Once Upon A Village

I was watching this programme on Channelnewsasia called Once Upon A Village. It's a series about a team called Goducate, where they travel to villages and impart certain vocational skills to impoverished and less fortunate children there.

If you've ever watched channelnewsasia you'd know they're pretty shit in terms of news coverage. But I'm glad that they aired this programme. It's honest and it's real. It also showcases some of the best Singaporean hearts and hands... people who go out into the world to help.

I watched the episode about a Singaporean teacher who went to a village in China to teach the children how to paint. A lot of the story focused on this one boy who was learning how to paint. The truth is in the end, he isn't some prodigy and his paintings were mediocre. But it was the things his family told him, that they were poor and they were pinning all their hopes on him. They wanted him to move to the city to be an apprentice to a wood artist. This boy was like 15, 16? And outright his mother told him that his family depended on him to do well. How sad is that? Not only that, but it's that he kept silent throughout. He basically didn't have a say, not because his parents didn't allow him to, but how could he? He realized his duty as a son of the family and he went. It was depressing...

But another segment of the episode showed the teacher asking them to paint their dream home. And when she collected the works of the kids, maybe 5 or 6 kids, all their pictures showed areas and environments that they already lived in, with very slight modifications. The teacher said it herself, she said you really realize how contented they are with what they have. That was touching.

I really admire these people who do things like that. They give up everything they're comfortable with and just go without hesitation. It's also very heartwarming to know it's regular Singaporeans like you and me who source out all the compassion in their hearts to help. I'm really starting to think about a career doing something like that. Be kind of a nomad and hop around trying to help. The only problem is, I'll need money to help these people, and doing that kind of work all the time earns me no money.

Hopefully some sort of reconciliation exists.