The last two wednesday mornings were spent at the dolphin lagoon in sentosa with some of the students and the dolphin trainers as part of a trial package for children with special needs to meet/interact with the pink dolphins. I can see that the kids had an amazing time there while i was filming them with the school digicam. Some who used to be quite passive and lack confidence to tried new things were surprisingly calm and willingly to be led into the water to stroke and feed the dolphin. When the finale came (they get to hang on to the dolphin's dosal fin with the trainer while it swim around), none of them were afraid and some, who kept a pretty flat expression thus far, came back out of the water smiling so beautifully that it was quite touching. All the adults were cheering the kids on, including out bus uncle and one kid was so happy that he even turned to wave at us while hanging on to the dolphin with another hand.

Really, despite the fact that these children are "different" from other kids, they are really kids after all. You can see their excitement and feel their happiness as they chatted and make noise all the way back to school on the bus. Perhaps i sound a little selfish when i said this, but despite all the wild-life preservationists called to set the dolphins free, i am really appreciative that our kids had a chance to interact with these gentle animals. I could really see how they manage to bring the children side of them out in contrast to the usual "emotional-indifferent" self that we see so often in school. The trainers were incredibly gentle to our children as well as the dolphin and i could see how they cared for all of them (e.g. giving the dolphin plenty of breaks in between when they felt he needed to rest or swim or jump). I really wished that more of our children have a chance like this.