Monday, October 17, 2005 @7:28 AM
i got to say though this is the most tiring (physically and mentally), it's the best camp i have ever been to. seniors said it was "an experience of a lifetime". before the camp, i was super negative "yeah, experience (tragedy) of a lifetime". but after these 4 days, i felt that i've grown and learn a lot through the camp as well as interaction with my groupies. i'll just give you a brief review on the more important days of the camp. day 1 was nothing much coz there are much admin stuff to do and we only start camp in the afternoon. besides, everyone's a stranger in day 1. no one bothers to initiate talk with anyone. i was quite thankful i know some people in the group.. one an ex-mg girl, one my ex-ahr classmate, one my og mate. so overall, i suppose i'm not as lost or as uneasy as the other groupies.
day2 was the start of our much waited activities. i had 9 hours of rope course which contirbuted to the burnt skin on my face. we had this rope course 2 which basically challenges the limit of your mental strength. one of the elements is this "vertical pole of faith". you are being belayed up this long pole and you have to stand on it and jump down. the scary part is not about jumping cos you trust your belayers who are keeping you safe. but the whole point is the pole you are standing on is shaking freakily badly. that's the part that makes me scared. ha. we did so many such elements that at the end of the day we are not scared of heights anymore cos we are so tired for being scared.
the other rope course was about rock-climbing. actually, this is a must-do in most team-bonding camps and stuff. shan't dwell much into that cos most people should have similar experiences. basically, what i like about it is the debrief which clearly shows the mentors' intention in making us do this rope course. since it is a leadership camp, everything revolves around team and us as leaders. one of the few aspects is trust which i feel is really important. you have to trust your exco in getting the job done or you'll be so busying doing everything by yourself or worse, you might not even get the job done. another was the part about the different routes in dealing a problem. when we are rock-climbing, there are many routes you can take but you are unaware of it or too pre-occupied about it. so you need your belayer or friends below to guide you along cos they have the 'big picture'. similarly to apply it into my own context, when it comes to doing a job, many people have different ideas about doing it. it is only good if we take in suggestions and explore these ways before condemning it. similarly, when you are faced with a difficulty, shouldn't we take a step back, look at it again on the whole and think of alternative ways of solving it.
after these 9 hours.. no.. that's not the end of the day. we played 'Operation DoDo bird' which is basically a war game. the 8 groups we have are divided into groups of two. we have to plant a 'bomb'(which will start ringing once it is planted), diffuse the bomb the enemy had planted on our site, save this secret agent (which is hidden in the female toilets and only females can do this task), kill the general, lieutanants or ordinary soldiers to accumulate points. basically we have tags on our back which is supposed to be snatched/grabbed off by the rival team in order to consider us dead. and the whole area whereby we played the game was totally dark and it's foolish to use the torch as you have just exposed yourself. so it's like running blindly. it seriously feel like at war cos the guys are crazy. they come in herds and don't mind surrounding the girls. i think some forgot that there are girls playing so they basically grab us around and try to snatch the tag off us. well, my role was to protect our bomb site to prevent the rival team from planting the bomb with some other friends. but the guys came in herds (again) and they just pushed their way around into the bomb site. yeah, after that, we quickly diffuse the bomb and run as fast as we could back to the safe place. you see the bomb site is the heavily concentrated area as it's basically using the 'search and destroy' tactic (like LBJ strategy in Vietnam War) and not ambush. so it's basically, unless you are rough and determined to kill everyone, it's not advisable to stay in there as it is really heavy in numbers. hmm, later, i was part of this suicide group to break our way into the female toilet so that some other girls can get in and save our secret agent. wow, that was intense fighting and that determines my death. the guys were standing in front of the toilet so we din care and just push our way in. the commotion was crazy and to think back, hilarious. everyone was above everyone and my friend got injured cos this guy just sat on her. yeah, so basically my tag was ripped off at that time because i made the mistake of forgetting there are enemies behind and i just concentrated in getting the guys out and forgot about my tag. but i guess we were overall successful as judith managed to crawl her way in and we are the group to save our secret agent. yup, so at the end we won because we save our agent, we killed all 5 of their lieutanants who are worth 20 points each. wondering what our general has been doing. both groups decide to hide our general who is worth 50 points instead of letting them meet face-to-face. yeah, so both generals are hiding somewhere discreet and protected by soldiers and lieutanants. i love this game cos it was so FUN. and it feels really at war. all the history terms and everything.
ha, we only got to bath at 11, close to 12 and lights off at around 12.30. and guess what, we had a fire drill at 3 am. being a deep sleeper, i'm like "wtf". ha, but i went back for my 2 and a half hours sleep.
day 3: we played situational games and built a raft. i would say this is also the day where our team really bonded as one. it feels good at the end cos we felt accomplished and the satisfaction that our group has shown tremendous improvement. basically we built a raft that is damn heavy and we only use it for 100m in the sea. but the good thing is our raft is very sturdy. but ha, we gotta carry it back to the boat shed and the road is narrow and grassy and rocky. with the extra load which weighs like a ton, we were dying along the way. the guys at the back and front who did most of the work were seriously shagged. but we took many breaks and encouraged everyone along the way. we cheered, sing our group cheer and basically encouraged everyone along the way. "go patton go. go patton go" "patton patton. uh-oh uh-oh. break the rules. uh-oh uh-oh. go patton break the rules". it was hella tiring but again, fun!
later in the night, it was campfire. yeah, usual campfire.. singing of songs, putting up skits, cheering. quite fun. and it was one of the most relaxing activity in the camp. ha, but our night doesn't end at just that. again, at 3 am, there was the siren. ha, not a fire-drill. but we assembly to do PT (physical training) 3am!!!! haha, we did pumping and alot of the usual army drills. there was a pumping session that makes us shout "AC" instead of counting off. AC is unlimited (literally) so we did like.. don't know how many pumping. but at least we were let off from doing PT in the morning.
last day, we went back to ACJC. first, we had this "attire in 5min" thing. at first we are all in t-shirts and shorts. we are made to change into our school-uniform which white socks in 5 mins, then changed into official AC PE attire in 2 mins, then into long-sleeve and long pants for sleeping with slippers in 4 mins and eventually, taking off all underwear and changed into our swim wear with pe attire on the outside and in shoes. crazy, but we did it.
then, we hade our final challenge. there are many obstacles to go through and it is the final game that see how far we have learnt and how well we have learnt. first we were made to bring a list of things along with us. then we have to build a stretcher that will carry this casualty (a group member who is in comatose.. literally). yeah, we built the raft beside the poolside, in swim wear, under the heavy rain and chilling wind. we were like "keep close for warmth". later, we gotta carry the stretcher with the casualty into the swimming pool and swim 50m across the pool with everyone holding on the stretching. changing back into pe attire, we then make our way out to cross this tunnel which is on the grass. so duh, we all turn muddy and grassy. later, the 13 of us were given 6/7 chairs at the basketball court. we are supposed to cross from one base-line to the other together without touching the ground of the basketball court. it was the most tiring part cos everyone really got to hold on to each other cos it's like 3 people to 1.5 chair. after this, we gotta cross this drain which was flowing like a river due to the bad rainy weather. this was relatively easy. then we ran 5 rounds round the field and gotta cross a few obstacles. it would be easy without the stretcher and the casualty. but the fact that we have, we gotta take rest in between. then we had to run back to the sports complex and do our final element. there is a hula-hoop tied between two pillars and we got to make our way into the hula-hoop without touching it. so, again, it's team work at work. we were quite fast at that cos we have strong guys and everyone knows what to do. in the end, we ended up 2nd. but i think we will prolly lose out in the end due to penalties. we forgot to bring along with us this whole bag of slippers. ha, but we didn't think much about it cos everyone was so happy as everyone did a terrific job. Hip hip hurray for patton!
yeah, so basically, thoughout the camp, patton (my group) really bonded as one single unit and worked together to achieve our ultimate goal. to clarence, ben, pat, huimin, sihua, tong ni, chin yen, pei qian, hawyi, brendan, kenn, PK, raj and julius, thanks for being part of patton! (: