Lamdon School Student Receives Long-term Scholarship from CIS

By Craig Gerow, Grade 9 & 10 Lead Teacher

The Canadian International School has awarded Ms Sonam Yangzin (Admissions number 3633) a long-term sponsorship to attend Lamdon School-Leh.

After very thorough interviews with several students, attending Lamdon School, the principal, Mr. Eshey Tundup, has determined that Ms Sonam Yangzin would be the most worthy recipient of long-term sponsorship by the Canadian International School in Singapore.

Sonam comes from a family living in a small village called Bodh Kharbu, which is located near the larger town of Kargil in India. It is quite far from Leh and Sonam's parents have very little source of income because of the poor quality of the soil and its remote location.  Sonam was admitted into the school's girls hostel on a humanitarian basis and is now in the 7th class standard. She is doing very well with her studies and is focused and dedicated to finishing her educational opportunity at Lamdon School right through to 12th standard. Her favourite subjects are English and Hindi. She is also a talented singer and performed for the CIS students during the Cultural Performances that we attended while at Lamdon School.

When she was informed that she was chosen as the recipient of the CIS scholarship she was extremely grateful that her education was no longer a financial burden on the school. She promises to study hard to show her appreciation for the generous support.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the CIS students and parents who helped us in our fundraising efforts. We were able to raise $9,160.35 SGD to sponsor Sonam’s tuition, uniforms, and hostel expenses.  The Ladakh Excursion Group would also like to express their gratitude to everyone in the CIS community who donated and supported our fundraising events.

Robertson Quay Area

By Margaret Wallace / Photos by Sara Tanner & Isabel Jones

On May 25th, our “Out and About” tour was of the Robertson Quay area.  We met at the DeliFrance in UE Square Shopping Centre on Clemenceaux St.  UE Square was constructed to house United Engineers Ltd., one of Singapore’s pioneering listed companies which has played a prominent role since its creation in 1912.  This role is still visible today in many landmark projects, including the Supreme Court, Shangri-la Hotel and the Cavenagh Bridge.

After a short introduction to the morning’s program and the area of Robertson Quay our group of about 15 headed to the Hong San See Temple (meaning Temple on Phoenix Hill) on Mohammed Sultan road.  This Chinese temple in its current location was constructed starting in 1908 with materials imported from China and originally overlooked the sea.  In 1978 it was gazetted as a National Monument and following a major restoration project was granted the highest UNESCO award for excellence in heritage restoration, the Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2010.  We were very fortunate to have the temple’s manager and caretaker, Mr. Lim, provide a very in-depth tour, pointing out so many important aspects that we would never have understood without him.

Leaving the temple, we walked towards the Singapore River and on the way learned about some of the history of the river, including its commercial importance with its many go-downs (warehouses) and shops and how they were serviced by hundreds of bumboats.  We saw how some of the older buildings have now been converted to government and arts uses, e.g. the Singapore Repertory Theatre. 

We stopped to admire one of the most interesting pedestrian bridges across the river, the Alkaff Bridge.  Shaped like a Songkang it was named after a prominent Arab family, the Alkaffs, who were among the wealthiest in Singapore during the early 20th century.  The eye-catching bridge was repainted by Phillipine artist Pacita Abad, an artist in residence at the Tyler Print Institute, and her crew, using 52 different colours and more than 900 litres of paint in 2004.  Pacita envisioned the design and worked with the SIngapore government to obtain approvals to transfer her vision into a gift and legacy to the people of SIngapore.

This was a very suitable introduction to our next stop, the world-class Singapore Tyler Print Institute.  There we were very fortunate to have the services of not one but two wonderful docents from the Friends of the Museums guide program.  Our first young guide introduced us to and explained the current exhibition, David Hockney: Through the Eyes of the Artist.  A very interesting artist, his exhibition will be at the STPI until July 30th.   Our second docent took us to the learning wall which details the many processes which are used at the institute both to make paper and to produce the various types of prints they are renowned for.  Although we did not have the opportunity to actually tour the workshop area, many of us will return on our own for the tours which include the workshop offered each Saturday.

Enthused by all we had seen and learned, we sauntered over to the nearby Wine Connection for a lovely lunch to top off our morning.

A Canadian Dragon Goes to Practice

Text by Anne Purcell

I went out to practice with the Canadian Dragons on Saturday.  This is not particularly news worthy as I’ve been a team member since not too long after I came to Singapore nearly three years ago - but what with business trips and social obligations, it had been a while.  I was a little worried that I’d gone soft(er) and that my muscles would have forgotten what they are supposed to do but after not quite two hours of:  paddle hard – rest and chat – paddle hard – rest and chat - I remembered why I love it.

I am not exactly what you’d imagine a keen, competitive dragon boat paddler to be.  I am … well, as a woman, I can be coy about my age so let’s just say that I’ve recently moved into a really nifty time of my life.  Physically, I’m relatively fit … but, again, let’s just say that I’m not well matched to the benches in the narrow back end of the boat.  But when I get into a boat with a bunch of other people of all levels of experience, I can hold my own.  It’s like riding a bike, once you develop a little technique, your body remembers.  It’s also like riding a bike in that you get to sit down the whole time – an excellent exercise mode which is only beat out by things that you can do lying down.

Saturday was like most practices; we warmed up, paddled and then toasted our strength and prowess with 100 Plus and beer around the cooler.  As I stood there feeling the good kind of tired and looking at my team mates, I thought about just what it is that I love most about my Singapore sport.  Not to trivialise the camaraderie, team diversity and amazing interval training, but if I had to choose only one thing that keeps me coming back to practice, I’d have to say “back fat”.  Paddling a dragon boat, you use muscles that you just don’t use in sports like cycling or running or even swimming.  When you do it right, paddling is all about your back and core with a little shoulder work thrown in for good measure.  In my first few months of paddling with the Canadians, the biggest revelation was my back.  It got shape and now I’m hooked. 

Dental Tips for Your Young Ones

Contributed by the Specialist Dental Group

Your mouth is the window to your overall health! Make sure that your children have an early start with positive oral habits to prevent future dental and other health problems.

Primary or milk teeth play an important role for the growth of permanent teeth, retaining space for adult teeth to make sure they erupt properly. They are also important in children’s speech development and to ensure that they are able to eat nutritious food so that they can grow up healthy.

Pediatric dentists place a significant importance on the maintenance of the primary teeth and in preventing tooth decay. They also monitor the growth and development of the dentition and jaws.

A few tips for parents to keep your children’s teeth healthy and cultivate good habits in them:

·   Your child’s first visit to the dentist should take place between 1 and 2 years of age, ideally, when there is no pain or major dental treatment to be done.

·   Bring them along when you have your own dental appointment to ease their anxiety, manage their expectation and become familiar with the environment of the clinic.

·        Always get your child to rinse their mouths or drink water after eating snacks.

·   Do not let your baby or child fall asleep at the breast or while drinking milk from a bottle. Rinse, wipe or ideally brush their teeth after the bedtime milk feed.

·   If your child is a thumbsucker or on the pacifier, try to wean him or her off this habit beginning when they are about 3 years old.