Wan's Ubin Journal

Hi all! On January 26th, 2019, WUJ embarked on its first ever community outreach project for the Ubin residents. Over 20 wonderful volunteers from all walks of life, race and faith came down to join me for this project on Saturday morning. Our youngest volunteer was 15 and our youngest-at-heart was 51, with a huge majority of them being youths who are around the same age as me and that was pretty awesome! For this event, we also had interns from Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) joining us as it would also be a great opportunity for them to learn about the heritage of the island especially from the residents that we were helping out that day. One of the requests came from Ivy, the daughter of Ah Ma from Ah Ma Drink Stall to help out in cleaning her home in time for Chinese New Year. Her family is known for making Ubin one whole island through the prawn farms built by her father. You may find out more about Ivy's family's heritage and contribution to Ubin...

Hi All! According to Dictionary.com , a saga is something used to define a "narrative or legend of heroic exploits". So we can already guess that saga pretty much has a very deep and powerful meaning in it - so what is up with saga seeds? Photo courtesy of NParks Known to the scientific community as  Adenanthera pavonina,  their bright red and shiny seeds sure are an eye catcher for those who walk by them; but are they powerful enough to be associated with "saga"? Why, yes of course! There's a story behind why these saga seeds are notorious in Singapore's pastime, especially for our younger children at the time. Collecting these seeds were almost as cool as collecting marbles, stamps and postcards. Some would place them in special glass jars or bottles to use as a beautiful ornament or decoration in their home while others might even give it to their crush or love partners to express their love and affection for them. Speaking of which in Chinese,...

Hi All! If volunteering has been one of those items that you decided to put into your bucket list for 2019, then do I have the opportunity for you! But even if it isn't, I hope you may read on because there's something I'd like to share with you, too. As Singapore took its step from being a third world country to first; where kampongs in the mainland were replaced with sky-high HDB flats, the promise of a better and more convenient life in the city had left many people from Pulau Ubin with a dilemma - to leave their homes and family legacy behind or move to Singapore in the hopes of brighter days. The eventual closure of amenities on the island such as the schools, clinic, surau and community centre due to the rising maintenance and operations cost in the late 1980s to early 1990s further pushed residents to make that difficult decision. However, there was something unique about the Ubin community that still amazed me till this day. My late grandmother sitti...

Hi All! Here are this week's features and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did! -- CHARMAINE CHUA @charmeeze "Pulau Ubin has my heart." -- MISHKA DEA TAALIA @mishkadea "#pulauubin" -- @watashiying " N I N E T E E N . . . . Never would have expected to spend my 19th w such cool people in the wilderness! Thank you all once again for planning the surprise! ❤🙆‍♀️" --- Thank you all for spending your time here on Pulau Ubin together with your family, friends and loved ones and I hope that you'd come back to create more precious memories to share with everyone else, too! Find out last week's features here! https://wansubinjournal.blogspot.com/2019/01/ubin-also-instagrammable-04-jan-10-jan.html -- Like WUJ on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/wansubinjournal Follow WUJ on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/wansubinjournal ...