 18:30.

There were many people at the entrance of the underpass but as I approached, the sea of people suddenly parted, leaving a lone figure standing there talking on his mobile.

My feet wouldn’t take another step. It was him - looking fresher, cleaner, stronger than ever before.

He finished his call, turned and saw me. A smile spread over his face like nothing ever happened at all. I smiled too, the only response I could muster I guess.

I took a deep breath and strode up to him. He remembered me but forgot mostly everything else. Didn’t matter , I’d rather he not remember.

Some small talk later, I mustered enough gumption to ask,

“So you’re here shopping with your girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend? - Oh you mean my wife? Yeah, she’s at Cineleisure with my sis and they’re meeting me here.”

“Your wife? You’re married?”

“Yeah we got married 4 months ago.”

“I see.”

My handphone suddenly rings, jolting me back into some sort of reality. It’s one of those gancheong spider group leaders reminding me that I’m very very late already.

“Look I gotta get back to work, send my regards to your wife and have a merry Christmas.”

“See you.”

And I pick up my heels and run.

Anyone who saw me in the underpass that day must have thought that this crazy lass with her ears plugged in to both a walkie talkie and the cellphone, her hair tied in a messy bun, makeup-less, wearing a bright orange t-shirt - made crazier because she ran across the underpass laughing like a nut.

Surprisingly, my heart still beat at 88/58 (after the running, no). No matter what I said in my brain, I can’t tell you right now what I felt, but it was definitely NOT infatuation. No more infatuation. Even if you paid me a million dollars, this guy is totally so off.

Drama? You betcha, but it’s one of the things that happened this CCIS that made me realise that sometimes things don’t happen the way you want it to, nor does it happen during the time slot you give it. They just happen at the right time, sometimes in the middle of a busy period, just when you thought you already settled everything.

I walked on already, but God granted my request of seeing him well and now I can finally bury the last memory of that time.

What a weird twist! But oh so funny! Suddenly all the impossible stuff in CCIS didn’t seem so bad now that God could actually arrange such a meeting.

You don’t believe? You better believe it.

Oooooh I’m back in the blogging business!

The last time I blogged was over 2 weeks ago, just before CCIS started, I can’t believe that I write this post with CCIS all over and Christmas over too!

It seems too surreal, too amazing but altogether too great that it is actually over.

I just finished cleaning my room - I came back from CCIS with my room looking like I just moved in again - full of junk. It’s 2am in the morning and I have a very full day tomorrow, or rather, later today, so I’ll just leave you right now with a very GOOD NIGHT and see you in the morning.

Time to grow up Ruth.

Ranting and raving will only make you seem like an immature baby.

You’ll never get this chance a second time, live it up and smile!

Whether or not you think it’s worth it, God allowed you to get this far for a reason.

Find it this season.

As you can already tell, event-itis has set in big time.

Heheh, so I prolly won’t be updating any time soon. But i’m only a call away. You know the number, just call!

My flight to Melbourne is all settled thanks to a good friend, Pearline whom I haven’t seen in gaeons.

Thank God that I won’t actuallly be going to Melbourne alone … in fact, not only is Pearline on the same flight as I am, and in RMIT as well … she’s also graduating the same time as me!

I think that’s really good when it comes to looking out for each other … helps the homesickness and the moment I said I was going with Pearline, Mom said, “If you go with Pearline, I’ll know you’ll be safe.” She’s known Pearline since we were 14 so she has 101% confidence I won’t go astray with her around. Hee hee.

So … the house + furniture + utilities + housemates are settled, thanks to Peilin.
The tickets for Dad and myself are confirmed, thanks to Pearline. (I fly 6 Feb, 7,15pm, Qantas)

The only thing to do now is to get that evisa thing done, attend the pre-departure seminar and pack mah bags.

You know what the odd thing is? Before I made that decision to further my studies, life was a straight plane, good and nice but nothing particularly extraordinary to stay for. So that’s why I decided to further my studies…. and that’s when everything started to get exciting. The YA ministry is growing … the gals in my group are taking bold steps of faith … work is … well, ever interesting with the kind of stuff that I get to do … I start enjoying learning to dance …

It’s so funny that now I have to leave all these exciting things to do behind to start anew in a foreign land … going back into a state I’ve left for the past 2.5 years. I wonder if I can meet the challenges of being a student again .. but then again, I wonder if I ever left it at all. The last few years just seemed like an extended term in NP MCM. Still, I don’t know what the future may bring … but I trust the Almighty has lots more in store for me.

——–

One great thing I found out today - If you have an important meeting u have to attend and a flu is hunkering down on you, buy Panadol Cold relief, down 2 tablets and you’ll stop your tears and snot from ruining your makeup.

That’s all for Ruth’s Tip of the Day. Thank you.

———

A Christmas Wish

Set a child free from poverty - $45 per month

Through Child Sponsorship, an entire community is transformed through helping ONE child. Its simply amazing! $45 provides a child and family with nutritious food, health care, education and the means to break the cycle of poverty like agricultural, vocational skills training and income-generating activities. So, sponsor a child today!

i’m still so much a kid myself that sometimes I wonder when I’ll ever grow up! Haha, but sponsoring a child makes me realise how little kids have in other countries and if just $1.50 a day can help a child go to school, his/her parents to find viable work and for the child to receive vaccination from common childhood illnesses, I’d go without buying those 2 CDs I thought I needed.

$50 a month. Minute if we really take a look at our bank balances, but everything to a child living under the poverty line.

Click the World Vision logo for more gifts to send this Christmas!

Sorry about the lack of updates. Work is pouring in like a mighty torrent, more than can be handled at one time. I’m looking forward to 29 Dec - that’s when I can truly say Sayonara.

Had a bit too much Kopi-C and fried food concurrently last week, plus a fair bit of late nights, my throat feels phlegmy and my nose sore from all the blowing. Going to down a big glass of efferverscent Vit C later.

Was looking at my bloglines comic feed today. Don’t you feel like this sometimes?