Author Archives: moloi103636@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Reflection

Date
Posted by
Comments0

#LO2: Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills

Things have been progressing smoothly with my saxophone lessons but not totally smooth. After constant practice a couple of times a week, I was given the opportunity to do a recital. The idea behind this was so I could get my first experience of playing the saxophone in front of an audience. I was a bit disinclined to do the recital the moment my Saxophone teacher brought it up because it would be my first experience and I was truly afraid of a mob. As days elapsed, I began sitting down and asking myself why I wanted to do music. I later remembered that music is not necessarily something that you do with just your teacher as I thought.  Not that I did not know this but that it was a bit unexpected for my teacher to suggest doing the recital more especially since I was doing the lessons all along. I, later on, mustered up the courage to do the recital and thus I started practicing really hard.

The song that I was assigned to do at the recital was called Ostinato by Costel Puscoiu. It was not that hard of a song after all since I played it together with my teacher during the recital, more like a duo. The major challenge to this activity was standing in front of a mob. I have not really performed in public that much so I at some point became too nervous as to what the recital was going to look like. In the future, I intend to overcome this challenge by gathering up every bit of confidence that I have and make sure to keep eye contact with the audience. I firmly believe that in the end, it was worth it because I learned new skills being, Public speaking, time management, collaboration, creative thinking, self-expression and so forth. All these skills ensured that my performance was great during my saxophone lessons and that I was a fast learner. I would like to believe that these skills that I acquired in the recitals and all my saxophone lessons would be applicable in other areas of my life such as, in a family set up, school, career and also in my daily social interactions.

Below is an attached music sheet and audio for the song that played during the recital;

Reflection

Date
Posted by
Comments0

#LO7: Considering the ethical implications of actions

Although fun, working with seniors, especially those with certain disabilities has never been that easy. There was always so much to take into account, what you say, what you do and so forth. Part of our service, which happens to be crucial,  entails us asking the seniors about their life in general as well as their thoughts of Singapore then record all these stories. I always thought about it for some while and realized that this task is quite easy to do with my age mates or middle-aged people but then a  bit hard and challenging when its old persons, more especially the physically underprivileged ones. For an unclear reason, I thought that it is disrespectful and rude to ask old people about their personal lives and perspectives on various topics. This sometimes made me panic every time I was supposed to interact with the seniors and collect their stories because I was not certain whether it was ethical or not.

I approached this really easily. I constantly reminded myself of what our service is mostly about and sometimes talked to the supervisors to get the assurance that it is ethically right to hold conversations with seniors on sensitive matters.

 

Reflection

Date
Posted by
Comments0

#LO4: Planning and  initiating activities

#LO2: Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills

Memoirs of the Pioneer generation truly gives me and probably everyone involved in the service the ability to think critically and make sound decisions when dealing with seniors. We mostly played board games and some other simple exercises that the seniors were able to do. I planned and organized this other board game known as Uno Stacko in which I basically just had to stack up blocks with the seniors and then remove them one by one from the platform without letting it collapse.  It was a pretty funny and interesting game. On the other hand, I also became a  bit creative and played a game a card game with the seniors, in which we stacked up cards and strived to make something that looks more like a house or just a simple platform. These games were preferable from my perspective since they did not really require much thinking or anything of that nature.

Despite the fact that the games were interesting, I did encounter some complications working with the seniors which had the tendency to make it difficult for me to execute my plan at some point. Most of them were Chinese and couldn’t really understand English so no matter how simple I tried to put my English they never understood a thing. Nonetheless, we were not alone, we enjoyed the company of the CareGivers at Tampines Home Care. Every time that there was a language barrier between us and the seniors they made sure to intervene and eliminate those barriers obviously because they could speak both English and Chinese well. The critical thinking skills I acquired when working with seniors ensured that I planned out activities that they were capable to play and that I was always mindful to not do anything stupid.

 

Here is a picture of the games that I planned out during one of the sessions with our service partner:

 

Image result for unoImage result for uno stacko

It is only unfortunate that we are not allowed to take pictures during our service thus the above pictures were sourced from the internet just so I could provide an idea of what kind of games we played with the seniors.

The Hero Himself

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Weeks passed, as they did, we drew closer and closer to SEASAC which was apparently the prime goal during the cross country season. We went to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, for these very competitions. It was only a two-day competition in which on the first day, we did the individual 5K run and the last day, 3k relay. Uninteresting to say but I did not come first in the individual 5k run,  rather I scooped the fourth position which is not at all that bad. Actually it was a fantastic performance given the vast runners that took part in the event. The following day I promised myself to obtain the first position in the 3k relay and it happened just like that, all thanks to my confidence and of course a bit of ego.

The course was what is called,” the real cross country course”, characterized by a hilly topography, muddy, bushy, a bit rocky and other conditions.  Despite all these, I managed to become strong and produce as best the results as I could. It is therefore not a surprise to hear that we did not come back to Singapore empty-handed, we came back as the CHAMPIONS with each one of us having a gold medal around their neck although the girls’ team got Silver medals. Up in the air, we lifted the trophy. Overall it was an eventful experience to be put into the history books and forever cherished.

Awards won: MVP, Gold Medal

5K PB: 17.44 mins

3K PB: 10.09 mins

 

Here are the pictures taken during the moments at KL:

 

 

Intermediate reflection

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Lo4: Commitment, showing perseverance and resilience

A couple of months after extensive training, I got chosen to take part in SEASAC. I never really trained consistently during the season thus by the time the competition came about I found it really difficult and challenging. The course we had to run on was the source of this challenge. It was very hilly, muddy, rocky and bushy. Taking risks and managing them has always been at the core of my values which explains why despite all these complications I still became strong and proceeded with the competition. Doing cross country was an unfamiliar experience to me so sometimes I really felt like it was too demanding and even went to the extent of trying to quit and switch over to football. However, my friends were always there to assist me every step of the journey by urging me to be patient with myself and persevere.

what mostly affected my commitment was the injury that I sustained from the start of the season. The fact that it was taking too long for me to recover and that SEASAC was approaching really quickly made me doubt that I will do well and thus at times I felt like withdrawing from the Sport. What I learned during that hard time was that indeed “indeed no man is an island”. I always thought that I could manage everything by myself and that I do not anyone to direct me anyhow but I was wrong given the lesson I obtained in the end.

The following pictures show the daily routine that I had to abide by to ensure I was back on my feet again and pave a way to SEASAC :

 

 

To give a brief summary of what is going on in the above-attached pictures, I ceased running for about 2 months and only concentrated on these low-intensity exercises just so I could get my body moving all the time. I muscle rolled both my legs, pushed weights, applied cream (to reduce inflammation), iced the injured leg every time after the gym, cycled and a lot other simple but effective activities that are not listed here. I also kept close contact with my Physiotherapist who constantly gave me advice and recommended me stretching exercises to do to get my legs back to their competitive state.

Cao-Aaaliya Interview on Islam

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Here is an interview that I conducted with Aaaliya in which I was asking her about her views on being Muslim in general. The major questions that are the foundation of this interview are:

  1. The pros and cons of being Muslim
  2. The whole idea behind wearing a hijab as a Muslim woman
  3. How politics in her context connects to her religion
  4. The advice she would like to give to the world based on its views about Muslim women

Lesson Summary

Date
Posted by
Comments0

In the previous lesson, we looked at an extract from Home  Fire which in brief entails Aneeka at Eamonn’s home for the first time after they met. Eamonn saw Aneeka in a  family photograph that Isma once showed to him and got struck by her beauty. Thus he went back to London and delivered the gift that Isma had for Aunty Naseem but the prime reason behind everything was so he could get the opportunity to see Aneeka’s beauty and satisfy his curiosity. Aneeka had a  cold reaction towards Eamonn from the point she arrived back home and saw him with Aunty Naseem.

A lot happened between  Aneeka and Eamonn from the moment that they first got acquainted with each other. Upon arrival at Eamonn’s house, Isma starts to taking off her hijab, signaling to Eamonn that she is ready to share an intimate moment with him as it was stated that, “She looked at him expectant”. It was not the first time that Eamonn experienced such kind of situation with women but since Aneeka is a Muslim and for that matter, wears a  hijab, he was not certain if  Aneeka really desired to share a bed with him which is why Aneeka took the lead in their act of intimacy. This is a bit unusual as men are normally expected to be the main driving forces during intimate instances.  Eamonn is still quite overwhelmed and unbelieving the next morning after he indulged in sexual intercourse with Aneeka, a Muslim. He expected the house to look messy for him to believe that they had sex but the fact that things were in their right order filled him with uncertainty and confusion. The fact that they had sex together yesterday and that Aneeka woke up in the morning to pray startled Eamonn as he never really expected it which made him start to become a bit judgemental.

In the end, we compared the Home Fire extract with Yumna Al-Arashi’s photographs. We said that the two are similar in that they both represent  Muslim women as being powerful, strong and not oppressed as people tend to think. There is also a similarity in that sense that both represent Muslim women wearing a hijab and in general how they have control over their hijab. Last but not least we looked at the fact that Al-Arashi’s photographs represent the Muslim woman all alone without anyone around her but rather just the physical landscape whereas in the extract it is Aneeka in interaction with the society.

TOP GIRLS

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Monologue:  ANGIE!!!

In act three of the story, Angie is super excited about Marlene’s visit especially since it has been a coon’s age since her aunt Marlene last visited them. Marlene enters the house with numerous presents and offers them to Angie who seems to be even more exhilarated as opposed to her mother who is not pleased to have been paid a visit by her younger sister. In Marlene’s presence, Angie conducts herself in such a manner that highlights her immaturity as we have heard in the story that when Marlene presented a dress to her she was so over-the-moon that she even wanted to go play with the new dress on. Her jolly childish behavior is also noted when she lied to  Marlene that Joyce had been trying to reach her and very delighted to meet her after such a long time of separation. Moreover, Joyce instructed Angie to go to bed since she wanted to have a conversation with her sister but then Angie most probably eavesdropped their conversation obviously because she was distinctly curious to hear whatever that they wanted to converse about. This is not surprising to hear since Angie finally walked out of her room at the end of their conversation and behaved in such a way that showed that she was indeed overhearing their conversation.  She said,” mum? frightening”, repeating this about two times. That being said, Angie finally learned that her aunt Marlene is actually her real mother which apparently left her thunderstruck. Neither Marlene nor Joyce noticed that Angie found out the truth behind her life.

Period of Personal enrichment

Date
Posted by
Comments0

REFLECTION 2a

LO4: Showing perseverance, resilience and commitment

Having sustained shin splints meant more responsibility which did not just come by itself but was accompanied by diligence and perseverance. The following pictures depict pretty much what I did during the entire period of injury:

I did everything in my power to restore my leg back to its normal and competitive state. Although I finally managed to bring it back into shape I would firmly say that it was not at all an easy journey for me. Apparently I put cross-training into practice and minimized the pressure I exerted on my legs in all training so as to boost recovery.

Having gotten shin splints made me wonder at some point whether cross-country was the right choice to make especially since there were hundreds of activities I could choose from.  That is to say that I got a bit demoralized but thanks to my fellow cross country runners I managed to get advice and mustered up the courage to stay strong, positive, patient and resilient. The constant follow up that my mates and coach did on me was very helpful in terms of making me stay committed to this activity and the more they asked me about the state of my leg, the more I felt strong and maintained going to the gym to train my leg.

Having stayed committed to this activity ensured the speedy recovery of my leg and that

 

 

POLITICAL CARTOONS

Date
Posted by
Comments0

 

– In what ways do political cartoons offer multiple perspectives on the ways in which gender roles and identities are socially and politically constructed?

– How, and to what extent, can humour be used to convey a truth?

– Can anything be understood without an understanding of the historical or political context?

Challenge: Can you comment on how your chosen political cartoon is similar/different from other works by Donnelly?

The cartoonist is basically trying to direct us to this idea of Female expectations by society. The girl in the cartoon is asking herself several questions based on the likelihood of her being raped. These questions are overwhelming as we can see that the cartoonist spread them around the girl such that she is pretty much completely enclosed. Caricatures have been used on certain parts of the body such as the nose which serves to evoke a sense of humour in the audience despite the upset facial expression that the cartoon holds.

Without an understanding of the social or historical context, it would be hard to analyse or comprehend the whole point of the cartoon or whichever method is used to share controversial issues with the audience. As for the above cartoon, the context of the image is most likely to be for an environment where males dominate the females and cases of rape tend to be more prevalent to such an extent that females have to be mindful of their choice of clothing as well as behavior.

This cartoon is similar to the fourth and sixth one as they all stress on the idea of rape that women of almost the same social context are exposed to. For the fourth image, the cartoonist made it appear as if a woman was raped at that particular moment whereas for this cartoon it was chiefly the set of questions that a female tends to take into account to diminish the possibility of being raped.