.:I Can Change My Life:.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

- a very late update.. -

Anderson Clover Guides
[Venture For Challenge]
Annual Training Camp
14-16 March 2007

Name : Chenteng
Patrol : S-cube

Day 1
It's my first time attending the training camp, and I'm actually excited about it.
Woke up at around 6am, washed up and double-checked things that are to be brought to the camp before having breakfast - a piece of bread with cheese.
Then quickly rushed to school cause I think I'm late?? But anyway, after I reached school, there were people still streaming in..some of them were still walking slowly even though they saw us all gathered there. So from there, they counted the number of punishments we're going to do..haiz..
Ok, so when everybody had assembled, the PLs(I'm one of them..) collected health forms, valuables and other things like food needed for outdoor cooking and handed them to respective people. Later, we transported all the stuff (bags of twigs and punks, newspapers, bags etc.) to the area near the buses by forming a 'human chain'. Thi took quite a long time though. Then we had to form another 'human chain' to transport everything onto the buses, and this took quite some time too. So by the time we left for Camp Christine, it was about 8am+ I think??
Ying Chyi and my patrol and most of the m'ams boarded the second bus, but we set off first. On the way, we sort of had a competition between our two patrols - singing competition! LOL! It's just trying to sing as many songs (guides songs(:) as possible. The first patrol to 'run out' of songs loses and has to do forfeit! So all all along, both patrols sang and sang till our throats nearly became dry..
This little guiding light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine... A cannibal king with a flat nose ring... Kaeru no yomawari gako gako geku piong piong... Our way is clear as we march on... Twinkle twinkle little star... When we're reaching the campsite, when my patrol was singing the 'twinkle twinkle little star', someone suggested that we sing our song, D2D sing the alphabet song while the seniors sing Baa-baa Black sheep..lol. The whole bus was so noisy.. I wonder how the driver thinks of us a.guides. :)
When we reached the entrance of the campsite, all of us unloaded all the stuff and transported them into the Olave Hall (I didn't know it the lodges were given a name till HuiXin m'am told us about it on the second or third day..lol). Then from there, all of us transported all the stuff to the last lodge, Sangam, which was a long way from the Olave Hall. But the good thing is that it's close to the toilets and canoe shed! =P
Everything was tranpsorted to Sangam in about half an hour I think (I don't keep track of time cause I don't have a watch), our bags were left below the stairs, and other stuff were left right outside the lodge's doors. Then we gathered and had a short briefing before we started to pitch our tents. After a very long time, my patrol finally finished pitching our tent! Yay! But it seemed smaller compared to other tents - the roof and walls were 'sagging'..the only reason would be that the pacing was too small. Yeah..we had lots of problems when tightening the runners..it was too long that we had to tie a thumb knot. So we've learnt a lesson! We should take bigger pacings in the future! After pitching our tents, m'ams told us we were slightly slow. So the next activity was LUNCH! Finally! It finally it's lunch time! I'm feeling very hungry by the time we finished pitching the tents..I should have taken a heavier breakfast..Another lesson learnt!
Lunch was delicious! It was Nasi Lemak! My patrol was the cooks for lunch, so we distributed the rice, chicken wings, egg and cucumber to everyone. I feel so tempted to eat when I saw the food!! Argh! But have to wait till everyone was ready..haiz..Well, my stomach's stop growling..
So before every meal, we have to sing grace..The ordelies will have to lead the grace..sianz..we're the orderlies for day 2..it's a terrible job man..
I didn't know that we'll not be getting our own utensils and cutlery, so I was quite shocked when I used other people's stuff. But anyway we're all girls so it doesn't matter. LOL. Food was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S-!-! The chilli was great too! =P Ok, shall stop talking about food in case you start feeling hungry now.. :)
It was gadget making after lunch. I guess my patrol did badly in it. We didn't manage to do up all the gadgets in time as we had very few people doing them, and had to ask for many time extensions till the m'ams got fed-up with us I think that they stopped from continueing with it. As this gadget making took up a lot of our time, and ate into other activities, we could only start with the third activity (stated in the camp booklet). Halfway through, it began to rain...Sad! For this means we have to stay indoors! Thunder was so loud..the lightning must be nearby, and we're so close to the coast, and it's so frightening!
After that, we had dinner! Chu Yun's patrol was the cooks for the day too, so they were in-charge of dinner. We had maggie noodles with veggie, fishball and crabstick. The noodles tasted plain..they didn't add salt or msg or whatsoever..practising healthy eating habits..lol. Anyway, whatever food tasted nice to me..haha..I feel like a hungry ghost here at camp..
Then, when everyone had finished their dinner, we went to do our patrol duties. My patrol did not have anything to do so we went back to our tent, laid newspapers and groundsheet and continued with the gadgets - baggage rack. (Another lesson learnt - the gadgets must be easy to make. The net could be done at home first so it would not take up much of our time.) When we were done with that, we got ready for the last activity for the day - night walk! Oh man! I'm afraid of dark man..
So we set off as a whole group. We walked and walked till we came to the other side of the fence. On the way, I saw a dead frog! OMG! It was disgusting man..poor frog.. It was probably killed by a bus cause it was FLAT! And at that point of time, I really felt like vomitting! When we came to the fence area, there were lots of slopes to climb, and as it rained just now, we had to cling to the fence so as not fall off..
Ok..we now came to the starting point of the solo walk. I'm getting scared now I admit..(I'm timid!). My patrol was the last to go..so while waiting, WeiChing m'am told us here stories at camps etc. One sentence really freaked me out : Never turn back when you hear your name being called. Reply only when they call your patrol number of whatever. Creepy right? (I'm having goosebumps while typing this out..)
My turn..I'm feeling tense..I hear snakes hissing..I hear the waves crashing against the shore..I hear more hissing..I'm getting very scared now..I see the canoe shed..I see m'ams, loopeng and izzah!..I feel relieved..I overcame it! A big feat for me! Then the m'ams lied to us!! They said that there was a m'am out there waiting for us to report to her..I guess I was to tired to think about it and stupidly walked towards the door.."Come back. We were just bluffing you.." LOL. Well I admit I'm getting goosebumps then when I realise I have to go back there??!
Sat outside the canoe shed for quite some time before the whole patrol returned to the area outside the lodge. Others were already there waiting for us. Then the ordelies served us green bean soup! It tasted quite nice actually. After supper, the leaders had Court Of Honour (COH) in the lodge.They briefed us about what went wrong in the day and how we should do for the next 2 days, like getting members to work together, time check, giving instructions, no chit-chatting etc. My patrol was quite slow compared to other patrols. I don't know if it's due to lack of teamwork or are we all actually slow in our work? By the time they ended the debrief, it was about 1am! Can you believe it? It's been 19 hours since I left home..and I'm sort of missing home.. :( Germaine's counting down..waah! After we were 'released', I went to bathe and wash up. Then I went to sleep! I can't get to sleep..and kept tossing about, but I'm afraid of waking Germaine or others..(continued in day 2)

~ Ano sora hoete yukeru kana?..;
x Saturday, March 31, 2007