As part of our program, we were set up with a Muslim organization called Jamiyah that runs various homes for disadvantaged peoples. We were at the home for the aged (see above picture), but they also run a home for the terminally ill and a children's home. It's an interesting setup, because the organization is run by volunteers and workers, but the money comes from the government. As I mentioned briefly in my HDB post, Singapore is able to run and fund organizations like this largely because of its size. Having seen the good the homes do, I think being able to provide these services is a pretty big plus of having such a tiny nation. Granted, the living conditions were less than "ideal," but all of the people in the home were those who would otherwise have been living on the streets. They were aged gangsters and business failures, without families or separated from their families, most of them not in their right minds.
It was an interesting experience. I can't say I enjoyed it or that I feel I gained a lot from it, though. The director didn't really have anything planned for us to do, so we felt superfluous most of the time. We served the old folks lunch and tea, and then spent the rest of the time talking to them. There was one old man who was an expert at Scrabble, so a group of us played with him for most of the afternoon. Some of us also had conversations with some of the old men and women.
After the volunteering was over, a group of us rode the MRT into the city centre to eat at the oldest hawker centre in town and to watch the sun set over the river. This was the same area (with the Esplanade and the Merlion and the Marina Bay Sands) that we visited Thursday night after the Thai restaurant.
We got off the MRT near the Esplanade Theatre, and took some pictures in front of that, as well as on the walk along the river to the hawker centre.
^^ The Esplanade, shaped like a durian.
^^ The business district.
^^ The Marina Bay Sands. The sun was REALLY bright...thus the closed eyes! Haha
^^ A random, beautiful sculpture in the middle of the business district.
At the hawker centre (see above picture), I went to a chicken rice stall to get my usual chicken rice dinner. I was behind this other tall Caucasian guy, and we happened to order the exact same thing. He asked me where I was from, and then we started talking and I invited him to eat with our group. His name is Tennyson Jaensch (pronounced "yench") and he is Australian. He's the same age as us (19) but he's going to be starting university this year because he took a year off after high school to work at a Christian camp in Maryland. After the Christian camp, he went to work at a partner camp in the Philippines, and had been running around Southeast Asia on his own for the past month. Singapore was his last stop before returning home, and he was actually flying back to Australia later Saturday night! He's the one next to me in the gray/yellow shirt below.
It was an awesome random encounter, and it was just a shame that he was heading back so soon. This was the first surprising, fantastic thing that happened to us this night.
Half of us ran out of the hawker centre around 7 to watch the sunset over the river. This was the second fantastic thing that happened. Even though the sun seemed to be setting on the opposite side of the island, the sky was gorgeous and you could see the reflection of the sunset in the Marina Bay Sands' three skyscrapers, which was pretty neat!
As the sun sank, we watched the lights come on in the city, and took pictures with the Merlion (I'm pretty sure we were trying to look like lions in the bottom one...haha).
As the lights came on, the moon came up. But it looked funny, and Kelsey (the girl in the yellow shirt) kept saying, "Hey, guys, does the moon look weird to you?" It did look weird - it was like you could see the outline of the un-illuminated part, even though it wasn't illuminated, and as it rose in the sky, it seemed to be growing in size! It wasn't until the next day when we found an article online that we realized we had witnessed a partial lunar eclipse! This was the third surprising, fantastic thing that happened. You can kind of see the moon in between two of the towers below.
The next awesome thing that happened was that fireworks started going off in the distance. They didn't last very long, and they were kind of far away, but they were still pretty awesome, and added to the unexpected, whimsical feeling of the evening. After the fireworks, we noticed a lot of people gathered by the road, and went to see what was happening. There was a line of army men and women marching in the street as though in a parade. We think they were practicing for National Day (like July 4th, but in August for Singapore), but we're not sure.
After watching the unexpected march (fifth awesome thing that happened), we meandered down to the Esplanade park, a sort of amphitheater extending off the durian towards the riverfront. There was some sort of singing contest, like Singapore Idol or something, going on. We listened for a little bit, and even though I didn't personally think this was that cool, I'll call it the sixth awesome thing that happened.
The final thing that happened was the boat festival. We deduced that the fireworks had been set off as part of the boat festival, and were debating whether or not to head over to Clarke Quay to try and catch some of the festivities. We were getting ready to wander over when four or five boats came gliding down the river. It was beautiful and whimsical, like everything else that happened that night, and we didn't even have to move an inch!
And thus ended a fantastic, unexpected night!
