Yesterday, my chapter in Singles for Christ had a team building. It's somewhat a preparation of ICon (they say), but ultimately, the purpose of it was to make a chapter united and for old members to get to know the new members.

The venue was at the church in Sacred Heart Village, so I decided to hear mass there at 9am and just meet my co-members in the area. By 10:30am people have started coming, and at 11am, we started the program.

First activity was the Human Bingo, wherein members will write their own nickname in a piece of paper then roam around the room to look for a member whose name starts with the letter in your paper. Then, you will ask something about that person to get to know him/her better. My name is JENN, so I interviewed Jan, Emer, and Nel. Nel (short for Arnel) was the only one whose name started with N, so I wasn't able to finish my Bingo.

Lunch followed, and since some of us (them, actually) didn't bring lunch, they all pitched in and somebody just bought rice and roasted chicken. We all shared food, and it was nice sharing lunch with them.



After lunch, we all went to the back of the church to continue with the activities. At the back of the church was a big space (they have a mini amphitheater), perfect for the line up of activities. We did some ice breakers - a game wherein one member would draw a card, read the question then answer it. I got the question, "Who is the most beautiful woman for you?" A no-brainer question.. of course, it would have to be my mom.

Kuya Bobet divided us into groups for the succeeding activities. We did "Rising Up As One" and "Untying the Human Knot," two quite tricky and tough activities that requires teamwork. In the first activity, all of us were seated in a circular form, feet touching each other, they we reach out our hands and we must all stand up together. The challenge for my team was how to balance because I physically would drag them down because of my weight. We successfully did it the first time, but there was a wobble because of me, so we tried it again, and successfully rised up together - as one. It was a great feeling. The next activity, we stood up forming a circle, the our right hand reaching for the hand of the person directly across us, and our left hand reaching for the hand of someone who's not next and across us. We weren't able to do successfully because we cannot untangle ourselves. The one time we untangled ourselves, we formed two separate circles instead of one.

Two very important activities that taught us the value of togetherness and unity. We didn't win the activities, but all of use sure were winners in our own special way.



Part of the gathering were announcements. There were some changes with the leaders and members, and although my household is still the same, should there be a merge between two households, we will be merging with Arnel's team. I don't know yet if we will merge, but that is up to the household leaders (Arnel and Rhona) to decide. We have a new unit leader - Emer - since our former unit leader Dorris has been promoted. I know how dedicated Emer is, he was the one who led us with the performance last Christmas Party, so I know him being the unit leader is a great change.

There was one last fun game ("Name Game") before we parted ways, and we still didn't win there, but at least we were able to make it to the last round.



All of us walked from the church to Joanne and Joy's house in Lagro Subdivision. We decided to go there to continue with the bonding thing, and since Joanne is in our unit and her sister Joy is from a different unit, seeing both members in one house was a great time to get to know more of each other. We watched a local movie, "My Only U" on DVD, then after that, it's another round of walks for us. I have already established a very firm friendship with some people since we get to hang out every other week (actually were were all together last week), and from Lagro, we walked to SM Fairview Mall (a good 20 minutes walk). We passed by the mall then walked outside to eat some street foods and finished it off with ice cream at a convenience store.

I got home 10pm, but it was all good since I got to share it with them.

*** Jenn ***