five years!!

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of us being guests in this country. Our arrival onto The Little Red Dot was on Friday February 9 2007 and we can both say we have enjoyed every minute of our stay and learned so much more in the 5 years we have been here than at any other time in our lives.

Everyone has been incredibly kind to us. We have met so many people from all walks of life, all nationalities, all religions, rich or poor, all areas of Singapore, expats or locals, people have treated us as "one of them". Rarely did we feel we were 'an outsider' .......  there was much to experience and learn while living here and we did not waste any time in experiencing as much as we could.

I think the one thing I will take from here is that we can all be living together in harmony, regardless of race, religion or culture ... but it takes everyone to work together to achieve this. We cannot walk around with our head in the sand and ignore that there are people the same as us, walking beside us.

one of my friends had this on Facebook this morning:

God is willing and able to use us, no matter how young, and no matter how old we are. We should always remember that God wants us to care for, respect, honor, and value the elderly (including and especially our parents). Every one of us - old and young, adults and kids - we all have our strengths and they have theirs,  and we can all learn from and appreciate each other. We should show respect to and value everyone, regardless of age or status. We should make the most for God while we are young – not wait – We should start to obey and serve God as soon as we can. We should teach our children and young ones to do the same.

and  that is so true, no matter who your God is this would apply, this would apply in any country, any town, any family, to learn to show respect, to live in harmony - that it is achievable - is one of the main things I have learned here in Singapore.

But I take much more than that from here, the joy of new friendships that will be with me for the rest of my life.  The people we have met have been just incredible. I would also say that we probably have more 'local' friends than we do 'expat' friends, so its been a good balance for us. We spent time with people that 'talk the talk' with us, sharing the festivals with friends from the Indian culture in particular, we spend time having kopi with others or sharing a plate of Char Kwe Tiau, wandering around Bukit Brown Cemetery or exploring Bukit Chandra with others, cycling, kayaking or photography, just so many people from all over Singapore share these same interests.

Am not sure what 'area' of Singapore I will miss most, but probably "Little India" with the food, the smells, the people, the colour, the vibrancy .... will be with me forever.

I will certainly miss the greenery .... that lush greeness we all see as we come in from Changi. But there is more to Singapore than just the 'lush greenery', and to find the heart of Singapore, you need to get to know the people of the heartlands, eat with them, shop with them and spend time with them. Our first four years here was spent at Bukit Batok and we were invited to all the community events and local festivals too, most times (if not all) we were the only Westerners at these 'local' events which we felt sad about, anyone can join in and be part of the festivities and they are a lot of fun too.

So we leave here in two weeks time with many memories but also look froward to the next adventure and meeting new people in our new life back in Australia without ever forgetting the friends we leave behind or what we learned from our five years of being a guest in this country.