Initiatives

Last week was very special as we had initiatives. As compared to normal Guides meetings, where we learn important guide skills, for initiatives, we had the chance to learn a new thing. This helps to diversify our knowledge base and teaches us interesting things that we can do. Below are the accounts from Coy 1 and Coy 2. 

From Coy 1, 

Today, we had initiatives!

Objectives of the initiatives:

1) Learn more about stitching

2) Show that everyone is part of the bigger family; everyone makes a difference

3) Bond as we talk and share our materials

For Coy One, we did quilting which is by stitching fabric together. First, the ICs, Guo Jun and Nicole taught us some stitches such as back stitch. Using the cloth we were told to bring beforehand, we each designed a 20 by 20 cm piece of quilt.

It must have:

1) A base made up of at least 3 pieces of cloth stitched together (using back stitch)

2) Designs added on top of the base

As some of my patrol Yr1s do not have any experience in sewing, the individual patrol seniors guided them in the stitches. The initial 45minutes is then extended to around 1 hour 45 minutes as our progress was very slow. After we are done with our individual pieces, we stitched 2 together to form a connected pair. After that, the y4s helped to stitch all the pieces together to achieve a masterpiece. However, there was not enough time to finish it during the meeting, thus the y4s are going to continue afterwards.

 Then, we started on the second part of the initiatives, toy making. While the y4s work on the masterpiece, we each receive a template of an elephant. Using felt, we cut out the shape of the elephant to stitch a soft toy. There was not enough time to finish though. However, we could have moved faster and focused more so that the quilting can be done in a shorter time, allowing sufficient time for the y4s to work on the masterpiece. 

From Coy 2, 

Today, 30 March was a memorable day for us guides as we had initiatives! 

Being in Coy 2, our patrol did the Pinhole Camera Initiative, and even learned how to take pictures with it. 

Firstly you had to poke a hole on the cover of the shoebox, then cover it with aluminum foil and tape it up, all the while leaving the hole uncovered. 

Next came the small details like making sure the other small air holes on the shoebox was taped up with black paper to prevent light from going in, and making a small shutter with black paper to make sure you only expose the photographic paper to that particular amount of light. 

The really fun part came when we all had the chance to go around taking pictures. Each patrol was given 30 minutes to look for and take pictures. Although we tried our best to keep the shutter open for only 1.5 min -which is the ideal time- all of our pictures were over exposed and turned out black on the photographic paper. Only a few managed to get some form of shape on their photos. 

Even though it was not really successful, it was still a good experience owing to the effort the seniors put in to let us be able to learn some skills that school could not have imparted to us. It was like a step back into the past and we realized the convenience of the digital cameras that we have now and are grateful for it. 

We <3 guides!