Yishun Shrek Camp 2007!
backdated 17-19 Dec. This is a super late post.
This year, played the role of a normal volunteer and being part of the older generation of Yishuners, we saw ourselves belonging to the 老教 category.. when recollections of the '05 Sesame Street Camp and '06 Harry Potter Camp are still as fresh as ever. How time sprints ahead of us and our minds!
(ok i know lao jiao is not written like that...zzzz)
Some of the 老教 girls with Benny/笨尼 (<-Trish started it?) popping out at the back.
The camp started with the characteristic Yuanjuan volunteer training which the OC very appropriately allocated 2 SHORT hours for, which still overran to nobody's surprise. The role play that I sat through with my Elmo Group 2 yrs ago had the same scenarios as pointed out by Jem but were fun nonetheless, with many volunteer's superb acting skills.
Was introduced to Merlin Group members during the icebreakers and trials and thought that we had a rather quiet group since Trish, Tsun and I were the ones making noise for most of the time and we arent usually your noisiest around lol.
Sweet May Yi and Sock Hoon
Day 1 Night identifier-making
Whose toes?
Which was when we found out that actually around 4 group members knew each other alr from the same OG in Ethelonter IV! But we dint really get to mix much with them during the camp except with Dave the group leader whom we thought was too slack and bo chap a leader initially... until he got crowned as the HERO by Merlin group kids in Day 2 hahaha (more about Dave-Saves-the-Day incident later).
The games trials went fine. The mass game which looked the most fun of all was scrapped cos it was definitely too violent or violence-inducing to be played by Yishun kids!
Oh we had the most unlikely camp food for dinner on Day 1 Night when somebody came up with the ingenious idea of eating at Arts canteen instead of da-baoing Subway... We ate the $5 steamboat... Just look at the spread! The groups that came after us wanted to follow suit but the steamboats were actually SOLD-OUT at 6.30pm by the time they queued up, boy were we the lucky ones!
And so the other groups had to look on jealously at the 4 happily bubbling hotpots on our table.
The night passed with Trish, Tsun, Chaiyen and me sharing 1 room :)
Day 2,
Merlin group found ourselves attached with 6 of the supposedly most challenging kids...
... and yes, if you looked closely enough at the previous pic, we had the notoriously super obedient Kelvin. Who still threw tantrums every now and then when he was not being "angelic" lol. Other kids were as challenging with the exception of Darius the Obedient.
Think Merlin volunteers never had a moment of peace, running (like Johnson) after hyperactive running kids or coaxing kids who chose times to throw tempers at regular intervals, to go join back their group for the games haha.
With Darius the Obedient (center) and Chao Yang (literally 吵) the Attention-seeker (right).
Darius had those huge eyes and was so 乖 and mild-tempered during the camp. Chaoyang was the rash one who talked endlessly, who got agitated at Johnathan's (below) every disturbance and the one whom Dave the Hero saved from rolling down the Arts forum steps.
(Dave ended up rolling down 4 large steps himself and reluctantly won himself 3 loyal koala bears as fans lols.)
Lin Yu the Extra probably felt the most alienated from the group cos he was the only 12 yr-old around. His english was better than expected but I found myself with little topics with him cos his age was neither here nor there and he was only interested in my hp games!
Johnathan the Over-Enthusiastic 5 yr-old. He probably ran a total distance comparable to Jarett in last yr's camp. While the volunteers found his grin really adorable, the other Merlin kids kinda ostracised him, probably finding his over-friendliness too annoying =( But he's still lovable nonetheless.
Kelvin the Same Kid. Still as immuned to volunteers' warnings until the one and only Yuanjuan came along, but I must say that he seemed to have toned down just very slightly with some persuasion (and sweet talk), which is of course, a welcomed change.
Other kids, the familiar faces :)
Whass-up!
I don't know why Kelvin was strangling Darius here when the kids were supposed to DECORATE Darius as a human Christmas tree with the stars and leaves collected after the game.
Surprisingly Jenga was the only game who got Kelvin to concentrate quietly. And the other kids loved it too.
Only that they played Lego out of the Jenga blocks instead
The Running Catching Game that ALL kids love. A must-have in any kids camp.
Evening fell, and we were whizzed off to Tanglin with the kids to... play with SNOW!!
Mengyoke dint want to get herself dirty though..
Was like a dog chasing blindly after little Jerald in the snow while risking being attacked by random volunteers with snow piled on their palms -_- . Even lost my specs onto the floor for 1min in the midst of defence. LOL. The kids had ponchos to keep them from getting wet but the volunteers experienced the snow on their heads hahaa.
But Jerald is cute in his own way, though he almost never answer my questions at all. He is obsessed only with (people with) cameras and I dint carry mine along.
The aftermath: The "snow-capped" trees and houses did give a touch of "White Christmas".
Wet! Very wet!
The kids clearly enjoyed playing! Realised that there was alot of children welfare, they even got wands that had multi-coloured lights (which soon spoiled cos the kids fought using them -_-).
Day 2 night was spent sitting outside the kids' double room to make sure they slept and not secretly sneaked out into the night... hahaha. YJ had enough foresight to give another stern warning to the Merlin kids at bedtime so whew, we dint have much trouble ordering them to sleep :)
Daidee-ed and bridged with Tsun, Trish and Dave outside the room... Me and Tsun were the best bridge partners that night, we had such a winning streak! Retired to the room for sleep at near 4am and woke again at 7plusam ahhaha to breakfast, morning exercise and home-sweet-home!
Not before we had christmas tree making competition! Us proudly presenting the Merlin tree...
Packing up to go home. Just look at Kelvin again ahhaha.
The bags looked huge on the kids' shoulders.
A pat on the back for the PD! =)
Besides the kids, these 2 are the ones that I stuck with most of the time and I had hell of a good time with them.
Especially when Trish started her daily ritual of "blur-rattle-whine-grumble" and the cycle repeated... so me and Tsun just came up with this totally idiotic way of dealing with it...
E.g. (Rephrased) at 11.50pm, 17th Dec after interrogating the Bday boy
Trish: "What's _ of Dec (that u all were talking abt just now)?"Us (tries to hint): "....."Trish: "Huh? I really duno?*rambling continues....."Us (gives up): "RAH!" *and burst out laughing at poor trish. Trish don't take offense ok? It's all in the name of fun and I'm sure u enjoyed every minute of getting RAH-hed at, right? =p
We were also the distinct people who photo-whored ALOT relative to other volunteers. :D
4 beauties from 4 different groups: Merlin, Dragon, Puss-in-Boots that looked more like Felix the Cat, and GINGY GingerbreadMan
The gals
Junli's bday clashed again with the camp dates and as part of the tradition, the guys thought of ways to sabo him hahhaa, this time was to drink this yummy concoction of onion, pasley, celery plus 10+ other yucky ingredients freshly squeezed using a manual orange squasher LOL.
Fooling around while waiting for Bday Boy Junli to come
Others signed on the "Certificate"
He sure loved the present he received!
No muddy dunking this time, but more of playing with water in the toilet -_-lll I'm so glad i'm a girl cos each and every one of the guys got CARRIED off to the toilet at least once for a nice clean "shower".
The lonely "Cleaning in Progress" Sign. How apt.
Lao-Jiao picture. A proper picture at last :)
Really enjoyed the camp just a volunteer this time :) Actually got a lump in the throat as the kids waved goodbye from the bus.
Jem's flying off on Friday.... Bon voyage to you :)
