Me. Myself & i

my bf was back from thailand yesterday! after a 8-day trip, finally
hee heez. rather happy to see him today. he wasn't suppose to meet me on Sundays, cos it's a sacred day to be spent in church and for his family... haha but today is an exception, cos we haven met for so long..

k, enough about my bf, shall keep the excitement to myself as no one is interested in my love life. actually i wonder who's interested in what i'm writing here..

saw the farmer today.. gave my feedbacks to alvin and xiong about the camp.. i guess it was a bad idea.. cos tiong didn't go for the camp and alvin tan din have much to say.... guess they were a little left out. i could see that alvin and xiong were very passionate about the topic, their organisation.. xiong kept nagging me to write an email to his head, as he totally agree with what i said but his head failed to see these points...

anyhow, i've yet to mention about the camp>>
first, some facts about the camp:
Xiong was the camp master of this buddhist camp, hence the farmers took part. partly for a gathering purpose, partly showing our support for our dear brother. i also wanted to learn something about buddhism as i've always been interested, however, lack the chance to get to know about it.

upon reaching, i found out that i was one of the oldest campers ard.. most of the campers were 15 or 16 year-olds who barely graduated from secondary schools... i felt like leaving while we were registering for the camp as i felt like i was going for another orientation camp.. the feelin of signing a contract to give up my freedom for the nezt 4 days and 3 nights.. to act like clowns, smell like dirt and run like hell... i felt that i was too old for such things, there's no longer the kind of excitement that one would exp when they were 15,16... that's when i decided i'm no longer a teenager..

then we changed and prepared for the ice breakers..
i have to say that the games throughout the 3 days were very creative, the stories, the way they linked them all up, the point system which were actually money for the groups to buy ammunition for the race.. i was impressed, very. i wonder how many of the campers appreciated this effort.. the only little flaw in the games was that - they failed to bring out the objective of the games to the little kids.. for them to learn from the games..
for eg - there was a game where we had to protect the "virgin of purity" on a very dangerous journey for a precious scroll.. the groups had to come up with a strategy such that the commander and VOP will survive the journey...
there was a very funny relation of wat the 4 groups did by a really good speaker.. but i tot it would be much betta if the group leaders could have sat down and talked about how the group fare. what have they learn...
thoughout, there was much experience, but little learning.. the games that we played could have easily taught the campers about things that they'll never learn in classes.. about team work, about being considerate, about team building, about learning from mistakes, about decision making. the kids are still unable to really understand these underlying lessons that could be in any game, thus the camp could have been much more enriching, if time were set aside for such discussions... instead of chasing us all to bed for more action the next day. what is the objective?

yes, what is the objective of the camp? this was the question that bugged me ever since i attended the camp. nearly non-stop action without much rationale behind - gives me a feeling that the games were there to entertain the kids. they said it was to make the kids feel that buddhists can be fun loving, not just chanting everyday. the way i saw it - without the meaning behind the games, the games were merely to make the kids happy, like free gifts that comes with a product.. to market buddhism, to recruit more youths, they planned alot of games, to attract the youths. I'm all for it, i do not see anything wrong with that, i think buddhism can be fun, definitely, especially youths should be full of life. However, when they're jus playing for the sake of playing, the opportunity to learn is lost.
Perhaps i expected too much. i expected this camp to be something different.
好玩中带点严肃
not to squeeze buddhism into every little thing that one does in the camp, but learning.. i feel that such camps should touch the hearts of the little kids, to be a turning point for some of them, at least. thou 4 days 3 nites cant do much, but the learning could start to change the kids' thinking, like planting a seed in the kids' heart, hoping it'll blossom into a beautiful flower. to make them more compassionate, considerate, on the whole better persons... i tot this was what basic buddhism is about..

the spiritual component of the camp came in the form of Dharma Talks conducted by the head of the organization.. i have to say that i fully enjoyed the first session, where i was given the opportunity of asking questions about buddhism. Even thou it was a tiring day and i had a really bad headache, i was wide awake after the talk. i had so many burning questions after the introduction to buddhism, partly to see how much they know, partly because of my curiousity.. however, subsequent sessions were disappointing. they were long and i found it difficult to actually remember everything after a 2 hour session.
i agree with alvin that we have to give the speaker credit for trying to bring Dharma to a more comprehensive level for the kids.. however, it was obvious that there were little interest among the campers as they failed to see the rationale behind the talks... to them, they were merely sessions for them to catch up with their sleep.. he could have been more prepared with the lessons, some visual tools like writing on the white board. Also, i had difficulties understanding the points he wished to bring across, sometimes trying to recall the point that led to the stories. Thus the importance of a notebook, to be brought along for every talk. whether they keep it after the camp or not it doesn't matter, what matters is that they've written some notes and it'll stay with them better..

after the camp, i felt that there will always be a tension to promote buddhism and to recruit more members by the way they run the camps... because they have mistaken fun to be the only factor to recruit members..

fun, will only be able to keep them as long as they think the organization is fun.
teach them how to learn, make them feel that the organization can improve their lives, to learn more about buddhism.. once you touch their souls, teach them what they can't learn from school, you've reached out to them, their souls, then, they'll be there for you for as long as they believe. these are the people i would want to recruit.
leadership can be trained.
悟性却须要一点缘分

my two cents worth.
thank you xiong for introducing me to camp. i've learnt alot, seriously.
thank you alvin for being such a good group leader. caring and def the potential of a great leader.
the organization has much potential, having successfully organized 9 camps and goin on strong...
i wish it can touch more hearts in future, spread buddhism among the youths.

cheers

wr