An inDELlible DELhi experience

This entry came late but I'll still try to keep it a short one nonetheless because time (and age)'s catching up on me! Back from the exotic India for three days and the unimaginable times we had there is still lingering. And it doesn't help that I had to report back to work on the following day. Well, seems like you can't have the cake and eat it.

Anyway back to my workshop proper, if you guys haven't already know, it's the regional training workshop for the Commonwealth Youth Ambassadors for Positive Living (CYAPL) - haha, I hear booos and jeering. And like I mentioned in my valedictory speech, I wasn't exactly feeling completely upbeat but rather it's more of ambivalence. Was looking forward to it because it would be my first exchange but at the same time, I didn't know my Singapore counterpart (Jingyi) before the trip. And it doesn't help that from my Cambodia experience, it was a personal revelation for the fact I thought I was the kinda person that needed lots of personal time. Barring that, I'll retract into my recluse and start emo-ing.

But it turned out all the mumbo jumbo bull was nothing more than a demoralising self-fulfilling prophecy. I had so much fun with my new found friends (and wife! =X). That I'll talk about just in a while.

Back to the workshop proper, it was really an overwhelmingly fruitful and inspiring experience. We had country presentations, discussions, debates, field trips, excursions and what not. More importantly, I saw the passion burning in the eyes of the many other representatives from the 6 other Commonwealth countries (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Malaysia, Brunei). Learnt much about the technical aspects of HIV/AIDS, the implications, stigma & discrimination and advocacy methodologies. Really hope I would be able to put what I've learnt into practice.

Lots of them are working with the ministries and NGOs in their own capacities. But nonetheless, towards a common goal. And somehow it made me think of the local volunteering scene. Perhaps, our standard of living does not warrant people like them to really work their arses for our people at the ground level. And I did feel very minute when I listened to their sharing and experiences. But perhaps because of this, I'm like fueled once again in my volunteering pursuits.

Visiting a local NGO where they were seeking to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS in the local community where there are Intravenous Drug Users (IDU). The scene of some addicts injecting themselves with drugs was just chilling and heart wrenching. It was as if I wanted to go forward to stop them yet for all I know, I could be stabbed with the needles. It's like they're mired in this downward spiral and the odds are so against them for recovery. This thought of mine was all the more reinforced when a resource person from WHO proposed that drugs should be administered to the IDU coupled with proper education as a solution. True enough, but how long and much can we help them? And it made me realised that egalitarianism has no place in the few third world countries I've been in recent years.

One moment I see Audis and Hondas cruising past me in the taxi with Indians reading the papers idyllically. Then in the next, a frail looking young boy carrying a baby was knocking on my door for money. But of course, if these poor people do not have the access to those fundamental needs, how can they possibly uplift themselves from the pit. And yet again - the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer. Passe perhaps.

Last but not least, I've made several new friends from a strategic regional alliance between Singapore, Brunei and Maldives. These people are a bundle of joy to be with and we all thought the experience wouldn't complete less any of us.