day zero – from shyness to highness

the day started for the coaches with a meet-up at nus sheares hall at 12pm , to sort out pre-camp admin. the coachin’ team was made up of shaun, wani, syirin, siti, rizah, yong ernn, karen, lydia (chiobu, woohoo! err.. sorry) and myself. after that it was a simple matter of waitin’ for the students to turn up, one by one. the nan hua dudes and dudettes led the way, tricklin’ in at 2pm. it was then that i got the first glimpse of my group 7 kids – those from nan hua were michelle, clara, kuanlian, siewying, rosamund, william, yu jian and zhen guo. my only kid from malaysia was a friendly giant called jack, who arrived promptly with the penang students a little later. lunch with my group 7 kids was a relatively muted affair, with most students stickin’ to familiar faces, and a lone indian boy (namely myself) grapplin’ with unpronounceable chinese names of varyin’ tones and lengths (haha). the relatively quiet atmosphere was soon to get a major jolt of life.

after lunch, the coaches got the chance to mingle amongst their own groups, presentin’ me the perfect opportunity to come up with my usual ice-breakin’ nonsense. games like 7-up and 007 (isn’t it funny how both of these contain the number 7, as in group 7?) not only allowed my students to get acquainted with one another, but also allowed me to get to know each person on a more personal level. i gave myself the task of memorisin’ all my groupies’ names by monday, while challengin’ them to find out my full name (not yogi, the complete 163-letter one. ok so it isn’t 163 letters long. but it’s close. heh). i could sense the group gatherin’ considerable warmth and momentum as the hours passed. after all, group 7 was the infamous “happening” group. happening!



the final catalysts in gettin’ all the students to overcome their shyness and get into the jolly campin’ spirit were the series of games such as dog & bone and steal-the-bottle, which a combined number of groups played just outside the sheares hall entrance. the sheer madness and mayhem that ensued brought with it much-welcome laughter and warmth, allowin’ the students to open up and get to know not only their groupmates, but even those from the other groups. the teens even gathered enough confidence to welcome the hongkong students midway thru the games with impromptu applause and cheers, much to the coaches’ surprise. with the hongkong girls’ arrival i got to know 2 more group 7 girls – suki and cathy. throughout the series of games, the coaches could already sense this camp shapin’ up to be somethin’ special.