Plant It Forward
Last weekend, I was asking myself, why the heck did I sign up for this tree-planting thing organized by the firm (as part of our ‘green’ initiative), as my alarm woke me up at the ungodly hour of 5am. Already sleep-deprived from finishing work late the previous night and then having a full day the next day, I was quite grumpy when dragging myself out of bed.
We arrived at the Labis Bahru Estate in Segamat, Johor after 3-hour bus ride, most of which I spent sleeping 
Followed by the most backbreaking manual labor I’ve ever performed under the scorching sun!
Planting trees is DAMN hard work! And this with pre-dug holes for us to put in the trees! Can you imagine how much more difficult it would’ve been if we had to dig the holes too?!
All we had to do was, cut the plastic bag that was encasing the tree base, put the tree in the hole, and cover it up with soil. How difficult could it be right? Ok, let me tell you that cangkul-ing the soil to cover up the hole is much much harder than it looks! Add the scorching 12pm afternoon sun beating on your backs!
In the bus, I was telling my friends, hhmmm… I must plant 10 trees minimum. HAH! Yeah, right! After my third tree, I was ready to collapse! Seriously, it was so hot and my ears started to buzz… and I felt like I was gonna pass out 
I wish I could’ve planted more but I guess I can only safely say that I managed to plant 3 trees entirely on my own (we were supposed to work in pairs). The remaining 2 trees, I planted with Audrey. Oh well…
All in all, we were supposed to plant 250 trees. There were about 20 of us. I don’t know what was the final count of trees that we planted but I think it’s at least 100. Our trees would take at least 10 years to grow and mature. Hopefully, I can make a trip back at that time to check up on my trees 
So, it was fruitful trip. I planted a few trees, which hopefully, will contribute a tiny bit to reducing our carbon emissions.
Let me reiterate : Planting trees is HARD WORK and they take really long to grow! So next time you think of chopping down a tree, THINK AGAIN!
And it made me realize that laborers are really tough people to be able to work the whole day under such scorching heat! So next time, if you have any construction work being done in your house or something, be thankful that you can hire someone to do the work for you. Working under the hot sun is really difficult!
My arms are sooooooo brown now! No, I didn’t put on sunblock
I shall let my family and friends tell you about me. These comments may be rather old but I think the gist of them still hold 