Day 1 I always see people with special needs on the TV and around my neighborhood and have always been curious about the way these people behave and how I am going to interact with one if I do ever come across a kid with special needs. Then, i heard about Project Rigel, which was a camp with the special needs scouts and i thought to myself "This is my chance to really be able to interact and learn more about these kids." so i decided to join and experience for myself how kids with special needs are like. Being with special needs kids for 2 days and 1 night really made me learn a lot about them and furthermore, this was the first time I was interacting with special needs kids. From the first day, pitching of tents, to playing simple games, bringing the kids out for a short night hike, and even right before they sleep when they are showering, i learnt so much about them. For the special needs to play games, the games have to be simple. To put it into perspective, it is almost like playing games with little kids. Their mind works very simply and the activities that are carried out needs to be more in their level of mental ability. They find fun in a simple game like spelling the name of some of the famous places are in Singapore like the Sultan Mosque and Marina Bay Sands and a "Treasure hunt" where they were told that they were supposed to find sweets. That motivated them to work hard to guess the riddles and find where the sweets are and when they found the sweets and was able to eat some of it, they were extremely satisfied and happy. After the dinner time, they had a campfire where they sang songs, danced around just like any other scouts would and each school even had a little performance prepared for the campfire so everyone enjoyed and had fun at campfire. After campfire, we brought the kids out of the school and went for a short 3km night hike and along the way, many of them were saying that they were tired and couldn't walk anymore, but with a little bit of push and motivation, they managed to finish the whole hike and many of their faces told me that they were very happy that they were able to complete the night hike. Afterwards, the special needs were told to shower and get to sleep. This was the part that was most memorable for me as one of the kids were afraid of the dark and scared of being alone, so he asked me if i could stand outside the toilet and wait for him to finish showering and also to block the toilet as he was afraid of closing the door. So, i agreed to stay by the door and waited until he has finished showering and i sent him back to his tent for him to get some sleep. Day 2 It was already the second and the last day and we brought the special needs out to a field just beside the school to fly their kites that they built on day 1, where they were given time to decorate their kites. and after that, we had some outdoor cooking and for most of them, that was their first time doing outdoor cooking and we taught the special needs out to handle solid fuels and how to cook simple food like spaghetti. At the start of this camp, I was actually quite worried about how i am going to talk to these people, what can I do with them, how do these people behave, but through this camp, it really changed my perspective on the Special Needs. It changed my stereotypical way of looking at special needs as being "weird" and "funny looking". Instead of being weird, they are actually very interesting people and they are no different than little kids, very innocent at heart and even if some of the things they do are considered rude, but they really don't mean it and some cannot help it. Simple topics like "What's your favorite toy ?" or "What's your hobby ?" can get them talking for half a day. At the end, i am very glad that i am able to understand them more. Project Rigel was a very meaningful experience for me as this was the first time i interacted with the Special Needs and it was a pleasant experience. I will definitely do more of these projects in the future and i will continue to encourage other people to do the same projects or participate in similar projects and show people that actually the special needs are very fun and interesting people to be with instead of the stereotypical view of the special needs.