final session + farewell

chin han! i'm here!

first of all, congrats to everyone! we survived yet another round of exams!!

ok moving to the first item on the agenda: our final session for sem 1. since it was to be the final session, boon ming and ah chai put in some effort to make it a memorable one. we played hangman, with the boys vs. the volunteers. for the first few rounds, each team thought of words for the other team to guess, and it was a close fight! for the final rounds, boon ming came up with some questions for us to guess..and the boys started to take the lead..and they ended up winning with a comfortable margin. but of course, we were happy to let them win!

oh i must state for the record that hui wen was a very good guesser! she even managed to guess 'McSpicy'..which to me is pretty amazing hahah

after the game and prize-giving session, chin han took out his multi-coloured ice cream sticks, and we were supposed to write messages to the boys and they would write messages to us. this was quite a good idea! provided you had boys you wanted to write messages to hahah. soke hwa, i still have your ice cream stick ok!

all in all, i would say that it was a really fun and memorable session. thanks to those who put in effort to make it such a great session! :)

*

now moving on to the farewell part..

since i'll be going on exchange next semester, this semester is my last in ntu. hahah i didn't even realise it was my last session until on that day itself! and because it's my last session, i was tasked to blog about it and also to write my farewell thoughts.

hmm. i'm not really sure what to write. coz it still feels a little unreal..

i'll start off by thanking all of you, my fellow volunteers. especially those who've been with me since i joined in year 1. the years have gone by just like that! thank you all for giving me such wonderful memories. i think..the time i spent with you all, whether at sessions or at our (very rare) outings are definitely among the happiest in my university life.

although there were definitely some times when it felt like a chore to have to go for sessions every week, i don't think i ever regretted going for any one of them. and it's definitely something i will miss when i'm in canada :( well, hopefully i'll be able to join u all for some sessions when i come back!

but..you all don't have to be too sad and start missing me now! hahahha. coz i'll still be here for the camp! i didn't get to take part in the camp last year, so luckily i have another chance this year before i leave. let's make it a wonderful one k!

ok this is a really long post. (chin han! more than 5 paragraphs already! hahah) but if u don't remember anything about the long story i wrote, the main point is this:

thanks for the memories! :)


take care, guys and gals!

Karaoke Sessino @ Boys' Home

Hi! It has been a long time I didn't blog here and so good I volunteered myself to write for this blog (hehehe... *evil smile*).

Last Thursday was quite funny session. We, the NTU (what the boys like to call us... they always like, "See.. NTU is coming...", "No lah, NTU will do that.. NTU will do this..", "NTU sing la.." etc), did not prepare any games (as our dear ah chai forgot to bring the board games and etc) So out of a long waited randomness we decided to have a karaoke fight between the boys and the volunteers.

OK. The volunteers came up and acapella the song MY LOVE from Westlife and although with some pitchy problems, they managed to pass the first round. The more important thing was that, we saw some boys quite cooperative and decided to lead the group (although others not very willing to sing, they paiseh ler... wakakaka). They ended up with a song "APOLOGIZE" by TIMBERLAND and to be honest la... haha... though not very uniform performance but we the volunteers felt quite happy and glad to see that some boys really stood up to lead or to volunteer. At least they got the heart to do it... While others were too shy ler... haha... 

How can we make them not so shy next week?? lol ... ... Perhaps we shall ask our head Jun Han to sing solo first in front of everyone? lol

Outing Chinatown courtesy of huikoon's idea = )

Hey dudes, i had a wonderful day singing with you lots. Really break my record of number of songs sang in a day. 5 hrs zoom past so fast it only shows that time is very well-spent and i am going to miss it. Hehe.

Huikoon is goddess-like when she sings. She sings high pitch at ease. Super impressive. Miss 杨丞琳

Boonming is good with any type of songs. Love, Rap, Rock etc.

Ah chia is 周传雄-alike

Peggy is as usual the best. =) Chin han is ...him....enough said hahaha! =(

Peggy and Huikoon


Ah chai and Huikoon


The 2 best friends = )



Dessert after dinner =)



Last pic of the day. Niceeee!

4/9 and 11/9 sessions

yup. the pics taken with my 3.2megapixel hp cam. boonming with his act-cool pose. ahchai with his pretty pink shirt. yenbin with his dun-mess-with-me-coz-im-your-new-financial-controller smile.

had sessions on the 4th and 11th of sep. our turnout is easily twice/ thrice the turnout of other blocks. chinhan shd be proud of the level of commitment and dedication of his block's volunteers, which is why i predict that he will be treating everyone to a meal during the malaysia trip. thanks in advance chinhan (:

anw for both sessions, the boys were split up. those having their exams had tuition while the rest played games. i was playing games during the 1st session. ah chai came up with this really really fun hand game. everyone was to put his hand on the table and take turns making hand signals to direct what the next person should do. its really harder than i make it sound. the boys ended up doing forfeits such as dancing on the table and giving jianwen a nice shoulder massage. we were having so much fun and making so much noise that the officers downstairs came all the way up to our room to check on us. yup better be more careful next time.

i gave tuition during the 2nd session. think the boys are really quite bright. much brighter than they let on. hope that they won't go looking for trouble once they are released from the home. it will be such a waste of their lives.

yup thats the end of my entry. updates: there will be no session on 18th sep, but there will be a fun and exciting malaysian trip on the 19th and 20th of sep (:

RSP Youth Orientation '08

last saturday morning.. we had 4 freshies: Hao Sheng, V.V, Ken Vin and Nicole! ice breakers in school! we played games like "who what huh" and "drinking goggles". many people had to do forfeits, including pole dances and asking random people for their numbers + saying "i am interested in you". hahahaha.

then we played a few mass games before starting out on the food fest hunt!

our food chain: Donut --> Nutella --> Laksa --> Sarsi --> Seaweed --> Wheatgrass --> Grass jelly --> Jelly bubble tea --> Tea egg --> Egg sandwich
Pitstop at Chinatown! we had to sing "when you believe" acoustic plus actions! luckily seow hong was one of the station masters! (i never say anything ah...)
2nd pitstop at National Library! played charades! Daisy was trying to describe "old lady going to the zoo to take picture with ah meng". it was very very difficult!
reached Botanic Gardens but sadly the station masters werent expecting us to arrive so fast. so nobody was there! then we received news about a change in final destination to the esplanade.. camwhored abit first. haha.
random mascot we saw at citylink outside num.
due to unforeseen circumstances, our blk had the least number of volunteers+seniors. but that didnt deter us from getting first again! (: sakae voucher!

keep up the gd work guys. hopefully blk d will win next year again.

ps: sorry if the entry looks abit like mine. "occupational hazard" (advertise abit. hahah)

pps: hope u guys like the new layout, songs and stuffs. pls give feedback and suggestions on what other things u want on the interface! and i think i need help with using blogskin's template.. anyone?

Yenbin's ENTRY!

14 August 2008

Today was the first session after the new semester starts. Some of us met in the new canteen (in front of the McDonald) and had dinner together before went to the boys’ home. We reached there on about 7.35pm.

We were having tuition today. ChinHan assigned the boys to each of us. Fortunately, most of the boys did bring their books, so we started the tuition. After a period of time, the room was full of excitement and sound suddenly. Why? It was because JianWen turned up at the room suddenly. He sat around a few boys in a corner and then we could notice how charming JianWen are. He was very popular among the boys and the sound of laughing was quite loud and clear. We all could sense the jollification and happiness from the boys over there.

The session ended on about 8.45pm. There was no supper today. We went home after the session ended.

By YenBin

31 July 2008

%&$@!@$!%@%!^Why you all must sabo me to write blog... Now u all happy liao right... i have to write this time blog. Before i start writing the blog, i should give my words of thanks. Firstly i thank soke hwa for pointing out that i have not written any blog. Secondly i must thanks khalisha for reminding everyone that i have not written my first blog.Lastly i must must thanks my beloved centrehead, junhan to 'ask' me to write this blog.'LIKE' U GUYS SO MUCH!!

Okie. now i start off le.As usual, Daisy and i were late for the session.So the minute we reached boys' home, we quickly rushed to join the rest of guys.When we entered the room,i saw that junhan was talking to boys.(cause junhan forget to tell that we are having tuition today so some of them never brought their books)After much persuasion , junhan manage to split the boys into 2 groups.One group will have tuition and another will be playing games. Most of the the boys are very guai , they chose to have tuition.Only 4 boys wanted to play games.I was assigned to play games with them.In the end i went to the other rooms with the other 4 boys.In the room , i did not play games with them.We are just chit chatting. After sometime , we felt a bit tired.There were a few mats there. So in the end, all of us used the mats and lie on the floor.We carry on some chit-chating. Not long , they started singing some malay songs and i just lie there listening. After sometime, they deicded to go back to their room(obviously i got ask junhan permission).After they went back, i went back another room and started teaching another boy.After like 15 mins , the session ended.

After that all of us(junhan, boon ming, khalisha, huiwen, daisy and me) decided to have a farewell party for our beloved lao zhu zhong(celine).Celine is going to holland for an attachment.Hereby, all of us wish her all the best and hope she will join us soon again.In the supper, we wish celine farewell and talk about some trivia stuff mainly revolves around junhan...

Thats the end of my entry, pardon me for any lousy angmo..

Seow Hong

Tuition day ` )

hello peeps,

it has been a while since the last entry...you lots are so lucky that i keep forgetting to appoint someone to write the day's entry `(

Today is tuition day wooooooowho! but But BUT on our way to the Home, it started raining... IT WAS POURING RAIN CAN!!! %$@#^%#^@ The rain was so strong that we could not see our hands as we stretch out. The water so rapid, Jurong Point nearly got washed away. (I hope it didn. I miss the foodcourt there.) The wind so strong, cars were lifted and smashed into trees. (Poor trees.) Ok you may think that im bullshitting but it was really really REALLY Heavy Rain K. That though did not dampen our spirits. Clap please...thks. Appreciated.

Myself, celine, khalisah, huiwen, SEOW HONG & DAISY were at what we do best. Volunteering our time to give the boys tuition. We had 12 boys today but we manage well. Everyone was very enthusiastic and i can see the boys listening and paying attention while we teach. Our session today last for 1 hour where we help them with mainly Maths, English, Sciences etc. This time round, most of them brought their books. This is a good sign. The eagerness to learn. I believe all the volunteers will agree with me. I hope the boys enjoy our tutoring and hope that we help them indeed.

P.s: On a side note, if you are curious why i highlighted the names of SH and D hmmmm..i oso dunno actually `) Cya all next thurs!

3 July 2008

It was my first time meeting with the new boys so was kind of excited. There were 9 of us altogether. Of those 9, only 3 were early and the rest was late. Shall not mention names. =p

Anyways, we started the session by splitting the boys into 2 groups and asking them to think of rules for themselves. That way, they will have no reason to go against the rules since they are the one who thought of them. They came up with quite a number of good rules which were implemented immediately.

After that was games time! We played ‘Who Is Missing?’. The game may sound easy but in real fact it is not that easy. Cos the main point of the game is that you have to be familiar with all the faces in the room in order to realize who is missing. Lucky me, I was sitting with the group of malay boys when they were discussing the rules and when I was ‘it’, they picked a malay boy. Hehe.. If they had chosen a chinese boy I’ll have a pretty hard time. =p

It was quite a fun game but I still can’t remember the names of the chinese boys. Somehow I find it harder to remember their chinese names. =x Hee..

Seow Hong..!!! My virgin entry is up. Your turn next.! Hehehe…

New Boys!

This day, (26/6) 8 + JianWen BLK D NTU volunteers with a big heart, gathered to attend their weekly session with their boys. They were myself, rabin, seow hong, celine, daisy, jiayin, huiwen and huikoon. Special appearance by JianWen who not only attended the session with us but also treated us with delicious Crispy Kreme Donuts packed all the way from Australia via jw's lap. HAHAH wad an idiot! .....real thks man. (Cost you a bomb we know and we appreciate it.)

Hmm wanna know wad did we do at our session?

As usual.. Nothing special... ya ya... bla bla..

NO!!! Today we got 13 boys and you guessed it! 12 of them are new! WHAT A SURPRISE!
(Ok actually the staff has already informed me that they are arranging 16 new boys for our session -_-". But still, it is a pleasant surprise to see new boys and attending our session! *proud hehe)

We needed some activity to lighten up the mood so we played some "ice-breaking games". Drinking goggles", "WHO? WHAT? AH?" and "007". I am the organiser of the day and lucky me i played these recently and i could recall them. Phew! oops..hehe..

Sited in a circle, we had a "mini introduction" that involves everyone. We ask simple questions such as their hobbies, age etc. The introduction was rather short partly because i want it to. Time was getting late and if we were to go thorough, we will have to stay till 10pm! It was a brief introduction and we only know slight details about them but it is still meaningful. Anw, bravo to all my volunteers for trying to speak up more. (*much much more than the boys fyi!)I can see everyone is trying hard. *thumbs up! hehe. I am sure we will have opportunities to get to know these new kids better through our games, tuition and 1-1 sessions. After the last person has introduced himself, i proceed to give my "speech" which i as usual nv plan! How good is it... ermms dun expect too much on me la k haha! ANW.. I then stated my expectations of the boys and i explain to them my structure for sessions. Finally after all these, we wish good night and off they go, back to their dorms.

For my volunteers information: it will be games-tuition-games as per usual but when it nears their examination, we will only give them tuition.
What i said to the boys:
1) when volunteers give instructions, all the boys must listen.
2) end of session, the boys must help to keep the chairs.
3) if any boy is to be found to be indiscipline, i will not hesitate to report him to his staff.

Thats all from me..Hope to see you folks on thurs! = )

19 June 2008

After receiving the rather threatening email from our new centrehead, we couldn't possibly miss our first WSC session after the exams. (If i remembered correctly, I wrote the entry for the first WSC session after 1st sem exams.)

Knowing that we were 10mins late, Daisy, Celine, Seow Hong and I were practically running to the boys' home from the 157 bus stop which we alighted at. Chin Han, Rabin and Khalisah were already waiting there for us with the rest of the volunteers from other blocks. Apparently, Chin Han wasn't angry or unhappy, so that email was written in a way too misleading.

Anyway, basically the whole idea of the session was to get to know the boys more (again!). The volunteers and boys interacted for what seemed like forever. Even so, we enjoyed it. We sat in a circle with volunteers and boys seated in alternate seats. We posed questions to the boys and vice versa.

This time round, the volunteers felt a little (in fact VERY) guilty for not being able to do our part in asking questions as well as the boys did. "What is the most disgraceful thing you've ever done?"."What inspired you to further your studies?". Questions like these were raised by them and all we volunteers could think of were mundane stuff like "What's your favourite movie?", "Where do you usually hang out?", etc.

This session lasted 2hrs until 9.30pm. We left after the last person was "interrogated". We'll do a better job for the next session! Till then.










SIDE NOTE ONE: Seow Hong hasn't written any blog entries yet.
SIDE NOTE TWO: Chin Han told me that.

(F)ather (A)nd (M)other (I) (L)ove (Y)ou Day!

Once upon a time, in the western province of Singapore, there lived four wsc volunteers - Jiayin, Jianwen, Junhan and Huiwen. On a bright half-sunny-half-cloudy day, they went for the annual boys' home family day. Apparently this year the home was able to hold the function in the hall (instead of last yr's tentage) and make a tag for everyone!

The theme was: Making Singapore a Great Place for Families and Children.

Three of them arrived too early, so they started playing the fringe activities. They also helped themselves to finger food, like hotdog bread, popcorn and ice cream! (guess who was late?) Some of the boys also volunteered to help out at the event. They were dressed as clowns, giving out balloons to the kids and one of them was even on stilts! They also had their portraits drawn by some expert artists! First up! There was a magic show by this guy who had a super enthu stage face. Then modern dance (with shuffling and break dancing etc) by the boys. To get the crowd involved, we had to participate in this game where guys = $1 and girls = $0.50 (why the inequality!), and three families were called onto the stage and they had to find as many pple as the dollar amount given by the emcee. After which there were games like "stuffing the most grapes into your mouth", where the winner was the one who could fit the most number of grapes into their mouths and "taste me", where the boys had to guess 10 different sauces.

The boys were also given chances to show off their talent with band and song performances. Some of them formed groups called "4 gigabytes", who sang Apologize and Jenny; and the "Powerpuff Boys" who sang Donna. An external band "Cape of Good Hope" also belted out songs like I Hate Myself For Loving You. There was this inter-racial duo who sang the famous meteor garden song "Qing2 Fei1 De2 Yi4", and the malay boy ingeniously changed part of the chinese lyrics into malay ones!

The finale: most of the boys were pretty high then. They kept jumping to the beat of the music.

All in all, it was a fun-filled day! or at least, much better than expected. We did not become professional clappers or experts in sleeping with our eyes open. I was glad most of the boys' families came and we got to see them! Definitely wouldnt mind going for the next one! :)

PS: ECP + Picnic post can be found here. Click here. :) :)

Farewell Session

Pre-session Preparation

A week’s long of discussion on whether we should go to east coast park to watch sunrise or stay at hall area to BBQ. The emails were accidentally sent to Jian Wen as well but well, luckily he didn’t notice them. (Author’s note: Despite all the discussions and travelling arrangement, it was finally decided that we would spend the night at Sentosa! =P)

Session day

We had boys’ home ‘exchange programme’ today! All of us went down to block B instead of our usual block D. When the boys came into the room, they were very shy, clustering at the back of the classroom. After inviting them to sit with us, all of us did brief introduction and played board / card games with them. Soke Hwa, Daisy, Shi Kai & me were grouped with another two boys and we played the Mother Sheep. I was very much surprised when one of the boys said he could cook a lot of dishes. (Author’s note: As a girl myself, I am ashamed to admit that I only know how to cook rice, instant noodles and fried egg.) And well, the session proceeded rather smoothly (except for a short circuit during the middle of the session). For some reasons, Jian Wen was supposed to do a forfeit by gluing his eyebrows together. (Author’s note: Fellow volunteers, I wonder when will he perform the forfeit? Don’t let him get away from it k!)

It was the last session for our graduating seniors. First surprise, Jian Wen prepared something literally big for us. Second surprise, the ‘something’ was actually a very nice mini-white board with collage of photos and message! Almost everyone was stunned, and at the same time, extremely touched by what he did. A direct quote from him, ‘hey I am a very nice guy k, I spent three hours to do all these!’

A sample of Jian Wen’s present to all of us!

Post-session Extravaganza

First stop: Newton Food Centre

The 12 of us (Jian Wen, Chin Han, Rabin, Xiao Hong, Boon Meng, Ah Chai, Jia Yin, Hui Wen, Hui Koon, Daisy, Sock Hwa and me) squeezed into 2 cars and travelled all the way from Boon Lay to Newton.

Late supper at Newton!

It was a very nice supper! Why? Firstly, we had rather good food such as stingrays, pohpiah ice-cream without pohpiah skin, hokkien mee, sotongs, carrot cakes, fried egg with oyster, etc… Secondly, the atmosphere was light-hearted and everyone was chatting away happily!

Rabin, after taking his very first-in-his-lifetime-bite of fried egg with oyster

Second stop: Sentosa

The remaining ten of us decided to station at the Palawan Beach to wait for the sunrise! Time was still very ‘early’ so we decided to take a stroll along the Southernmost Point bridge while figuring out which direction we should face to catch the best sunrise. After sometime of aimless walking, we decided that it was time for us to settle down at the beach for group games!

Game 1: The Ultimate Code (a.k.a zhong ji mi ma)

Punishment for the game: Finished 1/8 cup of chivas / gin mixed with green tea / plain water in a gulp

The first drunken one: Sock Hwa, after around 3/4 times of punishment, began to giggle and laugh. Everyone insisted that she was drunk but she refused to admit it. =)

Game 2: Forfeit Game

How to play: Each player draws a card from a set of cards numbered A-10. The lucky person who gets Ace can choose any two card numbers (without knowing who the card holders are) and the card holders must perform forfeit according to the lucky person’s specification.

Top 5 Censored Forfeit
5. A sexy dance by Rabin around Sock Hwa
4. Rabin passed his shirt to Hui Koon
3. A long & passionate kiss of a coconut tree for 10 seconds by Boon Meng
2. Sharing of twisties between Boon Meng and Ah Chai
1. Rabin and Chin Han kissed each other with a poker card in between!

Other forfeits included a Bollywood dance by Hui Wen & Ah Chai, a four-arms support by Daisy & Hui Wen, gulping down Chivas by Ah Chai and me, Salsa dance by Ah Chai and Hui Wen, piggy back by Jian Wen and me, sand-volcano building by Hui Wen and me, etc.

Soon, our long-awaited sunrise came! (Author’s note: I must really praise Boon Meng for being such a professional photographer. He captured lots of very nice photos!)

Just before we left Sentosa, we took a few more group photos!

It was definitely a night that I would never forget. Like what Hui Wen said, we spent the time playing like there’s no tomorrow! And like what Mark Twain said, “What is human life? The first third a good time; the rest remembering about it”. To all the leaving seniors, I wish you all the best in your future endeavours; and to all my fellow friends in WSC, I really thank you all for giving me a chance to experience such a fulfilling and fun CCA!

A talk conducted by 'Professors' from BLK D

Today’s session was really thrilling. The whole group of us, both volunteers and boys, were high on drugs. Opps, sorry, I meant high on the topic of drugs. Many thanks to Chin Han, Boon Ming and Hock Heng for taking time not only to attend the talk on drugs during our recess week, but also spending effort to share with us about drugs today.

Today’s sharing was simple, with just the speakers and a few pictures. Although there was neither power point presentation nor projector like we have in school, we still learnt a lot.

Below are the 9 types of drugs shared by our volunteers today:
1. Subutex
2. Cannabis
3. Cocaine
4. Ecstacy
5. Heroin
6. Ketamin
7. Inhalant
8. Methamphetamin
9. No. 5 Drug

One thing that surprised me today was the boys’ knowledge on drugs. Many of them already knew information on various drugs. Anyway, I think the drugs presentation served to provide more information on drugs not only to the boys, but to volunteers like me too. Really glad that I learnt more about drugs today!
After session was supper as usual, but it was a little different though, with an IQ question packaged with it. This IQ question was from Michelle, and it took us sometime to get the correct answers. Haahs. And of cos, our centre head DID manage to get the answer after much tries. *applause*
It was really hilarious.

Next week will be our last session for this academic year and also the time for the beloved centre head to step down. So be sure to come down next thurs to support our centre head! Hahahs.

Lastly, I really enjoyed today’s session. =)


Boys listening attentively to Prof Hock Heng aka Ah Chai

Prof Boon Ming explaining how Ecstasy can kill you!

Prof Chin han trying to bring some life to the class

Super Supper for the hungry volunteers

Yes! Another unglam pic of Mr Lee(related to the famous Mr Lee)

By Ivy

Tuition Birthday

It was 13 March. Thursday Again! If I had thought it’ll be ‘just’ another session at WSC, how wrong I was.

The sessions usually alternate between tuition and games. That day was tuition time. After we went through the usual routine to pass clearance, we proceeded to give them one-on-one tuition. Things went smoothly; the volunteers tried their best to teach them. On my hand, I taught history and it stunned me how attentive my tutee was. I had to confess though I was a History student in Secondary School, I never quite paid that much attention to my teacher before!

How time flies! Before long, it was time to leave. Then Jianwen reminded us that there was special activity coming up! Without further ado, we hurried to the area in front of the reception desk and sat down quickly. It turns out that some of our volunteers are having their birthday this week! Out came the birthday cards that we had written for Jun Wei, Ivy and JiaYin, as well as a big chocolate birthday cake!

Luck has it that only JiaYin was present. Excited as we were, Rabin, Chin Han, Seow Hong, Ah Chai and Boon Ming lit up the candles and we were ready to start! There was a mini ‘birthday prezzie’ presentation to Jia Yin by JianWen, while we sang a loud ‘happy birthday’ song to her. 21st birthday! Wow!
The ‘prezzie’ turned out to be M&M’s that JiaYin decided to share with us. So, while Boon Meng passed out the pieces of cake, we also munched on the M&Ms’ that JiaYin was so kind to share.

All in all, we had a fun and enjoyable time that night, and our stomachs were so full that supper was skipped! Yup, I’m really looking forward for another exciting time at Youth this coming Thursday!


Jianwen and JiaYin

Lydia and Celine

Ravaged cake

M&M's for everyone

The rest of the crew

Just for laughs

By Barbara Rebecca

Games Day!

Today, we had a session filled with fun and laughter. As this week was recess week, only a few of us met up in school for dinner before heading to the home. Despite the fact that it is recess week, the volunteers turn up was nonetheless good!

This week’s games session is slightly different as there is no game master, and we were asked to bring card or board games if we have any. So basically, we had a “minds cafe” session at Blk D. We were given games like UNO, UNO Stacko, Mother Sheep, Headbands, Risk and Poker Cards. Some of these games are brand new! Then we were assigned games and split into groups to play. I was in charge of Headbands, together with Celine. This game is basically like Indian Poker, where we have to wear bands on our heads and a card with a picture that we are supposed to guess. Rule of the game is that we can only ask yes or no questions within a limited time. At first, the boys in my group were rather reluctant to play as the box of the game says “For Kids”, and we look rather silly wearing the headbands (we looked very much like Sun Wukong). However, after much persuasion, we started playing the game, and it turned out to be really fun. =) They had so much fun they actually changed the rules and it became like a charade, with the guesser not having to ask any questions but the members acting out the answer.

As I looked around the room, everyone was having lots of fun, with Ah Chai’s group getting really excited and loud with their card games. Rabin and his boy were absorbed in their game of Risk, and Jianwen was playing with his Sheep game, which he was the only big fan of. The other room sounded like they were having fun too!
Our session ended later than usual due to some of us still playing and not willing to leave until the game ended. All in all, volunteers and the boys bonded really well, and enjoyed themselves tremendously.

1 of the games - RISK a game of global domination


By Yan Sing

Drugs and You

Today, 1st of March, Chin Han, Boon Meng, me , and the other 5 volunteers for Block B(Yoke Wen) and Boys Hostel(Chen Hui, Hui Min, Desmond, Frederick) attended Drugs Training and Dialogues organised by MCYS(Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports) at MCYS community hall, 17th level, MCYS builiding.

All volunteers that attended the training

MCYS building

Due to some technical problem, we arrived late at MCYS building at about 230pm, but the training supposed to be started at 2pm. We quickly rushed into the training hall and we saw alot other individual volunteers and employers also attended that training as well.
Our speaker of Drugs Training, Mr Eddy Razali (refer picture below)

Mr Eddy, Drugs Training speaker

Mr Eddy's presentation

We also given a nice brochure which inside contained of alot useful informations about drugs

Drugs and You brochure

Mr Eddy shown us alot of informations and figures of different drugs such as Subutex(which cost $120 per tablet),Cannabis(Ganja, is a kind of plant which originally green in color like seaweed), Cocaine, Ecstasy(known as playboy),Heroin (Pek Hoon),Ketamine(Vitamin K),'Ice', Inhalants(Glue-sniffing) and others. Besides that, he also told us some of the effects and dangersof drugs, what are withdrawal symptoms and also the penalties of possessing, consuming or trafficking drugs. Moreover he shown us pictures of people getting strokes of cane on their backside(very ugly!!).

Subutex

Cannabis


Heroin


Ketamine


Methamphetamine or 'Ice'


Inhalants


Ecstasy

Effects,Dangers and Penalties of possession or consumption of Ecstasy

We also been told that ladies must beware if someone treat you a bottle of mineral water, that person maybe injected Ketamine into it without your known and let you drink. Ketamine can cause you unable to move, distort your judgement and cause confusion. In order to prevent it, shake the bottle u received before you drink it. If the bottle contained Ketamine, you will see alot of white bubbles after you shake it, so DON'T ever drink it.

Moreover, do you wonder why Ecstasy producers want to risk their clients' life by adding rat poisons and pendaflour tube glasses into Ecstasy?? It is because glasses are used to cut your stomach inner part to increase absorption of drugs whereas rat poisons are used in order to prevent blood clogging .(Very cruel!!)

Ecstasy will caused hallucination, inability to think, see and co-ordinate properly,jaw clenching, teeth grinding and uncontrollable shaking. How to control a people after he/she has consuming Ecstasy, there is a special solution where you put a pacifier into his/her mouth,then he/she will calm down more and won't shake that aggressively.
These are some of the special knowledge that we learned from Mr Eddy.

After the drugs training, there is another Dialogue session with a MCYS officer.

MCYS officer

She shared with us that Boys and Girls Homes have plenty of programmes are being held with different purposes. Below are list of programmes:
1.Stop, Think and Do
2.Emotional Intelligence Programme
-eliminate the use of violence
-conflict resolution skills
-interactions among residents
3.Parenting and family Bonding Groupwork
4.Outdoor adventure learning
-experienced learning
-develop team spirit, trust, responsibility and accountability
5.Sexuality Workshop
-sexuality and sexual development issue
-danger of unprotected sex
6.Anti Drug Programme
7.Preparatory programme for Day Release Scheme (DRS)
8.Job Preparation Programme
-residents learn to write resume, job application, interviews
-interest in finding a job
-conducted before their placement on DRS
9.Service Learning Programme(Teen A.C.T.S)
-self development, reflection, project management
-recognise their strength and weaknesses and to affirm one and another
10.Preparatory programme for dischange
-cope stresses from community
11.Recovery and Empowerment for Sexually Abused Vistims(RES)
12.Self Harm Intervention Programme (SHIP)
-understand their self harm tendencies
13.Support Group for Young and/or Expectant Mother
-insight into different stage of pregnancy,caregiving
(Programme 11 to 13 are for Girls Home)
14.Positive Adolescent Sexuality Treatment (PAST)-Boys Home

-residents with sexual offenses or those with history of sexualised behaviours
15.Violence Prevention Programme(VPP)
-help those with history of violence/ aggresive
-mange anger in a positive manner
16.Theft Intervention Programme (TIP)
-theft is a common offense in Home
-help those history of chronic pilfering
-prevent theft offending cycle
-relapse prevention plan
17.Spectrum Rainbows Programme
-help single parent families

Then we have our refreshment before we continued another dialogue with the same MCYS officer.

Chin Han having his delicious food


Discussion between Boon Meng and Mr Eddy

The second dialogue was conducted in another room where we giving our feedbacks to MCYS officer about what we have done during our sessions in Home. Besides that, we also suggested that more workshops and trainings to be held in future for NTU volunteers.

In the room where second dialogue was conducted. We brought in food as well. Haha

After the second dialogue, we reached the end of our 2-3 hours training. We took our last photos with MCYS officers before we left.