Monday, April 16, 2007

izzah's Reflection

training camp was on 14-16 march. though a month has passed, i can stillremember what happened during those 3 days that seemed to be very long thenbt is now a memory etched in my heart.

right from the start i must admit that everyone weren't puttin in their best effort because we took a terribly long tym to pitch our tents and do up ourgadgets. Although the ma'ams did not show it clearly on their faces that they should be angry, many of us knew that this wasn't how we're supposed to work in a training camp. Had we had more sense of urgency, we would have done up our gadgets in a much shorter time and need not have asked for time extension.due to this, we had many activities cut off from our schedule and the mood really wasnt tt good. it was only in the evening that our camp had officially started with the activities getting a move on.then came the rain but it did not dampen our spirits in playing the games on the 2nd day. there was the coloured water bomb n tofu game and basically everyone was giggling n laughing and havin fun because we hardly gt chances like these when we can play n not care abt gttin dirty.it goes the same when all of us were in ponchos n playing in the rain, gttin wet n muddy at the same time. then halfway through one of the games,lightning striked and a loud thunder hit us by surprise. some of us immediately squat down and our game had to come to a halt as all of us were instructed to gt under shelter. tt lightning was dam freaky manz! we knew tt it was raining n evryting bt tt lightning really hit us off our grounds.ooh there was also the holey water container game where we had to use our fingers to cover the holes while one of our patrol members filled up the container. my fingers were cramping n goin into spasm by the end of tt game bt it showed how hard we work as a team in gttin the container filled up to the required water level. there were a lot of other fun games like the one

outdoor cooking on the 2nd day was also quite fun because we tried out all the food we made ourselves especially the choc cake in the orange! it wasnt really tt cooked bt it was still edible because it was CHOCOLATE. yeah although ashes gt in n stuff. our fire cld haf been better. we sld haf pt in more charcoal wood so tt we haf more ember to cook our food. n because we did not do tt, by the tym our chicken was ready, the ember was like dyinngg out and so we had to use another patrol\'s ember to cook our chickeennn. cleaning up after tt was good. i tot we had done a good job in cleaning up the area esp the sinks.throughout the whole camp, we had quite a few thrashing out sessions where we could say how n what we were feeling and from there we reali knew what was goin through the minds of the other campers. n i tink tt we sld haf moreof these kinds of session during guides so that we cn keep a constant check on how all of us are doing.now, night game...i was freaked out throughout the game even though i knew tt the ppl were just our seniors. i guess it was bcos of the storyline..emily the strange, ppl gttin murdered/killed or died in some way or another, the dark eery places, the wild thoughts goin thru my mind etc etc. too much tv i guess. anw, kudos to loo peng for leading us and being the super duper brave one during tis game! i reali admire her courage((: tis shows tt if u r in the ultimate right state of mind, u r able to realisewhat's the fact n what's not e.g it was only the ma'ams, it was only a game and the storyline wasnt true n it was up to us to decide how we wanted to view it. n in the end the story was a funny, lame story only tt they have put in special effects during the game to scare us. wahaha bt i reali was freaked out lars omg. esp at our 1st station which was syamira and zhiling's station. zhiling was like sliding out from bhind the bed and syamira had dracula teeth. and then syamira began walking towards us and all of us gt freaked out and started screaming and began running out of the dorm as fast as we cld wif our hands tied tgt, slamming the door and trying to put on our shoes as fast as we cld as though the scene was reali like one of those in ahorror movie. the whole campsite was basically filled wif our screams throughout the nite although we werent allowed to scream. it was jus reali super freaky. even after the camp, the nite game sort of like bugged me fora while.

along the way as we do our respective duties i learn new things and tt assignment of roles for tt duty is reali v impt. i learned how to reali b a better follower by listening more.food was good throughout the camp n we were very well-fed. ppl wld expect to lose a bit of weight aft camps bt all of us felt like it wld b otherwise forus. tis shows tt it was a job well done by our QM, Jie Ling!on the last day when we were supp to strike camp we found tt our tents were still wet n so was the ground so the sec 3s had to stay back to wait for the tents to dry before we cn strike while the sec 2s packed up n gt ready to head back to school wif the rest of the stuff. when we finally gt down to striking the tents it went reali fast. hard to believe that we cld strike all our tents in just half an hour. i tink it was because our seniors were telling us to dis dis dis n guiding us step by step so everyone were dead right sure what to do next and evryting cld go so fast. it was reali v satisfactory to c how we cn achieve sumth tt was byond our expectations and the key thing to doing tis is to b very very focused n serious abt it. so in the end, we finished faster than expected bt a lot of pecks were missing bt uncle gaz was very nice abt it n letting us go off wifout having to find the pecks.

heading on board the bus n going back to sch. den our jaws dropped when we found out tt we still had a long long tym till our bus came. during tt tym we did a reflection by ourselves and spent the rest of it basically sittin n talkin n tinking abt our campfire. all of us were relieved when the bus came so we chop chop, gt the rest of the stuff on board the bus n head back to civilization. the bus was dead quiet on the way back to sch because all of us were sleeping. as i stepped down from the bus i felt slightly dizzy because it suddenly felt different being on solid ground n a place so modern after being in camp christine for 3 days where there was grass everywhere. my feet had blisters after 3 days of being in wet wet shoes wifout socks n they reali stank when i gt back(x bt it was worth going for this training camp although the sec 3s had to miss sec 3 camp. i tink the ma'ams reali did a gd job in planning for this camp n tolerating our attitude during the camp. it was hard on us bt it was much much harder on them throughout the entire camp. they hardly gt any sleep n were twice as tired as the rest of us were. from this camp, we cn reali c our weaknesses n strengths n we learn tt problems r not hindrances in life, they are guidelines to success and more imptly to believe in ourselves when we say we cn do it so tt we r able to tell oth ppl 'BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY I CAN DO IT! training camp 2007- an event to remember.

yours in guiding,
izzah

Manisha's Reflection

Date and time: 14th March

Time:0630 am

There's this siren thingy going off right now. Blaring and blaring like nobody's business. And that makes me wonder if it's the Defence sirens thing. Like whoa, we gonna get bombed. Should i hide under a table or something? But you know what? I’m already halfway to school, struggling with my huge bag, sleeping bag and shoe bag ready for the ANNUAL TRAINING CAMP 2007.Plus my family is peacefully, save for a little snoring, sleeping. Should i be glad to die this way? I guess so. And anyway, the siren stopped, so I doubt I'll be dying anytime soon. Some things happen and make you think in early morning , dont they? And they help you appreciate the things around you, and yea, they make the world a more beautiful way from your perspective.


Back to the point, I reach school and we are made to sit in our patrols, a handful of guides arrive late and the punishments are already increasing. We load the stuff onto the bus and set off for Camp Christine. The mood is not as cheery as expected and I spotted a dismayed face among the seniors. Yet we sing and cheer till we arrived at our destination.

(lets continue in past tense ya, or else it’ll be too boring.)Soon, tents were already beginning to be pitched. We(VP) had to shift our tents a few times as the tent adjacent to ours was already close to ours, and our tent couldn’t be pitched under the tree. Nevertheless, we managed to complete the pitching and soon, I was called to help out with the kitchen shelter. We were unable to finish with the kitchen shelter on time, due to a couple of mistakes, causing us to redo the gadgets many a times. We were getting exhausted, yet Mrs Ong stayed on with us in the kitchen shelter and tried to help us in any way she could. Thank you! We(the sec3 QMs) didn’t manage to take part in the games as we were already behind time. The cooks patrol-VP had to begin cooking the dinner and I was secretly glad it was our turn that day! We cooked instant noodles with mushrooms, crab and a few other ingredients! The seniors(Zhiyan and Huiying) helped us and of course our very efficient QM(Jieling). Thankyou(:

Then we cheered and also discovered our new after cheer-YES! I am glad that the downpour, and a few other minor problems didn’t manage to dampen our spirits:D Next was the night walk and frankly speaking, I was nervous. Yet all of us managed to go through the challenging and narrow pathways; many of which were uphill and downhill. I was also one of the first few take on the single walk. It was not one of those typical brightly lit paths among the hdb blocks we usually take in Singapore so it was an achievement for all of us ,ya? We were then served green bean soup which i didn’t manage to finish so my patrol members kindly drank it up for me!:D After which we took our bath, and slept after chuyun and qiaoyin returned from coh. I slept like a rock till I was woken up the next morning!

The next morning we started off with PT, which was a rather good way of waking me up,haha! The next game which needed us to get our water bottles back from the obstacle course, where the water bombs were being thrown was an enjoyable one for us! But being a ‘blur’ kinda person i nicely forgot to bring my water bottle over to the field, nevertheless I took part in the game and retrieved nafeeshah’s water bottle!

Soon after we began preparing for the outdoor cooking, and I quickly tied the tripod stand, chopped the corn into pieces and removed its top layer, and marinated the chicken. Then I had the tedious task of poking the metal wire in, I managed to get only the first in and the second halfway through before seeking help. Our chicken took a longer time to heat thus we began to feast on the sweet potato and the other ‘delicacies’ as we were terribly hungry.! Then we had a few wet games before the weather turned against us and we were back in the lodge. Then we ate and played. Once the weather decided to change its mind and befriend us agn, we could be seen playing in the field , I should say like little children.(points to the pictures where I was laughing retardedly) . I was soaked throughout in coloured water and I wanted the games to last longer. The campfire kept our spirits up, and most of the patrols performed remarkably. The long awaited night game finally arrived, the crux of the camp. It was thrilling and exciting, it made me so happy! This was mainly because had known they were my seniors, thus I wasn’t as afraid! But the one at the toilet was the scariest!:(and I remember being awake till 2am.
Striking the tents and clearing up was done remarkably fast, and before we knew it was time to go!

To my patrol members, I apologise if I lost my temper a few times, and for being rather impatient. Nevertheless we rocked!:D and we won most efficient patrol! This camp wouldn’t have been possible without the combined effort of all of us including all the seniors and teachers who helped plan the camp and make it a success. I have truly enjoyed myself. This experience will always be a part of me:D

And as I lie here snugly on my cushioned chair, I hope to go back there, to camp Christine, one day to experience or in fact to re-experience a few(more) days there.

MANISHA.

Ferlin's Reflection

Settling proposal, patrol name, patrol flag etc. was such a headache but I knew the worst nightmare had yet to come – The Annual Training Camp. My precious March holidays had been partly sacrificed as a result of the camp. Nevertheless, I must say that this is an enriching experience which comes by once in a lifetime. Who noes when would there be such an opportunity again?

I was out the night before camp to sort off “celebrate” my departure with my parents and godparents because I wanna have a good meal before setting off. We had buffet dinner at this restaurant. But even so as I was eating my meal, I couldn’t cast my mind off camp. The thought of eating grass instead of real proper food kinda irked me. Haha.
*fast forwards*

Pitching tent was tedious. I remembered having sweated profusely, undoing and redoing the procedures because the guidelines of my patrol’s tent kept intersecting with Venturaz’s tent. However, I really do think that my patrol members are cooperative and diligent in pitching up the tent even though we took donkey years. :)

It’s been raining most of the time but I think it’s rather fun and romantic to have our initiative games in the rain. Lols. Nightwalk was one of the highlights in camp. The path was great, basically becos there’s lots of slopes, drains.. which requires us to be climbing up and down at all times. During the solo walk, I wasn’t scared initially, but later on I started imagining things cos I tot heard this rattling sound of a snake or sum creature. Oh well, but gladly I managed to overcome my fear and pulled myself back by looking at the stars in the sky.

There comes the sleeping part for the 1st night. I had a 1st-hand experience sleeping with my patrol members. Being a heavy sleeper, I fell asleep in like less than 5 minutes and the next thing I knew was that I had been woken up at 5.30am to do punishments. The morning breeze was extremely cold and my teeth were chattering as I was doing punishments. We had sum games later on. I like the “slapping, ouch, obi obi” game best.

During breakfast, sum of my patrol members related to me abt my humorous sleeping behaviour the nite b4. I simply luff out loud. Lunch was on outdoor cooking. Building up the fire wasn’t as easy as I thought, esp the blowing part. I inhaled lots of smoke and fumes, my eyes turned watery too. At last all was ready. I was looking forward to eating the “Bell Chicken”. My patrol members were so excited abt it, they had alr cut the chicken and were discussing who to eat which part of the chicken when the seniors came by and took it away. We watched with heavy hearts as our delicious chicken drifted further and further away. haha

Night game was being carried out late late into the night and by then most of us were feeling dog-tired. My 1st station was the toilet. The mirror was stained with words “dun look back” and I find it damn freaky! I din expect myself to cry oso, and looking back now, I find it funny and a bit embarrassing to actually cry. hahas. And apologies to my patrol members becos I think I scream a lot during night game. And it seemed like my screams were the ones which made the game even scary. After the 3rd station, I was the only sec3 left in my patrol. I wasn’t really confident of leading but thanks to my patrol members’ support, I managed to carry on till the end of the game. I was happy that I did not back out, if not I did be deprived of this unique experience.

Everyone slept at around 3am the 2nd night. I din get to bath on the 2nd day due to time constraints as my patrol were the cooks for dinner that day.
Finally the 3rd day arrived, I was really really looking forward to going home. I missed all my family and friends! Perhaps it’s the urge of wanting to go home asap, the whole company managed to strike off all the tents within 30minutes.

No doubt, even after the whole camp had ended, it was extremely exhausting. However, I learned a lot from this camp, being a Patrol Leader isn’t as simple as ABC. Most of all, I came to appreciate the ppl around me more than ever.

And I SURVIVED the camp! Wad a great accomplishment. lols

“ what doesn’t kills me, makes me stronger”

I believe I had grown stronger in that sense. (:

Ferlin.

Cheryl's Reflection

I feel that I have not done my best in the whole camp process, maybe it ismy first year in training camp? I thought the night game was fun and I waslooking foward to but unexpectedly, it came out to be a murderer story whichis my main phobia. I just simply cannot take those murder cases as I've badexperience before... But I heard from my friends that it is fun which makeme want to try the night game next year. I was in the lodge resting whensuddenly I heard screams and cries, I was laughing away, I found it funny,so does huixin mdm. But upon the whole I enjoyed the camp and missed it...

Cheryl=X

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

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

Anna's Reflection

Aguides Annual Training Camp this year was yet another memorable experience. The rain was rather disheartening as many of the plans were cancelled but on the whole we have a good time none the less. But after the whole camp I realised, walking around with soaking shoes for three days, no matter how horrid the feeling, was just another thing to add on to the whole experience. The night game was scary! Especially Shamira Ma’am and Zhiling ma'am’s station. Very unexpected. I swear I will never look at a cat the same way again. But looking back at the overall experience, I would not have changed anything one bit. Except maybe the sleeping hours. However, I think that was partially our fault because we dragged alot. On the second day we only managed 2 hours of sleep so for most of us were walking zombies on the last day and pretty much dozing off during COH. I’m sorry about that. I think among all my patrol members, I was the deepest sleeper as while all of them were waking up and falling asleep at different hours of the night. I slept like a rock. I kind of regret missing out on the Sec Three Adventure Camp which clashed with our training camp. But in the end, guides will always come first :D I felt in a sort of daze from the second day onwards during the outdoor cooking. And maybe it sort of helps in a sense that you dont keep thinking about all the negative aspects such as the uncomfort of pruny feet whereas more on the task ahead and competing it. So it was just one great experience. And I am so grateful to my patrol members! They were so very helpful and hardworking throughout the camp.

Anna

Bao Yi's Camp Reflection

Anderson Annual Training Camp
This year’s training camp was a very memorable one despite having rain for the first two days. I really enjoyed it and I was surprised that it was not as tough and difficult as last year’s training camp, according to what my fellow sec 3 guides told me about the camp last year. I think it is because of the rain and the amount of time that we took to do things, so that everything must be either cancelled or delayed. My patrol was the best patrol! :)

For day 1, we report in school at about 6.45am.Some of us are late and the seniors were counting our punishments. Loaded the things into the bus and I think everybody cooperate with each other very well. We went on the bus and set off. On the bus, we sang a lot of songs on the bus without stopping and before that everyone was not that enthusiastic. We invented a YES! after cheer on the bus and it was very funny. I loved the after cheer. :P After that we reached the campsite and began unloading the things. We did that quite fast. We began to pitch the tent. There were quite a lot of problems at first as we could not pitch the tent under the trees and there was not enough space. We did not take 15 paces properly and therefore, our tents were very close to each other and we had to shift place a lot of times. After that, we started pitching our tents. I do not know why we took so much time to pitch the tents but I think it was because we made mistakes and we had to redo a lot of times. We were also quite unsure of what we are supposed to do and we kept asking each other to check. After pitching the tents, our patrols had some problems because we had missing pegs. We had to look for them and count the no. of pegs we have again and again. But in the end we found everything and it was quite silly because the pegs were either covered by the tent or lying somewhere that it was quite obvious to see. Had a delicious lunch. We were orderlies for the first day and there were a lot of things to do so we started doing gadgets much later than other patrols. We used a lot of time because we wanted to do very stable gadgets and we kept retying the knots. But in the end our gadgets were the best among the other patrols and I was quite happy about it:) It started raining and we played games in the rain. The games were very fun and interesting and we end up being “ illegal immigrants”! Had our dinner and it was time to wash the plates again. After that we had night walk. Everybody was trying to suppress their fears. We started out and walk through the steep and forested routes. I saw the team spirit that we have and everyone was very caring. They informed us what was in front (e.g. rocks). I thought I would be very scared for the solo walk but to my surprise, I was not scared. I managed to overcome my fears. Zhiling played a trick on us and I felt very cheated. Later we had green bean soup and we went to bed at around 1pm because we have to wash the cups.

For day 2, we woke up at around 5.20am to do punishments. The grass was so wet and dirty that we had brown patches on our shirts and shorts. Felt very dirty. After that we played some interesting games. We did not have PT for that day. Had breakfast and we were doing wood and water that day. After that, we had outdoor cooking and I helped to prepare the food. I realised that I do not really know the things that we were supposed to do and I kept on asking Ziying what to do. Felt guilty and ashamed. But in the end we finished preparing the food quite early and we had to wait for the amber to be ready. We were lucky to have Mr Mail helping us and I am really grateful to him. We had to wait a very long time for the charcoal to finish burning and we needed a lot of amber. Thanks to him, our food was all very delicious and our chicken looked very nice and delicious. After that, we cleaned up the place and went to play games. We were playing the water bomb game when suddenly lighting strike. It started raining and we had to bring our clothes in and close the tent doors. We did it very fast and it showed that we could do things very efficiently. After that, we played some games and the games were enjoyable and fun. When it stopped raining, we played the water bomb game again. We were all wet and shivering. Some of us even had tofu on their heads. We all had fun. After that we had dinner and our mini campfire. Due to the rain, we had our campfire indoors. It was quite disappointing. But in the end the campfire turned out to be a success and we all enjoyed it. Next, we had our night game. I was surprised that the game was optional and many people backed out from the game. The night game was scary but it was very fun. I was happy that none of my patrol members back out and we all played the game. The night game was the most memorable thing that I had from the camp:) at first we were not really scared but as we heard the screams from the other guides, we started to feel scared. But in the end nobody backed out and we all played the game till the end. After the game we got to do our patrol duty, we all went to bed at around 2pm. Everybody was very tired and fell asleep very fast.

For day 3, basically was to pack up and go home. We untied the gadgets and strike down the tents. The tents were not dried so the sec2s had to go home first while the sec3s stayed to strike down the tents. We strike down the tents in about 30 minutes and it was very good. Went home after a long wait for the bus. And tadah! This was the end of training camp 2007 and my reflection. From this camp I really learnt a lot to be independent and it also trained my physical and metal health. Thank you to the seniors for making this camp so fun and memorable and I really enjoyed the camp. Thank you!

Baoyi- Dare to dare (d2d)

Monday, April 02, 2007

Nafeeshah's Reflection

i've been scratching my legs all over lahhh. i cannot stand mosquito bites (thanks camp christine) but yeah, ANDERSON CLOVER GUIDES ANNUAL TRAINING CAMP 2007 :D 'twas the bombbbbbbb!

DAY 1 :D
all of us reported in school at 0645. did roll call, checked attendance and we loaded all the gadgetpoles/food/firstaidkits/waterdispensers/bags onto the bus and soon we were on our way to camp christine! :D (p.s: my bag was only a trip to thailand instead of africa ah this year!) we sang cheers all the way to the campsite. HAHAHA and the sec 2s are so fun to spook, cos when we passed by the lck cemetary i told them their nightgame/walk would be there and they believed! ;D

we unpacked, had a briefing and then we pitched our tents. we were the first patrol to complete our tent but it was out of the horseshoe formation so we had to move it back and it was heartpain lah to see all the guylines untied ): but yeah, we managed to complete it and then we had lunch! first day's lunch always rocks cos auntie mariam cooks it for us :) i guess every year, everybody experiences the same problem, and tht is the tents are too close to one another and then having to take more time to move the pegs and the whole tent all over again! its time-consuming and ALL JUNIORS SHOULD RMB! take alot of pacings before you start first and tht all runners should be in one direction so it'll look neat yeah? :D
continued with gadgets after that and i am actually quite disappointed in my own performance at tying the knots and all. my patrol, VP, did a new design for the clothes line and we experienced a few difficulties as we couldnt mallot in into the ground firmly, and tht caused it to shake alot.

the rain was a real dampener ): but we still had fun! and of course, we managed to roll down the tent walls and remove all the clothes hanging at the clothes line into the tent in a pretty fast time! and then we played games in the rain and all of us looked really cute/funny in ponchos! hahaha, and those in the pink national day parade poncho really stood out! ;D we played the game where we had to stand up tgt with our partners without letting go, and my partner was junying! okay, i think i was really rough cos i was the one who always feel onto the mud x) but it was such a fun experience! sorry ah junying ;D and it was really fun when all of us where in one big circle and the mdms started pushing us onto the grass! (HAHA IZZAH NOW'S THE TIME TO GET RID OF YR FEAR/DISLIKE OF WET AND SOGGY GRASS! ;D)

and then we had to play another game where all of us had to sit on each other's lap and stay there! i guess at the start we were all quite uneasy as personally, i felt the person i was going to sit on was going to suffer lah! but after a few whiles i think all of us trusted one another and we managed to stay tgt and united when huixin and lirong mdm headbutted us! :D ALL HAIL CAMPERRRRRRRS! campers unite lah! train traaaaaain! ;D

but soon the rain got too heavy and we went into the lodge to play more quiet games. but thank you sec 4s for planning wet weather programmes or else i guess we would have just rotted there and waited for dinner to arrive! haha. being cooks for tht dinner, my patrol didnt play all of the games but we helped jieling mdm cook noodles with egg soup, cabbage as well as mushrooms :) it was OH SO VERY NICE food compared to last year and three cheers for jieling mdm for making awesome food throughout the whole camp!

after dinner, we had our night walk and my patrol, VP, had zhiyan mdm leading us. and we were the first patrol, and i was more relaxed than last year's night walk even though it was a new route :) it was a rather challenging route as they were slopes, leaves, drains but im glad we managed to overcome it all! :D personally, im proud of myself for this nighwalk as i managed to overcome my fears and keep a cool state of mind haha :D and like huixin mdm said, its the only time we get to be in a dark deserted place with no lights alone and its a good exposure for all of us. and also, if you're afraid, look up the sky and see the beautiful stars (you could see constellations! :D) and you wont be afraid anymore :)

we had green bean soup for supper and then we had our baths :D i know its besides the point of going to the camp and having a bath, but i tell you THE NICE/COOL/CLEAN WATER FELT SO GOOD ON MY WET/STINKY/STICKY SKIN! lol and after tht, we had our sleep. the seniors and PL and PS had to stay up for coh, so i kinda pitied them ):

DAY 2 :D
we woke up at 5 to do our punishment and personally, i thought it was really very slack. we only did about 150 compared to last year's. and halfway through, huixin mdm made us play games tht we couldnt play ytd due to the rain so it was pretty fun! we had to play water games and again, it was about teamwork and communication :) we had opening ceremony and I WAS COLOUR PARTY AGAIN! :D (hahaha, its such an honour to be doing colour party, i swear lol) and then we had our breakfast which was in the lodge.

we had our patrol duties, and since VP was doing health, we had to clean the toilets! hahaha, so we splitted the job and me and qiao yin took care of one field toilet and the lodge toilet AND WE FOUND OUT THE LEADERS DIRTY LITTLE SECRET! lol. we were washing the lodge toilet and then we had to on the tap, and there was a frog inside the toilet bowl. so at first we thought it was dead so we just switched it on and continued washing. and then zhiling mdm came in and said the frog was actually alive! (!!!) and as if on cue, it started kicking around -.- lol. and of course, none of us were actually brave enough to switch the tap off until qiao yin the brave did it! :D yay three cheeeeeeeeeeers!

we had guides own after our patrol duties, and every year i find guides own very meaningful :) this year, we had to write our hopes/dreams/aspirations for aguides and ourselves onto a bean and place it into the clover bag. i felt tht it was very symbolic, in a way where we placed all our hopes into one place and we all work towards it in the end together as sister guides :D yessssss, and of course i wrote PNA GOLD! :D among many other things ;D

had outdoor cooking after tht, and samantha, me, qiao yin and qijin were in charge of the fire and chuyun, yujia and manisha were doing the food. so we turfed the ground and started making our fire! i think the campers did our food and fire very slowly as we were only cooking our sweet potato and corn but the leaders had already done up their bell chicken! i guess we can work on the efficiency there :) and the embers were not put to good use as the chicken was not ready. but all in all, we did a great job! :D and chuyun used her creativity to make a popiah kind of pizza and it tasted really good! and she mixed the leftovers (egg, mushrooms, prego sauce) into a tin, and tht was yummy as well :D

we asked for many time extensions and we were given until 2.45 to get everything done and have our lunch as well. my patrol greedily ate everything except the chicken which was not done yet. we 'passed up' our chicken to the leaders and then we cleared up our area.
we continued playing iniative games at the field and like always, we get wet and colourful by the end of the game! :D and VP won one of the iniative games, for being the most cooperated patrol! ;D our dear chuyun had to undergo the painful vinegar poured on her head, and it stinged her face! ): but we managed to get the next station, BY ROLLING ON TOP OF ONE ANOTHER! :D and we played with coloured tofu as well so it was really fun uh ;D. and then we saw it.

WE SAW LIGHTNING. like bolt. like flash. and i was spooked. so i grabbed the hand in front of me (thanks yunjin ;D) and quickly we went and gathered back at the lodge and again the efficiency of aguides rolling down tent walls and putting our clothes back into the tents :) while in the comfort of the lodge, we had our chicken! the leaders gave our chickens names, and if im not mistaken, my patrol's chicken was 'the runaway chicken' HAHAHA. and my patrol finished our chicken the fastest, its because we got the skinniest chicken and not because we are hungry ghosts (er-hem) the lightning and thunder were scary. valerie and i were hugging each other whenever thunder crashed haha.

the rain soon subsided and after tht we played the mummy game and chuyun was our mummy! hahaha, and we had to protect her at all costs and throw bombs at other patrol's mummies! ;D it was fun and we all got wet again ;D

we had dinner which was rice (edible and unclay-ey!) and chicken and veggies. HAHAHA IT WAS VERY NICE ME AND QIAO YIN ASKED FOR EXTRAS AND WE FELT LIKE PIGS AFTER THT LOL. well, dinner is definetly better than last years haha, thank you jieling! :D
we had patrol duties and then we changed into our camp tee, which was pretttttty! :) it had purple words tht goes, 'believe me when i say i can do it!' we bathed in the dark and very fastly cos we had time constraints and the toilets were very dark! i think there was a power shortage when the lightning striked or something. i didnt bathed, just washed up. thanks to some sec 2s who stayed in the toilet with me and for shining the torchlight into the cubicle :D
the campfire was at the lodge instead of the bp ring ): tht was sad, but it didnt dampened our spirits. we waited for about an hour before the campfire actually started and i was really falling asleep as the ambience was really nice, cool and aark teehee ;D campfire was a kerosene, and adlyn and ying chyi were the emcees! my patrol had to do our performance first and chuyun was really very funny with her healthy punch lah! during practice, i was really laughing my butt offfffffff x) and qiaoyin, manisha, yujia, qijin and samantha did a good job tooo! :D
after campfire we got ready for our night game :) i was scared, but yet at the same time i wanted to go through the night game as it was a completely new experience from what happened last year. huixin mdm gave us a talk and she made us cover our eyes with our scarfs. it was alr 12, and i think some people fell asleep lol. the turnout was the game was disappointing but im glad most of my patrol members could go through all of it. yujia! even though you didnt go to all the stations, im still proud of you because you managed to overcome yr fear for the first few stations (:

our first station was the leeaders tent. chuyun (the superduper brave one!) led us into the tent. caiping mdm and saradha mdm were inside and caiping had her hair all let down and she was going up and down behind a chair. and saradha looked super creepy wearing the poncho and the torchlight shining right at her face! manisha (another brave one!) took the cluecard and we went back to the lodge.

we could hear the other patrols screaming and running from the lodge and toilet and because of tht, we were really frightened! but as least, we had a rough idea about what was inside, so tht was to my patrol's advantage. our next station was the toilet with seepeng mdm and lirong mdm inside.

the toilet was dark, with only a candle lit. red, bloody words (written with lipstick) were written
on the mirror, and there was a cubicle which said enter! and we did, and the toilet flushed by itself (seepeng pulled it lah) and then her head popped out and started floating! we turned around and wanted to go out and then the door started banging so tht was a shocker. we went into the cubicle where seepeng and lirong were and then we stood and observed them. then seepeng suddenly 'came back to life' and said something very creepily lah. CHUYUN'S SUPER BRAVE LAH OKAY! and then she said boo again to us. lol, and then we made our way back to the lodge.

our next station was the one at the lodge. we had to call 'emily the strange' and there was this spooky ringtone and it was like the barney song only there was this spooky spooky laugh at the end of it! zhiyan mdm and huiying mdm were there in their ponchos and they handed us a tin of catfood.

the next clue led us to the sangam lodge above us, and this i was terrified because of all the screaming from the previous patrols. and i want to say a big thanks to all my patrol members who gave me faith and hope and lots of encouragement! :D we went up, and all of us were very reluctant to go into the lodge. zhiling mdm and syamira mdm were inside and there were alot of shockers during tht station! the lego blocks fell suddenly and syamira mdm just appeared out of nowhere. eeks. well, we managed to finish tht station bravely :)
the last station was at the pax lodge. we went up and there was jieling mdm on a poncho so we looked around for our clue and we found it and we proceeded down but yiteng mdm stopped us and asked us to go check again but jieling scared us all by boo-ing us from the back! well, tht was the only time my patrol screamed, and im really proud of you guys VP! :D

the game was an eye-opener, and come to think about it, what was i really scared of? the seniors or my mind playing tricks on me? it always happens every year, not that we WANT to feel scared, but the feeling just comes to us. all the 'scary' people were the seniors, and were they really scary? haha, not really. :) well, we learn and i shall be brave-r next year! and especially the sec 2s cos you guys will be the ones leading yr juniors for next year camp! :D
we had to our supper after the games and all of us were really really tired. for myself, i couldnt even feel if i was in a dream or really living reality lol. my patrol went to send out the rubbish but the gates were close so i helped to scrub the pot and i couldnt even feel pain. haha, i went back to my tent at about 2.30 and wrote a letter for my manito! :D

i love my manito, yes i do
i love my manito, yes i do
i love my manito, yes i do
i love my manito but i wont say who
i've got a feeling warm and gay,
as she cast her eyes my way,
i will reveal her name one day,
but who she is i will not say! :)

i closed my eyes and i was in lala-land already lah. i was really tired on tht day and usually i'll take about an hour to fall asleep but tht night, it was in a blink of an eye. morning came even faster. my whole patrol was awake by 5.10 to clean the groundsheet, remove the newspaper and we got ready for breakfast! my patrol was doing orderlies that day and we were had hard boiled eggs and bread and pandan cake and milo for breakfast! we cleaned up and we took down our gadgets and cleaned them.

due to some unforseen circumstances, we werent able to strike the tents, and the sec 3s were asked to stay back. all of us were tired but im glad all of us stayed back and helped with the striking of tents :) and it was a remarkable achievement, we striked down 6 tents in 45 minutes! :D woooohoo, well down aguides! so while the sec 2s took back everything to school, we were striking the tents and then we waited for our bus.

we did our reflections while waiting for the bus, and the bus seemed to take forever to come. when it did, all of us greeted it like it was water in a desert hahaha. i found some comfy seat and i was soon asleep. and finally we were back into civilisation! :D we took group photos, and memories like these will always stay in my heart :)

big big thank you to huixin mdm, caiping mdm, zhiyan mdm, weiching mdm, weixin mdm, huiying mdm and all the sec 4s as well as mrs ong who came down to help us during camp despite their own commitments and all :D yr presence has definetly made camp much more enriching. and to the sec 4s who planned all the proposals, only now do i know how much effort it takes to get proposals done :D so thank you guys very very much! :D

and i also want to say lots of thank yous to my patrol members, chuyun, qiao yin, manisha, qijin, yujia and samantha for being the people who were always there for me in the period of tht 3 days 2 nights. even though it was a short experience, you guys definetly have a mega place in my heart :)

'coming together is a start, staying together is a progress, working together is a sucess' :D and like the end of every single day, aguides has made me not only happier but also feeling more accomplished with every task i do :)

Nafeeshah

Chuyun's Reflection

This year’s training camp was a memorable one, it is very tiring even before the camp but I still enjoyed it very much. I learned a lot and gained a lot of experience from this camp.

On the way to camp Christine, it was unusually quiet on the bus, maybe everyone was too excited last night that they did have enough sleep. My patrol made use of the time to practice our cheer (quietly) and fine tune our campfire item. The sec3 also shared with the sec2 about last year’ s training camp. Basically we told them “funny things” and “funny stories ”, like the old granny…the sec2s were so scared especially Yujia. When we reached camp Christine, we unloaded the stuff and have our camp introduction. Then we started to pitch our tent. We moved our tent three times so I learned that pacing before pitching the tent is very important. After tent pitching we have our lunch, follow by gadget making. Some of my patrol members were not feeling well, they were not used to work constantly under the hot sun. Then the rain came, which spare us from the hot sun but made it inconvenient to make our gadgets, especially the clothes line. We were having difficulties with the clothes line because nobody is tall enough to knock in the pole. All thanks to Jingqiu’s patrol who lend us a helping hand. Then we had our game in the rain, it was fun! We were told to sit on each other’s leg and form a circle. After the game, our patrol have to do out duty, we were the cook for the day. We had noodle for dinner, it was not easy to cook such big pot of noodle for so many people. But the noodle turned out to taste quite good. I still wonder if we had added any salt that day. It is such a pity that we could not cook in the kitchen shelter because of the rain. During dinner I was quite worry for my patrol, the girls don’t seems to feel well, after the sun, the rain and the wet shirt they were wearing. After dinner, we had our night walk. My patrol was the first to go. It was not scary at all. The sky was full of stars… we actually saw stars in Singapore! We walked a long way before we had our solo walk. I was the second to walk back after zhiyan mdm. When we were back we had our supper, green bean soup, then we went to sleep after our bath. I only slept for about 3 hours, I was suppose to wake all my patrol members up. I was so worry that I would overslept that I would not fall asleep, I could still heard the leaders’ laughter at midnight.

We woke up at about 5 something the next day to have our pt and punishment. Then we had our first breakfast in camp, after which we had our outdoor cooking. My patrol came out with this creative menu this year. We made a pie with pizza filling, so it is basically a folded pizza that need not cook with a cookie tin. It was my first time cooking this dish and I mess it up. Although my patrol members said that it tasted good but personally, I think it look awful, so different from what I made at home. Our chicken’s name is ‘ chicken runaway’. It had funny leg positioning. After outdoor cooking we had our wet game. Then the storm came, we had to stop our game and went indoor. In the lodge we finally could eat our chicken. I wonder is it my patrol was too rough or chunling’s patrol was too gentle. After we finish the chicken, what was left was a pile of bones. You won’t be able to tell whether it was a chicken or it was a duck, but chunling’s patrol was able to eat the meat and leaving the bone in tact. As in the whole skeleton was there and you use it to study the bone structure of a chicken during bio lesson. After the storm had stopped, we continue with our wet game. Then we were given time to bathe and change into our camp-t, after dinner we have our campfire. Every patrol put up a very good show. The most exciting part of the day was the night game. I am very very very proud to say that my patrol did not scream until the last station. Actually the screaming, was after the night game when all the girls had let their guard down. Jieling mdm, congratulation, you were the one and only one that made my patrol scream throughout the night game. Then we have our green bean soup, and coh before we went back to our tent.

The last day of the camp we woke up at 5.20 to hand up the ground sheet and get prepare for the day. We had our breakfast, did our patrol duty then we took down our gadgets. We could not take down the tent, as they were wet so we had our prize presentation first. We won the most efficient patrol this year. Later the sec3s strike the tent while the sec2s load the stuff on the bus. We wrote some reflection while we were waiting for the bus. I was exhausted, I fall asleep quickly on the bus. When I woke up, I was back in school.

Thank you very much to the seniors who planed this camp for us. Thanks Qiao yin, I was so blur, I msg the wrong person for the whole week and yet qiaoyin was able to turn up for our meeting and help us with the preparation. Thank you for helping me when my blisters hurt so much that I would not walk. You are the one who help me to the toilet and back to the tent. Thank you Nafeeshah, you helped me so much in the camp, you are always so efficient and you taught me a lot. Thank you Manisha. Thank you for helping me to edit my proposal and do up the flag. You also helped me a lot during the camp. Thank you Qi jin, you are always so cooperative and your script for the campfire item is not funny, a bit pity that we would not use your pig nose, the prop that you prepare. Thank you Samatha, you are always so cheerful, cheering us when we felt tired or homesick. Thank you Yujia, you always give me your support and tried your best in everything you do. Do not blame yourself for not joining the night game, I know you were not feeling well since the first day but you still preserve and hang on. You did very well. (btw, yujia look cute in poncho, if anyone had taken pic of yujia in poncho please sent me, thanks) Lastly, I want to thank Lirong, Jieling, Saradha mdm and chunling for helping to treat my wound.

I learned a lot from this camp and I also learned that it is not easy to be a leader. This camp is really an experience that I would remember. Thank you everyone who helped me. It is a wonderful experience!

chuyun

Adlyn's Reflection

During the 3d 2n of training camp. I learnt alot of things.The two main things are time and teamwork. Time is the most most important. For example, we took a lot of time to make our gadgets and that dragged evrything and most of the activities cannot be carried out because of time constraints.Teamwork is also important as when we were pitching the tent, we must have teamwork and not only depended on one of the camper.I think my group did have teamwork although we cannot decide who's goin infront during the night game.I think that im lacking at being independent.As i will always need someone to accompany me when im doing anything.For example im not that scared dring the night game(i screamed alot though)but i had more fear during the night walk.Although msot of the seniors said that this years camp is very slack,i still feel very tired.I really must prepare myself better..I think all the campers played a part to ensure that the camp went well.I think we really really need to improve in our speeds and have a sense of urgency.Im here to also thank all the seniors who organize this camp

Adlyn

Yun Hui's Reflection

It was really fun other than the punishment part and though it was extremely tiring and I practically crawled home after camp. It really did bond us together and I now I know the more about my group's sec 2s. We have now gone through thick and thin together and SURVIVED it. A miracle. The food was great (many thanks to Jieling) and maybe partly because I helped out with a meal. :) I've had a chance to put my skills to use and to the test too. I'm also proud to say that I've successfully cooked my bell chicken (the one named chicken rice chicken) as well as got to know it better (as i'm cleaning it) and also while slicing the pieces of chicken for dinner. I'm sure to pass my bio now. :) However, I didnt really enjoy the night game. I've always avoided scary movies or thrillers for fear of nightmares thus after the fourth 'crime scene' in the game(inthe room upstairs one), I dropped out with jiahui (who cried) though I did feel guilty leaving the sec 2s to fend for themselveswith ferlin the only sec3 left. therefore, I feel this tradition shouldnt be continued next year. I didnt get much sleep on the first night at camp as it was crammed, someone snored, my hair was wet and we were woken up very early for punishment. the next day i didnt get to bath so went to sleep sticky and stinky but was so tired that I managed to sleep through the whole night fitfully. The campfire was surprisingly small and miserable (a kerosene lamp) but yingchyi and adlyn made good mcs.adlyn could make just about anyone laugh when she laughs, whether genuinely or bitterly. But the enthusiasm died a little near the end, maybe partly because we got rather haorse after all that singing and cheering. When we reached school on the third day, I was in a daze as we returned back to civilization and also from the lack of sleep. All in all, yes, it was a good camp, something to remember and keep by. And I love my camp tee.

Yun Hui

Ziyun's Camp Reflection

first day..
my first camp in guides! hahas. apparently, the first day was quite tough, cause we hav to build everything needed for the camp. yar, especially the tent, cos the space given to us is v limited, so our tents' guide lines will overlap, so we went to ask alot of mams n seniors, bt nobody gav us an anws as to where our tent shld be, we wasted alot of time waiting for seniors or mams to giv us a position to pitch our tent. bt after we pitched a little bit, another mam asked us to move agian.. so our grp's tent was up the slowest. n in the end, we got the lowest marks for tent pitching.. )= bt we still caught up wif the others after a while.. i know we wasted alot of time pitching tents n gadgets making.. n lost some of the fun games (acc to the seniors, it's FUN) and according to the sec3s, this yr's camp is much much slacker than last yr's.. )=

2nd day..
i still rmb the dinner for that day! its was the nicest! thanks to jieling mam n the cooks of that meal!!! it was lyk homecook food! V NICE!!! hahas.. =) got rice, cabbage, tofu, n chicken! hahas. v delicious!!! 3 cheers n 3 cheers n 3 cheers for jieling mam n cooks! hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray!!! =) i love the game wif coloured water bombs n PINK tofu!!! =) n the main activity was the night game!! =/ i was v scared, until got headache, so didnt play, bt they say it was very SCARY.. okay, i understand, cos i was washing the toilet the next day.. hahas. n saw how scary were the words..

3rd day,
last day le.. i was happy for myself! for slping under a canvas tent for two nites!! hahas. yar, cos this is the first time i slp under a canvas tent.. v great feeling! =)) last day i was feeling v tired.. bt all was worthwhile.. i bonded wif the sec3s.. n of course guides of our batch! working wif all of us was wonderful! VENTURAZ will rock on! =)

ziyun-
venturaz =D