Post-CIP thoughts

During the course of my CIP trip to Myanmar, there are several issues which bugged me. For those who actually read my posts, perhaps you all can share your views on them.

1. True Altruism?

There were numerous sessions whereby our team members shared their reasons for joining the CIP. I can't recall a single person (including myself) whose main motivation is to help the needy. Common reasons include: Experience OCIP, see Myanmar, challenge yourself etc. It seems that we are doing it mainly because for our own motives.

I am wondering whether there are actually people who are joining these overseas expeditions out of true altruism. I asked Ho Teck why did he join Project Angel after already being part of BHBH last summer; his reply was that it was fun during the expeditons.

My feeling is that we should be more concerned about how our efforts can improve the conditions of our beneficiaries instead on about how much we could gain from it.

2. Donations

As this was our first trip there, the team was not able to accurately gauge the costs. Hence we ran into the problem of over-budgeting. I don't know all the details but at the end of the trip we donated about a million worth of kyats (approx. 1100 sgd) to the orphanages.

The donors had generously provided the team in both cash and kind for this expedition. However if we take a closer look, most of the money did not go directly into helping the orphans. Most of the money ended up being spent on housing, feeding and transporting us. What percentage of the donation is actually being utilized to benefit the orphanages? At the end I feel kind of bad when we are splurging (by Burmese standard) on our meals in order to meet our food budget.

As Shahid said, won't it be better if we just give them the money? Well another set of problems surface. How do we ensure that money is properly used? How do we ensure that those in control of money will not abuse our trust? It is difficult to solve this moral dillemma.

3. Prostelyzing

An interesting fact about this expedition is that only 5 out of the 14 participants are non-Christians. The organization that we are working with is a Christian one and the orphanages that we visited are ran by pastors. Hence there is a fair amount of prayers and mentions of God during the trip.

While I consider myself to be tolerant, I admit that there were instances whereby the atmosphere was too Christian. Even the Christian members were worried that the non-Christians were uncomfortable. I hadn't anticipate it but on a hindsight perhaps I should have.

At the end of the trip, we asked Pastor Patrick (our coordinator) what is his motivation behind helping the Burmese orphans. His reply was frank: he wanted to spead the word of God.

Perhaps it was the same thing which motivated Mother Theresa as well. However I will prefer a secular expedition if I get a say.

Last but not least, I'm glad that our efforts managed to bring some benefits to the orphanages; we can still make improvements and bring more benefits to the orphans if there are subsequent expeditions.

Myanmar CIP Trip

There was a gathering for the Myanmar CIP participants this afternoon at Jackie's place. Well this presents me a good opportunity to blog about my trip to Myanmar which takes place from 5-12 Dec '07.

Side-tracking a bit here, Jackie's place is really very nice; it looks like a high-class Balinese resort. The decor are really tastefully done and wonderfully reflects the owners' class. If I got the chance, my house in the future will look something like that too.

Yado, our team leader, has done a brilliant job in summarizing the whole trip in this entry. I will just summarize my own feelings for the trip.

Firstly, Myanmar is not as bad as I thought to be. It turned to be more developed than Cambodia and there are less beggars and hawkers on the street. We only hear about the negative news from the media; visiting there is really a different experience.

Burmese people are generally gentle and non-confrontational; Yangon seemed to be still stuck in the 60s. Our team has the wonderful opportunity to speak to Mr Robert Chua, Singapore's ambassador to Myanmar. He and the embassy staff shared their insights with us and it was really an eye-opener for me. Hopefully there would be changes and improvements for the Burmese people in the near future.

Secondly I am glad to be able to work with this wonderful team. Everyone did their part and tried their best to fulfill the trip's mission. To put it simply, this is one of the best teams I've ever worked with. I won't mind working with the team again.

Lastly, I believed that our work with the orphanages is just the beginning. Deep down I know that our efforts this time round is not going to improve the orphans' lives significantly. They need more than newly-painted buildings or tooth-brushes. There are many things that we can do for them: helping to be self-sufficient, more books etc. However, I don't know whether I can find the strength and determination to carry it through.

If I have a chance, I will go back and help them again. I will talk more about my feelings in the next entry.