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.

The Day when everyone come together!

"hello, what time meet ah?"

this had been the frequent offline msg or sms i receive over the past week. When the day finally come, i felt delighted and nervous. Nervous as i seriously wish that nothing go wrong so that this last session of befriending for the year will be the most memorable for the befriendees.

the food came, the place set up and as i sat at the pit awaiting the arrival of the rest. I will frequently raise my head up looking for any sign of dark clouds. Anything can be prevented but definitely not the weather change.

One by one the volunteers and the befriendees came. As it was way behind schedule, we decided to cancel the games component and start the BBQ instead.



other than the BBQ component, of cos there will be some card games which everyone will definitely find it useful to self entertain.


and with the session also to celebrate the upcoming christmas! who can forget gift exchange!!


volunteers of clementi SCS 2008!


christmas celebration 2008! A mixture of new/old volunteers, social workers and our befriendees


final thoughts: i want thanks all the volunteers who came down for this event and/or any of our past events, the befriendees who make an effort to come down for the session weekly and of cos our social workers who assist us in making any of our activities possible and a success. with 2 befriendees graduating from the program, i also want to wish them all the best in everything they do in future!

lastly,

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND

MAY A HAPPY AND FUN 2009 AWAIT YOU!!

From the Depths I Come !

As the sun sets with lights fading towards the horizon, night falls and it is dark again. Slowly, the earth loosens and an arm tears through the ground. Freeing himself from the captive of the soil, the maggots, the bugs(Oh, those... disgusting, disgusting bugs) and that box that entrapped him for ages. Rot fills the air and the night was darker. Well, maybe not so dark for those in night vision goggles or dudes in Alaska.

While ghouls, witches, imps, vampires are unleashing their own hell onto Earth, Clementi SCS was too engrossed with their own fun to be bothered by the impending doom. The night started off with Project Runway: Halloween Special. The lucky model was chosen from a drawing of lots. Every participant took turns to stick their hands into a bag of unknown objects then pull one out of the so many objects inside

"Candy !", Choon Guan squealed with glee as he pulled it out of the bag. Almost immediately, he unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth.

Turns out that those partipants who picked the candy had to be dressed up. Ironically, Choon Guan felt for an eraser but chose to go for the candy. Greed doesn't pay. Greed doesn't pay.
The remaining participants were then grouped according to the items they picked and got to choose the lucky model that they wanted to dress by correctly answering one question to the quiz.

First question - When is Halloween ? A hand shot up.

"31st of October"

And Choon Guan's ass is mine. The remaining models were then snapped up by the other groups and Project Runway: Halloween Special kicked off ! With 15minutes to dress the model, the groups got on with their work quickly.


















Calvin and Yu Cai decided make QiLing a witch. While Fiona and Joyce decided to make Clarence a mummy. As for Choon Guan, the 3 devious minds of Jason, Weijian(VPIA of Clementi) and Wenjin were ticking away, thinking of the most outrageous outfit they can put him in.


















Jason slapping a tube onto Choon Guan.






























While Wenjin and Weijian were still thinking what to do with Choon Guan, Jason ran a roll of toilet paper along Choon Guan's crotch, making a... Well, crotch strap.


















Choon Guan in tears after being humiliated.


















Fiona and Joyce decided to soundproof the room by muting Clarence's loudspeaker.


















Yu Cai and Calvin making a tattered skirt for Qi Ling


















Choon Guan clearly enjoying himself even after having his dignity robbed by Jason

After a series of trial and error, Choon Guan's group decided to dress him as Iron Crotch Man. He was thankful that his character had a helmet to hide all his shame. Unfortunately, his embarassing moments were already caught on camera.
Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like bananas. The 15 minutes expired and individual models had to parade around with their costume.

Winning the Best Costume Award was Qi Ling who was dressed as a witch ! Check out the rat sitting on her shoulders !


















The next award went to Clarence, who won the Scariest Costume Design. It was left unexplained whether he was considered scary because he was dressed as a mummy or that he had bloody nipples but on this blogger's guess, the judges probably felt that he was a massive weapon of massive destruction. Now, that is scary. I present to you... The Mummy Returns.... In a pink shirt and after downing a couple buckets of KFC Fried Chicken


















Last but not least, an impromptu award which was presented to Siow 'Booby Trap' Choon Guan to restore whatever self-esteem he has - the Rated Artistic Award, R(A) Award. Ignoring the crotch strap and breast implants, Choon Guan has quite a good fashion taste, throwing in a scarf to complement the ridiculous looking unfit. It was also quite puzzling that Iron Man was holding a dagger. I bet Weijian was smoking some really bad stuff when he decided to give Choon Guan a dagger as a weapon.


















And Project Runway: Halloween Special has come to an end. However, as an exclusive footage from behind the scenes, this blogger reveals to you the dirt that was unseen on TV. Iron Crotch Man serving it to the KFC-filled Mummy


















Next up, after the costume design, was the a game of Win, Lose or Draw where befrienders and befriendees flaunt their artistic drawing skills and interpretations of different questions ranging from movies to songs.

Chai Sean though gifted in the field of drawing, has flunked her Mathematics terribly with an interpretation of 'Ji Ba Ban' as $100,000. Well, we sure love to do business with Chai Sean ! Which reminds me, she is Clementi's treasurer !


















Soon the games came to an end and the befriendees have to return to their homes. Held in their hearts was not the fear of ghouls dragging them into the woods but the joy from the simplicity of being together and having fun. And yea, we too in Clementi love you guys !






























Huang 'Unfunny' Wenjin wishes everyone a 'Happy Halloween' and pray that you don't lose your brains to zombies or kidneys to excessive intake of candy.

One Last Time

Hello guys ! I'm a guest blogger by the name of Wenjin, who is invited by Choon Guan to add a little 'Read-With-Me' flavour to Clementi's blog. For those who are thinking who Choon Guan is, it's okay, we can skip that part. Anyway, Choon Guan was saying the blog is rather boring and he wishes to inject some 'fun' into this 'serious' blog, so he'll get a 'seriously funny' blog.

In short, he wishes for a humour columnist and he thinks that I should be the one. Unfortunately, the laughs would be directed at his thought that I would make a good humour columnist.

Now that I've mentioned my name, I shall go on with the what. I'm a volunteer in Clementi's Read-With-Me programme for two semesters and probably the longest(self-proclaimed) volunteer in the Read-With-Me programme and I would like to share my experiences in an unfunny way.

Today was the last session of Read-With-Me for the semester and it will only resume in around December/January. With kids graduating from the programme, and volunteers who aren't able to continue their service due to other commitments, it may sound like a sad occasion but that is not the case as every Read-With-Me session is filled with laughter. Laughter from the kids enjoying the programme. Laughter from the volunteers witnessing the innocent actions of the kids. Laughter from other volunteers when they heard a kid called this volunteer a 'Jie Jie' when he is a guy.

So you see, Read-With-Me is actually a laughter-filled programme with volunteers reading to kids and having fun, solving puzzles and playing games with them. Well, there's only one thing about Read-With-Me that is sad - It only last for 10 weeks. So far there aren't any volunteers complaining that the programme is too long, only volunteers complaining that it is too short. Hahaha!

So if you guys would want to join Read-With-Me as a volunteer, just drop us an email(This is going to make me look very bad, but I gotta admit I don't know Clementi SCS has their own email.). I've heard many stories about volunteers being put off by Clementi's 'Interview' policy and I can assure you guys that such interviews are conducted for the staffs to know the volunteers better and probably, also to weed out the Michael Jacksons.

Also, there are those who thought that Read-With-Me is a programme to help kids improve in their reading and linguistic skills. However, this isn't the case. The most is important thing is allowing them to have fun, so that they will enjoy learning and would want to learn more on their own. It's more about creating interest than teaching. And with a helpful mentor Ms Wong, being a volunteer in Read-With-Me can't get easier. Lastly, don't be afraid to volunteer even if you aren't confident of your command of English. The interview doesn't have a Qualifying English Test so there isn't a need to panic. But it does help if you have a melodic voice over a monotonous one !