TOPS was undoubtedly a memorable trip! I feel so privileged to have been given a chance to participate in the 7 days’ trip which granted me with valuable experiences through engaging in research work and immersing myself in the unique Vietnamese culture. It was truly a meaningful learning journey as I learnt so much from the both the people of Vietnam as well as my fellow USPians. Words cannot describe how much TOPS has impacted me but in what follows, I will be sharing some of the experiences I gained throughout the course of the journey.
One of the most valuable lessons I gained from the trip would be from the way of life of the Vietnamese people. My desire to better understand their livelihood and culture was realised through my close interactions with the tour guides. Through our personal conversations and their sharing of life stories, I learnt the importance of being appreciative of the privileges I am blessed with as a Singaporean. That being said, the experience which struck me as most significant and humbling was during the sharing of Sue’s stories during the homestay and trekking periods. Sue was our tour guide for the trek. Her contentment with life’s simplest pleasures with little to no luxuries truly inspired me. Unlike Singaporeans like myself who are constantly spoilt for choice for every single meal, the villagers there would only eat rice for breakfast. During the homestay, the villagers prepared specially cooked meals to cater to our visit. For dinner, we were served meat and spring rolls, dishes we would consider as typical in Singapore when in actual fact, they were dishes served only during special occasions in the village. This was an eye-opening experience as it dawned on me how privileged we are to live in a modernised and economically well-endowed society as compared to them.
Furthermore, I was also in disbelief to learn that there are still arranged marriages in a relatively modernised town in Sapa. Sue had shared that prior to her marriage, she was kidnapped by her in-laws in order to be forced to agree to an arranged marriage that would be mutually beneficial to parents on both sides. Hearing her story struck a chord in me as I could not believe that there are still arranged marriages in the 21st century. It made me realise how our ability to decide who we would want to share our lives with is a luxury. It made me reflect on how some of us in Singapore are not appreciative of things we are fortunate to have such as education or food when they would be considered as forms of indulgence or lavishness by others. Sue taught me to be resilient and to adopt the perspective of overcoming rather than enduring any obstacle I am faced with. She also taught me the value of sheer determination in the pursuit of my goals. I was in awe when I learnt about her constant effort to try to pick up the English language from tourists and learn recipes to make foods such as crepes just to cook for her guests. These were self-driven initiatives motivated by her simple wish to be a good tour guide for Sapa O’chao. Simply for that, I only have one word to describe her – AMAZING!
From the trip, I also learnt to work better and more efficiently in a team. As a team, we faced the common problem of confusion regarding what to do due to unclear objectives among group members. As such, it slowed down our work processes as it caused us to gather irrelevant data at the very beginning. It was frustrating for all of us as we wanted to have fun the doing work and enjoy the trip. Throughout the first half of the trip, we doubted the success of our research work due to the divided directions and objectives between one another. Thankfully, we managed to resolve the differences and work together as an effective team with the help of Professor Justin and our GLs subsequent to the reflection session we had during the night of our homestay. The reflection made us realise that we had overlooked certain parts of our research as well as how we had misunderstood certain aspects of our topic. Hence, after the reflection, we redistributed the responsibilities to better define our roles within the group. I felt that that was the turning point for our group as even though we were aware of our individual roles in the group prior to the meeting, the respective responsibilities were not clearly stated. Nevertheless, the reflection proved to be beneficial as we managed to allocate ourselves tasks which were specific to our individual areas of expertise. This enhanced the working processes as those allocated the role of a writer were meticulous and organised in their note taking while those interviewing were able to steer the interviews effectively such that they would be able to fulfil our objectives. As for myself and Vetra, we were responsible for compiling all the media deliverables for our presentation.
Lastly, I feel that the activities organised for us were fun and enriching. The homestay and trek taught me a lot about the culture and people there. The OTOT we had was also beneficial as we needed to find the balance between work and play in order to be efficient and effective in delivering what was expected of us.
All in all, I would say TOPS 2016 was a memorable experience. Even though it was a research trip, I had fun engaging in other activities that the professors had planned for us from the trek to meeting the students from Hanoi University. I would like to express my utmost gratitude to all the professors and GLs for making the TOPS trip a success.
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