Adventure Day!
I was invited to go on a trip to Sai Kung. I was under the impression that we would be going hiking but apparently that wasn't so. This trip was hosted by SME and run by a group called The Momentum Academy. Derek Ko was our training director. Dan is still visiting so I invited him and Tiffany along for the experience. Combined with a handful of students from Hong Kong and a class from Shao Guan Bei Jiang Secondary Vocational School of Guangdong we spent the day team building through various activities.
We separated the Hong Kong people to join one of the 4 groups of students that have already been made (teams A, B, C, and D) and we started off on our first team building activity, moving golf balls as a group using string and a ring. Our second activity involved transfering ping pong balls and ball bearings from one end of the field to the other end. The activities are different than the ones I remember going through retreats in school. We still sat down in a circle and spent a moment to allow people to talk about their experiences. I have NO clue why everyone was giving me pressure to speak, I think people just wanted me to say something in English, even the camera man was putting pressure on me so eventually I gave in and said a few words.
I really enjoyed some of the activities in the afternoon. There was one event which required us to use several items as stepping stones to cross the field as a team. That one really got everyone involved. People were holding out hands clinging onto each other. Ling came by right when I was standing on top of a can tightly holding onto another boy. She had fun taking her pictures (I have way too many gay pictures floating around). In a kind of Nostalgic sense we had a Towers of Hanoi problem. The problem though is the rule for us was that each person makes a move in order. We are not allowed to communicate with each other but we each know the rules of the game. Tiff, Dan, and I asked to start off the group and some of the students quickly figured out what we were doing. Others were much slower and probably never really figured it out. The worst was their classroom teacher, she kept undoing all our work.
We had a bit of time after the activities to play around with the recreational facilities. It has been a while but I wanted to give tennis a try again. I've been itching to play for the longest time and oh boy do I suck at it now. Tennis is a much harder game than badminton. Harder and faster, we spent half an hour trying to get one return across the net. It wasn't until Dan joined in that I started improving. We built up quite a sweat, which has been good for my health, I hope I can keep up the physical activities.
Dan and Tiff have developed a little following around this time. Several of the girls have been stealing glances at Dan, while the girls have been openly commenting on how tall and thin Tiffany is. One girl even asked to take a picture with her. We joined them on a tour of the town (or area of Sai Kung), but I ended up as the tour guide.
It was a tiring day, but a worthwhile experience. We observed a lot of different behaviour based on how the children are brought up. Engaging in these group activities you really get to see individual personalities come up. It was a little hard though to restraint ourselves, I felt like I wanted to get involved and direct, but we needed to let the children discover things for themselves. Tiff mentioned that some of the selfishness might be attributed to the one child per family rule; however, two of the girls we spoke with at our lunch table come frome 3 children families. The rule is different based on your location.
I hope everyone had fun, I certainly did, and best of luck to these students. I hope they really enjoyed Hong Kong, and maybe one day they can come back to really see what it is like.
posted by Tempest7 @ 09:43
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