Ixora, shine beyond the stars

♥ Sunday, November 22, 2009

Hellos! :D
The long-awaited annual training camp's finally over! Best thing of all, we survived. -claps and cheers-

DAY 1;
Jihe-d in the foyer at 7.30am, then boarded the bus to Camp Christine. Frankly, my first impression of the camp was that it's located at some deserted part of Singapore with a lot of cemetries surrounding it :P
After a long ride, we finally arrived at our destination. Firstly we had Camp D, which was to pitch our tents and kitchen shelters. Initially, we all moved really slowly, there was no sense of urgency and were super blur about what to do. Guess we hadn't adapted to the ATC-mindset yet. Personally I think we really could have improved by taking care of our stuff, ling-ing more cheers and taking more initiative to ask the year twos what to do.. since we had no experience whatsoever in pitching tents =X (now we do!)
Then, after lunch, we continued with Camp D Part Two. Had to build our kitchen shelter, shoe rack, baggage rack, fire altar, kitchen dresser, dustbin etc. We improved slightly, and managed to complete our task quite fast. Started raining after that, and we had patrol corner :)
At night we had treasure hunt, which I prefer to call PT in disguise :P Had to pump for a list of items which we had to find. After 10 minutes, we had to pump once for every item on the list not found. After 20 minutes, we had to pump twice for every item on the list not found and so on.. Most patrols ended up drawing stuff i think?
Then after bathing we had night games, which was pretty cool lah haha. It was really a one-of-a-kind experience! We were supposed to go around to different stations and try to figure out the hidden story behind it. This part of the camp indeed bonded us together as a patrol, as we really had to take care of our patrol mates and our stuff so that they would not get kupped. The seniors' actings were pretty convincing too, I must say :D
We then had supper and went to sleep in the lodges because our tents were wet.

DAY 2;
Jihe-d at 7am and had morning PT. Had to run for 10 minutes continuously, as a company. It was really tiring but seeing everyone else cheering and pia-ing gave me the motivation to continue pia-ing :)
Then we had breakfast and were given 7 minutes (i think?) to mass change into our guides uniform. And sadly we guoshi-ed by quite alot. I think we really have to improve on that.. Since our seniors can do it within 5 minutes, I think we should too. After that had flag raising and inspection. Here, not only did we learn from all our mistakes, we also learnt the importance of cheering constantly to encourage our patrolmates to continue pia-ing through all the punishments and stuff. After inspection was outdoor cooking. We were given a variety of food to cook for our lunch and it turned out pretty yummy i suppose. Afterall we cooked it ourselves! :D
Then we had OJ.. We could have improved by reading our notes, baoshi-ed more, cheered more and pia-ed more. It IS what guides have been training us for, isn't it? Im thankful for the seniors who lead us through the entire thing despite our lack of skills.
We had dinner, bathed, then had campfire. Many of us were already very tired by then, and did not really participate actively during the campfire. Still, a round of applause to the songleaders who practised hard in order to make the campfire a success! :)
Had a mini barbeque after the campfire, which was pretty cool too haha. After clearing up, we slept in our tents.

DAY 3;
Started off with the predicted night evacuation. Carried all our belongings to Olave Hall, and chai-ed all our structures. I think we could have improved by fen pei ren shou-ing better, and taken the initiative to help other patrols.
Had morning PT after that. Running with our heavy bags and doing circuits was indeed very exhausting. However, cheering and pia-ing as a whole worked miracles and helped us survive through PT.
Had breakfast, then mystery games. For the year ones, first we played telephone line, which was to line up and either ding leg raise/ girls style pumping position/zhan ma while passing a message about guides from one end to the other. The objective of the game was for us to remember the messages and apply them in every jihe. After that we did wheelbarrow, crabwalk and ranger jump. This was followed by a company game by which we all had to lie face down while our seniors and jie-mates rolled over us. Seriously, it was funnnnnnn! :D
Striked tents, then had lunch and company games.
For the first company game we had to do shilianpai in front of our patrol mates then use our mouths to sift through flour to find a gummy. Then we had to answer a math question and do 5 star jumps before the next person could continue. Hahaha it was interesting!
Then we had this dog and bone cum blow wind blow game. The forfeits included dancing, doing a commercial for guides, etc. There was one which asked them to sing a guides song in an extremely high-pitched voice. Everyone burst out laughing hehe.
Finally it was the end of ATC. Returned to school, had debrief and prize presentation.

________________

Well, it doesnt really matter who got first and who got last actually. I really saw myself improve throughout the whole camp, gaining lots of new knowledge, taking more initiative. I'm sure everyone did too. This camp allowed me to go beyond my personal best, and taught me the importance of cheering, pia-ing, taking care of our things/patrolmates etc. Much as gruelling as it was, it indeed taught me things that will last me through my next few years of guides.

The most inspiring quote I heard during ATC'09 : All the things that you don't do, others have to do it for you.
And so, we should just pia and give the best in everything that we do, and not try to slack and push the job to others :)

-Nicole

♥-ing P6

2:37:00 PM