Friday, December 14, 2007
This post is just for my personal reference. haha. in case i forget. yeah. so actually everybody else u all can just skip on to somebody else's blog cos its going to be really boring for u all i think.
Just came back from Metta Camp. One of the most meaningful camps i've been too cos the children aren't exactly normal children like all of us. Rather, they are a bit slower intectellectually, hyperactive or autistic. So we had really quite alot to handle for 3 days.
Day 1
Took charge of Group 3! And they called themselves Aladdin. The only person i knew in the group was Jeremy from last year. And he isnt easy to handle although he can be helpful at times but he's extremely stubborn. Then there was super sweet Geok Li and Atiqah. 2 very gentle, sweet and obedient girls. Thankful that they arent the sticky kind *phew* Then there was Kelvin, whom i didn't really like. He talks a lot. And his thoughts arent linked, so er abit of trouble trying to follow his train of thought. Then there's Ashraf! He's this cute malay guy whom i think is quite smart! He wrote out the entire story for our skit. And he's quite funny too.
And oh ya my fellow group leaders were yan lin and king fei. I think the group is not bad la. We only had 5 kids to take care of. haha. and 2 were super guai. phew.
After the intro, the group bonding and identity, it was time for the first game - Pictionary + Pass the Message. The message went like this: Once upon a time, there was a Little Red Riding Hood who was skipping happily down the path to her grandma's house. Suddenly a big bad wolf appeared. WOOOOOOF~.
The message isnt very hard rite? But to the kids, it was very hard. The first person had alot of trouble memorising it. Then the kids behind kept trying to peep at the message. And when they finally managed to pass it, the message got super jumbled. And i rmb kelvin adding in 3 little pigs etc etc. So we realised the game couldnt work. haiz. in the end we just got one person from each group to memorise the whole thing and say it in front of everyone. I rmb Ashraf doing it almost perfectly. And he didnt take alot of time to memorise. I think he's smart *claps*
Oh and there was pictionary. I rmb Rahman (the super shuai kid from my group last year) he had to draw a bathroom. Then i think most people couldnt understand what he drew, though i think they look abit like bathroom tiles. Then i told him to draw a toilet bowl, and he came up with this quite detailed drawing la. I think the kids pay alot of attention to details. And there were some like Benny who had to draw a badminton racket and flowers. And he's drawing was totally abstract although some managed to guess it was a racket. But i think none of the volunteers managed to understand it. Hmm kind of interesting to try to understand how they see things. Makes me realise even more that people can view things very differently so we should be willing to try to accept other's point of view.
After which it was time for lunch. This year the food was so much better. It wasnt vegetarian food! yeah. good! Then hp and i missed the afternoon games like poison ball cos we had to go to Eastpoint to buy extra stationery and snacks for prizes. The result of bad planning. And trying to scrimp and save.
By the time we came back, the kids were preparing to start the water-shooting game. Hp n i could only watch from above. But i think they had alot of fun shooting each other. They like active games.
Then the kids went for a bath, had dinner, then went to do preparation for skit. Cant really rmb wat i did that night le. argh. must have been highly stoned. Oh! ok. i rmb already. We made jelly after dinner. Due to the lack of moulds, hp and i restricted each group to max half a packet of the powder. So the water measurement got all mixed up and the jelly turned out mostly too watery. The mango pudding one was especially horrible. Haiz and the worst part was there was half a packet left that hp n i had to go back to prepare after everything else.
After skit prep, we had a confidence walk. And i rmb being super pissed off with Kelvin and Jeremy cos the 2 of them simply refused to cooperate. They kept pulling off their blindfolds and pushing each other around. And i knew they could see through their blindfolds but they could have at least quietly pretended that they werent able to see ma.
Luckily after that they had supper and went to sleep otherwise i dunno what i would have done. grrr.
Day 2
supposed to wake up at 6 am for sentry duty. I rmb Elleen waking me up. Then i woke hp up. The 2 of sat up for i think at most 15 mins then i lay back down again and promptly dozed off. haha i think she went back to sleep too. then i rmb talking to Chee ling too about the 2 malay girls who were supposed to wake up at 630 to bathe. Then Cl said dont care them. and the 2 of us went back to sleep. haha until we were rudely awoken by i dunno wats her name at 7+. The kids were all awake then all the volunteers were still dead to the world. argh.
Then hp n i went to prepare for treasure hunt. Another case of bad planning again cos we got confused quite a few times. haha. but seeing them having fun during treasure hunt gave me the highest sense of satisfaction during the camp. They really had fun running. haha. And our clues hiding skills were good. haha. yeah! *claps*
After treasure hunt, they had to build a tallest structure using materials like straws, plastic bottles etc. Er i think the group leaders ended up doing the most. But thats usually the case. haha. And hp n i got irritated towards the end cos we tried making them stop the game quite a few times but only 3 groups complied. Then the other 2 continued. so the kids who stopped kept complaining it was unfair. argh. then in the end the 2 of us gave up and just sat there and waited. haiz.
after lunch, which was eaten hurriedly just like breakfast, we went to the zoo! i thought i would die there cos i expected them to run around alot or walk alot but surprisingly they didnt! haha cos they were only interested in seeing shows! yes! so we stood to watch the splash show which had penguins and sea lions. and the kids managed to squeeze all the way to the front although there wasnt any space. and i think the sea lions are very very very smart! but hmm i think i pity them more, cos they are like trapped here and have to be forced to do stunts and stuff. hmm but on the other hand, maybe they would have suffered more in the wild.
after that we went to the elephant show. haha. luckily we went early to get seats and we used up 30 mins waiting. yes! no need to walk. haha. and kelvin and jeremy who sat in front of yf n me niam-ed nonstop. in the end we ended up ignoring them. bit quite disheartened cos they said that our games were very wu liao. :(
after that, we went in search of the sunbears and snow bears aka polar bears. Luckily for us, all the animals were super active. it was the first time i saw active white tigers and active polar bears. and all the animals knew how to pose la. like all 3 white tigers were strutting around their enclosure and the polar bear knew how to go up to the glass panel and pose. and the polar bear was so proud. the keeper threw a life fish in for him to catch and after he caught it he came out of the water to show the audience the fish. they are really conditioned to zoo life. quite sad actually.
oh and dinner was exciting that now. haha maisy went around asking all the guys who was attached. haha. and cos sean was sitting with us so we had a first hand encounter of the incident. haha. super funny. she just came up and said sean-ge, aaron kor kor got girlfriend but i dont have boyfriend. then i think sean got a shock already. haha. he totally couldnt continue eating. haha then after that she came back and put her arm on sean's shoulder, and she asked, ni zhi bu zhi dao you san ge zi. haha and i think sean expected wat was coming, so he kept saying chi fan chi fan chi fan. haha. then maisy added one of the words was ai~~ then the way she said ai gave me goosebumps la. haha. that dinner was the most exciting event. haha.
after that we had skit. er. ok la. last year was better! cos we had spiderman! this yr was aladdin... haha. oh n hp's good husband came. haha. not bad still have gifts to bribe us. wahah. okok im joking. then we had friendship dance. er. i think that was the part hp n i totally raised our voices lor. could feel it becoming alittle sore. haha. initially it was confusing and very messy, then i think it got better towards the end. i hope they had fun!
Day 3
had breakfast, prize giving, photo taking then break camp le! yeah~ end of torture. haha. no la. i think i had alot of fun during the camp. and the satisfaction and i happiness i gained was very different from normal camps.
yup. although there were times when i simply felt frustrated, irritated and disheartened there were many more times when small actions of the kids managed to touch me. ok sounds funny. but i believe they are good kids at heart :)
9:15 PM
