An Organic Saturday At School

Kwok Siu Lau Hall, for many of us old girls, myself included, is to be associated with solemnity of morning assemblies or perhaps the cold line-ups of desks during the season of examinations, if you asked me. 

The purpose of my recent visit provided a fresh new perspective to be appended to the nostalgic part of my school memories. I was back to school with a mission - as a mentor - and was struck by so many great moments worth accounting for. To start off with, the young lady who greeted me at the desk asked, "Are you our mentor?  We’d love to have you."

“Wasn't I lucky to be assigned to a group of courteous students”, I thought to myself.   The afternoon that followed was definitely one that was fun-filled, most valuable.   

A handful of old girls in my year volunteered to take part in the school's mentorship program and we were summoned to enjoy a Saturday afternoon bonding with our mentees while engaging ourselves with an entirely foreign, do-it-yourself activity - the making of organic lip balm.

Not knowing what constitutes as ingredients in the balm that we put on our lovely lips virtually every other hour or so, cooking up our own lip balm sounded like a daunting task to most of us in the first instance.  However, with incredible teamwork of trial and errors, coupled with hours of laughter, it was seriously quite easy. 

The whole process involved precision in the measurement and preparation of each and every ingredient in correct proportion.  The timing and coordination were also vital in the execution.  Our given task was to produce one lip balm per person and much of the fun was derived when we had to pick the best tube within our group to compete against the representatives from 15 others.  The job was particularly tough for us as our group was the largest of all, with 12 tubes of dazzling designs to shortlist from!

Not sure if you would agree but I feel like every time I needed to look for lip balm in my handbag, the tube would have grown legs and mysteriously walked away.  Very gladly, after an afternoon of concerted effort, we all went home with an extra tube.  We even imagined we can stop standing in line at stores to buy new ones, now that we have mastered how to make our very own organic one from scratch.

Our winning formula certainly caught a fair share of attention from the panel judges, even we didn’t win any prizes at the end, I found myself energised by the intense creative spirit, enthusiasm and sheer talent of everyone involved in this exercise.  

And to my glorious mentees - choosing to sit in a hall on a beautiful day beyond school hours – intent, eager to learn and ready to take on the world, all you youngsters who do not already know, are indeed winners!