Volunteering at HortPark....

Wow...last LAST saturday was one freaking long and tiring day for me...yup as part of my service learning project for one of my modules, we had to volunteer our services at an organization. My team selected Hort Park...after being rejected by a couple of others....hmmmm...well anyway we got the base foundation settled (thanks to Isyanah, seriously people we HAVE to give her a treat one day)

So yes, I woke up early as usual even though it's a Saturday...this time for a different reason. All this while I have been going off to NDP training...that day however, I had to go for my ONOW project...*yawn* Wonder what excitement would I experience today...visiting a nature park is one thing...working as a volunteer...i'll bet that there would be a couple of differences...

I was 2nd to reach...my partner Benedict was the earliest amongst the three of us. Both of us met up and went to stone for a bit. The view was really pretty...with all the greenery, a huge body of water, coupled wit a nice morning breeze...mmm...it made me feel totally at home. I love nature! It's been a long time since i've entered a nature reserve...all the greenery n plants give me comfort n grounded to the earth...that we're all part of this world...part of this life...

Enough of that though, after a round of briefing from our leader (along with the arrival of our friend Kylie), we took a light snack before starting work. First activity of the day: Picture mossaic; Little kids activity time!! They were supposed to put together little bits of small items such as crystals/buttons/stones/gems to form a picture, so we provided them with a tile which had double-sided tape pasted all over, in case they messed too much with the glue.........so anywayz, the kids came and started having fun, with my friend n i walking around to help the kids/collect rubbish/answering questions etc. etc. Some of them were really creative, some were just messing around but created pretty nifty pieces, others were just disastrous -_-" oh well kids are kids XD

Now the next activity was 3D-Card Making. OMG! THis was one hell of an activity for me!!! Some of the kids were little angels, quietly doing up their cards, taking extra care when using the glue which we provided them with....of course with angels, there are devils. Duh. I remember crystal clearly that there were 3 boys whom i was interacting with and helping out...they were all in upper primary...not that it made any differences -_-" After seeing the way they wielded the scissors and penknives we lent them, my heart perpectually jumped out. One even looked menacingly at my long tresses with an evil glint in his eye and a pair of scissors in his hand. I immediately grabbed my hair and wrapped it up into a tight bun. Another boy picked up a tissue from the floor and stuck it on his face...with a hole at the mouth area, so that he could speak....aaaaaaand the other kid stuffed the tissue into his mouth...fyi the tissue dropped on the floor and had glue. My partner Ben and I nearly fainted from shock.

Thankfully after that it was break time!!!! All we needed to do was to bring all the furniture back to the store. For a moment I was shocked cause there was no way I was thinking of carrying those furniture and walk all the way. Then I realised...oh we werflyere transporting the furniture using a buggy. Me and benedict sat at the back...teeheee.....it was fun...minus the fact that my hair was blowing 2wards the front...

By the time after we made a few trips, I was starving. The 3 of us dropped by IKEA to chomp. Mmmm I totally missed the sweedish meat balls....yum yum!!! My two friends were couping the sauce from me after i was done >_> Once they were done, we made our way back to the Park, stopping once in awhile to look at the decorations (STUFF TOYS!!!)

Of course, when we were back, our leader was nowhere to be seen...so ben and I ended up falling asleep and taking a mini afternoon nap whilst Kylie read a pamphlet. An hour later, our leader came and briefed us on our next activity...butterfly garden!! WHOOTS!

We took a mini buggy again towards the butterfly garden where me and Benedict were in charge of the exit and entrance respectively. There was quite a turnout. The queue stretched all the way from the garden till the end of the stairs. I was jumping up and down to see the end of the queue (i'm not short just that the people were tall!!) Amusingly my leader asked me to count the number of people. I was thinking...HUH?! Are ya' kidding me or what??? I can't be in two places at once, guarding the exit whilst counting the number of people at the entrance! Thankfully whilst all these thoughts were running wild in my head, she went back inside to give the group more information/insights on the different species of the butterflies. Well, I gotta' admit they were pretty...as in the butterflies.

Oh yes apparently, the prettier the caterpillars, the uglier the butterflies were...whereas the uglier the caterpillars, the prettier the butterflies were. After what seemed like a millenium, the butterfly garden was finally closed to the public. Sadly, some people still turned up and we had to graciously turned them away...think we turned about 20++ people away in total. There was one particular group which didn't seem to wanna' leave...but we convinced them by saying if we let you in then there would be 20++ other people who wud come bash us up...tt did the trick XD

Finally, we were allowed to go home...after our leaders filled in the forms...and boy was i freakishly dead tired!!!! Sooo yar me signing off ^^ ciaoz!