YowCH & Grace

Esther went for a Overseas Service Learning Project (OSLP) with Catholic Junior College to Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 21 to 27 of November 2019.

Grace’s parents and Gene together with David and Joseph sent her to the airport. Grace was working half-day, she came from work to send Esther off.

Group photo before going into the airport.


Esther’s first meal in Thailand. Dinner after landing. There was a flight transit from Singapore to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Although the food was good, there was food served on the plane hence the team was rather stuffed and could not eat much.

Day 2:
We went to The Northern Region School for the Blind under the Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen. We had a tour around the school to learn how the Blind learn and go about their daily lives in school.



This is the classroom that they learn in and a shop that they have to sell the handicraft that they do in class. Esther bought a few things to remember the trip and give some friends as well as to support them.

The students walking to the assembly point in groups.

Lunch was catered for the team in the blind school. We helped serve the students seconds before starting our meal. They had a break while we ate afterwards.


After resting for a bit, we proceeded to play a game that the blind play in school, Go-Ball. Teams are blindfolded and stand on either sides. A ball, with bells inside, will be rolled from one side of the court to the other. The defending team has to use their bodies to block the ball from rolling past them. Needless to say, we were trashed by the students.


After that, we continued on with our tour of the school.
This is the therapy room.

Here are the students doing recreational activities such as learning how to play the traditional instrument of Thailand, the Chakhe, handicraft and learning to be Thai masseuse.


This is a look into their classrooms, the computer lab and how they learn in class.

They also taught us how to read and write in braille, via the stylus and slate that they use.


Final group picture before bidding them farewell.

Day 3:
For the second day in the blind school, there was another group of students from CJC that joined us at the blind school. We carried activities together such as food tasting and a game called Marco Polo as well as teaching them how to make maracas and some rhythms with it.

It was a shorter day compared to the first day with the blind school as the school had planned some outings for the students.

With some free time, we went to a market to shop and look around. There was a huge longkang beside it.

Day 4:
The next day, we went to primary school in the village to build them a fishpond and a mushroom house for the students there to appreciate and learn about nature. It was also for them to generate a source of income through selling the mushrooms that they grew in the mushroom house.

As today was a Sunday, there were no students in the school. The whole day was dedicated to finishing the bulk of the construction of the mushroom house and fishpond. We had breaks in between where we talked and got to know one another better and bonded.

That night, we went for some dinner at a Old Chiangmai Cultural Center where we had a Khantoke Dinner and Dance Show.

Day 5:
We woke up early today and had breakfast really quickly because we wanted to observe their assembly in the morning before school started. It was really eyeopening as the students ran everything by themselves and they had really long prayers that they recited.

Afterwards, we proceeded with the activities that we planned for them: teaching them English and having station games with games like Chapteh and Cup Pong.

Day 6:
We had our planned activities for them again, this time arts and crafts as well as some simple science experiments that appeared to them like ‘magic’.

This is a picture of Esther and her buddy, Om.

As it was the last night of the trip, we had a girls’ night with face masks and cup noodles.

We flew back to Singapore on Day 7.

This is a picture of all the things that Esther got on the trip.

Overall it was a very good trip, with plenty of eye-opening and memorable events that happened over the course of the week and many friendships were built.

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