Been spending 2 days helping my friends on a cool project: building pavilions using postcards sent by children all across ASEAN for ASEAN Day (8 august). Check out the blog at: istanapavilion.blogspot.com. Kudos to fellow archimates that actually spent THE WHOLE of their holiday doing the project.... (guilty conscience for not helping earlier....) Well, will help out till the end of the project starting this week. (Hence official closure to project RLH after I finish Harry Potter 7. Between French lessons, laminating n cutting postcards, munching w/ Indon freshies, and soon having meetings for a small indon welcome tea,oh n NUS Explorer...well...in any case it's a good transition period to full-fledged archi schedule once studio starts.)
Anyway, I'm juz helping to laminate the postcards then cutting it, together with lotsa archi freshies (yay!),n the amazing archimates clad the pavilion in various ingenious ways using the cards. Totally cool, I got to see drawings, drawings, and more drawings done by children everywhere (They're supposed to draw on the back of the postcards before sending them over).... Truth is, lotsa the drawings are way better than mine!!! I walk around and see the postcards and my mind's screaming: "What?!! It's done by a 7 yr old??? No way!!" "Huh?! 10 yr old!! The watercolour skill's so far beyond mine!!"
But the saddest thing is seeing so much talent, so much potential, and then flipping to the back of the postcard to read things like "I am from Cambodia. My family is very poor. I study hard because I want to be a doctor." ,or "I stay with my aunt. I have no parent.", and then I realise these are children living in environments that are so unlike mine...I was encouraged since I was young to learn whatever I want to learn, I was , still am, provided with more than enough resources and facilities, and still sometimes I take it for granted...
Newae, back to the postcards. Reading them n looking at the drawings is really like taking a tour across ASEAN. The ones from Indonesia are really good (my friends said so too so im not biased!) . Very good color choices, creative ways to represent national monuments like Monas and Borobudur, n there were lotsa scenes that remind me of my childhood =) Oh, n there's one where the kid draws Indonesian archipelago and wrote "Indonesia very big." So cutely honest!
The drawing on 17 Agustus complete with 'balap karung' and 'lomba makan kerupuk' makes me miss Indonesia... :'( Oh, n the ones of Istana Negara with deers around make my Sg friend ask: "Why are there so many deers around?" Well, rich Indons like to keep deers in their backyards..
The ones from Myanmar are very well done, too. Seems that their culture is one of artisans. Thing is, their writings are amongst the most touching also...there was one in which the father of the child was kidnapped.. also mentions of poverty (Which makes me wonder who the hell teaches these children that they are 'poor', who taught them to label themselves..but let's save that for another post.)
From Laos, truthfully quite plain and the drawings are less mature compared to the other countries..makes me wonder whether there's cultural difference or anything. Must research on ASEAN countries one of these days.
Here are the things most featured n postcards from various countries:
Indonesia: Borobudur, Monas, Istana Negara, Reog, traditional houses and dresses, the archipelago, village and 'sawah' scenery
Malaysia: Petronas Twin Towers, Bunga Raya
Cambodia: Angkor Wat, village scenery, people, monks, (there ws one postcard that has a 'No-Drug' msg..)
Myanmar: temples, village people, marvellous watercolour scenery, images of people painting paper umbrellas
Brunei: quoting a friend, about 99% drew the National Mosque...
Singapore: the Merlion....
Havent seen the Thai and Phillipines ones yet. Oh n I'm putting photos of the postcards on my friendster.
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