SMU CSP Red Cross Project “I Can!” (Flyer’s Day)

Foreword: Since SMU has this curious requirement for all undergrads to have completed 80hours of COMPULSORY COMMUNITY SERVICE before one is eligible to file for graduation, and the 80 hours would only count if one could turn in a well-written essay on the entire experience of the Community Service Project, which of course has to be written very positively, I thought I should start early by recounting what happened today during my Day 1 at the Red Cross Project “I CAN!” before all the laughter, smiles and sweat today fade into distant memories.

(This is Part 1 of a series of blog entries regarding the SMU CSP Red Cross Project “I Can!” Journey camp which I attended. As the blog entries were stitched together from bits and pieces I had written during the camp on my iPod Touch, and I had to rush the entries out before going for the next camp tomorrow, I had to be straight to the point. Hence these blog entries will not be as interesting as intended, and served only to remind myself of the events during the camp.

To visit the other entries, check out Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.)

The dress code for the day was white top with at least Bermuda length bottoms and also covered shoes. I wanted to wear jeans, but out of concern of the day’s weather and some mighty prediction on my part (we were not told what we were going to do today), i decided on wearing bermudas instead of my usual jeans. Feeling rebellious, I also decided to take the definition of “covered shoes” abit too far. I wore a pair of crocs.

Well, if you ignore those little little holes, crocs can be considered covered, right?

Anyway, back to topic.

After the usual formalities of taking temperatures and declaring that you are not someone who had taken the spirit of sharing and caring too far (including H1N1 virus), I was directed over to a gathering point at the “T-junction” of SMU concourse, the large monstrous underground cavity underneath SMU into which magically SMU buildings had not yet collapse. No clear instructions were given then, and it was after some luck that I managed to find the group I belong to and settle down. I believe the same goes for others, though my sense of direction was probably the worst in the group. T-shirt for our activity was collected, and I wondered why we had to come in white top when white t-shirts were provided to us.

Leaving the solving of this million-dollar question to my sub-conscious mind, i settled down on the bench. It was curious that my group settled on 2 adjoining benches, and one consisted of all the guys, while the other one consisted of all the girls with one guy busy talking to the girls. Being the shy freak I am, I wanted to join in the all-guys bench to re-live with them the glorious days of serving as a slave of the nation, but there was no space for me and I had to settle on the other bench with all girls and one guy. Perhaps my role was to balance the distribution abit. I was sleepy at the time due to the late night gaming session the night before and it is best said that most parts of my brain were asleep and the parts that were awake were busily trying to wake the sleeping parts up so that they can catch a nap as well. Everything swirled around me and I couldn’t participate in much of the conversation, other than the random one or 2 sentences which I somehow shoved into the conversations at both the benches. I did notice that Andrea and Justyne has got large pretty eyes though.

We did some self introduction and I sheepishly told them that I have difficulty remembering names since young. This was not a lie. Still, I tried my best and I only managed to catch some of the names that were easier to remember; names like Gary, Cheun Full (full battle order?). I was thinking, memorising this handful of names would allow me to fake my way through what ever ice breaking games that would be coming up.

The first ice-breaking game was a game where we take turn reciting the names of those before us. For example, Person D had to recite names of Persons A,B,C, and Person E has to recite the name of persons A,B,C,D and so on. Unfortunately I was the last person. Lucky for me, someone soon commented the game was boring because it was taking too long and there was no excitement value. By then I was slightly more awake and was keen to avoid the certain disaster that was about the befall me where I could see myself stuttering over everyone’s name. Not only would I seem noob, I would be rude as well. I suggested to one of the Faci, why not we play another game instead, this is getting boring and getting nowhere. Suggestion was accepted and my seemingly unavoidable disaster was averted. There were some other ice breaking games, and hearing that anyone who lost got to sit down, I decided to play to lose. It was no coincident that I was among the first to sit down in all the rounds.

After some briefing we set off for Bishan and when we reach there we had an uninteresting lunch. I was very tempted to visit the VirtuaLand just beside the Food Junction but I held on to myself and reminded myself that I am a University Student now, not some primary school kiddies. After lunch we moved out to our destination and we were split into groups and allocated to different HDB blocks to cover.

Unlike other groups that has 2 guys and 2 girls each, my group was bigger with the size of 5 and only 1 girl. This made life easier for me as yours truly was a shy freak.

Anyway, what we had to do was to distribute pamphlets highlighting the SMU Red Cross Rice and Canned Food collection drive that was going to take place on 16 July(the following Thursday), to residents living in the blocks we were assigned to. Sounds easy enough, but door to door visits in my opinion is one of the most inefficient way of spreading a message. Still, I decided to go along since as it seems fun, and really, how many times can you get to knock on the doors of random people for a good reason?

Perhaps my expectation was too high. I paired with Chuen Full, the only other guy in the same faculty as me, and after knocking on the first few flats we were quite demoralized as nobody seem to bother opening the door for us. Then I got lucky when an old lady opened the door for me. That was my “First Blood!” and it kind of lifted my morale abit. Chuen Full soon got his “First Blood!” as well, but all hopes of getting a “Double Kill” was lost for both of us when we encountered more and more closed door. The doors were closed not because there were nobody at home, but Singaporeans, on top of the “Kiasu and Kiasi” seemed to have also cultivated a new “Kia”, the “Kia-ran”. Those occupants who refuses to open the doors seemed to be inherently be afraid of other people. Still, maybe as what I had casually commented earlier today, it was “our face” that frightened people off. Imagining peeping through the peep hole on your door and finding yourself looking at someone smiling like a retard, waving frantically at you. You would have thought the world had gone insane.

Overall, it was still a quite enjoyable experience as I marveled at the various beautifully designed doors, the 20+ umbrellas hanging at the window of one of the flats, and had fun barking along with the cute doggies belonging to the residents there. Perhaps I took my barking too far, as one particular dog barked in response to me which caused the occupant to “Bo Bian” (no choice) but to open up the door since it was quite obvious there was somebody in the house. He slammed his door after taking the flyer. Bad example for young puppy. Will the cute little puppy grow up to be a door slammer?

Perhaps because we were all guys, the success rate of us getting occupants to open their door was quite low. This is in sharp contrast with the success rate of our big-eyed beauty Andrea, which prompted me to suggest taking a photo of her and placing the photo in front of all the peep holes on the door when we were knocking or pressing the door bell. I even suggested asking “Anybody at home” in a girl’s voice, which I did, much to the horror (and goosebumps) or everyone around, including myself. But hey, at least one occupant did open up his door while I was speaking in a girl’s voice, after someone failed while speaking in his normal voice. I have proven my theory!

The activity was finished early, and all in all I had fun interacting with other members of the group. Am looking forward to the coming CSP camp, which was 4 days long, albeit on the lengthy side. But, if my experience today is any indication, I would be expecting more fun with fantastic group members and facilitators, mixed with slightly cock up planning with would provide an interesting element of surprise.

Stay tuned.

1 comment

1. 

   MH

   Posted on July 12, 2009

   LOL.

   Reply