GESS Project Camp!
If I ever have children of my own, I’ll make sure they never turn 12-13.
Man, kids this age are both 1) an ocean of uncontrollable energy 2) as easily bored to the bone.
Seriously, I respect all those FaithActs staff. How they can make a career out of interacting with 12-18 year olds and turning them for the better.
GESS (Gan Eng Seng School) Project Camp was an overnight orientation camp for Secondary one kids. I volunteered as a station master and also in the general running of the camp (cleaning up, moving stuff etc…)
It was an eye opener for me. I seriously doubt I would have volunteered for such things if I were younger. But I felt that God was pushing me out of my comfort zone here, and so I took the step of faith. I was nice meeting and working side other volunteers from SMU and church as well. It was good for me to get to know new people.
I also discovered that I don’t handle kids very well either. Hmm…something to think about yeah. Controlling a class (about 40 students) was hard. I realized that it was wrong to force kids to be silent before they listen to you. It just wont work (they are too excited). A better approach is to get at their attention first, and get the message across within the shortest span possible (attention span is short).
(Although the FaithActs staff are all christian, the camp itself is secular in nature. It was attended by all normal tech and normal academic students in the cohort.)
I was dead tired after the camp. But boy, the sleep was refreshing indeed.
Would I volunteer again for such things. Maybe lah, but for older kids yeah….
