Musings on working as a volunteer at a weekly learning program with kids in the Whampoa neighbourhood in Singapore
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
“I Want To Be the Strongest”
The photo on this post is badly lit, mis-composed, and has no technical merit whatsoever. But of all the images I’ve taken in the past 12 months: from Russia, Turkey, Paris, Provence, this one, from beautiful downtown Whampoa, is the one I’m proudest of.
The “study” theme at the Family Service Centre last Saturday was the Olympics. I brought in an Olympic torch from the office (yes, the real McCoy. Lenovo designed the Torch at the Beijing Olympics after all), had them play some Olympics-themed word games, got a TINY bit of reading done, and then the kids had a choice of making a torch, complete with paper napkin flames, Olympic Medal, or the Olympic flag.
It was a bit of pandemonium
– one of the boys kept running round to another table to give his younger sister a shove for no apparent reason; a bit of a mess – one kid spilled the water all over the table – no more poster paints please!! But the kids were into it, they were having fun, and the volunteers were great – getting the kids engaged, asking them questions and keeping them focused.
By late morning there were some nice torches and some kids doing Chariots of Fire with their handiwork. Some brought their art work home, some abandoned them. Several came up and asked that their work be put up on the wall.
So – that’s the photo in this post. Every Saturday we hope we give the kids two hours of a view into the world away from textbooks, hopefully get them interested in something new, and something to take home to their parents maybe.
One kid, Nashruddin wrote on his paper plate Olympic Medal “I want to be the strongest.” I hope his parents come in one weekend to see that.
And when Camelia (really cool teenage volunteer) and I blu-tac'd the stuff on the wall last weekend, I finally realised: baby steps are OK.
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3 comments:
Love this post Geri. Kids really are so receptive to new experiences and so honest about what they want to be. It is in growing up that put dreams get dulled.
impact is the hardest to measure. and frankly, even if what we do means nothing to the kids now but years (and i mean YEARS) down the road, that should count for something.
it's like me + my mother + scotts emulsion cod liver oil in the 70s. it counts for something now. :) kjj
Hi - thanks for your comments both. Joh Ju - uh...you comparing us to cod liver oil ah?
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