Chen Teng's Reflection

It was my first time attending a training camp, and I was actually looking forward to it. I feel that this camp is tough, mentally. Before the camp, we had to do lots of preparation, like thinking of the patrol's name and cheers, designs of gadgets and outdoor cooking recipes, and we had to compile everything into a proposal. That just seemed like a tough job, especially so for PLs I guess.. Then my patrol had to come up with the campfire programme, and I totally had no idea how a campfire works at camp. So in the end, we worked with the MCs, and well, we managed to get it done. Ok, I think I should get back to the main point - training camp!! On the first day, when most people had already gathered outside the guides den at 6.45am, there were people still taking their own sweet time to settle down, and of course, that added on to the number of punishments we had to do. While loading and unloading all the stuff, the 'human chain' or whatever you call it was not working too well so everything slowed down and in the end, those at the end of the chain had to carry some to the front and go back there again. Well, I think it could be improved if everyone moved fast enough.. After the introduction to camp, we started pitching our tents! It was ok, but my patrol's tent looked a little smaller compared to other tents. The pacings were probably too small for the tent walls and flysheet were sagging, and the runners were too long that we had to tie a thumb knot or so to tighten them. So, we should take bigger pacings in the future when pitching tents to avoid this problem.

Then we had lunch! My patrol was the cooks for lunch so we distributed the food to everyone. Well, we made a few mistakes and we were quite unorganized and slow. We added chilli to some of the plates when we were not supposed to (I forgot that some people do not take chilli.. =P), we placed the side dishes first before scooping rice onto plates and we did not had enough chickens, so the last few plates did not had it. ): The worst thing that happened that day was probably gadgets making. We could not finish in time and had to ask for many time extensions that we were eating into other activites. When we had to stop making those gadgets, we still had the baggage rack to do.. Then we had began other activities. I don't remember when it started to rain, but I just know that the rain had brought lots of problems to us - the ground became wet and YUCKY! And due to the rain, all our meals are cooked inside the lodge, so they tasted delicious to me! All the meals throughout the 3 days just tasted yummy! LOLS =P Then at night, we had the night walk. At the first part of the walk, when we walked together as a patrol, I wasn't feeling afraid, but while walking solo, I suddenly felt as though I'm alone in that whole area and my hairs were standing. Well, I think I'm just scaring myself..but well, I'm glad when I saw people at the canoe shed! We were so behind time that we slept at 1am instead of 11pm..Then at about 5am, we were called up in the middle of our sleep to do punishments! Yeah, we had to lie on the wet ground and we all had dirty backs at the end. But anyway, we had to get dirty in a training camp, so it didn't really matter in the end. We had outdoor cooking in the afternoon. It turned out quite alright..our foods were cooked except for the chicken and they were delicious! While preparing the food, there were many ants and flies around, so we had to swat them away..and those food weren't hygienic..lols. But anyway we didn't had stomachaches or whatever. Outdoor cooking is fun!! :) Later, we had some other activities..Then Campfire! I was worried that there would be problems but it turned out quite ok.. Well, thanks to the MCs!! And after the campfire, we had night game.. :'( I was totally freaked out by it..yeah I admit I'm timid lar..(I'm still terrified by that playroom man..) Loo Peng was so cool!! She doesn't seem scared at all. And today, we slept even later, at about 3am. I don't know what time I woke up..But most of them are already awoke and are hanging up the tent walls and removing the newspapers etc.. As it rained during those days, the tent wasn't dry yet so we had to wait till they were quite dry before keeping them. The sec 2s left first while sec 3s remained to help keep the tents. And we managed to strike 6 tents in about 30 mins!! A big feat for us!! At about 4pm, we finally reached home!! I felt so glad that I'm finally back home!! Many people say that this camp was a little slacker than last year's..I don't know as I didn't attend it last year..but well, it was still ok to me..and I managed to survive! :P

Chen Teng