Update 2009.03.30: With word from a friend that another $600 or so will reach us soon, I deem it safe enough to announce that we’ve reached our target. Big thanks to all our friends and family who have come forward and donated so very generously.  An update will follow soon on the final tally and other news. Thank you once again!

During my time in Bhutan, I was a member of Volunteer Artists Studio of Thimphu (VAST), a local non-profit organisation that aims to promote the arts to Bhutanese youths. Established in 1998, VAST is the torchbearer of contemporary art in Bhutan and is well-known locally for their many community programmes.

As part of their efforts to encourage social responsibility, VAST is raising funds for their Build-a-House community programme. VAST hopes to raise sufficient funds to build a safe shelter for an impoverished family of 6 living in Punakha, in western Bhutan. Details of the programme and Ap. Khen and his family can be found at http://www.vast-bhutan.org/projects/build-a-house/.

We hope to raise S$2,125 for the family by April 3, 2009. All contributions, regardless of amount, will be accepted with our gratitude.

For those of you in Singapore, I accept donations in cash or via internet banking fund transfers. Please contact me for bank account details so that I can better track your donations. For transparency, all donations received will be recorded and viewable online at: http://tinyurl.com/buildhouse. The money collected will be pooled and transferred to VAST in a single transaction to save bank processing fees.

If you live outside of Singapore, or choose to donate directly to VAST, please check here for bank account details or how you can donate online. You may also contact VAST directly if you have any queries or want to help in other ways.

More Information:

• VAST http://www.vast-bhutan.org
• What is VAST? http://www.vast-bhutan.org/what-is-vast/
• Build-A-House http://www.vast-bhutan.org/projects/build-a-house/
• Track Donations (from Singapore) at http://tinyurl.com/buildhouse

On behalf of VAST and the family that we are helping, Thank You.

- Li-Ping

And just as quickly, the days have flown by. I leave the morning after tomorrow. It will be a while before I am here again. If I do. But life is a difficult beast to predict, so there lies my final consolation. One day. Perhaps. Maybe.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Short stint this time (2 weeks) for some official work. It’s going to be hectic on both the work and social fronts, so there probably won’t be much time for the blog. Till next time.

As I stood and watched the fireworks display the evening before I left, a thought arose. This was my farewell gift from the Land of the Thunder Dragon. A feeling of calm came over me, knowing that my work here is done and it is indeed time to go. Another chapter beckons from beyond the mountains.

Farewell to thee! but not farewell
To all my fondest thoughts of thee:
Within my heart they still shall dwell;
And they shall cheer and comfort me.
O, beautiful, and full of grace!
If thou hadst never met mine eye,
I had not dreamed a living face
Could fancied charms so far outvie.

- Anne Bronte, Farewell

But I am. In a little over a week.

[Mini-factoid: I hate to pack unless it involves a backpack and an itinerary scribbled on the back of a napkin.]

A thousand clichés flash through my mind. None of them quite fits. To sum up all that I have thought, seen, heard, tasted, breathed, felt from the moment I got off the plane at Paro exactly one year ago.*

I don’t know how to say goodbye to this little corner of the world in the mountains. Where I have fed a good dozen or more plump fleas. Where I had the miraculous fortune to meet so many good people, reminding me that it is as important to be good at something, as it is to be good. To be a good person. Where I once ate 3 plates of rice for lunch because the cold made me really really hungry. Where I learnt how divine it is to bask in the sun on a winter’s afternoon. Where I once laid awake at night wondering what in the world I got myself into, and then now wonder, how I am going to get everything packed and get on that plane next Sunday.

But if I had to say my goodbyes, I like the way the French say it. Au revoir.

Till we meet again.

* It was when I started this post, but I write slow. So it’s now 1 year and 1 day.

I had lots of fun working with .Net, AJAX, JQuery, Subversion, Trac, etc. Loads and loads of frustrating fun… all for the sake of saying, “This is so cool.”

The first build is just out the door for testing and I’m already scheming of a way to incorporate another cool bit of tech. This is so cool.

Argentine dog saves abandoned baby

Happy Birthday Singapore. May you always remain a beautiful home to the people who have toiled for your success.

Update: In my haste to make the August 9 midnight deadline (Singapore time), I forgot that I wrote this. A friend told me about a competition to write about what Home means. It turned out to be a mistake, because the competition was specifically about a place in Singapore that reminded you of home. Or something like that. In any case, the poem was written and here it is. My sincere apologies to Wilfred Owen, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the great Dylan Thomas for my embarrassing homage. Did I mention that I was never a Literature student?

Home was where I first tasted chilli
As a child and saw my mother’s smile
As she wiped the sweat off my brow.

Home was where I fought
Many a riotous teenage battle and saw
The anger that flashed in my father’s eyes.

Home was what I left to explore the world
with the wings I started growing
The day I learnt to walk
without my mother’s supporting hands.

Home is why I don my uniform
and pick up arms when I know
War is but a sweet sweet lie.

Home was where I wept and raged
As my father’s eyes dimmed
in the dying of the light.

Home is where I cradle
the dreams of my young child
And pray I will be her shelter
from the rain that must fall.

Home is where I hope to lay
at the dusk of my days,
With a smile for the stars that take my place
as I fade into that good night.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

- Emily Dickinson