Life in Singapore

Getting Around In Singapore

Some of the adjustments we’ve made in Singapore since we’ve moved to Singapore are a product of adjusting to big city life. One of those adjustments involves getting from place to place across the island.

We don’t own, lease, or rent a vehicle in Singapore which is a big lifestyle change for us. Although we do ride in cars from time to time (mostly taxis) we’ve never driven in Singapore. There are two main reasons that we do not use a personal vehicle in Singapore. First, the cost of owning a car in Singapore is extremely expensive, particularly because Singapore heavily taxes car purchases. In fact, the cost of personal vehicles in Singapore is one of the reasons that Singapore consistently ranks at the top of cities in the world with the highest cost of living. Secondly, Singapore has an extensive, safe, clean, and efficient public transportation system. So, combined with our feet, we have many ways to get around the city without the use of our own vehicle. Generally, Singapore encourages the use of public transportation and discourages the use of personal vehicles.

Public Transportation in Singapore

The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is Singapore’s train or subway system. It is comprised of both above ground and underground trains. We live right next to the Lakeside MRT station on the west side of the island which is an above-ground section, and we enjoying watching the trains from our apartment. There are several different colored lines within the MRT system, and there is an on-going expansion of the system. The MRT is quite easy to navigate with easy-to-read maps and clear signage everywhere. For the most part, people using public transportation are orderly and it isn’t too crowded except maybe during peak times (though crowds have been generally reduced due to COVID-19) which also makes using public transportation easier.

At the train platform walking to a gate to wait for the train.

Singapore also has an extensive bus system comprised of both single-level and double-level buses. The kids love riding the double-decker buses, especially if we can sit at the front. It is a fun way to explore and view the city.

The kids riding at the top of a double-decker bus.

Taxis are also readily available in Singapore including traditional taxi services as well as Grab (the equivalent of Lyft or Uber).

Some Observations about Public Transportation in Singapore

Public transportation is very clean which fits right in with Singapore’s reputation as one of the cleanest cities in the world. The MRT trains are clean. The buses are clean. It is rare to see any kind of trash inside the trains or buses. You don’t have to check a seat before you sit down because the expectation is that it will be clean.

Eating and drinking (not even water!) are not allowed on public transportation or within MRT stations. This rule is strictly followed by Singapore residents and certainly helps contribute to the cleanliness of the trains and buses. People regularly carry food and drinks on public transportation that they’ve picked up from restaurants, but you’ll never see anyone consuming either (only once have I seen a group of teen boys defying the rule). One particular food item that isn’t allowed on public transportation is durian, a stinky fruit (descriptions of the smell often include things like rotting flesh and garbage) that many Singaporeans enjoy.

Riding on public transportation is generally quiet. Most of the time people are not talking much, nor are they talking on the phone. This was a little tough for our kids to get used to, but they’ve become accustomed to quiet rides on public transport. Noise on public transportation has been reduced even further since the COVID-19 outbreak because Singapore has a public campaign for “quiet rides” with a “Hush-hush Hannah” character who encourages riders to mask up and stay quiet to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Public transportation is very safe which also aligns with Singapore’s reputation as one of the safest cities in the world. There is no reason to worry about pick-pockets or really anything else for that matter. It is not uncommon to see children riding on public transportation without adults because it is safe. We’ve been told by a local that there’s a saying in Singapore “low crime doesn’t mean no crime” encouraging Singaporeans to stay alert to help keep Singapore safe.

How do we get around in Singapore?

We use a combination of the MRT, buses, and our feet to get around most of the time. Since we live right next to an MRT station (its about a five minute walk from our condo), we use the MRT as our primary mode of transportation. Trent walks back and forth to the church building from our condo (about a 10-12 minute walk for him, longer if the whole family is walking to the building).

We also use taxis (mostly Grab) from time to time, but taxis are a more expensive option. Using a taxi takes about half the amount of time of public transportation, and there are times that we need to get somewhere more quickly than we could get to the location using public transportation or we have to carry a big load that would be difficult on public transportation.

What do the kids think of public transportation?

Most of the time, I think the kids view public transportation as an adventure. It’s fun for them to watch for the trains and hunt for seats when the train arrives. They love (especially Troy) looking at the maps and figuring out which way we should go. They don’t mind the little inconveniences that sometimes bother me that much. They are good about carrying a bag of their things (water bottles, wipes, books, etc.) that might otherwise be kept in a car that you need to have with you. They love to bring along a book to read on long trips or even play a game some of their friends here taught them called chopsticks. They’ve learned about the responsibility of keeping up with their fare cards. Although they do miss car rides listening to Spotify, singing along, and being able to talk freely, they are flexible and don’t complain. I don’t think any of them have ever even asked for us to have a car. They seem to understand that just like many other things, this change in lifestyle is a natural part to living life in Singapore.

The older three kids playing chopsticks.

-Lisa

Charting a Child’s Course

Kids are wonderfully resilient; they are ever-adapting, learning, and mastering (in a child-like way) their environment. Lisa and I have often praised our children for their adjustment over the last year. A little over 12 months ago we made the decision to move to Singapore and begin working with the Four Seas Bible College. That decision changed and will change our kids’ lives for the foreseeable future. But, the truth is, any decision we made and every (big) decision we make affects our kids in this way. Going affects them. Staying affects them. Changing schools or careers or even changing from mornings to nightshifts can affect them.

Walking to the church building from our apartment.
New friends.
New friends.

Riding the bus.
Drinking from a fresh coconut.
Riding the MRT.

New friends.
New friends.
New friends.

Granted, our changes lately have been huge for us and the children. They have been with us through driving all over Texas, visiting congregations, saying goodbye to friends and family, seriously downsizing our stuff (including their toys!), trying new foods, and adjusting to life where we rely on our feet or public transportation to get around. They make friends easily, love to play with anyone who will let them join, love to visit to anyone who will listen, and generally love life.

Ella eating duck rice.
Troy eating wonton noodles.
Luke eating duck rice.

Practicing Chinese.
Creative toothbrush holders.
Tents from Ikea boxes
Camping out on mattresses until the beds could be put together.

Making friends with students in chapel.
Making friends at the hawker centre.

Through it all, the four of them, Ella, Troy, Luke, and Annie have been resilient, gracious, patient, forgiving, and adaptable beyond their years. Lisa and I are proud of them and the joy, example, insight, fun, and love they bring to our family.

-Trent

Finding Phones in Familiar Places

One of the most interesting things about traveling and now living outside the U.S. is how each country and culture go about cell phone usage. A few weeks ago was a big week for us, a week that the locals here in Singapore were patiently waiting for, when we finally returned our borrow phone and got our very own Singapore phones and numbers.

Lisa and I both got our first cell phones the Saturday before we started our freshman year of college in San Angelo. We both got AT&T because they had coverage between San Angelo and Breckenridge (expect for around Bronte). This was in a time when bag phones were going out, but cell phones were for calls only. Some of you remember. So, with nearly two decades of experience, we have a pretty good idea of how cell phones, plans, payment, apps, etc, all work in the U.S. It is standard with carrier plans that you have unlimited free calls, texts, and a limited amount of data. You use this phone as is for everything. Even if you travel outside the U.S., you can usually make provisions through your carrier to just use that phone overseas.

But, when you travel outside the U.S., things are quite different. In Jamaica many locals have multiple cell phones for different carriers or advantages (like international calling). Or, some who do not have multiple cell phones have have multiple chips (SIM cards) to do the same thing. You can find SIM cards nearly everywhere in Jamaica, and you can top up anytime and (nearly) anywhere. There is no carrier loyalty, and only very few, if any contracts. In South America, we were loaned one phone and purchased a cheap, temporary phone for using while there. In order for those phones to be activated, all you needed was a SIM card from the local tienda. In these places calls and texts can be expensive but data can be had for very cheap. It may be easier to use Facebook than to send text message direct.

Singapore seems to be a mix between the two with SIM cards and unlocked phones (yes, even iPhones are unlocked!) everywhere but also with carriers who offer plans, packages, deals, discounts, and two-year contracts. We are still learning about these details and could not speak with any authority on the ins and outs of cell phones here. Thankfully, we have been assisted by many local brethren who gave us knowledge, insight, suggestions, and even a sim card with unlimited data for a year!

Here are some observations about cell phones in Singapore:

Data is cheaper than calls and texts.
Wifi is nearly everywhere. Free Wifi.
You must have WhatsApp. Just like traveling in Cambodia or Paraguay or Jamaica or Mexico, What’sApp is the go-to for messaging. Don’t text me. WhatsApp me. Don’t just call me; use WhatsApp to call me.
WhatsApp groups are vital to civic, academic, social, and church communication.
Amazon is not the go to shopping app (Lazada is).

________

With all of these interesting things that we are learning about international cell phone usage, things about plans and packages and contracts that would make the most caffeinated reader doze, there is something else that I have observed here in Singapore:

Singaporeans are glued to their phones. On the street, in the MRT (train system), in shops, in the hawker centers, and everywhere in between. Sound familiar to those who live in the US?

Ella and Troy riding the MRT (train system in Singapore).

Most places I have traveled outside the U.S. like in the Caribbean, South America, and Asia still have millennials glued to their cell phones. Interestingly, millennials are those who were born in the 1980s or early 1990s. Though labeled much broader, millennials are really those older college students and young professionals who are beginning to raise their families. It is these young professionals who I will regularly see on the MRT here in Singapore engaging in FPSs, FarmVille (or something that looks like it), Clash of the somethings, and much much more – engrossed in a virtual reality after 8 or 10 or 12 hours at work.

Millennials aren’t the only ones glued to their cell phones all over the world. Older generations also have taken to the convenience and crutch of this technology. Facebook is the place for parents and grandparents. Solitaire is a great timekiller that can be played right there on that fancy cordless pocket phone.

Younger people, those often mistakenly called millennial may be the worst of all. While they can function crossing the street while texting better than our grandmothers, they often live their lives on their phones. Their relationships are primarily through electronic communication. They have identity in the games they play. They can even struggle to get through a worship service/family meal/normal conversation without engaging their screen.

This is the “cell phone culture” that we now live in, universally. Most of us see the constant screen time as a change in the way things used to be done. Much of this “cell phone culture” is lamented. Did you know that since “cell phone culture” is experienced universally, it also seems that it is lamented universally? Distracted walkers everywhere are texting, scrolling, and gaming. Commuters everywhere are engrossed in their screen as two hundred people fill their train cars. Children are “plugged-in” to whatever is on the S10 or i11 or A50 or A3 or 2i or V2.2 (made that one up). Asia, South America, the Caribbean, big cities in the US, college campuses, are all very similar in many ways. Even the Russians don’t want their citizens to text and drive.

The more things change, the more they screen the same.

This blog post is not a lament. It is not a proposed resolution. Rather, this post is an observation that, in a world is separated by time zones, geographical distance, culture, history, language, and more, we are all so very similar. Technology, though different countries and cultures may use it differently, is one of those things that seems to be going in the same direction no mater where on this earth you are.

If you only have our U.S. cell phone numbers, you will still be able to contact us on those (call or text) for the foreseeable future. Just please remember the time zone difference.

-Trent

Patience and Passes

Foreign mission work requires patience and flexibility; there is no doubt about it. Trent and I have been blessed with different opportunities in different countries, and each and every unique situation requires its own patience and flexibility. Whether Trent is leading a team in Jamaica, we’re taking our family to work in South America for the summer, or we are settling down for long term work in Singapore, maintaining patience and flexibility is key. When Trent trained teams for evangelistic campaigns, he made up a word that most of them could recall, even today, it was some combination of fluid and flexible…

Even something as seemingly simple as obtaining the right to stay in a country can be quite tedious, draining, and downright frustrating at times. Every country’s requirements are different (as you’d expect them to be) based on why you are in the country and how long you want to stay and more. Navigating through whatever information you might be able to find online can be tedious and confusing. It can be quite difficult to read through a foreign country’s government website (if it exists and is in a language you can read) to determine the steps to take to enter (and stay) in that country. I don’t even like looking at the United States’ (or Texas’) government website for information, and I’m familiar with how things work (for the most part, ha!) there. Once again we were reminded, flexibility.

Singapore Ministry of Manpower Employment Pass Office

Singapore has a strict immigration policy keeping close tabs on who they let in the country and how long they can stay. If necessary, they will remove you from the country if you stay beyond your allowed time. In order for our family to stay in Singapore, Trent had to obtain an employment pass (work visa), and the rest of the family had to obtain dependent passes.

When we entered the country, the immigration officer had the right to grant us either thirty or ninety days in the country without obtaining further approval. Thankfully we were granted 90 days. During these first ninety days, we had to complete the process to obtain our employment and dependent passes. If the college had not began the process before we arrived, we likely would have had to leave the country for a time to renew our visas.

Singapore has serious requirements that must be met to obtain an employment pass. We had to provide copies of many “normal” things such as Trent’s passport and birth certificate. However, we also had to show documentation that Trent was qualified to take the job of teaching at Four Seas by providing things such as his work history, salary history, and copies of his diplomas. Finally, we also had to show that Trent would have sufficient income to provide for a family of six in Singapore (based on data from Singapore’s government).

After Trent’s employment pass was conditionally approved, we had to apply for the rest of the family’s dependent passes. Obtaining our dependent passes was another tedious process, particularly for the children, because Singapore has vaccination requirements for children staying in the country. Although our children were up to date on their vaccines for a typical U.S. vaccine schedule, Annie was not up to date for Singapore’s vaccine schedule, so she had to receive a vaccine right before we left the U.S. Everything was ultimately approved, and we are thankful to God for that!

Then, we had to appear in person at the Ministry of Manpower’s (an acronym we can all love -MOM) Employment Pass Centre for final approval. Now, we are 100% legal! These passes not only allow us to legally stay in Singapore, but they also allow us to enter into contracts (leasing an apartment, opening a bank account, getting cell phone, etc). Obtaining these passes was a necessary hurdle to working in Singapore. We are so grateful to Sister Chin and the many countless hours (some after our arrival in Singapore) she spent working her way through the necessary paperwork for our family (of six!) to obtain these passes. We also greatly appreciate many prayers offered on our behalf for our family’s transition to Singapore, realizing that going through these legal steps was part of that transition. Once again, we learned patience.

-Lisa

Our First Week in Singapore

We have finished our first week here “on the ground in Singapore.” I know this is the result of many prayers and encouragement and tremendous support. We want to say thank you to all of those who have prayed, encouraged, and supported us. The week, or now a little over, has been crazy, tiring, humbling, and much more.

We arrived on Thursday, August 1, at about 6:00 am local time to a great reception by local brethren. Amos, an elder at the Jurong church of Christ, as well as Peter and Pooi Fun brought their cars to transport us. The local preacher for the Lim Ah Pin congregation, Ernest, along with his wife, Stephanie, and their sweet baby, Theophilus, brought the church van to carry all our luggage. Before we departed the airport, we had a wonderful breakfast of butter sugar toast, soft boiled eggs, kopi, and Milo.

Remember, this was Lisa’s first time to set foot in Singapore and her first time anywhere in Asia. She and the girls road with the Chins and enjoyed good conversation and a good introduction to life and times in Singapore. The boys and I rode with Amos and received a grand education on the popularity of motorcycles, cobras in Singapore, public and private transportation options, green space, parks, malls, lakes, building projects, and much more. If we were not all so sleepy from the long flight, we probably could have retained all of this wonderful information. When we got to the church building, Chan Yong Yaw was there with the Four Seas to students to help unload and deliver luggage to the third floor of our temporary home.

At lunch, Peter and Pooi Fun introduced the family to the hawker center (think outdoor food court) right behind the church building. We tried a variety of new foods (as well as some Western food). We have made MANY trips to the hawker center since then, and we are learning our favorite foods and stalls.

Friday evening we enjoyed a Welcome and End of Term dinner with the students as well as Peter and Pooi Fun. The food was wonderful and the fellowship was even better. I was asked to provide a talk to encourage the students in their continued studies. I chose man’s responsibility in the sharing of the gospel as the theme for the night and examined the spread of the gospel in the book of Acts. The students treated us to a welcome presentation, and we were warmly welcomed and appreciated by all.

On Saturday we began the process of house hunting. Pooi Fun took us to meet our realtor, Jessie, for the first time. We viewed a few different apartments and settled on one we like about ten minute walk from the church building. Hopefully soon we will be officially signed to live there. The process was overwhelming and confusing, but Jessie was kind and friendly to our family. Of course, Pooi Fun was right by our side.

Since Four Seas College was on a one-week term break during our first full week in Singapore, the students had many activities and things to get done during the break week. Therefore, I did not begin teaching until the following week which meant we were able to enjoy a number of social activities throughout the week. We enjoyed a casual pizza dinner with the students and the Chins on Monday evening where we spent time getting to know the students. On Tuesday, we were invited to go with the students to sister Anna’s home (her husband, John, is an elder at Jurong). In her home we fellowshipped, played games (lots of Bible trivia from the first eleven chapters of the book of John), and enjoyed lunch. Several of the students, along with sister Anna, prepared food from their home countries. It was a treat to get to taste a variety of different dishes.

Later Tuesday afternoon and evening we decided to take the kids to see some of Singapore’s famous icons, the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands (from afar). This trip involved our first ride on Singapore’s train/subway system called the MRT. The children really enjoyed experiencing the public transportation system. Luke was especially interested in following the electronic map inside the train as we waited for our stop.

Our first week in Singapore happened to be doing a national holiday (National Day). This meant that it was a convenient time to get together with some families with kids in school from the Jurong congregation on Thursday afternoon and Friday. On Thursday afternoon we visited the Singapore River Safari with Patrick and Angeling, their daughters, and their nephew. Then, following our adventure at the River Safari we went with their family to visit the Lim Ah Pin church of Christ for their midweek services. On Friday we spent the day with Paul and Anna and their three children. The kids played at a local park, we enjoyed a homemade meal at Paul and Anna’s home, and we visited a Dragon Kiln in the afternoon.

We were also able to attend Bible classes and worship services with the Jurong congregation which houses the school. Their Sunday morning class and worship times run from 9:00 am until about noon, and they do not meet on Sunday evenings. We have learned that many Sunday afternoons are times for various care groups to fellowship as well. Though some congregations have a midweek service on Thursdays, Jurong gathers together for about an hour and a half each Wednesday evening. We are blessed to be a part of a congregation that worships God in spirit and in truth. The kids have enjoyed all the peers in their classes, and Lisa and I have heard good, strong lessons being faithfully presented. We look forward to growing with and in this congregation of the Lord’s body.

Our first week was exhausting, exciting, eventful, and educating!