I Like The Way They Think

A month ago, Cooking Girl and I signed up as volunteers with the company to take the kids from Ang Mo Kio Family Services Centre (AMKFSC) on a day trip to the Singapore Zoo. The kids from AMKFSC are mainly from broken families or families who are not able to sufficiently provide for them financially.

There were 2 groups, namely the Childcare group comprising kids aged 4-6 and the Studentcare group whose ages ranged from 7-15. Cooking Girl and I were hoping to get the younger ones, as they're generally less active and more obedient. But no, we got assigned a studentcare group.

It was a typical zoo outing, except that the place had changed tremendously since the last time I'd been there, which must have been eons ago. The animals didn't change much, but the ambience is much nicer. The animal show was pretty much the same, save for the addition of a performance by an orang ulu tribesman (I think that was what they called him).

We all know how kids say the funniest things without meaning to be funny (actually, I've got adult friends liddat too!). Check out some of the things they said whilst at the zoo yesterday.

Before we moved them out on the zoo tour, we had a little quiz. One of the question and answer sessions with a 6 or 7 year old went like this:

Emcee: Ok, your question is, 'Where do Komodo Dragons come from?'

Kid: From the ocean.

Emcee: From the ocean! Not quite. Try again?

Kid: From the jungle.

(At this point, I was wondering how it is that they don't think of the country, but the habitat of the animal. The first thing that came to my head was the country.)

Emcee: That's not wrong, but can we have something more specific, like which country?

Kid: From the jungle of another country.

(I thought that answer was quite clever! :p)

Emcee: Which country? Which country is near Singapore?

Kid: Malaysia.

Emcee: Another one?

Kid: China.

Emcee: Another one?

Kid: Russia.

Emcee: Ok. I show you the answer. Then you tell the rest ok?

(The emcee shows the guy the answer)

Kid: Indonesia.

Emcee: Correct!

Then there was this little girl of Indian descent who was VERY worried that the elephants would stomp on her. So she asked me and I told her that they were enclosed and wouldn't be able to get to her. However, this guy overheard her question and told her:

"Ya! They will step on you then you will become roti prata!"

Funny la! Why roti prata? He could have said 'pancake' or something right? Was it because of her race?

Amongst us, we had a vonlunteer who was the husband of one of the teachers at AMKFSC. One of the kids shook his hand and said:

"See! I shake your hand then I smell my hand, it's the same smell as your wife!"

Can somebody tell me just what these kids are thinking???

I had fun. And it felt good knowing that the kids had fun.

This afternoon, I'll drop by the library at Victoria Street for another volunteer event. This time, the volunteer's not me, but my good chum Shades of Pink. She's done a great job helping out at the Association for the Deaf. I'm so proud of this girl, I've gathered a whole lot of people to go down already, including Magneto, BFC, RT, Chair Rocker.... You might have seen her in the national papers or heard her on national radio. Do pop by today to give her your support ok?