Actually when i first thought about the sec 3 camp i thought it was a waste of time, but on the day itself i looked forward to it with a positive mindset and maybe learn something new or get to know the new classmates who joined my class this year. Our trainers had assigned group names from the "Jungle Book". Our group name was "Chil". Our trainer assigned to us was named "Tarzan", a trainer whom we suspected to be fierce and cruel, but we found out that he was a very nice person and was very lenient towards us. Upon reaching the camp, the trainers assembled us in a clear field, and we were briefed in what was expected from us. Sure enough, many of us were already cursing at the fact that we were sitting in the scorching sun, and I thought I was already sunburnt at the beginning of the camp.Oh well, life is rough, so i have to bear with it. Anyway, i didn't go there to curse about the bad conditions we were going through, because this camp itself was a test for all of us.
First order of the camp: pitching your tent. I already had experience pitching tents back when i was in primary school serving in the scouts and when i sleep over at Changi Beach with my family, so it was a breeze for me. I, together with Shintaro, Lucas,Jonathan,Sean and a few other people whom i forgot their faces to pitch a 8-man tent. The next activity was one of my favourites: rafting! Oh boy, i never thought that the most enjoyable activity for the camp was the first activity we are supposed to participate in. We were split into two groups, with Shintaro, Lucas,Matthew, Jonathan, Benjamin Sim, Sean, Andrew Woon, Dinieand a few other people. We were given two wooden sticks and four rubber floats. We made a box-shaped raft, and with God's blessing, our planning, teamwork and Jonathan's expertise in tying knots saved us from sinking to the bottom of the ocean when we tested it out. I went in first together with Aakash, Lucas and Shintaro,and the experience of riding a raft which we made ourselves sank deep into our memory and we felt proud to be successful. Coincidentally, it was Jonathan's birthday, and we splashed water into him as a birthday "gift". We all laughed at the sight of Jonathan getting wet on his birthday. We also felt proud that our raft was the sturdiest of the two groups, and managed to survive till the end, unlike the other group, whose raft dismantled in the sea. Unfortunately for us, our raft was the sturdiest AND the HARDEST to dismantle after the activity. I felt pain in my hands because untying the thick rope that held our rafts to the wooded sticks.
I could only remember some activities, one of which was the NATURE RUMBLE. We were separated into four groups, i think. Our task was to find specific plants and animals, and bring specimens of them back to our base of operations. Well, we were partially successful, managing to only find about two fifths of the specimens we were supposed to retrieve. After that was lunch, which was appetizing, after what we all went through.
I can only remember some of the activities, one of them was Trekker's Challenge. We were all supposed to hold a rope in a circle and a person has to walk ON it without falling. Well, we hands ached after that, given the extreme weight we had to lift the rope up. But this activity proved our strong teamwork and perseverence to complete a specific task, and we also developed a strong bond and a sense of trust among our friends there. We went through many other activities that tested our teamwork and coordination, and we quickly became one of the most fun classes in the entire camp.Night soon fell, and we participated in the Blind Man's Trail. We were supposed to blindfold our eyes and navigate around the place by only trusting the person in front of you. We also disturbed and pranked on other students because it was our way of having fun. We also had to find our way back to our own group by only using our mouth and our ears. Once again, we proved our strong teamwork.
It was soon sleeping time, and we showered in the toilets, despite the atrocious smell and the bad condition the toilets were in. I did my prayers in front of everybody before i went to sleep.(the muslim guys should know what i am talking about, because they saw me doing it too.) I was sleeping with Faiz, Jefferson, and a few other guys from 3ST. I only slept at 2 a.m. because it was stuffy, and i kept waking up at two hour intervals. Well, at least i was the first in the tent to wake up the next morning after hearing the prayer call sounded by the fishing village just offshore. We brushed our teeth and had breakfast.Some of us were still lethargic and tired, due to the fact that they could not sleep the previous night. We underwent a series of activities which once again tested our ability to communicate,to plan, and to coordinate with one another while having fun at the same time. One of them was to build a catapult and to launch a waterbomb to hit the assigned target. Although it failed, it was a good attempt and it was only due to the faulty launcher and overall the structure of the catapult was fine. The best activity we took part in was the MUD WALK. Haha,i thought we would be swimming in the mud, but we only trekked through the neighbouring jungle in mud which was knee-lengthed. One of our guys, Dinie, was injured when one of the girls from another school splashed mud into his face. In retaliation, Shintaro and I were just about to throw balls of mud back at the girls, but backed down when their trainer warned us not to. We were cursing as we did not do anything towards them, they were the ones who mocked us when we first when into the jungle. At least we were not forced to sit in the mud like them, and we enjoyed hearing them squeal in fright. The walk also showed me what life was like in the jungle. We also made a few funny drawings on our shirts, the funniest drawing i found to be the funniest was the smiley face on Jonathan's shirt. I imitated his drawing on mine too, and we drew on each other's faces too.....for fun of course.
At night we had our campfire, and we all saw our trainers dance and perform to the music. The campfire was the event in which the principal made the decision to allow us to wear long pants as a sign of becoming part of the upper secondary cohort. In addition to that, we also did our class chear. Before the campfire, we rehearsed our class cheer until we got it right. To me it was the beginning which was embarrassing: "My side,my side, my side my front my back! My side, my front, my side, my back, my side, my front, my back!" haha it was good times........
We then went to sleep. THIS time i managed to sleep till morning and THIS time Jefferson had to wake me up. We washed up and prepared to unpitch the tents. Again with superior teamwork that we had built over these two days, we unpitched our tents within 10-15 minutes. I could not believe that we won the "Most Fun Class" award and we were told that we would get a PSP, in the end, all we got was a "Portable Stationary Pen" or THEIR version of PSP....... or in other words, a small notebook. We were saying "EPIC FAIL!" and we were quite pissed because we ACTUALLY thought that we WERE going to receive a Sony PSP. Well, not everything is what it seems. We went back to school with tired bodies and happy memories. In this camp, I made many VERY good friends, a few of them are: Lucas, Jonathan, Matthew and Shintaro. All were very friendly and easy going friends. I will treasure the moments i spent with them and my class in the camp and hopefully we will remain the best of friends for the entire year. The End.
Muhamad Redhuan (23)
3S2
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