An Orientation Went Wrong

An orientation is meant to give newcomers an brief experience of an event or programme, introducing them to a new environment or situation. Yesterday, we, sec 2s, organised the RSP orientation course for the new sec 1s students. I believe it etched a bad impression of us to the sec 1s. We were rather unorganised, letting the teachers down.

The course was meant to be an introduction for the sec 1s to the Regional Studies Programme. At the end, they are expected to be a step closer to Malay culture, which includes traditional games, spices, musical instruments used by the Malays, and the language of Bahasa Indonesia.

The sec 1s are suppposed to go through a treasure hunt may be called an amazing race (that is not amazing at all because of us). During the hunt, they were exposed to the aspects of Malay culture as stated above. They also get to play the Indonesian version of the spelling game, Scrabble. (I believe it is very tough for them considering the depth of the language they are exposed to)

I was under Yi Long in the traditional games leg of the amazing race. We did some eleventh hour preparation for the rules and regulations of our station. It was said that there will be 3 groups during the race. Then, news came to us that there will be 4 groups and later 6 groups. We were confused and messsed up our procedures. We decided to go for an impromptu games for the sec 1s.

We got ourselves ready at the parade square waiting for the first group to arrive. They were quick! We were amazed at their speed and enthusiasm. We got the first group to play chapteh and five stones. Things were going fine until the second group arrived while we were debriefing the 1st group. They were in complete disarray! The 2 groups were in a complete mess we could not identify which group is which. I decided to gather they and demonstrate how to play each of the traditional games they need to know. Thoses games ranges from Chapteh, Five Stones, Gasing to Sepak Takraw. Here are some images of the traditional games we play:

All hell broke lose when another group rushed to our station! Some of us, the seniors, were playing as well. Chaos plus even more chaos! Those impatient impish juniors were kicking the sepak takraw balls all over the parade square! It took us some time to get them settled down.

After the sec 1s are dismissed, all the sec 2s were given a deserved lecture session by our teacher-in-charge, Mr Leo and Miss Shyamira. As seniors, we were expected to be more mature, more disciplined and more organised than the juniors. However, some of us did not display the required expectations. I'll treat this as an lesson learnt and will improve on our leadership capabilities.

Here's some pictures or me playing Chapteh and Sepak Takraw: