AWA Member Spotlight: Alfa Singkoh
- Suellen Lee
- Sep 10
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 12
by Suellen Lee
Although Alfa Singkoh moved to Singapore in 2019 with her husband and two teenage children, she was no stranger to the Little Red Dot. In fact, Alfa had been visiting Singapore annually between 1999 and 2012 with her Jakarta-based frisbee team to play in the Singapore Open, an annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Singapore attended by teams around Southeast Asia and Japan. However, as these tournaments were held on Sentosa Island, she never had time to explore much of the rest of Singapore besides Orchard Road!
Frisbee was not the only reason Alfa was a Singapore "frequent-flyer" before she became an expat here. Frisbee was also the reason Alfa met her husband over 20 years ago! Their Jakarta-based, international ultimate frisbee team even organized tournaments in Bali where players from around the world came to play. They infamously once played a final game which, when the scores were close, was cut short because Indonesia's President's helicopter had to land in the field they were playing in!
Originally from North Sulawesi (Indonesia), Alfa had lived in Jakarta, Banda Aceh (Indonesia), Hanoi (Vietnam) and then Dar es Salaam (Tanzania, East Africa) before finding her way to Singapore. In all these different countries, Alfa never stopped being active in sports and becoming involved in every community she found herself in.
When Alfa lived in Hanoi, for example, she not only continued to play frisbee but learned to play tennis for the first time. Then when she was in Tanzania, she joined a frisbee team (called the Flying Bongos!) that played tournaments in Uganda and Kenya. She has also played frisbee in the 2002 World Ultimate Cup Championships in Hawaii (by World Flying Disc Federation) and volunteered at the 2015 World Championships of Beach Ultimate in Dubai.
While living in Tanzania Alfa took up distance running when she joined a running group (called the Running Mamas) and ran her first half marathon at Mount Kilimanjaro.
Since being in Singapore, Alfa has remained active in the AWA Tennis and Running groups. As a tennis player, Alfa has played on doubles teams which won podium spots in Women's International Tennis Singapore (WITS) tournaments (D and C divisions). She has additionally played in the B and A divisions of WITS and the 2B Division of Ladies Tennis Singapore (LTS). As a runner, Alfa has run a number of half marathon events with the AWA Running Group not only in Singapore, but also in Phuket (Thailand) and Perth (Australia)!
Besides sports, Alfa has always found a way to stay connected to the communities around her. When her children were younger, she volunteered with their school activities. As they got older and they both played Varsity sports, she volunteered as parent ambassador for her children's high school track and field and basketball teams. She even got to travel around Southeast Asia for their regional Varsity team meets!
Alfa also found ways to stay connected with other Indonesian expats wherever she has lived, even in Tanzania. In Singapore she attends a church (Bethany Church Singapore) which holds services in both English and Bahasa Indonesia (not Bahasa Melayu!), and she is active in their Community of Love group, a women's group within the church, which has provided a great source of support for her during recent personally difficult times where her father passed away and then she had to undergo breast cancer surgery. She appreciates how she has had friends who prayed for her during these times. A book was recently gifted to her that was written by an Indonesian woman living in Singapore who also went through cancer treatment!
Alfa recalls how dramatically her lifestyle changed from living in Tanzania, where she lived for over 7 years, to the modern, fast-paced city of Singapore. She went from living in a large house where she needed helpers and security guards to one of the safest cities in the world. "It's so much easier here than Africa," quips Alfa, "the transportation is efficient, and I appreciate the rules and how people follow them." Even when Alfa's son had his bicycle stolen at their old apartment during COVID, soon after they made a police report the bicycle was returned! Indeed, in terms of public safety the Singapore system works!
Alfa and her husband are now empty-nesters and will be moving from Singapore next year (like many expats, she is not certain where they will move to next!). Alfa will miss the peace of the mind she has in Singapore knowing she is safe walking about at night.
When I asked her what her advice would be for first-time expats, Alfa remembered how she “did too much" during her time in Tanzania and learned from that experience how to balance things better when she came to Singapore. Her advice, therefore, would be to "get settled first with the family, kids and school, and then start looking for opportunities to volunteer, exploring hobbies or work."
Lastly, I asked Alfa what her favorite Singapore holiday was and for her that would be Chinese New Year because of how much she has learned about the meaning of the celebration. She once attended an AWA tour about Chinese New Year, and she enjoys eating the moon cakes, especially the gluten-free ones.
Thanks, Alfa, for sharing your experiences with us!
 | Suellen is a native Singaporean but grew up as a "Third Culture Kid" in Hong Kong and the US. She moved from San Francisco, California to Singapore in 2019 with her husband and three sons. They have since added another three furry members to their family, Ollie (a "Singapore special" dog), Panda and Piglet (twin cats). She runs, sometimes writes, and is a California licensed Clinical Psychologist with a part-time practice in Singapore. |
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