Sharing_xinli

Today's the 2nd session. I bumped into others in Jurong point, level 3 food court. Then we took bus together to go to boy's home.

We played 3 games, which lasted about 1.5 hours in all. The first one is "finish a sentence". The one starting a new sentence needs to say "hoji doji hoji doji" before he/she comes up with one word as the beginning of a sentence,and the next person continues with another word, and the next, etc. Sentences can end up with full stop or question mark. The only requirement for game players is the sentence must make sense. It sounds easy but when you're actually taking part in it, it can become very tricky. You really need to pay full attention to what others say before you. Otherwise Forfeit! The 2nd is Mona Lisa. Okay, here's the rule. A person can start with Mo, or Mona, then pointing to any other who should continue until Sa. Whoever is pointed at while Sa is spoken needs to post a gesture like the famous Mona Lisa, and don't forget the mysterious smile! Also the phrase can be "Captain", or "coconut tree", or "helicopter". Gestures differ according to which phrase is used and you cannot mix them up. This is quite fun and you can actually hear people saying Captain while posing as Mona Lisa. The last game is 终极密码. A number between 1 and 99 is fixed first and the aim is to guess what number it is by shortening the interval the number lies within. The boys are really good at this. For me it's almost impossible to get the correct answer but the boys can manage to guess the correct number in just couple of times. Amazing!

As one of the new volunteers, I learned from boys and other volunteers as well. We all had a wonderful time before the end of the day. I wish everyone good luck in the coming semester and do enjoy our coming sessions at boys' home!


Last but not least,here is a photo we took few weeks ago =)

the long awaited FIRST session!

Today marks the first session with the new volunteers! It was also a fresh start for the boys as most of them were unfamiliar faces.

In order to get to know each other better, Jennifer and Yuwen planned a series of icebreakers for today’s session. We also adopted the method of conducting the games session in two smaller groups. It proved to be effective as it promoted more interaction between the volunteers and the boys. We started the session with the famous washing milk game (modified from the Chinese version). It was a bit confusing for the boys and for us at first, but we soon got the hang of it. Next, the level of enthusiasm increased when we introduced the name and slap game. The person whose name was called, had to call another person's name while his/her thighs were being slapped by the two people sitting beside them. We did implement some safety precautions to ensure that the game went on smoothly. This game served as a quick and easy way to remember names for both the boys and the volunteers. Lastly, we ended off the session with an exciting game of charades. I really have to admit that some of the boys were really good at acting and they even used some of their sign languages which were easily comprehended by other boys.

Overall, there was good rapport between the boys and the volunteers. I hope this session will kick-start the rest of the sessions for the year 2011 and also enhance our volunteering experience in Block E with the new volunteers. I also hope that these sessions can serve as a learning tool for the boys as well as for us. Also wishing everyone a Happy 2011!:)