Posted 11:07 PM

Strawberry shortcake
Blueberry Pie
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

Here's the rough guide:
Day 1
0730-0800 crew gathers
0800-0900 registration
0945-1100 sentosa mass games
1100-1145 workshop 1
1145-1215 camp master brief
1215-1pm lunch
1-145pm workshop 2
2-4pm station games
4-430pm camp > check in
430-6pm Dinner (Survival Cooking)
6-630pm washing up and inspection
630-7pm Briefing for night activities
7-1230am Lashing / Scavenger hunt / Nite Act
1230-130am Camp debrief / supper / shower
230am camp lights out

Day 2
0745-8am wake up
8-845am breakfast
845-9am briefing for day
9-1230pm amazing race / rafting
1230-130pm lunch
130-4pm amazing race / rafting
4-6pm wet games
6-930pm bidding of bonus food (using sea hum) + BBQ
930-12am Finale
1230 camp debrief / supper

Day 3
8am wake up breakfast
845-10am clean up
10-11am workshop 3
11-1130 prize presentation
1130-12 back to SCS



~~
I’m back from camp!! I’ll be doing a chronological recap so it’s gonna be long.

Day 1
Reached Clementi Student Care Service (scs) at around 720am and began to look through the logistics and helped pack the stuff to load up. My other 2 crew team mates claimed they were early and were sitting in the office (“blowing air con”). Funny right? We were told to reach earlier than the rest because we need to help in the packing, so of course we should go to the storeroom, which they didn’t.
After registration we were separated into 8 different groups, which was later on known to us to be Tribe Reese (Pronounced ree-say). We played whacko at the void deck and everyone introduced themselves. I knew most of the mentors beforehand but most of their mentees appeared to be very quiet so the whacko game was very boring. But as the day went by everyone opened up more and I was so happy when a male mentee began to talk more to me and smiled more often. My mentee was kinda shy too. He told me he didn’t want to make more friends. I told him just get to know everyone better first.

So we reached the camp site and we did mass ice breakers and were told of the camp rules and how it was a SURVIVOR camp. My tribe won the best cheer thanks to a mentee leading the way with his para-para like movements and our modified rendition of the victory cheer (see title). As a reward we were given forks and spoons for lunch while the rest had to make do with tearing off their Styrofoam boxes as makeshift utensils. Lunch was packed lunch with meat, egg and vegetables. My mentee thought it was very nice. I thought so too. Station games carried off very smoothly and was a huge success. Dinner was survival cooking. They gave us Bunsen burners and mass tins, packet noodles, canned mushrooms and beans and some stalks of vegetables. So I fed myself with the mushrooms and beans. They put so much MSG in the mass tin! No noodles for me. I then volunteered to cook eggs for everyone. The heating took up a lot of time and everyone complained my eggs were not hard boiled enough boo hoo hoo. But our tribe enjoyed ourselves so much. Everyone was already clearing up and 10minutes before gathering our tribe was still sitting down nonchalantly heating up food to eat!!

The night was equally great. We learnt knots and lashing, and although like my mentee, I thought it was very boring but I did learn a few tricks. And then we looked for missing jigsaw puzzle pieces in the dark. We found 35 of 36 pieces, but actually 18 of them belonged to another tribe. But our team cooperated very nicely and all of us were very enthusiastic about it. Night Act wasn’t as good as I expected, but the tribe wanted me to walk as the last man, which by itself was a trial of courage for me because I am afraid of the dark. Throughout the beginning I kept looking back and I also walked side by side with the 2nd last man, a mentee, and he actually told me there’s nothing to be afraid of. On the way I met Princess P in the trail! And I felt better =)

We ended day 1 with milo and biscuits. The tribe has just warmed up with one another. We then had mentor debrief and camp crew debrief (both of which I’m a part of) and we slept at a little past 3am. That night I looked forward to day 2 so much, I lay on my sleeping bag and couldn’t wait for 7am to come so I’d wake up officially. I slept and woke many times, only to press my watch light and see how early it was and not time to wake. I just couldn’t wait for the camp to re-start!

Day 2
Breakfast was milo and bread (with spread) and hard boiled eggs. My tribe teased me about my quality of eggs the previous evening’s as compared to that morning’s. Humpf talk about appreciation. =p We then left for Survivor’s version of the amazing race, which was running around sentosa island solving clues and tasks. I kept telling them I wanted a ride on the monorail ( I can’t remember when I last did it) and I finally saw that happen after lunch. Lunch was a packet of rice, lemon chicken, long beans and egg toufu. Yum. I also walked past siloso and palawan beach and I realised how tranquil and peaceful it was to lie on the sands with such beautiful scenaries. An island entrance fee of $3 isn’t too much when you think of all the things you can do there. I hope to go back there again in the very very near future and explore the whole island. Rafting to many was probably the most fun event of the camp. Our tribe was only 1 of 3 which succeeded in building a raft that didn’t sink after 2 trips, and we won our race with tribe O and was promptly rewarded with a bottle of coke, which we left till the night BBQ to enjoy together.I felt very accomplished because I was in charge of a knot and that knot didn’t come off! I was very little disappointed though when I saw Princess P lazing around with her tribe instead of coming down to cheer for me. Our tribe also took a photo with our proud raft in the sea, and at the count of 3 someone actually pushed me forward and I struggled and flung my arms furiously to prevent myself from falling flat down into the water, which I didn’t. Nobody admitted who did it! They just kept laughing at me! That is tribe unity of some sort I guess. =D Wet games was exciting too. For game 1 everyone formed a big circle and we played dog and bone on the beach. Later on I represented the camp crew (although I wanted to represent my tribe) and I actually became the champion as I won about the remaining 5 or so people. The prize was a bag of cockles aka sea hum shells (official currency of survivor camp) which of course was wasted. My tribe came up to me nonetheless and praised how fast I was and I was really happy. =) For part 2 we built sandcastles (forts) and threw water bombs at other tribes’ while protecting our own. I ran first again and due to some misunderstanding picked up tag3 which we thought was the best location (but wasn’t), but in any case we fought hard and in the final battle between castles of opposite ends, the mentor stepped into our no-man zone and destroyed our castle, but I sportingly (wah who praises oneself as sporting wan hor?) said we lost (else I thought the game would never stop since the rules were a little fuzzy). I’m very pleased my tribe took defeat with pride and we were all very proud we came in 2nd. We really had a great time frolicking in the sand.

BBQ started off with the bidding of bonus items with our tribe’s sea hum (currency). The mentees were a little afraid in bidding early on (for fear of missing out on good items later) but the point was all tribes didn’t know what they were bidding for so it’s no difference. I didn’t interfere at first but with the 2nd last item left they still didn’t wanna budge so I decided to call the shots and we ended up buying a can of longans, which was delicious dessert to go with coke as well. There were also hot dogs, crab sticks, stingray, fish fillet, satay. Only one other mentee helped us ‘peng’ (er… means to hold the tong and flip the pieces), but we mentors were happy to do it for everyone anyway. There were so much food we couldn’t finish all, but we had a really enjoyable time sitting there as a tribe and bbq-ing under the stars.
After shower and clear up we proceeded on to the hall where we watched skits and we danced some chicken dance. My tribe was lazy in coming up with one so I thought of it myself and told a mentee everything he has to do, and I didn’t get myself involved that night. His relaying of information didn’t quite work out and our skit was very boring (especially it was the 1st of 8 tribes) but all our mentees had a part and it was nice to see the quiet ones finally speak up in front of an audience. There was also a pageant and we decorated a female mentee with straws, newspaper, aluminium foils etc. Everyone really enjoyed themselves.

The night ended earlier. And everyone was really tired. After the debrief I slept close to 3. I woke at 5am to go toilet, and was surprised to see a table of people (camp crew) chit chatting. They asked me to join in and I did so. They were actually gossiping! Wow I didn’t know there could be so many things to gossip about! We disbanded at 6 where I went back to bed again. Apparently the gossip continued after I left. I guess you can never run out of gossip huh. When we had nothing to talk about, one guy actually said “let’s come up with a hypothesis and we will test if it’s right tomorrow’. That’s how gossips start! Hahaha. Really fun people.

Day 3
Breakfast was milo, bread and hotdogs. We then did area cleaning while the camp crew had a meeting about which tribe to win which prize. All tribes had a prize consisting of a big hamper of tidbits. We then went for the last workshop where we wrote affirmation notes for each tribe member and there was a picture taken of all of us. Here’s some of the stuff they (mentors and mentees) wrote about me (edited):

“..crappy at times but indeed a wonderful leader..””..great job at the dog and bone WOW!...”
“..try not to be scared of boar = mao mao de zhu （毛毛的猪）…” (origin: a mentor and I were describing our NS jungle experiences and the mentee asked what’s a wild boar. The mentor said (translated) it’s like a hairy pig. Haha!
“ he is kind and helpful”
“he is smiling most of the time during the camp”
“.. a good personality that everyone likes of prefers to be a friend with!”
“..great to be in the same group with you..”
“..an active mentor who makes jokes all the time not to mention the time where you were pushed into the water..hahaha…””.. fastest legs and fussy tastebuds..”
“…never fails to bring joy and laughter to our group”

Here’s what MY mentee said about me (not edited):
“He is a very great, cool, helpful, friendly, and good person. He likes to make friends with everybody. He done a very great job for being a mentos.”

Other than the atrocious spelling and grammatical errors which gives me a headache, I’m very touched by his words and how we have had fun together. My friendship with him has strengthened.

The camp then ended as we headed back to clementi. We passed around a paper where we wrote our contacts. The rest went for a tribe lunch but I couldn’t because I had the camp crew debrief. But I’m sure the friendship doesn’t end here. Already a mentee has voiced out that he wants a gathering with our tribe. Isn’t that wonderful?

Everything about the camp programme was great. Even the weather was perfect, with only slight drizzles at unimportant times. But sometimes I wonder if the west spring (my mentor school) spirit has gone down a notch. I see other mentors always with their mentoring school whenever possible, but just not us. I’m also not so sure why a mentor seems to be angry and displeased at me from time to time. It makes me feel very uncomfortable inside. I’m also a little sad when I see Princess P but she seems too preoccupied to have time for me. Maybe I think too much again.

The camp crew is a really nice bunch of people. I love all of them. I’m quite sad the camp ended, because I don’t know when I can see them again. There’s an ‘afterglow’ meeting on Jan 15th, where the crew meets for a sort of post camp celebration. Can’t wait.

SMP has really changed my life this year. I’ve learnt a lot of things, and I’ve grown wiser.
2004 is a year not to be forgotten.


triggering Mr Ng HS |