Charity Movie Event

Today my company organised a charity movie event for its adopted charity - Club Rainbow. Those of us who were attending were released from work early and we went to the cinema to catch the show with the kids. We were told we could claim for cab fares and there was also a free bucket of popcorn and a Coke.

It was the special screening of "Rango", the tale of a lizard who became a hero and saved the rest of the lizards in some old Western town when their water supply runs out. Johnny Depp voiced the main lizard character, and besides the animation and all the characters happen to be lizards, the action and story line is actually quite similar to the recent "Cowboys and Aliens" that I watched.

This is not normally the kind of movie I would watch, but since it is for charity and a company initiative, I do not mind. At least the kids had a great time, due to all the childish laughter going around!

First Chingay Volunteer Meeting

I just came back from the first volunteer session for the Chingay parade. Apparently this is the first time the school is involved in Chingay, so the coordinators had no idea what to do or what went on as well.

When we went for the briefing, we were given a T-shirt and the group we would be taking charge of. Then we boarded the bus to take us to the venue.

Dinner was catered, and the dancers were called to practice the steps and procession. Since there was nothing much for us volunteers to do, we just sat around chit-chatting or watching the procession trying to get together.

The dancers came back after an hour or so, but only for a short break, before going off to practice again. Around nine at night, the coordinators told us volunteers to go off as it did not make any sense to stay on since we were only there to help look after the belongings, which were all huddled in a circle and one person was enough to keep an eye on them.

Just as well we went off when we did as it had been a tiring day and we had to attend a Cathechists' meeting first thing tomorrow morning to kickstart the new term.

Next week will be a makeup class where we will be taught how to apply performance makeup, as we would need to help the performers do makeup as well. Looking forward to that!

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Trying Out MARCOM

Today we went for a meeting for the Public Relations and Communications group of CHARIS. CHARIS is a branch of Caritas (the Catholic Humanitarian and social mission group), and CHARIS was newly set up to help coordinate mission trips and outreach to the poor and marginalized.

In any case, it was a meeting consisting of volunteers. There were three aspects - print media in the Catholic Newsletter, website design and maintenance, as well as helping out at the Humanitarian Day next year.

For those who chose the third option, it would be more of a MARCOM role, as we would need to distribute flyers, write and publish on the Catholic Newsletter, do fund-raising, marketing and even public relations.

Sounds interesting and something I like to do, so I volunteered for the Humanitarian Day while he chose writing for Catholic Newsletter.

I have always been interested in the communications line, but now after so many years of doing unrelated stuff, it will be hard to start over in the communications line with no experience and relevant qualifications.

Hence the only time I can be involved is to try out MARCOM and other forms of media communications in other ways. I am not sure if I will be able to handle this since it is a totally new thing for me, but since this is part of my initiative to contribute my part to make a difference, I just hope I will be able to do it well.

I was told the Humanitarian Day group would contact us separately to schedule a meeting and brief us on what is required. Think this is going to be another exciting thing!

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Appeal For Prayers ....

My prayers never really come true. Nevertheless, I would still like to pray and appeal for prayers for all the disaster-prone areas of the region : Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand.

There have been volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, typhoons, forest fires. The elements that work for you can work against you too. There have been many people dead, dying and left homeless. We come from such a priviledged society, perhaps it is time to give back to the community what we have.

So please pray for a miracle and that these victims of disasters will be able to see the light and move on in their lives again!

World Habitat Day 2010

World Habitat Day is on the first Monday of October. This year's World Habitat theme is on "Better City, Better Life". Each year, there are millions of people from slums who moved to developing cities for want of a better life. These, coupled with those who were born in those developing cities of the world, there will soon be insufficient housing and will result in overcrowding.

Hence, this year's World Habitat Day is to raise awareness of these people who live in developing cities but may not have decent housing. We can do our part too, by advocating, educating and fundraising. Hopefully by doing this, many of us will realise how priviledged we are that we are born and live in cities that are already developed, with excellent infrastructure and ease of convenience to go everywhere.

To find out more, please go to the World Habitat website to take a look. Hopefully more people will help out and raise awareness!

AWARE About Women's Issues

So we went for the AWARE talk last night, and it was a rather interesting discussion, mainly about what women feel things should improve for them. First, we introduced ourselves and talked about our background and why we signed up for the talk. Then there was a tour around the premises, followed by a break.

After the break, we were asked what we would like to volunteer or be involved in, as well as a discussion over women's issues. Some of the points brought up are as follows :

1. Why are women's remuneration still less than men, despite being equally or higher-educated, yet women are now expected to contribute to the household and still have to work, take care of the house, take care of the kids, and the men still take it that it is the woman's prerogative to keep the house and not help out.

2. Should paternity leave be implemented for men? We are not talking about the three-days paternity leave where the men can take when his wife gave birth, but actual paternity leave for say, two months or so, to help out his wife with the baby. However, it was also brought up that men do not really utilise their paternity or childcare leave, as many still feel it should be the woman who should utilise hers.

3. Should there be more "transparent" sex education in schools? During my time, there was no sex education at all (except for the little snippets which my biology teacher told us). Then when I was in university, sex education was implemented in schools because there were too many abortions and unwanted pregnancies amongst teenagers, some as young as fourteen. Hence, sex education in the form of abstinence was taught. Yet, there are still many teenage pregnancies and abortions.

Hence, AWARE feels that instead of just abstinence, it would be better to teach proper sex education and the use of contraceptives. They are not encouraging sex amongst unmarried people, especially kids, per se, but just an acceptance that many people, including kids, are having sex despite not being married. So to prevent unwated pregnancies and abortions, people should be educated in responsible sex instead, and not treat it so casually or just sleep around. Afterall, the generation now is different, they are more influenced by the media and modernity and treat sex as if it is part and parcel of life.

4. Should the law criminalise rape in marriage? Believe it or not, here, the wife still cannot sue the husband for rape if he forces her to have sex with him. Years ago when I was doing law, the wife had to be subjected to the husband's whims and fancies.

Later on, the law was changed to adapt that in circumstances where the couple was already separated (but not officially divorced), or the wife applied for a restraining order or personal protection order against the husband, then she could sue him for rape if he forced himself on her.

Now, AWARE is trying to fight for full protection - like even if the couple is happily married, and the husband wants the wife to have sex but she does not want, she can still proceed to sue him for rape.

5. How to stop viewing women as just mere sex objects and that when a woman got raped, she should not always be blamed because men should take equal or more responsibility for rape.

6. More shelter for victims of domestic abuse and enforce protection orders as well as maintenance for spouse.

These are generally what was covered. There was quite a huge turnout, about fifteen people in all, and my dear was the only men amongst all of us! The Executive Director was very happy to see him, she said there should be more men standing up for women's issues, then perhaps more men would view equality of the genders as something good and not always view it as negative.

Hopefully I can have the opportunity to help in whatever way possible!

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To Be AWARE ....

Today is 080910. What a wonderful number! And I will be going for an AWARE Night, organised by the prominent feminst group here. How did I get involved in this? Well, after the recent Social Mission Conference, I yearn to do more for the community. I have been doing some form of "community service" on and off, like sponsoring a child in the Philippines, chaperoning kids to a magic show, and going to Batam for a half-day teaching mission. However, I feel as if I can do more.

For the past few weeks, I have been contemplating what else I can do. It is not enough just sponsoring a child, going on ad-hoc trips and signing up for mission trips. I want to be able to do something more actively and to be more involved, otherwise I will lose my momentum.

While deliberating, I came across this article that got me boiling with rage. I do not know whether it is a coincidence or divine mercy that made me stumble onto this article, all I know was that upon reading it, my heart went out to the poor girl. Yes, she drank, yes, she consented to have sex with one of the guys, but these were not the main issues here. The main issue is that, why, when a girl got raped, is she always the one that got blamed? Why not blame the men who are not even decent enough to control themselves and just forced themselves on the poor girl who had no idea what transpired?

That was when I realise, even though this is supposed to be a modern and progressive society, it is sad that in general, people still view women as mere sex objects and not hold her opinions and capability seriously. Even now, how many parents will tell their sons to go for a girl who is better than him, who is more educated and more capable? Chances are, most parents will tell their son to find a girl who is demure, soft-spoken, family-oriented, willing to stay home and take care of the family. Which is why many men still grow up with the notion that career women do not make good wives and mothers.

But when I saw how my Australian Marketing Director and my Irish Chief Technology Officer each bringing their respective babies to the office last week and this week, I start to wonder, why do I only see Caucasian men having a hand in child-raising? It was so sweet the way my Marketing Director nursed his baby to sleep while he was conducting his meeting at the same time! The two men are high-ranking staff, and their wives are equally capable, yet when their wives are away, they take care of the babies and have no qualms nursing them, changing them or feeding them.

Yet when it comes to our local men, they cower in this kind of situation, no matter what their job status is. Why so? Does the man not play a part in the parenthood? Why is it always the woman doing everything? To me, I feel that capable and educated women do not necessary make bad wives and mothers, just like educated and powerful men need not cower at child-rearing at all.

Hence, I decided that certain things need to be changed. I am not like other women who go all out to prove they are better than men and that men should kowtow to her, but I do agree that certain things need to be changed. So I signed up to be a member of AWARE - a local feminist group speaking up for women.

I have known of this organisation for a long time, but never really wanted to get involved. In the past, I thought I would be what society deemed me to be - someone who becomes a stay-at-home mother, who makes her husband happy, who is a "little woman". But through the years after seeing real cases on how women suffer because their men only know how to take advantage of them, I start to feel that women should know how to stand up for themselves to prevent their men from abusing them.

After what I have been through, I find it quite hard to really trust a man again. I have total confidence that Mr DC is faithful, and I am very blessed being with him, but even then, I am rather cynical of late whenever someone tells me she has found the most wonderful guy in the world. To me, I always find "very wonderful" guys suspicious. Afterall, why would the guy bother being so ultra nice if he has no ulterior motive?

Hence I decided to get involved. I dare not say I will make a difference, but at least I can be more AWARE of what are the prominent issues facing women in this time and age and in this society. I know how men take to this organisation, so I was hesitant telling him my decision. But then again, I told myself, this is my life, and I want to make a difference, so who cares how he feels? If he thinks women are just complainers and whiners, then so be it, but it is not going to stop me from becoming a member.

Yet when I told him, all he said was, "How to become a member? I want to join too! More people should realise that women can be capable and give them the due recognition, so it is a very good thing to be more AWARE of women issues in society nowadays. In fact, I am going to base my honours thesis solely on gender issues and help to bring up women's equality."

I cannot help grinning from ear to ear when I heard that! If it is any other guy, he would scoff and put me down, but he, he wants to join too, despite it being a women's organisation! I love him, but now, I really, really, really, love and adore him!

The Social Mission Conference

Today I went for the Social Mission Conference organised by Caritas. Caritas is the welfare arm of the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese is an organisation where all the catholic churches and activities go under. Just like CHOICE, Engaged Encounter, Marriage Encounter, Marriage Preparation Course, etc, come under the Family Life Society of the Archdiocese, Caritas, being the welfare arm, organises events like community service, mission trips, and outreach to help the poor, under priviledged and disasters, fulfilling the church's social mission.

In any case, it was a very inspiring conference. The speakers spoke on what the church's mission is, how to help others and what we can do for the poor, the marginalised, the migrants, overseas humanitarian and the family.

The first speaker is the Secretary General for Caritas Internationalis based in Vatican City. She spoke on "Values and Social Change in a Post Crisis World". Essentially, she said the mission of Caritas is that all social and economic systems should serve the common good, rather than the interests of the elite minorities.

How many times have we come across priviledges that only benefit the rich and established, instead of those that really need it? Look at our own country. It is only those who earn certain amount and above that can benefit from things. Those that do not make the grade can never be given a chance.

She also spoke on showing compassion and solidarity, fighting global poverty, civil society growing strongly that it benefits all sectors of society, disaster preparedness and risk reduction strategies, priorities needs for poorer countries by funding for sustainable development, protection for migrants, better diagnosis and less prejudice for those with incurable diseases, and working together in peace. These are all a brief overview of what the church's social missions are.

The second speaker was a Monsignor, on "Faith, Charity and Justice". Essentially he said that charity is not enough, to really fulfil the church's social mission, charity and justice must come hand in hand. And only by having faith, charity and justice, can one properly and sincerely outreach to the less priviledged.

After that there was a panel discussion by various established speakers, on a brief overview of the breakout tracks which we would be doing after lunch. The panel discussion was on what the problems each of these group face and what society, especially the church, can do to help them.

I must say, the ideas and notions brought forward were really good! It would really benefit if only the ideas could be acted upon! But it is not easy to change society and people's thinkings, so every effort has to come from each of us. Of course, the budding sociologist next to me always have his own theories on what and how society should function!

The breakout tracks included The Poor, The Migrant Workers, The Family, Overseas Humanitarian, and the Marginalised. We were actually given two choices on which tracks we would like to attend. We put Family as first choice and Overseas Humanitarian as second choice, and we were put into the latter, which turned out just as well because we got to learn about Mission Trips and what is required. This is exactly what I was trying to find out!

After the breakout tracks, the conference was wrapped up by two more speakers on what we could do and what we have learnt, as well as an overview on the various catholic groups set up to help these people. I am glad to say that in light of the church's social mission, the Archdiocese and Caritas have really set up various groups to help the poor, needy, marginalised and migrants!

The greatest lesson I have learnt is that, being church-goers, we should not judge. We should help with a sincere heart and according to what the needy needs, and not what we think they need. People in jail, people infected with AIDS, domestic workers, foreign spouses and workers, children from broken homes, abused wives, abandoned wives, and disaster prone areas, poor slums, these are the people and places that need our help.

We live in a priviledged country and take a lot of things for granted, but there are other places where the people have not even seen a toothbrush nor able to attend schools. What is better than giving back to the community what the community has given us?

Hence, when I found out that ACCT (Archdiocese Crisis Coordination Team) is going to be expanded into humanitarian and not just disasters, I wanted to register as a volunteer immediately. ACCT is now CHARIS (Caritas Humanitarian Aid and Relief Initiatives). I have always been inspired by the kind of work they do, and now that I have registered as a volunteer, I hope I, too, can do my part on overseas mission trips and help the needy.

I hope there will be another Social Mission Conference again soon!

Registering For A Social Mission Conference

I have always been interested in doing more for society. I do not mean just writing cheques or donating a large sum of money. In the first place, I do not have the cash to donate. In the second place, anyone can just write cheques hence I find that a tad impersonal.

I am referring to actual mission trips like building homes, taking care of the poor and sick and just outreaching to those that are not as privileged.

I am always envious of the other Christian churches as they are quite big on mission trips. The members of the church make it a point to contribute their time to serve the community, be it locally or overseas. Yet I do not seem to find that in Catholic churches.

However in recent years more and more Catholics are made aware of the church's teachings of charity and justice. Our Archdiocese has a Crisis Coordination Team that helps rebuild homes and shelters after natural disasters.

The public was only made aware of social missions when there was an inaugural Social Mission Conference back in 2008. I did not attend the last session as that point on time, I backslided for a while.

But ever since returning to my faith, I have been thinking about my role as a Christian in general. Being a Christian is not just to attend mass and pray. It is also to serve, and to love. At least for me I feel we should help the less privileged as that would open up our horizons to this who are not as lucky as us.

So when I heard about the Social Mission Conference going to be held this year, I took the opportunity to sign up for it. It will be on 21st August for a full day.

Hopefully the conference will be insightful and inspiring, and will give me some ideas on where and how to serve!

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Doing A Moon Walk

I came across the New Moon Big Walk on a bus stop panel and decided to check it out. New Moon is organising a charity walk to help the poor people, who cannot even afford to buy rice. So for every participant, New Moon will donate rice to the poor.

As you know, down here, and in many parts of the world, rice is a staple diet, especially for Asians. No matter which country and where we grow up, somehow as long as we are Asians, we will eat rice. But there are people who cannot even afford to buy rice for themselves. It is not so simple as to eat other things. Many of these people are poor and elderly who only prefer to eat rice than anything else.

Hence this charity walk is to help these people have enough rice. Which is why I do not mind signing up since it is to benefit the poor and elderly. Hopefully I will be able to complete the whole walk and not drop out halfway like what I did in the New Paper Big Walk about ten years back!

Volunteer Schedule

My schedule is out for the Youth Olympics! Basically I would have to work full days every weekend for the two weeks.

Starting on Saturday 14 August and ending on Thursday 26 August, my shifts will be mostly afternoon to evening. I even get two days off! Due to this, I only need to apply half day afternoon leave.

Six afternoons off equate to three full days so in the end, I only need to take three days' leave! That is great because then I need not use up that many days and can carry forward to next time round.

The best news is that I only need to report at that time and dismiss at the stated time, need not report earlier nor stay on longer.

I must say the organising committee really did a fantastic job! They arranged our schedules such that for those of us who are working, they scheduled around the later part of the afternoon and evening so our work would not be too disruptive.

Now I really cannot wait until the event is nearing!

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Bare Your Sole Charity Walk

The day finally came. I could actually wake up early in the morning instead of sleeping in on a weekend, to take a train down to the stipulated station, where a shuttle bus would take us to the venue. When we reached the beach, there were tentage being set up and a mini carnival was going on.

First there were speeches. Then we went to the starting point. That was when I took out my flip flops and put them in my bag. Thus, the barefoot walk started. We flagged off at fifteen past eight in the morning. Walking on the pavement barefoot was really no joke. There were small stones and hard granite. My feet felt prickly. I walked for about five hundred metres when I stepped on a small stone, which cut into my foot. It was painful for a few minutes, and I had to hobble on one foot.

When we had walked about one kilometer, the ground became smoother, only to pick up again later on when the ground became even rougher than the beginning. We walked on for two and a half kilometers before the sign said to make a U-turn, and then we were on our way back to the starting point.

We saw a thunderstorm in the horizon. Luckily for that, because the wind was pretty cool and the weather was not too hot. We were actually starting to enjoy the cool breeze, but around the last two kilometers, it started to rain. Even though it was not that heavy a rain, still, we got wet. We still continued walking on until we finally reached the starting point again.

So we did it! We walked five kilometers barefoot, in about one and a half hours! After that, we splashed our feet with water and wore back our foot wear. My footwear had never felt so good on my feet!

We have really taken things like shoes, clothes, etc, for granted. Until we actually experience going barefoot, or else we would never know how priviledged we are to actually have shoes!

First Training Session

Last Saturday's training session went pretty well. It was just a briefing on what the role entailed and where we would be posted.

At least now I know the "theory" behind how the media operates. I learnt a few more things as well but the training was just a general overview on what we need to do. Even the schedule is not out yet as that would be communicated to us nearer the date.

Apparently this would be the only face-to-face general training. The next training would be at the actual venue itself, nearing the date. Hopefully next one will be just as interesting!

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In Training ...

The Volunteer training for the Youth Olympics has started. Besides the first face-to-face session this weekend, there is a series of online training.

The online training consists of slides, quizzes and assessments of various topics. We were supposed to read the notes and attempt the quizzes at our own time.

I must say, the Youth Olympic committee really put in a lot of work into this! The slides are very professionally done and they are easy to understand. The quizzes help us recapitulate our learning.

Kudos to the team! For being pioneers in this inaugural event, the structure and management is pretty well done! Those who were seconded to the team really have lots to learn and expose to!

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My To-Do List For June

Now that my papers are over, I cam sit back and take stock of my life. The past month I have been so packed up with studying and revision that all my notes and schedules are all over!

Now when I am finally listing items down bit by bit, I realise I still have so many things to do! June is supposed to be a lax month because I have a term break until end of July. There are no more classes, no Catholicism classes (break until July too), no Cathechism and no CHOICE weekends.

Yet why do I still have my plate full? Coming up on Thursday (27th May), I will have the first combined practice for the church choral performance.

Next up (28th May) is a public holiday, which I thought I can stay in and laze around, but I have been notified to collect my kit for the Bare Your Sole event.

I will have a full day on 29th May, with a Cathechism-related workshop in the morning, and the first face-to-face training for my role in the Youth Olympic Games in the afternoon.

Coming up in June, there is the Bare Your Sole event on 5th June, followed by a Cathechist Retreat on the weekend of 12th to 13th June.

Not to mention the more intensive choir practices for the performance in July and the monthly meeting for the CHOICE Asian Conference in October.

And I still have to work full-time. I am finally starting to wonder if I have kind of bitten off more than I can chew!

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Part Of An Inaugural Event ....

Last night, we went to the Youth Olympic office to have our photos taken and try on the uniform sizes. I have officially accepted the offer of being a Media Operations Assistant, and one of the staff took my photo, while I tried on the uniform sizes. I am so happy that I can still wear a XS for my top, whereas for the bottom, well... at least it is not as big as I thought as I could still somehow squeeze into something smaller.

So now I have more motivation to lose weight because if I happen to get any bigger, I will not be able to squeeze into the uniform anymore! After doing the fitting, I went into the portal and updated my particulars.

It was supposed to be an easy task but because there were many people queuing and only two computers were in function, we took about an hour to settle everything, and ended up being half an hour late for the next meeting of the CHOICE Asian Conference.

But at least everything is now settled! Someone just called me for a training session around the end of May. I am so excited to do this!

Pledge For Me!

As you may know, I will be taking part in the Bare Your Sole charity walk this year. For those of you who would like to know what this is all about, here is some information :

1. The Asia Pacific region is home to sixty percent of the world's slum dwellers. Many of the children living in these areas work in the streets and are deprived of proper footwear, thus exposing them to dangers of broken glass and infected syringes, causing them diseases and even worse, AIDS.

2. The Bare Your Sole Charity Walk is when people walk barefoot for five kilometres to raise money and awareness of their plight. Hence, I will also be walking barefoot.

Thus, please pledge for me, and help Habitat for Humanity to fulfil its mission, using my serial number - 10431.

If you can, do come along for the walk on 5th June, and join me in Baring Your So(u)le!

Do think of the poor children of the world! Thank you so very much!

Volunteering As A Media Operations Assistant

As promised, this is my post on my experience on applying to help out at the Youth Olympic Games. When I first heard that we will be hosting the Games, I was happy and excited. When the South East Asian Games first came to this part of the world, I was still in my early teens so did not show any interest on what it was all about.

So it was with the Youth Olympics. I had no interest whatsoever for any sporting events as my own sports genes are downright incapable of doing any sports well.

Then the call for volunteers began. I am always for volunteering because helping out at a major event like this will let me learn a lot and be more exposed to things which I would otherwise never have a chance to be exposed to. So I signed up. But there was no news.

Then my alumni (incidentally the site of the Olympic Village) called for volunteers too so I signed up through there as well. But there was still no news.

These were done last year. Early this year, the school I am currently attending is also looking for volunteers for the Olympic Games. Those interested had to attend a briefing.

So I attended and put my name down. In total, I signed up as a volunteer through three different portals and indicated my interests three different times, but there was still no news.

Until last Friday. Because he also signed up and actually interviews for a post, he received a message on a Volunteer Briefing and Job Offer the next day (Saturday morning). He forwarded the message to me as apparently I was not even on the mailing list.

So we went down on Saturday (yesterday) and saw three different queues. One was for registration, one for confirmation and one for photo-taking. We went to the Registration Booth and was told that our particulars were both in the database. Which means I did sign up bur for some reason they had not matched me to a job yet.

So he gave each of us a slip of paper, and asked us to go upstairs to the briefing room, where there would be a display lists of jobs to volunteer for. We had to indicate our choice, and for those jobs that required interviews, we had to go for the interview.

I saw the post "Media Operations Assistant" and was immediately interested. People know I have always been interested in the medid industry. Because he has a minor in Media Communications, he decided to try out for that role too.

We had to go for an interview for that role and did so accordingly. Apparently, media operations is essentially assisting the media people and coverage. We would be running around and based at the Games area, whereas media communications would be just stationed at the Media Centre answering media queries and vetting press releases.

In short, media operations will enable one to be more exposed to the workings and on-goings of the media industry. That is exactly what I have been looking for! This would be an opportunity not to be missed!

At the end of the interview session, I was so happy that the interviewer agreed to take both of us in! I can hardly wait! We then went down to the Confirmation Booth to confirm our jobs. So this is it! We are going to be Media Operations Assistants!

There would be some intensive training come July and then the commitment would be the actual Games itself. She asked if we have a preferred sport and I said Tennis and he Cycling. She agreed to send in our requests but no guarantees. Does not matter, being able to help out in the media operations is wonderful enough.

Now I can hardly wait for the final countdown to the Games! This would really be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity indeed!

Bare Your Sole 2010

I was so inspired by the shoe-ing event last year that I actually signed up for the Bare Your Soul charity for this year! Some people may think it is crazy walking barefooted, but in the olden days when there were no shoes, people crossed the deserts barefooted too. Besides, this is for charity, and it is only for five kilometres.

The actual event will be in June. I will be shedding my shoes and walk five kilometres of the beach front barefooted. Hopefully this will be a fun event and more people will take part!

Volunteer Briefing For Youth Olympics

This year's major event is the Youth Olympics. My school was looking for volunteers so I signed up for it and went for the briefing earlier.

Apparently the benefits for volunteers are rather appealing. I do not mean in monetary terms as we are all unpaid (that is why it is called "volunteers") but in terms of welfare.

I was told the committee would screen volunteers and call them for interviews and training before finally deciding which role. In short, volunteers may not get the roles they wanted.

Each volunteer is for a period of five to seven days. I hope I get it! This is after all a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so it will look really good on my vitae if I get the chance to be part of it.

I did contemplate whether I can have the time given the commitments I already have. Right now I have lessons on Mondays, Tuesdays and some Saturdays, Catholicism class on Thursdays and Cathechism on Sundays, not to mention the CHOICE weekends and the meetings for Asian Conference.

This will be my schedule until the third week of May when my examination ends. Then there will be a break in June until the next semester starts in August.

Come June, there will be the Cathechist Retreat and the Engaged Encounter which we will be attending. Then the CHOICE Asian Conference in October.

So if I am also involved in the Youth Olympics, it will be in August. Which means this year will be never-ending for me.

But if I do not do these now, I may not have a chance to do it again. The CHOICE Asian Conference may occur next year or the year after next, but it may not be held here, hence no chance to be involved in the preparation work.

The Youth Olympics may come back here again, but if I have started a family then, I will not have the time to volunteer anymore.

Thus if I intend to participate in anything, this is the time. It is always best to strike while the iron is hot as opportunity may never come your way again.

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