Kota Kinabalu Trip: Creativity, Service, Action

The year 12 K.K. trip involved a variety of activities that involved all aspects of C.A.S. During our stay in the city, most of our activities; geography field work, counted as part of our action. On the other hand, when we were in the interior, we embraced a range of activities from mountain biking & white water rafting, to renovating a community village hall.

Over the week I personally learnt few “life lessons”. In the beginning the obvious moral that I encountered was to be punctual. In addition this also meant that I have to learn how to pay special care and attention to notices that are crucial i.e. being more accountable and principled. Moreover the warning of the consequences allowed me to realize the importance of teamwork, to be caring and sensitive to each others burdens. Although there were rules that did not facilitate our needs, I soon learnt that they were beneficial, i.e. sleeping on time and therefore waking up fresh. i.e. being knowledgeable. Overall I believe that the main focal point of this trip for me would have to be self-evaluation, criticism, and the development of practical skills (fieldwork). Essentially I would say the biggest challenge for me would be criticism and self-evaluation instead of being “spoon-fed” all the time and accepting whatever is presented to us. i.e. being responsible.

In conclusion I would have to say that all these acquired skills and lessons still require more attention and practice in order to see the enhancement of our studies. They stay in the forest first taught me to live under harsh circumstances – cold water, sleeping in the open. The next challenge involved creative work as well as the physical labourous work. Despite all this I have to admit I enjoyed these obstacles and miss the sentimental moments in K.K.

ACTION: KK Mountain Climbing Training

For the past 3 months some of the IB students have been training for their upcoming mountainous ascend. Seeing this as an opportunity to gain Action hours I willingly joined the team. The first weeks involved trekking in Tasek Lama Park, a course that demanded less. However as the weeks continued we moved to a much more challenging course of 9 hills located in Bukit Shabandar Forest Reserve. Over time I grew to be more knowledgeable as much of time it involved us running through the forest ourselves and this required us to remember the course. During some of our treks it also involved some risk-taking climbs as the weather had proved to be fairly horrible with heavy thundershowers. Large pieces of hillsides had been eroded leaving dangerous precipitous sides. This consequently lead to the development of being able to communicate with each other and learning how to care for each other, ensuring everyone would reach the end safely.

CREATIVITY & SERVICE: BGIC VII

Every year ISB hosts it’s prestigious, model UN conference – ISB Global Borneo Global Issues Conference. This year would be the 7th BGIC ISB has held. As usual, all events too place at the ICC, the International Convention Centre and as usual I participated as a helper but also as a performer. At the opening ceremony my key role was to perform with the rest of ISB’s choir and sing songs for Her Highness Princess Sarah. It was a frightening experience on the whole and initially I refused to perform. Eventually I managed to pull up my socks and go for this risk-taking experience. Another one of my roles was as an assistant to the operating and managing team. Most of the work was heavy labour which comprised of the setting up of 2 major halls and 6 more committee rooms. Other jobs consisted of running errands, passing on messages and ushering the delegates. Overall I enjoyed this year’s event as the strong message conducted by Nathan Chasing Horse has allowed me to think more open-mindedly and with greater concerns for the environment.

SERVICE: Valentines' Disco

Every year in ISB the tradition in respective to valentines day would be to have a Valentine's Disco. Being a unskilled dancer as well as not a big fan of disco's I decided to help out as security.

As securtiy my main job was to guard the gates, and check bags for anything illegal: weapons, cigarettes, etc. Furthermore I was also on shift so my other job was to patrol around the entire school, ensuring there were no students wandering off on any school ground besides the main hall.

I believe that from that experience I learnt how to be a risk-taker, in the sense of taking on bigger people and questioning them about what their pockets contained. I learned to be confident and be principled, not allowing anything illegal enter the school premises under any circumstance.

Overall I would say being security can be quite tedious but being part of the organizing committee has taught me to how it feels to carry great responsibility, to be more alert, as well as being able to communicate with other people I don't know very well.

SERVICE: H.M.S. Pinafore

H.M.S. Pinafore was our schools 2008 musical. I offered my service at the front desk, collecting tickets, holding doors, ushering people and running other errands. I found that I worked well with people, being interactive and helpful. I was a very caring helper making sure all guests were comfortable. I was very open-minded towards people’s comments on the show and was a fairly good communicator.

SERVICE: Autism

Autism is an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people. In ISB we have been running a programme for Autistic children in ISB and in Brunei. Every Friday a team of IB students will go down to the library to interact with the children, helping them read or just playing with them. After about an hour in the library, we would then head down to the adventure playground to play on the slides, swings, flying fox, balls and other equipment. Due to the restricted numbers, I was only able to experience helping these children out once, but it has definitely left me with more knowledge about these special children who can be cured, and about the ways we can deal with them in order to help them live a normal, healthy life.

SERVICE: The Amazing Race ISB

In conjunction with the famous television series, The Amazing Race, ISB decided to host its own version of “The Amazing Race”. Every Thursday’s students from years 7-13 would come to compete with one another. Unlike the original version of “The amazing Race” there were no prizes, but every week was full of new challenges and new experiences. I was part of the committee helping out Mr. Holmes at different pit stops every week. I would normally be with another helper who would assist me in ensuring that the flow of our task would run smoothly, with true sportsmanship. We would supervise, and at times run the current programme. Some examples of the challenges that participants were involved in were shooting 20 baskets in, naming capital names of Countries, discovering exchange rates, counting money, solving anagrams from words taken from a song and many more. If a team were caught cheating or disobeying the rules, they would be penalized with a time penalty. However if a team completed an assignment, we would in turn give them the next clue or if not, ask them to proceed to the next pit stop to confirm if their task was completed. Overall it was a wonderful experience that has taught me how to run several interesting games. I was a helpful and a strict member of the committee and always on the look out for good sportsmanship. By doing so I acted principled and caring towards all those who participated.

Group 3 looking for clues

Champions Of Amazing Race ISB 2008