Monday, 31 December 2007

Xmas Celebration!

On the 20th December 2007, 6 volunteers namely, Chin han, Soke hwa, Kristin, Hui wen, Daisy(later part of the day and me gathered at Lydia's house to celebrate Christmas. We played mahjong, pick the bones and 'in between' on that day. It was also the first time that huiwen played mahjong. To be honest, she is quite a fast learner but it is not good to pick up these gambling games! Everyone enjoyed playing the 'In between' as there are losers like me who keep contributing to the pool of chips. I was the top loser followed by Kristin while the top Gainer was Huiwen.

After which, all of us went down to Jurong Point to meet Daisy and buy presents for the Christmas Present exchange at the later part of the night. We had lots of fun choosing and exchanging presents. Daisy also brought some of the brownies that she baked for the chirstmas celebration. It was delicious and too bad for those who did not get to taste it. Maybe can ask Daisy to bake for you next time. =) We also had some 'Tang Yuan' aka dumpling.

It was made by Chin han's mummy and it was.... SUPERB! There were Milo and chocolate dumplings TOO! (one of the Boys camp cheers)HUNGRY HUNGRY! CLAP CLAP, VERY HUNGRY! CLAP CLAP, WE ARE HUNGRY! CLAP CLAP...alrite i can hear you shouting "stop it!". So I shall. hehe

Soke Hwa, Kristin and Hui wen couldn't stayed any longer as they had work tomorrow and so the rest of us stayed at lydia's house to play mj.. again. We decided to make mj more interesting by drawing faces on the loser's face and for dunno what reason, in the end all our faces were painted with 'nice drawings'. I'm not going to show the pic as it is just too ugly! haha. The rest of us left Lydia's house at around 3am. All of us were tired but happy.

Thanks to Lydia for inviting us to her house! Thank you lydia! =) And thanks Chin han for giving us a lift back home! thank you Chin han!

Look at all the yummy food and presents on the table!

Exchanging Presents

Popping!

Daisy - "arhh.. gonna kill chin han for this!"

Look! Chin han is doing all the evil stuff! tsk tsk tsk..

By Jianwen

Friday, 21 December 2007

A successful camp!



volunteers frm the boys home and hostel organised games for the boys' camp held in sembawang park frm 12th to 14th dec. camp turned out to be really fun! the boys' competitiveness and volunteers' enthusiasm really made the camp a success. jianwen was overall incharge. i would love to list the names of the other dedicated volunteers but it would be a really long list! so nvm lah k you guys know who you are can alr (:

day 1:
we met at sembawang mrt station and made our way to the campsite (old brigade next to sembawang park). after some logistics and lunch, we played "double whacko". there were simply too many boys and volunteers and it was difficult to rmb everyone's names. plenty of friendly jeers for the ppl running around with the newsppr!

after this was "blanket game". each team had to squeeze themselves onto a small blanket, which was folded into half after every round. it was crazy and the boys began climbing on top of each other and forming really tall pyramids. looked dangerous but no major injuries (:

next was "move the water". teams had to transport water from a pail to a 1.5litre bottle using their body parts. aim of the game was to fill the bottle with water. most teams drank water from the pail and spitted it into the bottle. it turned out quite disgusting with water in the bottle turning whitish! erm.. haha no idea why..

then we had "finding the correct shoes". a person from the team was blindfolded. listening to instructions shouted by his team mates, he had to find his shoe from a large area. with 2teams playing at the same time and non-playing teams distracting the playing teams, things turned really noisy! it was difficult for the blindfolded person to hear the right instructions, and funny to see the blindfolded person wandering so helplessly.

next was "hula hoop game". each team held hands, formed a circle and passed hula hoops and strings through the circle. i wasnt around for this game so cant really describe it. but OBVIOUSLY it shd have been fun!

last game for the day was "modified captains ball". supposedly, the game was to be played like normal captains ball, except that legs of pairs of ppl were tied tgt and water bombs were used rather than balls. but with water bombs breaking so frequently and the boys complaining how painful their legs were, we reverted to normal game of captain ball. non playing teams were also given water guns to shoot at the playing teams (:

dinner time. after that, chinhan taught the boys some camp cheers. main cheer was "hey momma". a catchy beat with even catchier dance moves! we also have "hungry hungry cheer" to be chanted prior every meal, "macho/sexy frog cheer", and "peeping-through-the-window cheer". all really cute. and all sung cooperatively and enthusiastically by the boys!

last event for the day was night walk. oh my. really scary. we were walking along a steep cliff on really wet and slippery stones. some fell. me included. erm.. i meant fell a little bit down a few stones, not down the cliff. obviously.

bath time then lights out for the boys. volunteers gathered at the girls dorm. nth much just relaxing and talking. and getting to know each other. oh, alot of teasing of *ahem* and *ahem* too. shant name names!

day 2:
morning jog followed by breakfast. then it was time for "obstacle course". pairs were tied tgt at the legs and made to dribble balls, jump ropes, duck walk and burst water ballons using their butts. a game of coordination and stamina. could see the team quite breathless toward the end of the obstacle course.

"lend me your eyes and ears". also played in pairs. one of the pair is blindfolded and made to piggyback the other, who was to guide the blindfolded through an obstacle course. plenty of sweat, flour and peanut butter involved (:

now teams were given time and props to prepare for a 5min performance tt they had to stage later on that night. theme: a crazy story. boys were somewhat unwilling to participate initially, but after warming up to the idea it got better.

time for "soapy tug of war". teams stood on a soapy sheet of canvas while playing tug of war. alot of pulling and falling. some crazy boys tied the rope around their waists! and when the rope was pulled -- ouch! haha quite funny actually.

last game for the camp: water bomb! it was boys vs. volunteers and instructors. like every other water bomb game, it was wet and fun (:

free time then bbq dinner. as instructed by the instructors, the boys attended to the bbq pits and served food to the volunteers. a little embarrassing.. after this it was time for the teams to stage their performance. the teams did a really gd job. could see that the boys and volunteers really put their hearts into it. we had performances of crazy people frm the asylum, powerpuff girls, gangsters turned ah guas, and tigers in shopping malls. all acted enthusiastically and all deserve much credit.

lights out for the boys. volunteers gathered tgt to play polarbear and a pen snatching game late into the night.

day 3:
wake up. breakfast. go home -- exhuasted but happy.

the camp was a success. much credit really goes to the dedicated volunteers (: hope the next camp will be just as successful, if not better!

Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Sembawang Park Recce



The movie event of the year! Titled: Sembawang Boys Camp...Get ready..Starring Thumbelina and the 5 kaypohs

On Sunday (2 Dec), Jianwen (the organiser of games for the coming boys camp), Rabin, Chin Han, Daisy and I (game masters) met up at Sembawang Park to recce the grounds and choose the sites for the games that we would be playing in the December camp to be held on the 12 to 14. Sembawang Park turned out to have quite a few patches of land but most of the ground had lots of slopes. So, it ended up that we could only hold our games in a few places. The flatest piece of land we could find was chosen to be the location for games such as soapy tug-of-war and modified captain's ball while the largest field which had trees in it was chosen for games such as the obstacle course and water bomb. We wanted to have as much variety as possible in the locations for our games and even planned to have one of the games on the beach itself but changed our minds when we saw that it was around 2 metres wide. We finally decided the better option would be to hold one of our games on the path along the beach.

Our group then made our way to the Boys' Brigade and Girls' Brigade Campsite (accomodation for the camp). The campsite has a pretty large field with a scary looking obstacle course at the back of it.We decided to hold some of our games in this field. After we had finalized the locations for our games, we decided to check out the rooms that we would be staying in. All the rooms we walked by had the windows shut, curtains drawn and door locked, therefore, we couldn't see the inside of the rooms. Everyone agreed that the place had an eerie feel to it (this was when we were checking the place out with the sun shining brightly... so it looks like the nights we will be spending at the camp will be pretty exciting... ). While checking the rooms, we came across a small hall in the corridor. We were quite happy to see that we could have a space to play some games if it rained. We then made our way up to the third floor, where the NTU volunteers would be staying, and this was where we found a room with the windows opened. Jianwen stuck his hand through the window to pull aside the curtains and we saw that the room had double decker beds. Just as we were discussing that it would be impossible to shift the beds from one room to another we heard some angry shouts from below. Apparently, the security uncle was furious with us for trespassing the property. This was because we had not informed anyone that we were there. All of us quickly rushed down, apologised to him and got out of the place.

Although our recce session didn't end too pleasantly, all of us were still excited about the fun we would have with the games during the camp. Well, i'm looking forward to the 12 of Dec and hopefully the rest of the volunteers will be too : )


Friday, 30 November 2007

Tis' the season


~ Alright! Exam is over and now it is time for wsc again! Some of the activities that we will be doing this coming hols are the WSC Boys camp from 12 - 14 Dec and the Christmas Celebration which falls on the 21st Dec. There will be christmas caroling, games and lots of food for the 21st Dec event! The game masters are going to recce the camp site this coming sunday at ard 2pm. Volunteers who are interested in the recce can join us too! Ciao. ~

From Jianwen

Sunday, 21 October 2007

It's All Started with Mistakes

It's all started with mistakes. I was almost late. I forgot to bring my EZLink card. I didn't prepare much than enough. I was skeptical.

It was the first day, finally, for all of the fresh RSP Youth volunteers. For most of us, this would be the first ever experience for us. Some of us were anxious, some were agitated, some were highly excited (well, at least for me...) ! To summarize, the butterflies were choreographing in our stomach...

We reached the Boys Home located very near to NTU campus before 8pm. Honestly I was quite surprised to see such a 'high security' facility in this area. There were even a double layer of huge fence for clearance of cars and visitors. My thoughts were dwelling, 'What are these? Who am I going to deal with?'. Fortunately, there were total 19 of us. Well, we were such a huge group anyway, nothing to be worried right?!

After a mini briefing, we were allowed to enter out block D facility. Walking through long corridors, we browsed around, looking through the high and hard steel fences built all the way, there was a slight discomfort. 'It's a huge cage' quoted from one of us. Yea, to some extent I agree on that. Perhaps that was the first time we walk in a 'huge cage'.

The kids were quite excited to see such a huge bunch of us. We were brought into an activity room and began our activity of the day. We played a classic game where all the participants were required to find words from the given alphabets. Haha, my heart was pumping as I'd need to attract the kids' attention to the game as well as start to create a bridge between us. It started with a brief introduction. Well, it came to me that some of them were actually quite talkative. Afterall, they are the same person as we are. It's really a nice session. I wish I could have more time interact with them.

One hour was really short for us. After Jian Wen annouced to the kids that we would be coming back 2 months after, some of them said they hope to see us again soon. They were really taking initiative to help us tidy up the room and in a blink - everything was in place again, and that was the end of the session.

To me, I've never deal with youth before as my previous experience was to deal with small kids. This was my very first experience and somehow I am highly motivated and very keen on looking forward to the next session, sadly speaking, will be months after now. Anyway, I know all of us are ready now. From what I see and feel, I give you a definite, defiant Yes. There is no doubt, and time will prove it.
- Boon Ming

Wednesday, 10 October 2007

WSC Appreciation Dinner 2007


The night was rainy but the members' spirits were not dampened by the wet, muddy journey as droves turned up for the annual dinner appreciation with ready smiles and hungry stomachs in anticipation of the mouth-watering eight-course feast in a cosy Chinese restaurant known as Guilin located at Bukit Batok.

The annual event is to thank the old volunteers, anyone who has served with their hearts for a minimum of one year, for dedicating their time and effort in helping people who are less fortunate than us. The world is not a fairy-tale land for anyone. But helping one another is the only way to bring us closer to this Utopia.

During the event, our attention was divided between the food and the entertaining host. Guilin restaurant's reputation will unlikely be affected by its food review here, so lets begin the food report :) The food neither exploded any orgasmic sensation in the palate, nor tasted like common hawker food. It was generally satisfactory to most of us, based on no one commenting similiar to - "The food is fan-freaking-tastic!" - within hearing range, or throwing up within sight.

The host, an NTU student, created positive energy in the atmosphere with his antics, to add to the socialising amongst ourselves over dinner. Couples were drawn from the crowd to play in games like acting in MTV to Indian, Malay and Chinese songs. The audience were very amused as a result. The guest-of-honour, an NTU professor, also displayed his martial arts skills with fierce shouts accompanying every bone-breaking leg or hand thrusts.

The new committee was also ushered in officially that night and appreciation awards were also handed out to deserving volunteers. Overall, it was not a bad way to spend a rainy evening :)

Monday, 17 September 2007

youth orientation 2007


*

so last saturday was the orientation for rsp youth.

we met at 0930..waited around..ice-breaking games started at around 1030..actually, ice-breaking game, to be exact. there was only 1 game: double whacko.

it was quite fun..first played with the boys' home ppl..then everyone played together. but it was a bit impossible to remember everyone's name..too many ppl le!


*

the more exciting part of the day started after lunch. the amazing race! i think we were quite unlucky coz we got quite a lousy route..had to do a lot of unnecessary travelling! but we were too good to be stumped by that!

and we entertained ourselves during the train rides by playing lame games (: the bang bang 1.. mrt stations 1.. the open-close 1.. fuzzy wuzzy.. etc etc. boon meng (not sure how to spell his name hehe) had quite a few lame games to torture us with! think jianwen was the most tortured, coz for some reason, he has never played any of them before and we had great fun torturing him

oh forgot to intro the people who were there.

old volunteers: me, jianwen, junhan and rabin
new volunteers: hui wen, hui koon, michelle, khalissa, christine (at the beginning and end haha), boon meng, hock heng (aka ah cai4), boon meng, kian lye (i think)

the new volunteers were all nice nice ppl (: and we all got along very well! obviously we did right..that's why we WON!!!

yupz we won even though we got a lousy route!

i think we really deserved it! coz we worked really hard for it..it was really tiring..coz even though we'd said we wouldn't run, obviously we ended up running in the end. and we ended up running a lot. oh yes, have to thank hui wen, coz she was literally our walking street directory, helped us save a lot of time by directing us to a lot of places (esp those in chinatown).

the amazing race was quite well-designed..liked the part about taking photos with people of different nationalities! and the new volunteers were all quite onz..which was definitely the key to our success. khalissa was fasting and yet she was running as hard as the rest of us! super admirable!

*

one of the highlights of the day was definitely the interrogation session on the steps of clarke quay mrt station! the new volunteers + rabin were intensively interrogated and gamely shared many interesting things about themselves.

of coz, the other highlight of the day was our celebratory dessert session at swensens! went there to use up our prize: $80 swensens voucher. the ice-cream was super shiok after the day's exertions! and of coz, the high of our victory made it exceptionally sweet (:


*

yupz think i've covered everything le. all in all, it was quite a fun day..and i'm looking forward to meeting the new volunteers again when they start coming for the sessions! (:

Friday, 14 September 2007

of secret missions and rowdy soldiers

ok i'm a bit nervous because it's my first time writing for this blog..well. here goes..

*warning: long post ahead!!*

i'll just start from last week's session, since we sort of had a new start with the new group of boys. yupz so last week we got a surprise when we realised that the home had actually arranged for a new group of boys to come for the weekly sessions. so we carried out an impromptu get-to-know-you session. i'm not sure about everyone else, but i was a bit intimidated by the new group of boys coz they didn't seem to be as welcoming as the previous group.

so i was a bit apprehensive about this week's session, initially planned to be an 'interaction session' where we'd talk to the boys one-to-one (or one-to-two, seeing as there are only 7 of us and 13 of them..). luckily (at least for me), our dearest blkhead came up with this new game.

basically, we gave them a scenario to work with: it was wartime. we were all soldiers on a mission to infiltrate enemy territory and lie in wait there for a week before starting our attack when given the signal to. each team (comprising 4 boys and 2 volunteers) was to come up with a list of 10 items to bring on this mission. the teams would then present their list to the rest of the group and everyone would vote to decide which team came up with the best list.

the objective of the game was to let the boys express their creativity and also practise some analytical thinking skills. in addition, it would also allow us to interact with the boys in a more relaxed setting.

so we split up into 3 teams and started brainstorming. the game started off quite well..everyone looked like they were having fun. think the war+guns+shooting+fighting theme went down quite well with the boys, as expected. boys will be boys hahah.

unfortunately, for my team, things went a little downhill about halfway thru the discussion. to summarise, it was coz of edmus (or edmas or admus or..yea i'm not quite sure how to spell his name). i think he will be quite tricky to handle. a short fuse + ego + a loud voice + tendency to violence. tricky in the sense that he may affect the other boys, like what happened today. but 1 thing that we have working for us is that he seems quite receptive towards the volunteers so once we get him to trust us enough, it probably won't be too hard to keep things under control.

ok back to the game..

so after about 30mins of brainstorming, the teams were ready to present their answers. our team went first..and was showered with a barrage of questions, both intelligent and less-intelligent. we almost died. hahah. i was a bit taken aback by the hostility of the other teams, and i think the boys in the team were too (although we only had 2 actively participating boys by this time). almost right from the start, there was quite a shouting match going on. it was fun la..some of the things the boys said were really quite funny..but coz all of them somehow
have super loud voices..and coz they somehow have this idea that whoever is loudest wins, things really got quite chaotic. and i really think the acoustics of the room is really bad la..really bad echo..once everyone starts talking at the same time, which is basically most of the time, u really can't hear what anyone is saying at all.

yupz so our team took quite a beating..and we moved on to the 2nd team. i think the team dynamics of the 2nd team were not bad. the team spirit was more apparent. their list was not bad..though i personally think it wasn't as good as our team's hehe. the 2nd team's presentation went quite fast coz of our deflated boys and the unspoken (i think) alliance between them and team 3.

team 3 seemed to me like they had the most fun during the brainstorming so i was quite looking forward to their presentation. their list turned out to be quite an..unexpected and definitely very creative one. they had characters like the genie (aladdin's friend), osama etc. u get the idea. their presentation went quite fast too coz i think the rest of us were a bit stunned by their list hahah. they really thought out of the box. sadly, i think we were less amused than they expected us to be. maybe it was, like celine said, coz the 1st 2 teams went with very practical ideas and so this 3rd list seemed rubbishy in comparison.

to end the game, everyone voted and unsurprisingly, team 2 emerged the winner! which reminds me of something..are we getting any prizes for them?

to sum up..i think the session went quite well. most ppl had fun which was good coz the boys will probably be more enthusiastic about future sessions. and i think we also achieved our aim of interacting with the boys and getting to know them more. guess we have to thank jianwen for finding this wonderful game (:

whew. finally got to the end of this longggg post. was so stressed when writing it la..coz jianwen kept saying he wants to see what i will write! and my normal blogging style is definitely not so formal hahah but no choice..this blog is too public..find it weird to be too informal.

yay finally made a contribution to this blog (:

*jw: changed ur mind abt putting me in charge of the orientation blog entry? hahha

Sunday, 9 September 2007

Upcoming WSC Orientation!

"Dear members of Blk D,

Do you remember how all of you got to know each other? Was it during the first WSC session? Or was it during the YOUTH orientation? Do you still have any ideas what you guys did? Nope? Well, let us take a look at the following photos and see if you can recall anything!"
Regards, Jianwen

Our group in last year's orientation

Yammie, Alvis, Chin han, Daisy, Sandra, Rachelle, Yoke wen, Rabin, Jia yin, Rachell, Celine and me are the remaining survivors in this pic =)

Making a YOUTH sign

What are you looking at, ladies?

All paying attention except for the guy in BLUE TSHIRT.

Sunday, 26 August 2007

Sports Heat & Welcome Tea

Boys Home and Probation Home

C'mon gals!

I'm the first!

Volunteers from the boys home

Just for fun..

Pizza supper at Mauritius!

Entry:
On the 26 August, some of the boys from the home went down to NTU's SRC to attend the Annual sports heat. All of them reached the stadium by 8am. It was not just a sports heat for the boys home. It was a sports heat for all the homes in Singapore! There are probation homes, girls home, girls hostel, children homes and many more.

Marcus, Hafiz and Haizal were there to take part in the heats. They sacrificed their saturday just to represent the home for this event. Marcus took part in the 4 x 400m relay while Haizal took part in the 100m race. Haizal got second for his event. It was a close race for Hazal. He and his competitor stepped the line almost at the same time. Never mind Haizal, I believe that in the finals on next sat, you can beat that guy. As for Hafiz, I think he got second for his event too. I think Hafiz did not eat much for his breakfast. He went to look for me and kept complaining about how hungry he was and how "sucky" his breakfast was. I wanted to get him some food but the canteen was just too far. So, I just watched him suffer in hunger. =)

As for Marcus, I think he really run his lungs out. He looked super pale after the race. I hope he is okie by now. Well done Boys!! It doesn't matter what placing you get for the race. What matters most is that you guys did your best. I am so proud of you guys!!

Some good news for all of us. Haizal is out of the boys home. The Dean of students happened to be there when we had the sports heat. He praised all of us for organising such an event in NTU. He also promised to give us support whenever we need. The manager from block D told me that he will pump in funds if we organise events for the boys home and he really hopes that we can come down during the Dec camp to help out. So yupz.. hope that all of us are able to make it for the Dec camp. =)

BTW, the Welcome Tea was a success! Everyone loved our video and all of us had a great day. We went supper after the welcome tea because there were simply not enough food for all the gluttons in the YOUTH! - All my volunteers, centre heads and youth coordinators are so funny and lovable - Hahaha. We rock rock ROCK!
Written by Jianwen

Friday, 27 July 2007

Secret Code


This week’s session was organised by Lydia and myself and was dedicated to a single game called ‘Secret Code’ (even though we had 2 games planned). In this game, the boys were split into 2 teams and each team had to work together to score points by answering questions written on the white board. The catch was that questions were written in code. In the code, each letter that was required for the question was written as the letter that comes before it in the alphabet. If you have no idea what the sentence you just read means, then for example, the word ‘cat’ is ‘dbu’ in code and ‘Singapore’ is ‘Tjohbqpsf’. The concept of the game came from Jian Wen’s list of games (thanks Jian Wen) but Lydia and I came up with the questions and translated them into code.

Getting back to what happened for the session- Team 1 consisted of 8 members while Team 2 was made up of 9 members and both the teams were quick to grasp the concept of the code. Initially, team 2 was a little quicker, and soon, they were leading by 2 points. After the second question was answered, Lydia and I realised that the boys were deciphering the code too easily. Therefore, we improvised and started leaving out letters in the words for the boys to figure out. This was when the scores started evening out. It was great to see determination and competitiveness (although at times a little excessive) in the boys and hopefully, they apply this for their studies, sports and whatever they endeavor to do in the future. At the end of the game, the scores were even, so both teams were winners (however, we did not prepare any prizes). Through the game, there was (or I hope there was) suspense, laughter, disputes over Rabin’s handwritting and, paraphrasing Jun Han, ‘brain cells that were destroyed’. In contrast, I think the game was educational to those who did not know the answers to some of the questions. With any luck, most of us walked out of this week’s session with a little more general knowledge (except for one unlucky boy who had the projector screen fall on him twice).


Here is the list of questions asked:

1. Who is the president of Singapore?
2. Who is the prime minister of Singapore?
3. Who is the minister of education of Singapore? (No team could answer this question and it
was weird that both teams initially gave ‘Simpsons the Movie’. Other answers that were
given include ‘Balakrishnan’ and ‘Lee Kwan Yui’)
4. Who is the most recent FIFA World Cup Winner?
5. Name a book written by the author J. K. Rowling.
6. How many books are there in the Harry Potter series?
7. Who is the director of ‘I Not Stupid’?
8. How many days are there in a leap year?
9. Which month has that extra day?
10. What is the standard value of Earth’s gravitational acceleration?
11. Where will the two proposed casinos of Singapore be located?
12. What is nationally symbolic animal of Singapore?
13. Name another movie starring the lead actor of Diehard4.0.

Answers:
1. Sellapan Rama (S.R.) Nathan
2. Lee Hsien Loong
3. Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Ok, he is a little botak but not completely)
4. Italy
5. Harry Potter and the
5.1 Philosopher's/Sorcerer’s Stone
5.2 Chamber of Secrets
5.3 Prisoner of Azkaban
5.4 Goblet of Fire
5.5 Order of the Phoenix
5.6 Half-Blood Prince
5.7 Deathly Hallows
6. 7
7. Jack Neo
8. 366
9. February
10. 9.81
11. Marina Bay and Sentosa
12. Merlion/lion
13. Armageddon

Trivia on Jian Wen:

1. He was acted in a minor role in the movie ‘I Not Stupid’. He was only 17 then.

Ok..Just kidding

2. He has great taste in choosing cakes

again.. kidding


Yay! I’ve finally contributed my share to the blog! Thanks for the birthday celebration at the end of the session. Hope to have more great sessions with the rest of you guys : )

Tuesday, 24 July 2007

19th July Session Report cum Jianwen Birthday!



Alright chin han here, my virgin attempt at writing a blog, hope you guys dun bombard me....

Ok, the day started off with 7 of us...the usuals except for kash who could not make it because her friend was jetting off. Some were early, most were late. Apologise Rabin and Celine, we will try to be punctual next time. Boss Jianwen disseminated some information regarding formation of new blocks as well as tasks, stuffs that we may have to consider for next semester....

YOUTH centre head had a meeting the day before, to address the plans they need for the upcoming recruitment fair. One of them was to get hand-drawn poster designs from the boys from all blocks so that we can select the best one to represent us.

Meeting the boys, Jianwen explained to the boys the purpose of the drawings and they comply, though a bit unwillingly. But as it went along, we could see that most were actually using their creativity to come out with the drawings. Appreciated...

Today's session was planned for tuitioning, after the boys were done with their drawings, the volunteers proceed to give them one-on-one tuition. Things went smoothly, the volunteers tried their best to teach them and time past fast. Before we realised, the staff officer came into our room to tell us that we had exceeded the time and that the boys needed rest because they having early classes tmr.

Leaving the centre.....we proceed to the birthday celebration for Jianwen at Boon Lay market. Fun, food, laughter, pictures...a nice ending to the night. HAPPY 23RD BIRTHDAY JIANWEN ' )

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Happy birthday Chin Han!!



The long-awaited-for post and photos are finally up! (:

7 of us made it for this session -- Jianwen, Chin Han, Rabin, Kash, Celine, Lydia, and Daisy.

In a nutshell, the session was a success. There were some teeny weeny totally insignificant hiccups at the beginning, such as us being 30min late for session, having the staff give us a weird look for being 30min late, and having to stall time with the boys till our more-than-30min late Jianwen arrived with the games. But when he finally did arrive and we got into the mood of the game, we began to really enjoy ourselves.

The first game went like this: Jianwen would write a string of incomprehensible words on the whiteboard, which sound the same as a particular phrase that we were suppose to guess. Divided into 3 teams, we cracked our brains and snatched to answer. After many rounds of quick wits and fast responses by the smart young boys, Jianwen ended the game and invited the losing team to perform a butt dance. It turned out to be Chin Han and boys. They graceously accepted the forfeit. Standing with their backs toward us, they swayed their butts rhythmically from left to right. Right to leftt. Left to right. (: After 5seconds they were awarded with a loud round of applause!

The second game was also an english word game. Jianwen would write a question on the whiteboard but the alphabets within the words themselves would be jumbled up. We were to decipher the question and provide with an answer. Halfway through the game, Jianwen posted a question "When is Chin Han's birthday?" To which we were all puzzled. How would we know when it is? It was found that his birthday was 2 days later. The next question read "Shall we sing a birthday song for Chin Han?" And then we realised what all this was leading to...

Jianwen had sneakily arranged for us sing a birthday song for our dearest Chin Han! And it just so happened that one of the boys (cant remember his name so we shall name him "shuai ge" for now) just had his birthday 2 days earlier. Upon inviting both birthdays boys to the stage, Jianwen ordered us to sing them a birthday song and "rock the house". And we did (:

After the session, the volunteers gathered at the waiting area and had another small celebration for Chin Han's birthday. We then stuffed ourselves with dounuts, which Jianwen repeatedly emphasized he had queued 1hr for. Thank you Jianwen (:

After which we headed for -- you guessed it -- supper. And this ws suggested by -- yes you guessed it again -- Kash. Upon jaywalking across the road rather then using the nearby traffic light, climbing the sharp prickly fence rather than walking around it, and mounting the slippery slope rather than using the nearby stairs, we made it to the hawker centre. Hopefully next time Kash's stomach will allow us to choose a more glamarous route (:

Friday, 6 July 2007

July 5th S U P E R uber tuition time

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Disclaimer:
If you think you will get sick of reading countless "super" words in one article, please dont read this.
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On that very fateful day, exactly 8 p.m. sharp, five brilliant superheroes, dressed in plain civilian clothes, flew silently as a ghost into Singapore Boys' Home to save the helpless, innocent, young boys from deadly mental atrophy.

The five superheroes taught them brain-hemorrhaging Maths and Chemistry with their superhuman superpowers for about an hour and once again, saved the day. Singapore Boys' Home returned to peace and prosperity but not for long as next week, the fantastic five** will have to battle and rescue the boys from the fatal sickness of boredom by playing super fun games.

After the super uber tuition was unanimously declared a resounding success, a discussion was held for the upcoming camps about what games can be organised. The superheroes dug deep into their super imaginations and brainstormed until dark black clouds started amassing in the night sky, followed by blinding lightning bolts and deafening thunder. That was when the heroes knew they had to stop using their super powers and head for supper. Besides that, Kash was also super hungry and since she was the most powerful amongst us, even with our powers combined, the four of us had no other choice but to go for a super supper.

Chin Han and JunWei took us in their superb cars for the supper affair which was of course, superb. The superheroes had fulfilled their duties yet again and headed back home, back to their mundane human lives, to get ready for the next battle the following week. Stay tuned for the next episode.

**number may change

Sidenote - Last time, there were tuition and games conducted at the same time in two rooms. Now, due to limited manpower, it was no longer feasible to continue on. Either tuition or games could only be done. Games were chosen as the boys prefer that. Now, tuition and games on alternating weeks is being implemented. The result on the first week, was a low response from the older boys. The younger ones were more keen.

Saturday, 30 June 2007

June 28's session report

JunWei: "The blog is very sentimental leh! I feel like crying everytime I read it!"

What?! No more setting the writing mood by listening to Clifton's "Lost in a cave".

Three of us arrived late on July 28's session with good reasons, except me. The punctual ones played Uno with the young kids in a small library with books ranging from "Principle of internal medicine" to soccer books. The older boys had a lecture about sex education at that time. Seven members came. Two new angels (Kash and Hsu Qi) came but you are not going to see a part II of "The arrival of a pleasant surprise.." due to Daisy commenting it was lame. Once bitten, twice shy.

Next week onwards, tuition and games will be implemented on alternating weeks. Tuition will be given this coming week. The purpose of this plan is to create a balance between play and studies in our sessions. Spreading this balance between play and studies outside their session times is also a desired outcome.

Two camps for the boys are going to be held this year. Here's straight from the horse's mouth:
"Hi,

There will be two camps that will require our help. The first one will be held in 24 October 07 to 26 October 07 while the other will be held from 10 Dec 07 to 12 Dec 07. For the first camp, since it is near to our exam date, I have already told the MCYS staff that we will only be able to help them come out with games for them to execute on those three days.

However, for the second camp, I'm thinking, other than coming out with the games, maybe we can also go down for one to two days and join in the fun. Camp is supposed to be fun and thus I think we will enjoy during this camp. Right now I need some games ideas for the first camp. If you have any ideas, you can post it onto the tag box on our Blogspot http://www.ntuwscd.blogspot.com/ or you can just email me. More brain storming will be done during the next session. Thanks alot! "
Do help if you can.

After the session was closed, a spontaneous suggestion was made and we drove out for supper at BoonLay market with JianWen treating us. Thank you Jianwen. A tentative movie outing has been planned after next thursday's session to watch Ocean's 13. We wont be expecting JianWen to treat us again. Adieu.

Friday, 22 June 2007

The arrival of a pleasant surprise and a jolly good time

Friend - "Hey dude, its a shame we will not be able to show any movie because they said they don't have the stupid projector for playing dvds lor."
Someone - "Oh god!".

I made that up. But it summed up our concerns of being unable to fulfill the boys' movie request. Last week, Answar, one of the boys, keenly suggested that we screen a good movie and we tried our very best to meet his wish. Circumstances destroyed the boy's wish. The staff said they had no projector for playing DVD movies. We only hoped for their understanding when we told the boys about it. We did not want to look like all talk and no action. However their reaction to this news was only a casual reply from Answar, "Lobaanng ah".

So we ended up playing a fun card game thought of by Chin Han, our unofficial Game Master. But before we go into that, lets address the arrival of the pleasant surprise that crashed in singapore from heaven(well its actually Netherlands). She was the first to arrive at the Boys' Home and was like a fresh warm wind blown from the summer heat in Europe, carrying all the sweet moistures across the vast continents and showering thunderously on us there and then. We were delightfully wet with bliss. They say good things come in small packages, but good things also come in the form of Daisy. To thank her for coming, we shall aptly name the blog cat "Daisy" until another angel crashes from heaven. Please feed and play with Daisy while you can. Thanks alot.

Back to seriousness, five people came today for the session. We do hope more would come. We didnt see any volunteers from the other blocks today. Does this indicate our level of dedication and enthusiasm for the boys? Maybe... *shrugs innocently with a tilted head*. Jianwen told us that since the number of volunteers are growing lesser with time, volunteers from different blocks might be merged in the future. Blk D and E, for us. This is due to the new hall point system. In the past, alot of points were given to WSC volunteers but today, not as much.

Now back to the game. The card game we played worked like this. Every player received equal number of cards and the players would decide on a theme for the game. Two groups were formed. The capable Chin Han managed one group while the four of us were in the other. The theme our group picked was animal sounds. So, each of us had to think of an animal sound and let others know what we chose. Wayne picked donkey sound - "Yee-Haw", JianWen picked chick - "chip chip", Daisy picked pig - "Oink", I picked cow - "moo", Markus picked woman(not sure)- "ren?", the boy beside me - "meow", WenXiong - "Aahh"(dunno what animal), another boy - "Pok pok pokeh" and the boy with smouldering Italian facial features - "woof". Each player had to put down a card turn by turn and when two persons had the same card number, whoever said the other person's animal sound first won the duel and the loser would have to take the winner's cards. The rest of the cards remained on the table. The game resumed from the winner afterwards. Therefore, to win, one had to clear his cards.

There were plenty of hilarious moments as this game required lightning-fast thinking reflexes and a good memory. People would say the wrong animal sound or utter incoherent noise probably because their mouth moved before their brain could send the proper signals. Haha. The loser, Markus, had to do a forfeit by dancing to music, "Last Ketchup", from a handphone speaker. He was shy and after pulling Wayne, who graciously accepted, into the hot seat, they did a short couple dance together. For a moment, I thought Wayne must have taken dancing lessons before. Hmmmm.

Today's session went well largely due to Chin Han's splendid game and the boys' openness to our game ideas. Adios.

Wednesday, 20 June 2007

Countdown to the blockbuster movie screening



Some of the movies that we will be bringing for them to decide are The last Samurai and Happy Feet. Dunno whether the rest will be bringing too. JianWen might be bringing gay porn haha.

Family Day, Jun 16 2007 slideshow


Volunteers acting cute!

Hello dear reader! This is the virgin post! Interested to know what a Family Day event for Boys Home is like? Interested to know what we did? Move your eyes to the next paragraph. Sentimental slideshow has been removed due to legal reasons. If you want to know what they are, ask us. Us - senior vol. If you want to view it, leave message at chatbox.

On that particular saturday, six of us went to assist in the event. JunWei, JianWen, Wayne, Chin Han, Hsu Qi and me. The Family Day is an annual event with the objective of promoting family ties between the boys and parents. We expected it to be for all the blocks but discovered later it was only for our block. Block D. Last year, the WSC members had organised the event single-handedly however, this year, an events company was hired to organise. This year's event was also much smaller in scale compared to last year's while more money was spent to hire the events company. Next year, we know who the Boys' Home will ask to organise. Just kidding!

Hoping to cultivate better bonds, the host facilitated games where parents and their children formed teams. We helped to form teams with boys whose parents were unable to make it for the event. Although I would not say it was a total blast of fun from start till end, it was moderately fun. We took some pictures discreetly to kill abit of time. There were also performances. Some of the boys performed a Tamil dance and 2 Malay songs. The energetic Tamil dance had creative choreography. The three dudes kept surprising with their every next move. I was hooked, at least. But, two of the three didnt appear to have the confidence to strut their intricate dance sequences on stage. Anyway, it was entertaining still. In one of the Malay songs, Haizal played rhythm and arpeggios to a ballad which had two english and two malay song parts combined together. One of them was "Every breath you take" by Sting. The singer sang well with good vibrato and the guitar sound played by Haizal came out bright and pleasing to the ears. But the second guitar played by their friend sounded off-tune to the music. It sounded muddy and ugly. Later I asked him about it and he told me one of the guitar strings had broken at the very last minute and there was no time to restring. But anyway, it was again entertaining still. We also got some game ideas from the event. JianWen took home the paper sheets used in the games for future use.

It was a different experience interacting with the boys away from the claustrophobic and intimidating "prison walls". Bye.