RSIS Big Build Borneo: adventure
Posted: 19 December 2019
Tuesday 17th December
Secret Santa
Student’s got in the Christmas spirit yesterday and exchanged gifts as part of a ‘Secret Santa’. Different groups exchanged gifts differently – but everyone has a 10 ringgit budget (which works out to be about £1.85 or $2.41). Some groups shopped for a specific team mate, whilst others took a more ‘savage santa’ approach, where you buy a gift, someone picks it but then someone can choose to swap the gifts. Popular gifts included ‘Mr and Mrs Rice’, dog food, Oreo’s and coffee.
Student blog update written by Thandeka and Alexander
“This morning we all woke up early to work hard on our last day of working on the building. Today was pretty chilled and relaxed, which allowed us to get to know each other more than before as we had more time to talk, laugh and have fun. We started off today with a later start due to our power effort yesterday afternoon. Initially we mixed cement before laying bricks later in the day. We didn’t have many breaks today, due to our late start and early finish, however we still had a lunch break. After the lunch break a lot of the teams split and joined other teams to moved bricks to the center of the building, ready to be laid for the walls.
We taught each other parts of German and even a little bit of French.Today was definitely the best day on the work site, especially with the early finish allowing us to relax for the remainder of the afternoon. To conclude the day we are looking forward to “Round Square’s Got Talent”, which is sure to provide many laughs and memories for everyone. Tonight will be an evening to remember on our last evening at the orphanage.”
Final work on the project and final farewells to Tambunan
We are extremely proud of everything the team have managed to achieve in their time on the project site. The last day of work saw the team continuing work on the construction of the walls of the new building, and it’s outer shell taking shape. Now that the team have finished, the contractors will continue the build until completion.
On their final day on the project site, the nun’s and children at Tambunan expressed their thanks to the team not only for all their hard work, but for being such a wonderful group of students as well!
Wednesday 18th December
On Wednesday morning the team traveled from Tambunan to Kota Kinabalu and then in the afternoon they visited the local markets for some last minuet Christmas shopping!
19th December
Today students have enjoyed a day of relaxation on one of the beautiful islands off the North-West coast of Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. The island is part of the Kota Kinabalu marine park, renowned for being an incredible biodiversity hot-spot. Students got the chance to paddle in the sea, and had the option to even to try their hand at snorkeling. The team will have a final celebration meal tonight at Kpg Nelayan restaurant to say their final goodbyes before travelling tomorrow.
Happy birthday!
A very happy birthday to Ahaanaa (for today) and Yaxin (for the 21st)! We hope you all have a very memorable and special day. We will be celebrating both birthdays tonight at the final team dinner.
Preparing for departures
Adult leaders will help students check-in for their return flights in good time before their flights. Students will then be escorted to the airport three hours before their flight and taken through to Departures, where they will get their mobile/cell phones back! Round Square will email parents to confirm that their son/daughter is on route home when they have safely gone through to departures.
Thanks for following our blog! We may add some additional photos to this post and to Facebook throughout the day.