(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