I just came back from a fulfilling trip of a lifetime which spans over 10 days. It’s not an ordinary vacation trip with friends or family, it’s a trip which I had envision and planning for years.

Here’s why it is such a fulfilling trip to me…

1) Celebrated my son’s 1st birthday during the trip
2) Had fun with 40+ kids from an orphanage
3) Distribute food & milk powder to 100+ breast-feeding mothers

We left the country on 11th, reached Sri Lanka, and celebrated my son’s 1st birthday. Time really flies, just last Sep, here’s how my son look like when he was first born. After a year, he’s have grown up a lot.

Here’s a photo of his birthday cake. This cake weighs 6 kg. It can be easily baked in Singapore or any other countries, but in Colombo, from the cake shop, this is the largest cake they ever made. And I was very surprised and happy of the cute design too.

We bought a lot of goodies for the orphanage. This is the same boys’ orphanage which we have been visiting for years. For this special trip, we have bought extra gifts for them.

From the boxes you saw, here’s the list of items…

1) Pencil case, writing materials, exercise books for schools
2) Birthday party sets, and bubble blower for party
3) Biscuits, chocolates and lollipop which all kids love
4) Toy car, which all boys love
5) Custom-made brand new matching t-shirt and shorts for schools or outings

Here we are, busy packing all the goodies into each bag, so each boy gets the same items.

Of course, Darien is involved in the packing too.

The following morning, we celebrated my son’s birthday with all the kids. We had such a blast.

After the usual birthday song, blow the candle, cut the cake… the kids are excitingly waiting for their cake, and all the goodies bag.

Everyone had so much fun! My parents, grandma, and aunties and uncle had fun too. Of course, I could do the usual birthday celebration at home, but I know it’s more meaningful to do it in Sri Lanka. This is the 4th time visiting the place.

When my friend knows that I’m going to Sri Lanka again, their usual response would be, “Huh? Why Sri Lanka again? I thought you went there many times already?”

But to me, it’s different each time. Every time I went, I learnt more and more about the place, culture, people and also starts to become friends with them. In fact, the orphans know that we will have a party and they are excited to see us.

Also, I use it as a reminder to myself and hopefully my son, how blessed I am, in Singapore and with all the haves I got in my life right now.

The following day, we went to another rural area in Sri Lanka. This place houses many poor families. Most of them would only have a ten square meters mud house to live in. There’s no furniture, most of them would sleep on floors with newspaper. The roofs are made of coconut leaves. The worst part is they live near the safari, where elephants would go to their houses at night to search for food.

With that, incidents of families killed, or death or injuries caused by elephants is common in that area. As Sri Lanka is a developing country, with no television, movies, internet in that area, so baby birth is high.

So, baby suffers the most, with Mal-nutrition as mothers did not get enough to eat on a daily basic. Also, they did not have the basic like milk bottles, diapers, blankets, baby cots, baby pram and etc. Everything is to the bare minimum. Some babies are wrap in only cloths.

During this trip, other than celebrating my son’s birthday, plus all the joy of family vacation, I love to do my tiny part to make a difference in other people’s live too.

From my business profits, we would usually put aside 10% of the profits to give. Rather than giving to some foundations, charity organization, which a lot of times we don’t know where our money goes, this time, we chose something real different.

We are going to give 100 breast-feeding mother food, milk powder and necessities to last them for at least a month. Here’s a photo of the items…

All these items are put in a white bag…
1) 5 Kg brown rice for nutrition
2) 1 Kg Milk Powder (Best Quality in Sri Lanka)
3) 1 Kg Noodles
4) Salt and Sugar
5) Dahl (Their stable food)
6) Some spices
7) 3 coconuts

They weigh a total of at least 15 kg. Not only that, they have some other items too.

1) Mattress for them & baby to sleep on
2) Towel for their baby
3) Sarong, a cloth like clothing for them
4) A bag
5) Some chocolates we bought

Guess how much does all these items cost? All the items, excluding the chocolates and bag, is only SGD$30, only about USD$20.

So, my internet friend, if you think you got your first sale, from affiliate, adsense or your own product, and it’s only USD$10 or USD$20, think about it… it might not means a lot to you, but it can feed a family of mother and baby for at least one month to 6 weeks.

It’s a great reflection trip for myself too. How much just SGD$30 can impact a family in another part of this world? And many a times, we don’t even think about it and it’s gone in our wallet.

Ok, back to my sharing… here’s the place we have prepared for them, chairs for them to sit comfortably.

Here’s another photo of mothers with their babies queuing up. All 100 mothers are specially invited given their family condition and with a invitation letter. This photo you saw that they are queuing up, these mothers are not invited.

The ceremony starts at 10am, we reached the place at 9am. These uninvited mothers are already queuing at the gates. Note it’s a poor rural area, they don’t have money for food, let alone transport. Most of the would need to carry their babies to walk for at least 3km to maybe 5km or some 10km.

In just a few minutes, the chairs are filled and the entire ceremony starts. My friend who organized the entire event would explained to them what is this entire ceremony about… of course, in their language.

After that, it’s the moment they have been waiting for hours… they will be seated comfortably while we distribute all the bags and etc to them.

In just only 5 minutes and carrying about 20 bags of the 15kg big white bag, I’m already panting. I was thinking to myself, how are some of the mothers going to carry their baby, and also carry the 15kg load, plus all the mattress and etc.

But, if I’m that desperate, even if it’s 30km, I will make sure I walk home to be able to feed my baby. Big learning for me.

After the 100 invited mothers who are gone, now, how about those uninvited mothers?

From my friend who have done this many times, the experience is that, if you cater for 100 bags, an additional of 50, 100 or even 200 will come too. Because that area is really poor, and too many poor than just 100 of them.

So, what we did is to buy extra 1kg milk powder and some other clothes to them. So, with that, we bought another 100kg of milk powder. So, for those who are uninvited, at least they don’t go back home empty-handed.

With that, they queued up and in just minutes, everything was distributed away.

My friend told us we were lucky. Usually, from past experience, they would not have enough, and they have to chase them away. This time, we had some extras, so at least we don’t have to chase anyone away.

The most I get from this trip is to be thankful, and always be appreciative. I will never forget the smile, and the simple “thank you” from the eyes of the orphans and mothers. Some of them even come specially in front of me to shake my hand and thank me. Most of them are very shy and just give me their happy smile.

I’m really happy to be able to help to contribute to their life, and hopefully their kids too.

The entire giving ceremony lasted only 2 hours or so. However, it’s in my vision for at least 2 – 3 years. One day, I wished I could do that too. My wife, Michslle, had the vision to build schools and hospital since she was 14 years old.

She was so happy to experience that. In that area, my friend had built a hospital for the poor people in the area. Now, he’s stuck to get it going due to lack of funds. And you know what, the amount to get the hospital going is not a lot, he only needs SGD$30,000. Sure, thirty grands is not a lot, nor it’s not little too.

At least to me and my wife, it’s something we can aim for in the months to come.

With that, we went for our usual sightseeing and also resort tour during the rest of the trip. I had a good rest, great reflection trip, and great time with my family too. I’m really thankful and happy for this trip. It’s something that I will never forget.

Thank you for reading my sharing, and hope to connect with you soon.

To Your Success,

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