Chapter 1: The Recruitment

It was nearly a year ago since I’ve joined the rural service programme. Nevetheless, I’m compelled to share my experience which has been most wonderful. Pardon me for I could not possibly delve into every detail because it would take hundreds of pages to write but I’ll try to describe this journey in the best possible way I could.

It all started as one of the activity line-ups that we would execute under the Chinese Society. Sad to say, this society is not an official society in UTP because of the unfavourable protocols in setting up a club/society there. Anyway, this idea was the brainchild of the then president, Lee Ming Hwa, my ex-fellow chemical engineering coursemate, to do rural service having seen many institutes have done and benefited from it. She however was unable to join for she has been rightfully given a chance to further her study in petroleum engineering in Australia. With her absence, the project somehow found a new manager, Lim Kha Loon.

UTP Chinese Society Logo

Soon after, the recruitment began. I remembered there was a form to fill in personal particulars and to choose a department of your choice and also a section to describe past experiences. After a few weeks had elapsed, all the forms are collected back and the Chinese Society committee called for a meeting to set up the ‘high committee’ – so to speak, for the rural service project. There were the project director, assistant project director, secretary, assistant secretary, head of department and their assistants for social department, counseling department, education department, and lastly promotion and publication (P&P) department. Being one of the senior (yea..I was and am getting old) and a committee member of the Chinese Society as sponsorship department head back then, I was given an opportunity to head counseling department. For your information, this department was the least favoured of the lot, and I can understand why. I was probably the only few who ticked that in the form. Well, I simply agreed to head counseling department despite no clear thought of what counseling department is suppose to do other than…..counseling? Anyone?

After the committee had been formed, we then proceeded to locating team members in each department with the recruitment forms that had been collected back as our initial guide. Following few small meetings amongst committee, came the ‘bigger’ meeting where all interested participants were involved. A quick introduction was given before everyone adjourned to the department meeting led by respective head. The purpose is for team members to get to know each other and more importantly to discuss the activities to be done during the rural service. This was how I started counseling department meeting:-

Me: Hi, I’m gonna speak in English cause I’m not good in Mandarin. (smile…)

Team: (looked at me with blank expression)

I thought they were going to bolt to another department like Speedy Gonzales thinking that this guy was nothing but an idiot, until one spoke.

A Guy: Yea…that’s good. Cause I don’t really understand Mandarin too.

A Girl: Ya, me too.

Fuh…what a relieve. Counseling department stood 7 members strong and had a very healthy mix of both sexes. Plus few members were actually quite caliber based on their resume. Furthermore, from my initial ‘test’ these team members turned out to be quite kind and supportive, or so I thought at first…

In that meeting, we took turns introducing ourselves, explaining why we wanted to join rural service, any health problems, note their skills and share past experiences, and most importantly discussed what we wanted to do for the actual day of rural service. During this early stage, nothing was really finalized and concrete. For one, the venue and the exact time of the rural service were still undecided and the lists of activities were still vague – like a broad idea without elaboration on a piece of essay.

On and off we had somemore meetings for updates and discussions but the progress were pretty slow partly due to this ‘early-stage’ period and partly due to the very busy schedule that everyone had had to face in UTP. Despondently to say that along the way, especially towards the end of semester, quite a few participants decided to drop out. This seems to be the trend for all the departments but counseling department was the worst hit. My supportive team members were peeling off one by one.

At the end of the semester (end of my 3rd year 1st semester), the venue was yet to be fixed but the rural service were to be from 11 to 18 July 2007 and the preparation period, 6 to 10 July 2007. After the end-semester exam battle, holidays rolled in. I looked forward to seeing the success of this programme despite at this stage, we are only armed with outlines of events to come. I was committed however disheartened by members pulling out one by one when nearing the preparation period. Only during the holidays solid progress were made and I was pretty sure all would go well…..or would it?

Coming up next:- Chapter 2: The Preparation