MY TRIP to SINGAPORE

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Several reasons coalesced which have brought me to Singapore. My dear Chinese friend Sally will be visiting Singapore for three days. After my trip to Southern China during which I was treated so rudely by some members of the public, I decided that I would shy away from venturing to new places in Asia alone. But, when Sally invited me to come to Singapore with her, I just couldn't resist! Furthermore, as I mentioned in my previous blog, I am intrigued by the work of Dr. Lim who lives in this tiny city state. And so, here I am within one degree of the equator in a clean hotel room, writing to you, since I'm too excited to sleep!

Getting There

My arrangements to get to the Hong Kong airport became rather frantic yesterday. A tropical storm came within about 400 kilometers of Hong Kong, resulting in torrential rain and booming thunder. Therefore, taxicabs were in short supply. My friend Sau Wa managed to flag one down for me and even rode with me to a high-speed train station in Central on Hong Kong Island. Sau Wa left me in the capable hands of the train staff. After paying 100 Hong Kong Dollars, (less than 20 U.S.), checking my suitcase, and being seated in a comfortable, forward-facing bucket seat on the train, I was on my way to the airport. I had called Singapore Air a week previously and requested assistance from the train stop at the airport to my airplane gate. After several calls and repeated explanations that obtaining assistance merely from Singapore Air's ticket counter would not be enough, because I would be traveling alone, I was politely offered ample assistance. The promise was borne out upon my arrival at the airport.
The plane departed an hour and 20 minutes late, because the baggage handlers were twice prevented from loading our luggage by the issuance of lightning alerts.
Unlike the steady decrease in service indicative of almost all U.S.-based airlines over the past 15 years or so, the Singapore Air cabin crew and captain were nothing but gracious. We were offered hot towels, something I haven't seen in economy class of U.S. airlines for many years. And, they were actually made of cloth! Because of this and numerous other details about my experience on Singapore Air, I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in traveling to this Chinese/Malaysian paradise!
During my preboard briefing by several of the cabin crew, I was shown my emergency exits, how to operate the audio channels from my seat, and how to call for assistance, should I require it. However, the crew were so attentive to my needs that I had no need to make use of the call button. There were a whopping total of 15 crew on our 777.
Getting back to the buttons used to interact with on-board entertainment, a phone popped out of the side of my seat. One surface contained the standard buttons for a telephone. When the phone was flipped over, the buttons for the entertainment were tactually discernable. I was brought back to my childhood by a song sung on the kid's channel by Grover and Cookie Monster! Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also made appearances! Other selections included titles from The Lion King, the movie I Walk the Line, delightful Indian, Japanese, and Korean pop, and classic rock favorites. There was also a travel channel which offered interesting information about Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
To my utter delight, not only was lunch served on this 3 hour and 10 minute flight, but I could choose Indian vegetarian! For any of you who know me well, you can imagine how much I anticipated this meal, and my anticipation was well warranted! I had panir, Basmati rice, a vegetable curry, yogurt, naan, crackers with cumin seeds, and a delicious protein, vegetable, and fruit salad. Singapore Airlines even gives economy customers real silverware! You've just got to come fly with them!
About 20 minutes before we landed, a cabin member asked me to come to business class. I asked no questions but eagerly popped up from my seat! They felt that it would be easier for me to disembark from there; no arguments, just a radiant smile on my end!
The service at the Singapore airport was superb as well. I had asked the airline crew to phone ahead and request help with 3 things: retrieval of my luggage, changing of money from Hong Kong to Singapore dollars, and location of a taxi to bring me to my hotel. The man who helped me with each of these spoke excellent English, answered all of my questions politely, never grabbed me or pushed me, and even laughed and joked with me! Wow, had I died and gone to Heaven or what? I can get used to this, folks! Let's just vaguely hint that I sorely miss such treatment lately!
But, it gets even better! The taxi driver heard that I was planning on eating some good Indian food while here. He turned off his meter, drove to an Indian take out, and actually bought me a 4 dollar meal! That's about 3 U.S. dollars; how very kind of him! I had been told that the fare from the airport to my hotel would be about 20 Singapore. When we arrived at the hotel, he told me the fare was 16. I tried to hand him 20 dollars, but he flatly refused. He would only take 10 dollars. I profusely thanked him, gave him a radiant smile and one of my business cards, and blessed him. How heartening it is to meet friendly, generous people here!
A quick note about my hotel and my schedule for today before I try to catch some more sleep. The Oxford Hotel was rated as 3 stars. It was the best my travel agent could do, given my dates of travel and price range. I would liken it to Super Eight in the States. The staff are incredibly kind! The bed is so comfortable. I actually have box springs under me as I lye here! There's no tub; just a shower, but that's OK by me. I've taken the rather adventurous step of drinking water from the tap. Considering that Singapore is so law and safety conscious, I hope this was a wise move.

Booked Solid

Today, I'm booked from 8:45 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. How exciting to be spending all of that time with the head of the Singapore Blind Mission, Mrs. Cheong Cheng Choo. We'll visit the local school for the blind, my fourth in Asia. We will have luncheon together, and in the afternoon our time will be spent with local disability officials. Tonight, we will attend a concert at a girls school at which a member of Singapore's parliament will officiate.
It is now Saturday, July 1, and I'm taking a few moments to recount the happenings of the past two days before I am picked up for lunch and a fellowship meeting with the Gospel Mission for the Blind of Singapore. Tonight, I will dine with Dr. Lim of whom I've previously written.

Visiting Schools for the Blind

Thursday was a whirlwind of activity. Cheng Choo, the Director at the Gospel Mission for the Blind took me to her former primary school. Singapore's school for the blind was built in 1954 and has seen little renovation since then. It accepts pupils anywhere between the ages of 5 and 18 and provides primary education in grades 1-6. Those students who pass the examination for secondary school are sent to 1 of 2 integrated schools for secondary education. Blind students may not attend other secondary schools in Singapore, since only 2 of them have the necessary equipment and teaching staff cater to their needs.
Making Connections
Returning to my schedule on Thursday, we had lunch with a man from the National Council on Social Services in Singapore. He is blind and received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the U.K. He and I dominated luncheon conversation, I fear, as we had so much in common and engaged in vigorous and stimulating dialogue about blindness, social service assessment and delivery, and doctoral work. Because of his demanding schedule, we ate near his office at a cafe serving an eclectic variety of food. I had chicken cordon bleu and delightfully crispy French fries. I splurged and enjoyed a lovely chocolate and banana cake slice for dessert.
I must mention that prior to lunch, a kind volunteer and I went shopping briefly. I picked up 3 pieces of batik material for dress-making upon my return to Hong Kong. I also purchased 2 porcelain boxes for friends in the U.S. I saw some tea cozies that intrigued me as well; I'm sure I'll have ample opportunity to purchase similar items in other Asian cities.
On Thursday afternoon Cheng Choo and I visited one of the regular secondary schools where blind students are allowed to attend. The teacher in the resource room was visually impaired herself, a practice which I found quite refreshing. Students had access to CCTV's, JAWS for Windows Freedom Scientific, a braille embosser, and several BrailleNotes.
Our final event of the evening was a school concert at a local mall. A lovely choir performed entirely in English, and their voices were heavenly. A hand-bell choir offered several numbers as well.
After the concert Cheng Choo, her husband, Cheng Choo's driver, and his wife went with me to a hawker's market and had dinner. We had a kind of so-called carrot cake which was served hot. Fried rice, sweet and sour pork, delicious fish, noodles, and fish soup comprised our meal. Cheng Choo's husband has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Singaporean; I learned about the local geography, political stance, animal life, etc.

Reflections on Singapore

Finally, as I reflect upon my Thursday in this city state, a few cultural, linguistic, and related comments. Singapore is a very diverse society. This is reflected in the food offered on the streets and in restaurants, the music heard in the shopping malls, and in the variety of backgrounds of people encountered in daily life. Many languages are spoken here, and English is the common denominator. When speaking amongst themselves, many locals use a pigeon English. But, locals are adept at speaking proper English to foreigners such as myself. They even use the word elevator instead of lift when talking to me; I suspect that they use lift when conversing with British.
The Singaporean English accent is quite unique. Whereas Hong Kong's accent is Cantonese mixed with British English, I would liken Singapore's to Indian. Even the speech patterns are similar to Indian ones. I wonder if Malay sounds to the uninitiated like some Indian languages. Since Singapore is situated at the southern tip of Malaysia, perhaps that's where the influence comes from.
I find the Singaporeans to be even more friendly and open than Hong Kongers. As a blind woman, I am treated exceedingly respectfully here. Almost no one has grabbed or pushed me, a most welcome respite, I might add. It's almost as if the typical Chinese reserve that many Americans find stressful to encounter is absent here.

Visit to the National University of Singapore

Friday's main scheduled event was a meeting with faculty from social work at the National University of Singapore. My taxi driver who picked me up at the Oxford Hotel and brought me to NUS spoke little English. He was very helpful and responsive, though. He found a security guard at NUS who showed me where the Social Sciences Building was. Although I was in the taxi for 45 minutes, my fare was only 12 Singapore Dollars. I insisted on giving my driver 20 though. He had been very nice to me.
Rosaline Ow and another professor at NUS talked with me about social work in Singapore. There are not enough social workers here, and people without social work degrees can even practice here legally. Burn-out is just as much of a problem here as at home.
My friend Sally from Hong Kong met me for lunch on NUS's campus. I had some "Indian" food, but it was merely passable. I drank some kind of tropical fruit drink, and we shared a lovely frozen concoction of tropical fruit for dessert.

Pampering!

Sally and I took a taxi back to my hotel. I had decided to go to a spa for some pampering, and Sally headed off to Sentosa Island.
Before she left, Sally was nice enough to drop me at the spa. The manager came out and discussed treatment options with me. She was a gracious woman who treated me like an adult. She recommended that I have a collagen facial, since I wasn't interested in a full body massage. This was my most expensive part of the trip at 128 Singapore Dollars, but I enjoyed every one of my 90 minutes under the professional care of a Thai lady named June. I removed my clothing above the waist and my shoes and dawned a gown made out of some rough but comfortable material. I reclined on a massage table with a blanket draped over me and a pillow to support my head. June spent lots of time at a sink preparing mixtures to apply to my face. She also used towels soaked in hot water to cover and gently massage my face, neck, and upper chest. Various mixtures smelling of roses, water melon, papaya, and lavender were rubbed into my skin. Three different applications of collagen and one mask left on for 10 minutes left my skin pliable, revitalized, and much smoother. Relaxing Chinese, Indian, and Irish music played in the background. Typical of massages in Asia, June often applied pressure to points on my scalp, inside my eye sockets, on my cheekbones, and on my jaw. I thoroughly enjoyed my facial, and I hope God will continue to bless me financially so that I can have another one at some future point.
The staff of the spa walked me back to my hotel, as it was a mere 3 minutes away. I decided to treat myself to Indian food for dinner, as I have been looking forward to such food for many months. I knew that my Chinese friends enjoy it less than I do. So, I hired a taxi from my hotel to the restaurant. For dinner I had papar, a samosa, lamb vendelu, nav rataan, saffron rice, and garlic naan. I also had an Indian dessert whose name I've forgotten. It was a sweet dumpling in a syrup. Of course, I drank masala chai as well.
I learned a valuable lesson on Friday night. Not only can I not eat as much food in one sitting as I used to be able to, I don't enjoy eating until I'm stuffed now. What a blessing to have come to this realization!

Differing opinions

Saturday I visited the Gospel Mission to the Blind Limited, Cheng Choo's organization. Michael, Cheng Choo's driver picked me up at 12:15 p.m. to go to GMB. There were 3 other blind people in the van. I was incensed to learn that one of them feels that blind people should not have to pay the fare for the subway or buses; we debated this issue together. He also feels that people in wheelchairs take too much time when boarding buses. He advocates them having separate buses. I vehemently called him on this point. I found his attitude to be shocking!
After arriving at GMB, we all enjoyed lunch together. Since everyone there speaks quite a bit of English, I felt very at home and welcomed! Cheng Choo had a chat with me in her office after lunch. We talked about the Christian walk, learning to be Godly wives, and striving to be Christian professionals. How I admire Cheng Choo's relationship with God!
The group of blind people then gathered for some lovely singing. GMB had produced some braille books of hymns and songs from which we could read. The song leader also spoke the words of the next line of the song into her microphone. As I always am when worshiping with other blind people, I was deeply moved by our sense of Christian community. A missionary preached a sermon to us after the singing came to an end. Probably the best time came afterwards, when everyone sat around just talking to one another. I met so many lovely blind friends there, and we had so much in common, of course. I thank God for the opportunity to get to know some of my Singaporean sisters and brothers who are blind.
Saturday evening ended in such a wonderful way!

Reconnecting

Dr. Lim met me for dinner. We went out to the Raffles Mall and enjoyed Malaysian food together. We had some spicy beef, peanuts, chicken rice, and Chinese vegetables. We had a similar fruit dessert that Sally and I had sampled the previous day. I had a star fruit juice drink as well! When in the tropics, one must imbibe in local cultural and gustatory anomalies, right?
While the food was delicious, the conversation was riveting. Dr. Lim understands the need for attitudinal change in Asia regarding disability! He feels the same frustrations as I do about the rate of change here! We discussed ways I can work as a catalyst in galvanizing Asians with disabilities to work for positive, enlightened disability policy and practices! It is my sincere wish to follow in Dr. Lim's footsteps as a Godly person who works for empowerment and self-respect!
A final story about Dr. Lim's evening with me is quite humorous! I had told him that I was interested in finding a nice gift for Amy, the woman who does my laundry at Hong Kong U. So, picture this. Dr. Lim is a typical guy who finds it hard to shop for most things. Not only am I similarly impatient with shopping, but I'm blind. So, we had a heck of a time selecting the proper colors for a shawl for Amy! I also bought a 3-CD set of the English music of Dick Li. He's the most popular Singaporean pop star, and I find his music very well done!
Sunday was another delightful day in Singapore.

Places of comfort

I went to church with several of my new blind friends, including Cheng Choo. The sermon at her Anglican, charismatic church was about how to be a Christian in the workplace. I was convicted by the person sharing, for I often have opportunities to witness about God but rarely do so. I worry about offending people. I hope that God will help me to get over this fear but retain my sense of caring about others while sharing with them.
Cheng Choo, her friend Hannah, and I had vegetarian lunch together at another hawker's market. These set ups must be popular in Singapore, for I ate at 3 such establishments.
Hannah then took me on my first MRT ride in Singapore. MRT stands for Mass Rail Transit. We went to Jurong Point to do some shopping. Jurong Point is on the Western end of the island. I purchased a wallet at a mall there. I prevailed despite Hannah's worries and convinced her to allow me to take the same subway train back to the nearest station stop to my hotel. All stops are announced in English. Platform announcements are in four languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil (a southern Indian language.) I disembarked from the subway without incident. A kind woman at the subway station flagged me a cab, and I returned to my hotel. Finally, I was allowed to make a gesture of independence!
Sunday night was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. I've talked about Sarah, my blind, teenaged friend, on the blog before. She and her parents graciously agreed to take me to Singapore's night safari park! We were picked up by a friend of the Stevenson family and were taken to the park to enjoy two hours of time with the animals! We boarded a tram and listened to 2 different guides explain the sights around us. There were lions, leopards, hyenas, tigers, deer, hippopotamuses, rhinos, snakes, bats, monkeys, and many other creatures. To my utter delight we heard a lion roaring just as we left the park! Unfortunately, the hyenas were silent; that just means I'll have to go back and hear them another time!
After our safari ride and walk we ate a late dinner with a friend of the Stevenson family. I drank lime juice - a very bitter but refreshing libation. We ate samba (sp) deer meat. These deer were spotted by the sighted people on our safari and are indigenous to Malaysia. One of the most delicious delicacies of the evening was stingray in a light lemon sauce!

When thinking back about my trip to Singapore, I am encouraged and saddened by many things. For tourism, I've found no other place in Asia to be as welcoming and respectable as was Singapore. Taxi drivers go out of their ways to demonstrate that their fares are appropriate. Hotel and airport staff are exceedingly respectful and helpful. The air smells so good because of all of the greenery around the city. The MRT is clean, comfortable, and very simple to use.
On the other hand, the government still practices restriction of free speech. While more than one party are technically allowed to run for office, in practice one party dominates Singaporean politics. Because the caning of an American in Singapore in the mid 1990's got so much attention, some may be unaware that hanging is still a legal means of punishment in Singapore.
Singaporeans who are blind are often stripped of self-respect and hope for the future by a school system which perpetuates low expectations for them. Some parents further this dangerous tendency by assigning their maids to feed their children, even when they are as old as 12 years of age. Not surprisingly, blind people have internalized these messages; some of them are content to stay at home, rather than seeking employment after graduating from secondary school. In fairness though, many Americans with disabilities succumb to similar fates. Perhaps if Singapore would pass a disability anti-discrimination law as we've done in the States, some thinking would change. But, I would guess that the most substantial changes in the welfare of Singaporeans with disabilities will come when such individuals demonstrate their worth to their government and to the society at large.

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