Day 3: A good day, a long debrief and my turn in the spotlight

Location: Hall, KSNP
Mood: :)
Music: Get Low - Flo-Rida ft. T-Pain

First of all, thanks to all you guys following the blog - its much appreciated! :)

Yesterday was a pretty good day. The leadership lessons were great! First, our logistics team, Sam, Keng and Min Sern, taught a lesson on conflict resolution, which is always a fun one to do. The beginning of the lesson involved Keng busting into the classroom and demanding, "Samantha, where are my car keys?" He told her that his car was missing, then they then argued about it for 5 minutes amidst Min Sern's yells of "What!? But my laptop was in that car.... that's my life!" Eventually, after accusing everyone and their mother of being responsible for his keys, Keng finds them in his own pocket. The mentees had no idea what was going on (one actually came up to them afterwards and pointed out the flaw in the logic of the skit... why would Keng's car be missing if he had the key?). There was also a game called native explorers that involved groups of "Malaysian explorers" trying to figure out a code. Connie, Yi Xiang and Kraig were our explorers.... and they did a pretty amazing job. Kraig did forget a few of the hand gestures though, which was sort of funny.

Brynna and Diego's leadership workshop was really good as well. The kids started to lose a bit of focus at the end though. They had a scavenger hunt, which the students really enjoyed. They're both really good at drawing the kids out, getting them to take the discussion to a whole new level. They're both just really good with kids!

The project group presented the final day event and the individual projects to the students yesterday too. Then they broke off into groups and discussed it with some of the mentors. I think that once they understood that they were going to be organizing/writing proposals for/coming up with their own legit projects, they got really really psyched.

The group in charge of environmental projects organized a photo activity that involved the students heading out into the woods for some nature photography. Ha conducted a little session on basic photography skills, which really engaged some of our mentees....and a few of them got really into it. We had the idea of making an anthology of sorts, where the student scould submit their reflections on nature, scientific writing about the different plants/animals, photographs....etc. and printed them out for the individual schools and for KSNP (maybe we could put it next to a donation box?). I'm excited.

So yeah, everyone did an amazing job - what superstars!

We had two debriefing sessions last night, which were sort of long. Kellie, Tian and I are going to have to manage them better. People were up late working tonight - I know Connie and Ha were up late preparing for tomorrow. We're also a little worried about getting the kids to discuss the final event tomorrow, since a lot of them seem to be really really excited about specific tasks or activities. but they have no idea how to structure or organize the planning of an event. We're going to have to figure out a good way to direct their discussion tomorrow.

Funny story. Somehow Min Sern got hold of Diego's bag and put it in the boot of our car. On the way to dinner, Diego calls Tian and asks her where his bag is. He insists that she has it, and she insists that she doesn't. Tian and I then take turns scolding Diego for "pushing the responsibility to other people" and being a bad mentor - didn't he watch the workshop on conflict resolution that morning? We also told him that by signing the SEALNet waiver, he had taken responsibility for himself, his actions, and especially his property. Didn't he read the fine print? By this time, he is telling us how messed up this entire situation is, and Tian and I are dying of laughter. To top things off, thinking of the skit from earlier in the day, I asked him if he'd done a Keng and suggested that he checked his pockets. It was hilarious. I had lots of fun.

I was really grouchy and tired and sleepy, especially after debriefing. Man, I really should just not be allowed to talk when I'm cranky. I went out and got the team drinks (and myself a teh o ais limau), then the logistics team got me a bar of chocolate and a coke on their Tesco's run - hahaha wow. My crankiness ended when I got put on the spotlight tonight, after having been picked by the spinning pen 3 times and having gotten out of it every other time. It was interesting, particularly because I have very different relationships with some of the people on the team (especially those I've known from before), and they got to see different sides of me. Also because people (ahem Kellie and Tian) knew stuff about me that they just wanted me to reveal to the team. It was pretty hilarious. Pretty fun stuff.