V is for Volunteer

It is true. Volunteers do not get paid. We don't even get discounts on school fees or uniforms. Nope, no free erasers or pencil sharpeners. Even if you do buy food from the canteen, they still come in those tiny bowls which leave you feeling more hungry than before you started. So why volunteer?

Celest convinces the girls that the cookies are better than those sold at Starbucks

The simple answer is, to be kay-poh. That means busy-body. Here are some of the benefits I've found:

• You get to enter school during school hours even though there is a big sign at the gate saying "No parents allowed during school hours. All visitors to report to the general office." The rules no longer apply to you. You are special!
• You can sometimes hang around the canteen and watch your child eat, play, mingle and socialise. If you're lucky, she takes her posse of friends over to you and introduces them so you get to hang out with them and gossip about the teachers. I've seen parents climb over each other during the first few days of school, with their cameras fitted with dangerously long lenses trying to catch a photo of their child eating in the canteen (reminding me of tourists in the African desert spotting lions) like they have never seen her consuming food before, or sitting on a bench. But here we are, sitting like pals, while two thousand students sit on benches and slurp noodles out of those tiny bowls. Not a single telescopic camera in sight. It's like you found a loophole in the system.
• You get to talk to your child's friends - something even their parents don't get to do during school time. And later you tell their parents if you see them, "Hey, I saw your child and she was coming down the stairs, talking with so and so, eating pepperoni pizza and so on." You have the inside scoop! You are part of the covert intelligence gathering team who gets inserted like a spy.
• You (occasionally) get free food. Just for doing some stuff like carrying boxes and looking serious. I mean, seeing your daughter during recess is one thing, but free food? That's insane!

 Apparently your child gets a "kick" out of seeing her mum & dad in school, and I believe that's true to a certain extend. "Daddy, what are you doing here??!!". "Er, I, er ... came to eat some free lunch." But sometimes it seems like your child will "kick" you when they see you in school.

I think it is part of the schooling experience we have here. So I'm taking the opportunity to keep stalking the kids as long as I don't have to report to the general office.