New Center, New Activity, same old fun :)

a new sem had begun and we have our session once more. The difference this time round is: we have shifted.
the new center was a refreshing outlook. just the activities room will leave u drooling. here a quick snapshots of the facilities.

fusol table :) nice for the football crazy volunteers and befriendees.


a nice cosy area to have a nice chit chat session.


pool table. a way to engage the youths?


anyway, the turnout for the first session of the second half of the sem is great.


and for the first session, we have baking session :)


instructions to be followed: muffins on the left, cookies on the right.


and a look at our ingredients




and we begin our baking.


muffins in its "watery" state




muffins!! smells nice, taste nice :D



cookies in dough!


baking moments


and the final products :)


after a nice and enjoyable baking session, it is time to clean up. and our 2 nice befrienders help us with the washing :)


a nice session which enable the befriendees and even the befrienders to have some fun in baking and not forgetting bonding with each other and catching up with each other after a long long break :)

till the next session!!

after 2 sessions of mass games to get the befriendees and befrienders to know each other better, the normal befriending session had begun.

here is how a normal session of befriending looks like:
the tuition kicks in at 7pm sharp for all the befriendees and with any doubt they have for their homework, they can look for help from any of the befrienders. As for those who had finished their homework, it will be revision time for time.



After an hour of studying, it is time to relax their mind and have some games together.


2 hours of both work and play ended with the befriendees having learnt a thing or two from both the academic and social aspects.

Our befrienders with our ex befriendee (now back as a volunteer) having some catch up time.

Reading With You... Again !

After a long hiatus, Read-With-Me has started again ! In fact, it started 3 weeks ago but due to my busy schedule, I'm unable to blog about the Read-With-Me sessions. Well, in this term, Read-With-Me has a healthy amount of volunteers. I think this is beneficial for the kids as more attention can be paid to them instead of the previous class where a single volunteer may sometimes end up with three kids ! Unfortunately, now it isn't the kids that aren't getting the attention. It's them not paying attention !

Anyway, the lesson today was about fruits and every kid has to bring a fruit along to share with the class. Fortunately, this wasn't a repeat of last semester's lesson where every kid brought either an apple or an orange. I'm really looking forward to the day where I can see a kid bring a durian to class.

So there were a variety of fruits today, apples, oranges, mangoes, lemons, pineapples, starfruits and pears ! Questions about the fruits were thrown about, "How does a lemon taste like ?", "Have any of you ate a starfruit before ?", "So what's your favourite fruit ?".

After 3 sessions of Read-With-Me, the kids now are familiar and comfortable with their 'Kor Kor' and 'Jie Jie' and were more responsive to the questions.

"Lemon ? Sweet !"

My eyes were wide.

"You sure ?"

"Yes ! Sweet !"

"You want to try ?"

"Ok !"

After tasting a few drops of lemon juice...

"GIMME WATER !!!", squealed Kek Lu with his face looking distorted.

"So how does a lemon taste like ?"

"Sour." answered Kek Lu with some sourness while I sniggered away.

Within a few moments, the fruits were gone and the children were satisfied, being able to taste the different types of fruits that were available. Before we know it, it was already 11am and we have yet to start reading our books. After reading the books and filling the worksheets, the children settled down to play with some puzzles and it was another end to another Read-With-Me session.

First Session For 2009

Hooray for our first session!

It was a warm welcome back for all the old Befrienders and Befriendees alike, while it was an eventful session for the first-timers, Befrienders and Befriendees.

The pleasant evening started off tepid at first, with bouts of shyness and quietness all around. That all changed with a rousing game of Whacko getting everybody into the spirit. Even more hilarity ensued with Double Whacko, filled with blur faces, rampant sabo-ing and joyous laughter. The Befriendees were opening up more and weren't at all scared of joining in whole-heartedly. Seeing them enjoying themselves was an indicator that we were fulfilling our aims: helping them to make friends and having fun.

The year promises future sessions filled with even more laughter and hopefully get some homework done. Befriendees this year are from a wide spectrum, ranging from different ages, schools, races and backgrounds. There are challenges abound, be it situations which have been encountered before or novel experiences to learn from. New activites will be carried out, old plans put into action, changes across the board with new opinions, voices and mindsets. But flexibility is a key part of being a Befrienders, learning to cope with the unforseen, adapting to foreign senarios, rolling with the punches and always ready to take on roles or responsibilities.

And I hope that we can all bond together as a family. Although we are part of a larger CSC family, we are a unit by ourselves. With new welfare initiatives and different work structures, the sense of belonging (hopefully =P) will be cultivated among the Befrienders and Befriendees. For everyone to know that they have a place to look for help and people to turn to for guidance, be it the old folks of 26++ or the younger, hip and happening as well as talented 22 year olds. Because at some point of time in everyone's life, they will need a friend. And that is what we are essentially, friends.

So look out for out next posting! Especially the totally exciting and much-awaited April Celebrations by the cool and handsome 22/23 year olds.

Taha

CSC Day 09

woo, this is the first event of the year and to kick thing up. it is the CSC Day.
a day where all Regular Volunteering Group bring their residents down for an afternoon of fun. of cos clementi SCS is not excluded and we have with us 3 befriendees down as co-volunteers. A post which is to allow them have more responsibilty and learn to mix with people.

and for the befriendees, they have Nicole attached to them. Being the older kor kor and jie jies, they try their best to mix with her and participate in the games.




Mixing with volunteers and other residents.



after an afternoon of games, the befriendees who look after our dear nicole.


CSC DAY 09! clementi participants! and missing in the pic are the new befrienders and terence.