Remember Gilligan?

When I was a child I used to love this TV show called Gilligan’s Island; the show followed the unsuccessful attempts of seven castaways’ to escape the island on which they had been shipwrecked. The characters were all very much unlike each other (the captain, the first mate, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the school teacher and the country girl) and the only thing they had in common was a random decision to take a boat tour.

Living in Yong Ping, I sometimes feel starring in a bizarre re-make of Gilligan’s Island; all students here come from such diverse places and backgrounds (social, economic, cultural, religious, etc), that is very difficult to identify anything we have in common other than the desire to learn martial arts and sharing the school facilities. Nonetheless, we all seem to get along and help one another both during and after classes. Just like in the TV show, everyone quickly falls into a role of sorts: the joker, the handyman, the motivator, the DJ, the lazy one, the energiser bunny, etc… I have somehow managed to get into the unlikely role of the care-taker, or dare I say ‘the mother’.

Those of you who know me better, I’m sure are rolling your eyes in disbelief; for the rest of you let me explain the irony of me being ‘the mother’.

First of all, I’ve always been the youngest: I am the youngest of 6 siblings and from an early age I got used to hang out with my older brothers and sisters and their friends. When I started school there was no minimum age, so at 3 years old I was already in kinder-garden with girls that were 2 or 3 years older; I was always the youngest during primary and high school and therefore the youngest in university and when I studied my masters degree. Most of my friends have always been older than me and I have always felt very comfortable in that position of ‘the baby’ in the group (yeah, even in my 30s I’m still happy with that); I prefer to attend than to host parties, i rarely cook (if putting a salad together classify as cooking), and I like to say ‘I’m too young’ when I don’t get the pop culture references from the 60s or 70s… now tables have turned and ‘I’m too old’ to understand the pop culture references of the millennium (like, seriously, video-games???)!

So, pretty much for the first time in my life, i’m the oldest of the group, and although I struggled with it at the beginning, it’s giving me the opportunity to develop other aspects of my personality that I had perhaps dormant: (i) I’ve always been pretty responsible with myself and what I’ve had to do, but there is an element of being the oldest that transfers that responsibility to others’ goals and wellbeing; so I find myself now constantly asking others how they are, if they are eating enough, if they need help, encouraging them to keep trying. (ii) I’m a good planner and like to think ahead, so obviously I brought with me a full first aid kit, which has turned me into the camp’s nurse; not only I know what to do and what people should take in different situations (cuts, bruises, sprains, headaches, all sorts of stomach issues), but most likely I have it with me. (iii) I’m baking! I inherited a small electric oven from a previous student and I decided to start baking cookies and cakes, which sounds a lot easier than it is given that the ingredients and utensils available in Yong Ping are very limited, so I’ve had to use my resourcefulness to reduce the recipes to the minimum and use a lot of substitutions (also to keep the recipes as healthy as possible). Everyone’s favourites are my oatmeal cookies and banana bread (both sugar and butter free)!

I have to say, I’m quite enjoying my role, I find it very gratifying to look after others and I’m looking forward to try new recipes (next fruit and nuts protein bars)!