Date: 24 October 2009
Time: 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Venue: CR 111

Selvie's Reflections
The saturday session has enable to know more about the team and also more about the trip. I learnt more about my teammates’ personality through the objects that represent them and how do the objects represent them. It was a very meaningful considering the fact that we don’t meet with each other so often except for the meetings and the TOOP activities. I think that there are alot of things that I don’t know about Singapore and I need to find out more about that so that my sharing session with the Yunnan people will be a more meaningful one. Moreover, i should plan to maximize and make full use of my time in Yunnan so i will gain a valuable experience and won’t regret it. I also made to appreciate the value of teamwork and communication since those two are important values to achieve our objectives and hopes. I also learnt that the trip is more than a cip that we are familiar with, it is a service learning that will benefit us if we are willing to learn and be committed to it. Besides, i also realize that each of us has differing views and expectations on the trip and the process as a whole. However, regardless of the differing opinions, we should be united so that the trip will give maximum benefit to each of us.

Zhi Lin's Reflections
Before all the sessions started, I was rather curious to know what was going to happen. The teachers did not spell a word regarding the activities we were about to do then. I guess this is how they make us anticipate and to look forward to all activities? 

I am pretty amazed by the lessons to be learnt behind each activity.

For example, the “musical chair” game, when we had to stop Ms Koh from sitting down. I was thinking, is this game supposed to train our communication skills and show some leadership qualities in leading the team where to go next. However, this is just one aspect of the lesson. Ms Koh brought up a point that this would also occur in Yun Nan when we might face similar circumstances and how exactly we are going to deal with such problems faced. Are we going to just repeat the mistakes that we made during our session in Singapore? I hope not!

Then came some quizzes. I was quite astounded by the questions posed. Moreover, it’s about Singapore! I have to read up more about Singapore already. Surprisingly, Singapore is not that “small” as it seems!  I have known so much more about Singapore after that session, in Chinese! I’ve learnt that we can never take things for granted and be so oblivious to our surroundings. All the details, we may think that they are significant, but, it’s part of our homeland. Shouldn’t we know more about them?

Another part of the session that etched deeply in my mind is the “serve and learn” choices. We had three distinct groups in our one big team. If handled inappropriately, the difference in our train of thoughts may lead to the destruction of our team and the whole project. I’m pretty sure none of us wants that to happen! I’ve gained the knowledge that all of us have different personality and character. Some go all out to serve and contribute to society while others learn first. It has never occurred to me that this would portray in yun nan, where we might segregate and do what we think it’s right. I’ve learnt to accept the differences we have and live with it. I hope our yun nan trip will be a harmonious one!

Ashlene's Reflections
Started off the day with “THE object that can best represent me.”

It was much more interesting than the usual kind of self-introduction and we got to know a lot more about one another in this way. I thought it was really smart of the teachers to think of such thing, where they managed to make us reflect on ourselves (i.e. who we are, what qualities we have, what do we believe in) and at the same time, let us know a little more about each other so that we can work better in the days to come.

Another memorable discussion was the differences between overseas CIP and service learning.

Honestly speaking (ok in this context, typing), I had never put any thoughts into the differences between these two; I mean seriously, aren’t they both about volunteerism? So why do we have to know the exact difference between them? That was my mindset before the discussion. But of course, as we proceeded on to the discussion, we started to reflect and hence discovered more to each of the two types of volunteerism. After the discussion, I realized how vital it is for us to distinguish these two because our very understanding of them will directly affect our mindset (which in turn affects our actions and performance) over there in Yunnan.

To end off, I got to say this workshop was very well-planned and it would definitely be helpful to our experience in Yunnan.

Shir Lin's Reflections
I was actually pretty reluctant to come for the workshop because it’s been really tiring the past two days, and I felt like I was having high fever because there was heat radiating from my arms all the time. But I managed to pull myself out of the house and I’m actually glad I did so because the workshop was actually pretty fun. We brought stuff to represent ourselves and I feel that the team got to know each other better. We distinguished between cip and service learning, and also reminded ourselves of the initial objectives we had. I think this allowed us to have a clearer view of what we want to do and to remain on the original path we were on. By pondering about whether it’s a big S or a big L at the end of the day also helped remind us of what each of us wants to achieve in the end, and that it might be the reason why some may act differently during the trip. I think this is really useful because we cannot afford to let internal conflicts occur and eventually result in the breakdown of communication.

Jin Yi's Reflections
Today’s service learning was really enriching and meaningful. I didn’t expect I would gain this much actually, so the day was quite well spent.
It started off with an introduction where everyone had to prepare something which represents themselves and we were given a chance to question every material which our peers brought and had them answered as part of our introduction. Some brought similar things but their reasons behind always differ. I am really glad that this session had enabled me to know more about my teammates. It just intrigues me to know that this team which consists of people with very different character and yet are able to work together towards a common goal. At least for now. After that was knowing more about Singapore and we began to question ourselves what are our true objectives of this whole TOOP. This session was a great reminder to everyone as it prevented us from being drifted away from our true objectives.

We played some chair games.. I have no idea what it’s called. It was real fun and we managed to almost hit the record timing. I guess we wouldn’t have made it without ‘teamwork’ hur.

After which during SL activity, I chose ‘s’ and ‘L’. However, it shocked me to see the difference in opinions of every member in the team even though we are going to the same place doing the same thing together. It upsets me even further as the groups argued their stand and it feels to me like a ‘conflict’ is intensifying.. but after the teacher explained her objective of this session, everything turned out alright because there is just no right or wrong answer. I believe that at this stage learning is crucial and whatever that we serve we would do our utmost. The amount of service which we could provide is limited and we can’t help with a mindset of saving the world. It is just reality. However, with learning, we could achieve even more in the future and embark on more activities that could help the world with our experience. =) No matter how everyone’s opinion turns out, it wouldn’t be appropriate to fight over any of these opinions. I guess we just have to compromise, understand and get along with each other. And I believe that it’s the experience which we go through and then some day everyone will have a common sense of belonging which eventually unites us as one even with common and yet differing goals. I learnt to distinguish better between SL and CIP. I guess it’s important to know what you are doing. Overall, service learning for today was really meaningful. It taught me the objectives of TOOP and how to work well with my teammates and perhaps it even taught me to know myself better? Hm That’s all. Bye.

Izzah's Reflections
Preparation for the Yunnan trip is very important as it is for any other school trips overseas. However, it is especially important for an outreach trip like ours as we learn and prepare to give as much as we can and in the process, to be enriched by the experience. Hence, sessions like the one we had on Saturday are definitely useful in doing so.

Unfortunately though, i was unable to be present for the entire session (i had to go for this award thing but there's a catch; the "reward" that i got from this award would definitely help me get stuff i need for the China trip- talk about being timely eh) but im sure for those who did, would have found that it was time well spent. Despite this, i have indeed learned a thing or two during the short 3 hours that i did manage to stay on for.

Firstly, the part of the session whereby we were supposed to represent ourselves with an item was interesting but i am sure that not all of us could fully represent ourselves with just a single item because i believe there are many aspects to a single individual. That said, i thought we did our best with whatever time we had(: and i agree with Edwin and believe that many of us are like onions with many layers; discovering/finding ourselves a little more with each and every day so it was kind of hard to absolutely say that im like a rubix cube. But that was the best representation i could think of to explain the part of me that i wanted to share with everyone in the team.

Ms Azyanti's activity was also important in getting us back on track to what our original aim of joining the programme was and to make us evaluate the purpose and learning points of what we have done so far for the programme (namely fundraising projects). But i must admit that i didnt realise we needed to know so much about Singapore for the trip! (like the info highlighted in Mrs Goh's segment) and even more so how much we DIDNT know about Singapore! so that segment was definitely useful. Nevertheless, learning about Yunnan, its culture and lifestyle of the people is just as important if not more but i can't comment any more than this as i had missed the subsequent activities but i will sure find out from the rest!(:

Fiona's Reflections
Through today's session, I got to know more about our team mates. What I mainly manage to bring away with me today is about thinking about the purpose of this trip as a team. What left the strongest impression on me is about the comparison between service and learning. We all may have differing views about whether are we planning to learn more or providing our services, but I supposed there are a few things for sure. No matter what limitations we may face, we are doing our very best at Yunnan according to what the circumstances require. We will have to go there with an open heart to learn and accept whatever that may be thrown at us. We all have different stands about comparing Service and Learning. I still support the stand on small s to big L. Since I started to join this trip, I really learnt a lot. From the start when we have no idea how to start to plan till Dr Tan arrived and gave us a clearer idea about how the lifestyle in Yunnan was like, until when Ms Koh shared with us during the workshop. I was continuously exposed to new things or even plan programme that I will never thought of doing. Within a few months, our team has come thus far, and I believe that we all have mature somehow and benefitted much. We are still learning so much before we have embarked on the actual trip. I believe that I will learn much more in Yunnan as we interact with the people and execute the projects that we have planned.

Jia Ming's Reflections
Todays lineup of activities was indeed as enriching and more beyond my initial expectations. Rather than learn how to serve, today I have learnt how to learn.

Firstly, Ms Koh did run a point home when she mentioned that perhaps the aim of our project has been warped due to our intensive fund-raising efforts. We require this workshop to keep ourselves from simply being sucked into believing our project is simply based on financial aspects. For example, today we have learnt more about the experiences of predecessors and their struggles. How different groups of people have different needs and wants, as well as objectives when they are abroad. How we should be prepared against everything, even if a teacher falls into psychological shock.

For example, Ms Koh's note of how panicking has led to a close encounter with danger with her batch has shown us the true nature of this outreach: we all need ourselves to be calm and concentrated at all times, to ensure we all come back in one piece. Perhaps I should invest in more hours applying my knowledge in Medicine to practice.

Furthermore, the activity by separating groups into individual clusters has shown that our group does indeed show potential for cleavage. Fortunately, we were able to see this possibility with the help of this activity, and we will not repeat the mistakes of our predecessors.