We were greeted by a crowd of cheerful, smiling faces as we alighted the coach. The day kicked off with an aerobics session where the girls learnt an array of different movements.  Despite some initial difficulties in instructing them, our co-operation as a team still managed to make the activity an enjoyable one.   

Cadence:  Four, five, six, seven! Everyone:  HUH?

Aerobics was followed by mass games. ‘Musical chairs’ was held in two of the courtyards of the school.  Many of the girls were delighted as they danced around the chairs to up-beat tunes. During the second  round of musical chairs, many KGV students joined in, and with their  

silly dancing, added more flavor to the happiness in the atmosphere.

Although we had a slow start, musical chairs was definitely one of their favourite games.

The next game was ‘Bench Game’.  Chairs were lined across the first courtyard of the school with the girls standing on top of them after instructions were given.  Before the actual game started, there were a few concerns about safety and the game was postponed while KGV students created “beams” out of the blindfolds.  Although it took a while for us to make them, the girls were patient and still seemed to be keen to play the game.  Despite the unexpected difficulties, we know that it was a learning experience and I know that many of us are proud of how we were able to compromise the situation and still create joy and anticipation for more fun.

The basketball courts were filled with Spring Blossom girls and KGV students running around playing a few different versions of tag, such as octopus and stuck in the mud before lunch.   

The relatively relaxing afternoon activities gave us all the opportunity to recuperate from the morning’s strenuous activities.  First was a singing session, where we sang “Lang Hua yi duo duo”, which many of the girls already knew but were all taught new actions to go along with the words.  Followed by this was the ‘Hokey Pokey’ and might have been one of the highlights of the day.  The girls learned how to say a range of body parts in English, as they ventured another fun-filled experience.   

Before long the SB girls and KGVers were all dancing and singing, attracting dozens of curious villagers and teachers to join in.

After this was the arts and crafts session—this included making origami cranes that fits in well with our theme “Wings of Hope.” The girls wrote wishes on the origami paper and folded them into cranes.  Our aim was to make a thousand cranes in total in order for our wishes to come true.  Bead making was also a relaxing activity.  The girls made bracelets with four different coloured beads, each representing a different friendship quality.  

The dance session that took place was a change to the more passive activities that afternoon.  The dances learned included line dancing and the Macarena. Even the teachers of both schools and some nearby villagers came by to join in our fun. 

Before the day with the girls ended, the girls once again were split into their respective groups and worked together to create the tallest tower out of straws, Popsicle sticks, string and tape.  The towers were of all different shapes and sizes. Although some collapsed all were unique in their own special way.  After the winners were announced, we all talked to the girls and some even exchanged addresses with us.  Many of us were exhausted as we left the school, but the smiles and laughter that the girls gave us as we set off, renewed our source of energy for the evening activity and especially for the next day. 

That evening after dinner, we visited a Tibetan village where school children from Tibet and some adults performed their traditional dances in front of a bonfire.  The children who danced were simply astonishing.  All of us were fixated on the young children who shuffled their feet and hands to their traditional music.  We were invited to dance with them in a circle around the fire.  We all got the hang of the dances and the fun we all had definitely helped us to ignore the cold winds.   

This day, different from the day before, had its ups and downs.  We all shared fun and laughter as we participated and ran the activities as well as our dancing experience in the evening.  Although we were unable to carry out our activities exactly as we planned we all managed to compromise and still manage to bring smiles to the girls’ faces, which is the most important thing. 

By Joy Salvacruz

For more pictures of DAY 5 click here.

© Copyright 2002 KGV School. Design by Jimmy Lam. Maintenance by Dickson Ng. Original logo by Ada Ko.