Tag: #LO2

Does CAS actually have the capacity to change who you are?

Yes, it actually does. I signed up for Arts and Crafts with PPIS Child Care Center and Initiative For Peace (IFP) for season 1 to 4 and Badminton for season 2 and pre-season.

IFP

For IFP, it made me interact with a lot of people at the same time. I am an introvert when I am with new people and I lack self-confidence when it comes to stating my own opinions. However, during my time there, it forced me to interact and open up my perspectives.

Arts & Crafts with PPIS Child Care Center

The same goes for Arts and Crafts. Even though my past experience with kids has not been well and I do not enjoy their company most of the time, this service made me think about my decisions in a different approach. It made me want to interact with them more and I find myself enjoying their company from time to time.

Badminton

I am a very inactive person when it comes to sport activities. However, when I signed up for badminton pre-season, I find myself enjoying the activity and practices. Even though they are hard and tiring, it gave me joy and bliss. Thus, I even signed up for the season in-game and I got into C team.

All in all, all the activities and services that I participated in made me change as a person in a good and better way. Without it, I would not have realized my potentials and might still be hiding in a nutshell, in my own bubble. The activities forced me to look and try new things and I am grateful for the activities that I signed up for.

Activity:

For this week’s IFP session, we were going to play a game. The game was simple – create a group and the largest group wins. However, there were sabotagers. If one of the sabotagers were to be in a group, that group will automatically lose. The facilitator, Mr. Sanjay, was going to call each one of us out of the room we were in and tell them whether he or she is a sabotager. Thus, with those rules, the game started.

During the period of time:

While people were being called one by one, we questioned those who came back if he or she was a sabotager. Most of them said no. However, during my turn, I was told I was not a sabotager and he asked me to take a crayon and said it’s up to me whether I want to hid it or not. I decided to not hid it. Afterward, one of my friends asked me if I had a crayon and I said yes. She also had a crayon. The first thing that came up to my mind was – the non-sabotagers have crayons. So I gathered people who had crayons. However, one of my friends suggested that he thinks there were no sabotagers. I decided to accept that idea and gathered people without thinking about the crayons.

After a while, we were divided into four or five groups. In my group, people were mixed – those who have a crayon and those who don’t. One of the other groups only had people who have crayons.

By the end of the activity, we were told that there were no sabotagers and the crayons were made just to confuse us and divide us.

Reflection:

Personally I thought this activity was very interesting. We tend to look at the problem from different perspectives even though there were no enemies, even though we were the same. The only thing that divided us was the crayon which is our property. This is very true, we are all humans. We have our values and beliefs but that doesn’t mean we have the right to discriminate against others just because of those and vise Versa.  Personally, I thought this is a very interesting activity and this could be used as an example for future conflicts.

Badminton:

Badminton was one of the only sports I could play during my childhood. Even though my previous school had soccer, many of the girls weren’t interested in it. Coming here was a great opportunity for me to practice badminton especially where I have friends who could help me.

Reasons for joining:

One of the reasons why I joined badminton was to exercise as well. I am one of those people who do not want to go to the gym alone. But because most of my friends do not go to the gym at all, I didn’t either. However, I knew that I wanted to be healthy. So I joined badminton – one of the sports I enjoy the most!

Practice:

Doing practices were hard for me at first. Because I didn’t exercise often and it has been a long time since I last ran, I was exhausted after the first day. My leg muscles were hurt, my thighs were aching, and my hand was throbbing with pain. However, I didn’t want to give up. I firmly gripped on my reasons for joining the practice and continued those hard practices.

After a month or so, I got used to it. I was having more fun and enjoying as day goes by. There were many rules and techniques that I did not know. Nevertheless, I am gradually learning and improving myself even till now.

 

Today was the first day of Badminton activity and I was excited and nervous at the same time since I haven’t played badminton for a long time. I faced some difficulties when the coach asked us to do warm-ups and exercises since I have not been exercising for quite a while. Knowing that it is healthy for me, I pushed myself and finished the exercises without fail. Sometimes, my friends would help me in improving areas I lacked. After the warm-up, I participated in training and collaborated in pair activities. Engaging with my friends also helped me improve my form. After the activity, I have learned that I was lacking physically but I can see myself improving in the future. I look forward to the next time we do the activity again!

Today is the first official day we started the service: Arts and Crafts with PPIS Childcare Center. We have planned out the activity and what we should do when the children came before so that when they come, we would be prepared to take action. Personally, I have little to no experience with children so this service is a challenge for me. But coming to UWCSEA has made me challenge myself so I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. We worked together with the members and started the activity with a warm-up section. The response was positive so we proceeded with other activities to eventually achieve our goal – teach them English and build their confidence skills. Although we are the ones teaching them, I felt like I was also learning myself. Throughout the service, we helped each other and collaborated so that the activity will be carried out smoothly. After the service ended, we reflected on the activities that went well and the activities that needed improvements so that we could change our planning and improve our performance in the next section.

Here are the pictures of the activities we did!

 

Q: How can Jah and Kay help you as a peace-builder?

A: In my perspective, it really has to do with how the way one approaches another, the communication, collaboration and understanding. As a peace-builder, you have to consider other people’s feelings and backgrounds. Thus, the way one approaches can be important as well. We have to be careful in a way both sides do not take it the wrong way. Although I find that talking with others challenging, I have definitely improved in areas such as communication and participation.

This event can be also applied to the outside world where conflict is a constant issue in many countries either in their own countries or with other countries. If there is a miscommunication between the two parties, conflict can occur. Thus, you also need to consider the other perspective in any situation and try to understand each other. I believe that with the skills I have learnt from today, I wish to apply that knowledge in the future in areas that needed.