Interact Camp

I feel so blessed to be in NYJC. I'm having such a good time in my JC life, I look forward to school everyday. I don't like lectures, but they are bearable for now. I changed to Interact Club for my CCA. I didn't want Table Tennis anymore, my standards were too low. Been wanting to make a post for the past month, but didn't manage to get round doing so. However, I felt that I absolutely had to do it tonight, before it got too late.

I had my Interact Camp for the past weekend. Arrived at 8am, first of my group. Went straight up to AVA Room, was asked what my Group Facilitator was. I told them I was in 'Opal'. The girl present then said "That's me, I'm Crimson!". And she knew my name. It suddenly came to me that yes, she had mentioned her name before. I felt really stupid then, for I had looked at the sms she sent, to find out her name. Totally overlooked it like a fool. So I went in, then after a short chat with her, she got called out and I found out that she was actually the President of the Interact Club. Woahhh, felt even worse after that, to not know who the President of my CCA was. At the same time, it was really really cool that I had the President for my Group Facilitator. Waited, and a guy named Eddie turned up. Did a short introduction of ourselves, then Ei Leen walked into the room! Asked me what my group was, I replied "Opal", came back "Shit". I thought she was in a different group, but turned out that she was with me again! Third coincidental meeting. Dance Partner, Law Talk and now this. We waited some more for the other members of our group. Crimson thought Louis was a girl, while Eddie and Ei Leen had thought that Crimson was a guy, and I thought that Ernestine was a guy. Haha, names can be so misleading. 4 guys 4 girls, 2 more girls were to join us sometime later. Of the 90 members in Interact Club, 69 were girls, 21 guys, so my group had a really high concentration of guys.

I cannot remember which came first, Ice Breaking or Lecture, but I think games were before lecture. We put our bags in our room (guys had 1 room, girls had 3), then went down to the Parade Square, where we engaged in Ice Breaking Games. One round of introduction, followed by Whacko (which was really ridiculous because the cirlce was so small with only 8 of us), then Human Bingo. I liked this one but it was not a good way of Interacting with others as everyone just wanted to get their papers signed. There were ridiculous statements such as "I have three or more siblings" and "I have done Bungee Jumping before". In our generation, 3 or more siblings is very rare and Bungee Jumping is not available in Singapore. That was a real gamble to put on the list. 2 Truths 1 Lie came afterwards, some really interesting facts about others, such as Eddie who had never eaten McChicken and could speak Russian. Louis's "I'm gay, I'm straight and I'm Bi" was mind-blowing for a while as we tried to piece together the possibilities. Eventually we concluded that "I'm gay" was a lie. Then the VP, who can change from an Interactor to a Military Commander in a flash, gave us one minute to run up from the Parade Square to the 5th floor, back to the AVA room.

Lecture. We were all given an exercise book, which was supposed to be our Interact journal, to record everything that we did in Interact Club for the next two years, from reflections to detailed accounts of events. We copied slides for about 45 minutes. I felt sleepy after all of that. At about 12pm, we were released for our first activity, "Do A Good Deed". We were to complete a good deed either as a group or in pairs, with evidence in the form of photographs taken by handphone cameras. We decided to do it as a group, but I didn't think that was a really good idea, since going round as a group of 9 offering to help would seem more intimidating than comforting. We first went to the Guard House, and supposedly brightened his day by singing him a song (which I don't know). Outside the MRT station, we presented a Wang Wang to a family with a child. Yes, 9 people needed to pass a present of blessing, that was very amusing. And the child was obviously frightened. Taking a stroll through the HDB block, we were first rejected by a Provision Shop who repeatedly declined our offer to sing (which I was happy for). Dejected, we found ourselves at the Prata Shop next, where other Interactors were running around, looking for Good Deeds to complete. We were rejected once more by a man who was moving goods from a van when we offered to lend a hand. Walking further away from the school, we met with a mother and child. The child was clearly terrified as he tried to hide from us and hesitated to take the Wang Wang, but the mother coaxed him to accept it and we sang him "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (feeling like a fool). Olivia and I, we then decided to split up and look for someone else as a pair. After a failed attempt with an elderly woman carrying some bags (she worked in NYJC), we regrouped and found out that the rest had not much success either. Making another round around the Hawker Centre, our last "Good Deed" was a father and daughter pair, which we blessed once more with Wang Wang. That concluded our "Do a Good Deed" activity, where we failed to achieve our goal of "meeting the people's needs" since no one really needed our help.

Once back at the AVA Room at 12:50, we did our Facilitation, or Reflection, in more common terms. I don't know how time passed, but I know we had lunch at around 1:45, until 2:25. I forgot what happened next, more lecture, I think. The next major activity I remember was "Together we Build". Our 8 groups were split into 4 and 4. The first 4 had a briefing, then our set had ours. We were NYJCians going to Tibet to help the Shigatse Tribe build a Community Hall. Neither side could speak the other's language, save for a translator and sign language. There was a teacher present while the rest of us took the role of students. We were given until 4:10 to collect materials needed to construct the Community Hall, but what we did was a miniature version of the hall, represented by a table and several other small objects. When the time started, we found out that the first 4 groups were the Shigatsens and they too, had been given a task. There was a twist. Our translator had contracted a sore throat and hence could not speak. It was now a test of our sign and body language. The Village Head told our Translator to follow the actions of the tribe.

The Shigatsens formed a circle round a rubbish bin (representing a god). Soon after, they started a bizarre dance round the bin, waving their hands to and fro, while producing monkey noises (hahahaha). Bewildered but left with no choice, We NYJCians had to follow their "ritual", with the Village Head flicking "holy water" in our faces. The Village Head pulled one of the Shigatsens out of the circle and placed him next to the bin, then picked Ei Leen out as well. We watched in amazement as he tied the shoelaces of both people together so that they were now linked. Then they started to walk round the Drum. We followed, still confused. Halfway through, the Shigatsens made a sudden sharp turn on us. Taking that as a sign of hostility, the NYJCians ran all the way back to the original location, closely followed by the Shigatsens. It was now our turn to present. We set up our mini representation of the hall. A table, a towel underneath meant to represent a carpet for the tribe to kneel. Tissue paper packets represented rows of chairs for the elderly of the tribe whose backs were less able to handle the stress. A stack of Wang Wang denoted a podium and the god of the Tribe. Seh Hian took a chair to represent the podium, and stood on top of it like a god. The rest of us NYJCians kneeled in front of him, while Louis represented the elderly with a bent back and cough. The Village head thought that our wang wang was a gift and proceeded to take one. We all laughed at that action as Seh Hian frantically tried to stop him. After a couple of minutes of bowing to Seh Hian, and him repeatedly signaling to Louis to act like an elderly, we still could not get our point across that we wanted to build a community hall for the Shigatsens.

During facilitation, the true ideas were exposed. The Shigatsens's bin was the goddess of birth, by performing that dance, the village head would know which girl from the visitors. to pick to be wed to one of their people. We guessed it similarly too, though Ei Leen went a step further and suggested that it was to form ties and show that they were willing to work with us. They thought that our presentation was a Temple instead of a Hall. Couldn't blame them for that, it was close enough. This activity was meant to show us that communication was very important and disasters could happen when there was a language barrier and we should be prepared to face similar challenges in Interact Club. Wan Ling joined our group after the activity, warmly welcomed :). Yi Xin had a fever and was hence unable to turn up, so I still don't know what she is like.

The 3rd Activity was the Marshmallow Challenge, where we were given 18 minutes to build the tallest free-standing structure made up of spaghetti sticks, masking tape and a piece of string. This structure had to support a marshmallow. Ei Leen and I had similar ideas, a triangle base. However, building that was harder than we thought, given the fragility of the Spaghetti sticks. For the first 10 minutes, we were on our own, trying our own methods. After that, Seh Hian can managed a base of some sort and we worked on it from there with our remaining time. At the final minute, in the last 30 seconds, our structure snapped, causing the potential height of our marshmallow to be halved. When we returned to the AVA room, we saw the work of other groups and felt inferior. The winning team was Emerald with a height of 28 inches, or 60+ cm above the ground. This activity taught us that we all needed to work towards a common goal, everyone in the group had to know what the end product would look like in order to achieve success as a team.

After that, we had a proposal project. We were to design a booth for the Amitie Carnival on the 18th April. I'll be short on this. We suggested building a wheel of fortune. In order to spin the wheel, participants had to play 1 of 2 games, "Price is Right" and some throwing game which involved tossing of ping pong balls into the pockets of an Egg Carton. That one was not fully developed, but "Price is Right" was an absolute scam. People had to go through 3 levels, guessing the correct prices of each object. To spin the wheel, they had to get through all 3 levels consecutively, which is plain insane. Initial price to start is $2, to play again, $0.50. To continue from the last level, $1.50. Most of this came from our scamming manager, Ei Leen. To add insult to injury, the Wheel of Fortune would be tweaked such that the chances of winning the big prize was so small it was near impossible. Our proposal was eventually selected but the teachers requested that it be more attractive by being less scheming. Other groups ideas were interesting too, Foosball, Beat the Sludge and Luminous CS, Draw Something (real life edition) among some others.

After our proposal, was dinner, Dine in the Dark, so it's called. This was where our blindfolds came in. Everyone had to blindfold themselves, and we were going to eat dinner without seeing our food. I had done this before in Dialogue in the Dark, but it felt much cooler with friends. We were guided into a classroom, with obstacles along the way. At one point, I was leading the group. The VP told me to walk forward and that there were no more obstacles in front, then deliberately tapped my nose. The meal was Nasi Lemak. I had a hard time cutting up the fish cake and I never knew if it was on the spoon, but I really liked the experience. My Otah didn't seem to be long, however, it felt more rectangular.

With dinner finished, we moved on to the final activity at about 9:15pm. The Elderly Experience. We were to be in pairs, if our group was odd, then there would be a triplet. Using a string, tie one leg from each person together. I paired with Ei Leen, the other three guys formed the triplet, leaving the girls to form 2 more pairs. When we were told to walk to the Fitness corner, we started the slow and painful (for Ei Leen because she was not wearing socks) journey. Ben and Shi Yong found an awesome way to get around, single leg hopping. They sped past everyone like a boss with great coordination. I found it harder to work with Ei Leen as my foot was really big and I was trying really hard not to make it difficult for her but I think I worsened it in the process. Despite this, I pitied the Triplet more. Louis in the middle with Seh Hian and Eddie at his side like bodyguards. They coordinated by chanting "Left, Right" in Russian, taught by Eddie obviously. It was cool and funny. Ben and Shi Yong did pullups together on one bar. The Triplet tried, when they eventually arrived, but Louis jumped a little too late and erm... yeah.

So what we did here was Charades. Ei Leen was a real genius, she got most of them before the rest. From "Tiger Woods" to "USA" to "Pikachu I choose you", I was amazed by how she could interpret all of the actions. I only managed to get one, "Victoria's Secret" which led to questions about how I knew that. But really, it was because of Junn Wei and Joel who had mentioned to me before that the top Victoria's Secret models had wings. Trug Camp was on as well, and the girls were scaring each other at the top of their voices, at 9:40pm.

Second part of the challenge was a chopstick challenge. Using our non master-hand to pick up red beans or peanuts with our chopsticks, we were to bring the red beans or peanuts from one table to the other. If we dropped any along the way, restart. Red beans were worth 3 points and peanuts, 1. Only one pair was allowed to move at any time. The boys were eating the peanuts before the game started. This was a challenge alright, as I have trouble using chopsticks with my left hand alone, how was I supposed to do it with my right? I caused some trouble as I dropped quite a few of the red beans, so our pair could not contribute to the team. Ben and Shi Yong, with their ninja hop forwards and backwards technique, could deliver 2 beans within 5 seconds which was insanely quick. As a result, I think our loss was not too bad, considering that they were able to do that, and our triplet was handicapped. as one of them was terrible with chopsticks too. We lost 196 - 217, but a very interesting challenge nonetheless.

The final part of this Elderly Experience was the worst. It was about 10:20pm. We were supposed to search the stadium and the field for 5 objects, a newspaper, tennis ball, chopsticks, water bottle and lollipop. The catch was, in the dark, with no light whatsoever, since the group facilitators had conveniently forgotten to tell us to bring our torchlights earlier in the day. Ei Leen and I, we literally took a 400m stroll round the inner track without finding anything. In the end, the group facilitator in charge also forgot where he had placed the chopsticks. Crimson was so tired, she slept while we were doing this activity. It would have been a romantic walk round the field, but not under current circumstances. Ei Leen fell and scratched herself on the way back to the AVA room, for the umpteenth time today. Thank god it was the last. The whole Elderly Experience was to educate us that we needed patience when dealing with the disadvantaged, we also had to be understanding and put ourselves in their shoes.

We were given.... 40 minutes to bathe. VP said that we all had to be back in the room by 12am, causing us to scrap our plan to run 2.4km before showering. Louis and Seh Hian decided not to shower, while the rest of us still returned late. And if we boys returned late, I can't imagine what happened to the girls. But well, only the VP could transition into a military commander, so I guess the girls did not have any problems. I was unable to find the Saline solution needed to rinse my lenses, so I just wore it without cleaning. Shi Yong was all "Don't wear it in front of me!" while another guy was like "Woah, I take 20 to 30 minutes to wear it for one eye and you took 1 minute to put both in!" I only found out back at home that the bottle I had was multipurpose and could be used both ways. When I passed the classrooms with Ben on the third floor, we decided that we would have to call an envoy if we wanted to visit the toilet in the middle of the night, it was so dark and scary.

Snugging into my sleeping bag, I proceeded to sleep at 12:30. The lights flashed on at 12:48, just when I was about to enter my time traveling session. It was the Group Facilitators, checking if we had followed instructions. Yeah, the inspection was 48 minutes late. Finally managed to doze off after that.

Woke up at 5:30, stayed up till about 6:20, then my eye started to hurt and I hurried to the toilet to remove my lenses. Got back at about 6:40, then slacked until about 6:50, where we made our way down to the Parade Square. We were supposed to meet at 7:00am. After strength report by each group, it was found that 2 boys were still missing and it was already 7:03. So we were all thrown into pushup position by the VP as punishment. Shortly after, we had to do Physical training. The usual warm up stretches, followed by a 2 really really slow rounds of the track, not that I minded. With that done, Bee Hoon breakfast came next. Then, to do a service to our school, we all helped to empty the garbage bins around the school and take the garbage bags to the garbage dumps, to help ease the workload of the garbage collector of our school. I felt that it was a good service to call for and I thought that it should be done more often.

Next was.... I don't know what it's called, I think Genevieve said Circle of Life? What happened was, the 8 groups made 2 circles. We walked anti clockwise, then the Group Facilitators handed us objects that we were supposed to pass back while continuing our revolution. It started off small, a newspaper. Then more items came into the mix, books, water bottles, boxes and even a chair! We were only allowed to hold one item at a time but we had to continuously pass them to the person behind. We were told to treat each object as a piece of workload. Slowly, people were pulled out of the ring, causing the circle to become smaller and the workload tighter. I was eventually pulled out as well, told to go behind a wall and squat facing the wall, along with the other people who had been pulled out. Shortly after, we were led back to the Parade Square. We were posed with questions: Why were we pulled out? Did anyone wonder where we went to? Did anyone care about the people who were pulled out of the ring? One answer to the last question was "No, because we know they are in good hands." Creative, haha. The true message however, was that in life, people are going to be so busy, they lack the time to care about their loved ones, friends, family, the less fortunate, anyone. Therefore, at times, people can be insensitive and forget about each other. But, deal with it, know that it is human nature to forget when there are too many things. If we can, try to devote some time to everyone, no matter how busy we are.

The final game for the camp, was Capture the Flag. I personally felt that this was the most fun. Each team had 3 defenders and the rest were attackers. 4 teams were in the game at any time. Attackers carried sashes that they had to protect. If they lost the sash, they would lose a life. Each team was given 11 sashes, 5 tennis balls and 3 flag poles. When all the sashes were used up, they were out of the game. The tennis balls and flag poles were the objectives to capture, worth 10 and 20 points respectively. Attackers could attack other attackers by taking their sashes while defenders were only allowed to move within their territory. When my group was in, we were able to work together well and watch each others' back, making sure that no one got killed. Eddie and Seh Hian lost 3 lives unluckily, due to a really aggressive and strategic girl on the green team. She even managed to run in and grab one of our flags while our defenders were not watching. I met one particular girl who refused to back down even as I walked away from her. She seemed bent on killing me but never really succeeded. Throughout the game, the group facilitators also tried to steal our sashes, so we really had to beware of everyone. By the end of the game, my team had the most number of attackers remaining, with all of us still alive. No award for that, but we were pleased with ourselves.

To signify the end of the camp, we were given a feedback form which included a request to join the Exco. I applied for Treasurer or VP. My group was also branded with the title of "Most United" :). Every group got something, so it's not really that special, but I like the word "United", a lot. Therefore, I am happy that I met Opal and that I joined Interact for my CCA. Our proposal was also selected in the top 3, though it was requested that we be less scheming (we all looked at Ei Leen at this point).

Dismissed at about 12:15pm, Seh Hian, Vivien, Olivia and I, we went to NEX to have lunch at Burger King together. We exchanged some nonsense (mostly about BGR) and got to know each other a little bit better, pity we couldn't have the whole Opal there but I'm sure we will have a gathering some other time, and I will certainly look forward to that. :)