Today was a bitter-sweet day and of course, I would love to get into the sweeter things first before the bitter ones. In this sweet event, it also turned out to be bitter-sweet. Do I get your mind in confusion now? Well, allow me to do the rest...

My first time experience in volunteering today was conveniently held at the Al-Mutaqqin mosque in AMK. Perhaps MENDAKI wanted to make a good impression of itself. Nah...it was just purely coincedental. I made only one friend, while the rest were just aquaintances. This person whom made me a friend of hers was from an interesting background.

She's from the south of China, studying here in MDIS in a business line, is 24 years old and married. Sounds mundane, isn't it? Well, consider this. She took up volunteering just to feel the multi-racial feeling in Singapore and didn't know that MENDAKI is a malay-based organisation. Yet, she was smiley and sincerely happy helping out the MENDAKI staffs. Nevermind that she's a free-thinker. The different environment is more than enough to make her feel uncomfortable. Moreover, her husband is now in the States, studying in a business line too. So two very different people, one on each side of the globe, doing their part to keep their employability and experience high while trusting each other so much that neither of them will betray each other. In fact, this friend of mine by the name of Chloe Zeng, went back to China to get married while doing her studies here.

Sadly, she's quite disappointed. She was hoping to improve her English here but chances are rather slim. She even noted that Singaporeans have their own English, that's Singlish. How ashamed can you be Singaporeans?

Yet all seems lost for me when she just went off, citing the reason that she need to be back quickly. I "lost" a friend just like that. It was great exchanging thoughts and opinions with someone much more mature than you are though. Luckily for me, the kids that I took care of were there to lift up my mood. Their innocence and cuteness simply brought a smile to me. Certainly, volunteering is a great way to spend those "lazy" times by doing something beneficial to the community.

Most of the times you take, take and take. Still, you got to step back sometimes to give back something.