Service Learning Reflection 23 May 2007

It has been a few days since service learning day. Frankly, I really enjoyed that day and the days we spent setting out the haunted house. We had to cut the garbage bags into half, then we spent almost half of the day hanging up the garbage bags, it was indeed hard work.

The class committee members took out great time to buy the things we need for the setting up of the haunted house. It was them who thought of the idea of having haunted house for our service learning. Miss Thor also tried to help by borrowing some fake heads from her friend; she even brought her doll to school to contribute to our haunted house.

On that day when we set up our haunted house, I can admit that we put in a lot of effort to hang the garbage bags. Due to the fact that some of us are too short, we have to climb on chairs in order to touch the ceiling. We have to tolerate with the hot condition in the CD shelter as the air conditioners were all being covered by the garbage bags.

Some of my good friends and I volunteered to be the hand ghosts. Our job is to tickle people who walks pass us. I found it great to be able to contribute to this service learning activity. Due to the fact that our hands could not be seen in the dark, we went out one day together to buy some white and red fingernails, so as to make our hands more noticeable.

I found this really a success, I felt great as the class committees can think of such a creative idea of having a haunted house instead of selling things, which is quite common. It’s just that some obstacles cropped up during this activity. Some of our things got spoiled, complaints from the ‘ghosts’ that they were molested, other than this, it went fine.

From this activity, I learnt a lot. I know that it is compulsory to have a class spirit, if there is no class spirit, this will not turn out to be a success. I learnt about perseverance, we need to have perseverance when setting up the haunted house. If not for perseverance, we would be defeated by the hot condition in the CD shelter. If not for perseverance, we would not have hang up the garbage bags again and again when they dropped off. We learnt about care and compassion too from this activity, we need to help one another to make-up and put on fake nails for our friends. For example, my friends help to pass me scotch tape and I helped to pass them on the garbage bags and onto the wall.

From this activity, I can also learn more about myself and my friends. I found that I am very impatient; I think that the customers are really slow and I can’t wait to tickle them. I am also one person who can’t tolerate heat; I have to go to the air conditioners every 3 to 4 minutes. I found out that my friends are very caring as they help to put on those fake nails for me.

I think that the duration for this service learning day should be longer as I really enjoyed it very much. I hope that there will be more activities like this in future.

- Xue Min (26) -