I woke up really enthusiatic, looking forward to our excursion to the Bollywood Veggies Farm in the afternoon.

After finishing my rounds around my site, the preparation for the excursion began. I was assigned to prepare the snacks for the children. I went buzzing around getting the buns ready for them. Then it was time to go to the Metta School in Simei.

When I reached the school, I thought the first thing I needed to do was to coax the children onto the bus. But to my surprise, the children were all seated comfortably on the bus all ready for their excursion to the farm.

It was a long journey of about an hour from Simei to Bollywood Veggies in Lim Chu Kang. When the children were finally there, they were happily tucking into sumptuous snacks of fried chicken, fries and Milo while waiting for the arrival of the volunteers.

When the volunteers arrived, we began our tour around the farm. Our guide of the day was none other than Ms Ivy Singh, the owner. She was really entertaining and informative, bringing the children and volunteers lots of laughter aside from information on all the different kinds of vegetables on her farm. It was a total eye-opener for not just the children but also the volunteers.

Apart from a wide variety of bananas on the farm and really huge bitter gourds, we were treated to a new experience of a totally environmentally-friendly “Pee Wee” in the countryside, where our excretion is recycled for use as fertilizers for the vegetables. Even though it was a hot weekday afternoon, everyone was enjoying themselves at the farm.

After the guided tour, the children and volunteers were treated to icy cold drinks and air-conditioned comfort in the restaurant of the farm. It was time for some games for the children. They were taught to make cute litter paper swans and rabbits by our committee member, Ms Lily Lee. This was a great time for the volunteers to interact with the children, guiding them along the Origami lesson. It was really all fun and laughter.

When it was finally time for the children to board the bus back to their school, we had difficulty breaking that to the children as they were having such a wonderful time.

It was really a fun and enjoyable excursion, with everyone looking forward to the next one.

- by Ng Tze Peng