Reflection Seah Yi Heng

Planning Phase

Social engagement (SE), something which I have feared since the start of semester 2 as most seniors described it as a very burdensome and time consuming subject. Initially I formed a group of 10 with my friends which consists only a single race. However due to our lecturer's requirement that each group must be multiracial, we  had to switch members and I ended up in a group which consists of 5 chinese and 5 malays. Well to be honest, I wasn't very sure about this group as I barely had the chance to work together with malays previously and I am afraid that we might have communication barrier. Nevertheless, we had our first meeting right after the SE briefing and things were better than what I expected. We were able to communicate freely and even came up with a few interesting ideas for our project. 

Later on, we had a few more meetings and we finally decided on our project. Unfortunately, after presenting it to our lecturer, our lecturer pointed out the flaws about our project and eventually we decided to change our project at the last minute. That's how we ended up with our current project, a visit to an orphanage home at Sungai Buloh. We had a few more last minutes meeting right after we changed our project and we manage to come out with a budget list, tentative and also proposal. All in all, the planning phase wasn't too bad except for that it is a little bit rush. I too manage to change the conventional way of thinking whereby Chinese cannot mix well with Malays due to the language barrier. 

Implementation Phase

Our project venue is Rumah Asrama Damai Kuang at Sungai Buloh. We decided to spend a total of 3 days there to conduct our SE project. There are kids and teenagers ranging from age as young as 4 years old to those as old as 16 years old. However, our target of audience are mainly primary kids which are below the age of 12. I gotta say for the very first session (ice-breaking session) on day 1, it was totally chaotic and out of control and I couldn't even wait for the day to end. This is because the kids over there are all very naughty and we do not know how to control them. Besides, as I was rushing for assignments for the previous few days, I did not sleep well and thus I was really frustrated to see kids making noise all around me. 

However, as we proceed with our activities, I realized that actually it is not that hard to make the children to obey you. They are actually not being naughty, but rather they are seeking for our attention and hence the mischevious action. In our following activities, we tried to listen to what they say and we tried to think from the perspective, think about how they feel about the activities/games that we are conducting. We realized that for certain activities such as the musical chair session, it is actually better for the children to lead themselves instead of us giving the instructions. Let them find the fun within themselves. But for other activities such as the english learning session and science learning session, we will have to guide them step by step or else they would lose interest in it. There is one session which I personally favorited the most, the Raya card making session. During this session, it is actually the children that taught me what to include in a Raya card such as the ketupat designs and also some of the Arabic words which is normally written with Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. There is also this 'Tang Yuan' making session which I think it is very meaningful as I get to teach them some of the Chinese traditional culture and even to my surprise, they actually enjoyed the tang yuans which are actually made of flour and cooked with sugar and pandan leaves soup.
 

At the end of our project, we had a small little sharing session with the children. Initially all of them are really shy to share how the felt during this 3 days spent with us, but we used interesting prizes as bait to encourage them to share their thoughts and it worked. Many of the children thank us for giving them so much fun throughout this 3 days as well as teaching them so much knowledge too. To my surprise, some even asked us to visit them again during Raya. It was really touching for me to see how happy and grateful the kids were to us. Now when I recall back how frustrated was I and how much I wanted to leave that place on the first day, I feel ashamed because it was actually me myself who did not put the effort to get to know these kids. 

Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to the kids from Rumah Asrama Damai Kuang for giving me such an enjoyable and meaningful experience for my SE project. Although the project is really burdensome and time consuming, but I believe what I gained from the project definitely outweights what I have sacrificed for it. I would also like to thank all of my group members for helping me with my work when I am unable to complete them. Thank you for always backing me up. Glad to meet all of you!