CCAL Camp 2008

[jasmine_fanclub]

CCAL CAMP 26-29th May 2008

Venue: Camp ABLE, Nirwana Gardens Resort, Bintan, Indonesia

Oh my goodness this is gonna be a really looong post because I couldn’t get to pen down any reflections since my camp booklet was soaked during dragonboating >< For me, this is a very meaningful camp. After going through the RGS Lead Camp and this, I tend to compare both and I felt that the former had more bonding elements through free-and-easy time, hence the whole camp had a more laid-back feel. Surprisingly, I felt less confident during the rafting activity this time round (perhaps due to the lack of knot-tying practice-I’m sorry girlguides ><) so I was feeling real lousy when we didn’t manage to complete our task. It was encouraging to hear pple like Hanif and Lee He telling us to continue and not give up. And thanks to A5 (?) who also came along to help. Haha qte paiseh had to trouble so many pple x)

There were many takeaways from the activities throughout the camp. For one thing, I found that I’ve become more eloquent coz I typed out the stuff above without much prior thought =) oh and I lost almost an inch around my tummy >< The following are just some memorable things/sayings that I can rmb heh.

1st Day

Ferry Ride

1. Played bridge (although it’s already stated in the camp booklet that it’s not allowed ><) and Grace’s Chinese checkers. Of course, I lost in the latter coz jumping pieces aren’t my thing haha
2. Got to see group mates’ faces, did some small talk o.O
3. Oh yes, our teacher mentor is Ms Samantha Wong, a Geography teacher and also Canoeing teacher i/c

Team Bonding

1. We were doing self-intro with random magazine cut-outs and had to relate one pic to our personality and the other to our leadership style. I chose a blue sea pic coz I think I’m a very calm and composed person (ok I do whine and become paranoid sometimes) and then I chose this pic showing a person looking over the heads of the many people around her. I feel that as a leader, it’s important for me to be forward-looking and be able to take care of small details that others may overlook. BE RESPONSIBLE!
2. We played dog and bone with A5 and I think we lost by one point coz some of their members cheated!! Haha but it’s still fun yay! Love the clayey sand that’s finer than fine sugar. Wanted to play volleyball but the J2 mentors ‘koped’ the place ald :/

Camp Out

1. We camped at a place relatively near the sea, so it was pretty cool that night.
2. During outdoor cooking, Xiner was being the motherly housewife and prepared our food. Love you dear! Oh btw, can you believe that xiner’s vegetarian? Wonder how she gets her energy from hmm.
3. We had egg and plain noodles, eggs, vege, and watermelon. Had to beg for sausages in exchange for half the watermelon lol. WHILE (NIANG) YELIN had packeted chicken rice. Rawr. Btw, he’s a pretty good facil xD
4. When we wanted to sleep, the guys in their tents were making so much noise. Haha it’s damn funny how they kept teasing toon wei: “TOON WEI AHH…” oh and they kept screaming/laughing coz of the prickly heat bath. Man I shldn’t say too much.
5. I woke up in the middle of the night coz of the lightning flashes. I was hoping that it won’t rain coz I know the tent probably can’t last us through the night =( thank goodness it didn’t.

2nd Day

Leadership Journey

1. Ms Wong appointed Mu Quan and I to be the ‘leaders’ for the hiking activity. It was my first time using the GPS and guess what? Shi hua’s my facil for it heh =) haha I have a lot of respect for RCY’06.
   
2. We managed to arrive first because we took an undiscovered shortcut, but had to bash through sharp twigs and branches and tall grasses that’s taller than most of us -.- that’s how I got my 20+ scratches on both legs but it’s worthwhile coz we got to take a quick nap while waiting for other groups to arrive.
   
3. After lunch, we went on with dragonboating. ARGH the wooden oars are so heavy! (man need to train more muscles by shelving the Physics/Chem/Bio reference books) and at some point in time I was quite irritated because whenever  I set my oar down to take a break then Yelin would start asking me whether I was alright and needed him to take over. Yes, sure I would of course welcome your offer but I really want to do this on my own. Stefan is right; we girls aren’t that powerless ok! So to solve the problem I came up a solution: row on alternate counts, so that I can take a mini break in-between. In that way I was able to sustain my stamina and strength =) AND WE CAME IN FIRST HAHA!
   
4. After all groups arrived, we did the Unite cheer, water-style. Haha it’s weird trying to stamp your feet due to water resistance. Oh yeah and it’s funny how the councilors love to cheer ‘say RA’ every now and then or sing happy birthday to Jiahao (CCAD head) throughout the camp LOL.
   

Adventure Quest

1. Hehe… haha so guilty about this. We only completed one task and decided to slack for the rest of the time coz we took damn long to figure what our next station is and when we knew it, we decided that it’s too far and not worth the effort to walk all the way there.
   
2. We stayed at the beach and watched the night sky which was studded with diamonds stars. And talked cock. (sheesh my vocab is being influenced by the guys yucks. BTW does anyone know what the heck are ‘sia la’ and pantat’ mean?) and the guys were trying to be funny. Poor “becca and sean”. If they break up, it’d be due to them and not “david” LOL
   
3. I rmbed xiner telling me abt how she felt so comfortable with the people in A3, and how she’d miss us all. (haha she just tagged on my facebook abt having post camp withdrawal syndromes.) I TOTALLY AGREE! Like today I kept looking around hoping to see you peeps… gosh I’m ‘UNWELL’!
   

3rd Day

Reforestation

1. This is the first time we took a bus out of the tourist belt. Welcome to the real bintan, where the people are less well-off and resentful abt tourism due to the pittance they received for moving out of the area, where the houses are built using weak materials and the shops are dusty and unappealing. The bintan pple don’t benefit from the tourism because the workers employed at Nirvana Gardens are mostly from Jakarta and other parts of Indonesia.
   
2. The bus ride there was supeeeeeeer bumpy. Almost jolted out of my seat. And poor leehe had tummy ache so I offered my ‘bao ji wan’ to him. It’s supposed to ease such pain and indigestion. Haha Chinese med rocks!
   
3. The reforestation thing was very meaningful to me. Initially when we were still near the water edge, the sand was alright. But as we walked further inward, we began to sink into the ‘quick-mud’. The suction was so bad that I had to shift all my weight to my other leg and 2 hands so as to pull out one leg. I wished I could have walked even further but I did my best and planted the mangrove seedlings elbow-deep. x)
   
4. After that we got to wash off the dirt at another beautiful beach with white sand and clear waters. Ahh why wasn’t I there for holiday instead?!
   
5. Did reflection on the blue tarp and under the midday sun (srsly!) before eating lunch on the bus again. Had to control myself not to throw up and I was feeling bloated and uncomfortable.
   

Rafting

1. All I can say is that we have tried our best and the most impt thing is that we had fun =) haha wished we have taken Sky’s and Ms Wong’s advice earlier, so we could let Mrs Lim (our Principal) onboard. She must have been disappointed >< But anyway, thank god none of us in A3 got jellyfish stings! PHEW!
   

BBQ Dinner

1. What a treat! Got satay, nice beehoon and lots of fruits! (aiyoh must go detox aft eating lousy packet lunches/dinners for 4 days)
   
2. The video they put together was quite cool too! Haha esp the cheering in the water part xD but the concert section is qte, well, screwed. The batch song-singing was ok and I like the candle-lighting process!
   

4th Day (Last day)

1. Pack bag, and found out that the tent was infested with ants. Not going to point fingers since it’s the responsibility of all of us to take care of the cleanliness of the area we sleep in.
   
2. Was feeling happy coz can get away from the ants and mud, but at the same time I couldn’t bear to leave the comfort of A3. Seriously, we are really really lucky to have such gd team dynamics and teacher facil. I still miss you all argh! (Poor Stefan. Can’t say more if not sure kena bashed by some pple. )
   
3. At the Bintan terminal, people flooded the shops selling drinks and snacks. Haha it was damn difficult for jianghe and I to ask hanif for the bubblegum! He just didn’t get the hint until much later lolol. Jianghe was so pro! She managed to blow a bubble inside another one haha! Sheesh I phail~
   
4. Julian is such a big flirt. Ask me personally for details.
   
5. More card-playing and Chinese checkers onboard. I really enjoy listening to people sing… I heard some of them singing Christian songs and they were so full with passion and energy =) sigh I wonder if I’m really a free-thinker because sometimes I find myself trusting God to make things right and it really does happen that way so…
   

HOME SWEET HOME! I cabbed with jianghe who split the cost with me yay!

I know most pple won’t get to read this, but I wld still like to dedicate the following section to A3 and our facils:

Ms Samantha Wong- she is a really sporting teacher who’s unafraid to brave through the dirt and sun with us. For that, I admire and am very proud to have such a cool tchr facil! Reflection time became more bearable and I can still fondly rmb the time A3 sat on the see-saw and tried to balance ourselves while talking. [Mu Quan: She sells seashells by the see-saw. LOL!] oh yes and Ms Wong helped us win raffles strings during rafting in the teacher’s race xD

Xiner- Initially I thought she was one of those qte righteous and dao pple (haha prefect background mah) but through the camp I found her fun-loving and sociable. She’s always willing to do things that some of us shy away from (e.g. those sai kang tasks like preparing food and picking up rubbish), so I think that’s what makes her deserving of her position. Haha true true I agree we must talk more when we see each other during Public Policy every Mon! same goes for Grace :) Besides that, Xiner was awarded the Best Girl for Alpha grp! You go girl!

Grace (Zhang)- I’m glad to know you, especially after teng has sung so many praises abt you. Haha I hope u didn’t mind that I crashed that BW meeting just to hear your speech >< You are really lively and unique, and I love your cool camera which can zoom in so much!

Jianghe- my darling… what more can I say? The person who made my camp really enjoyable and comfortable, slept with me in the same tent (wow sounds damn scandalous), trusted me enough to confide some things and shared our group’s joy and disappointments with… LOVE YOU times A MILLION TIMES!

Hanif- haha honey hanif! (lol I still can’t forget how the nickname came abt during rec bad orientation 2 xD) it’s such a coincidence for you to be in the same sub-grp as me, although we shld have taken some time to discuss abt rec bad stuff. I’m really worried. Oh yes I still can’t believe that you’re Amanda Zain’s cousin!! Haha what happened to the good genes? ><

Toon Wei ahh- haha thanks for being the ‘unofficial’ photographer and uploading! I’m still in the midst of downloading the files and it’s already 12.29am LOL. Hmm hope you didn’t feel weird when jianghe and I bugged you abt the members in shooting heh ><

Mu Quan- My ‘partner-in-crime’ during the Wakatobi trail! I’m so glad that you learned how to work the GPS (I still don’t :/) and was able to help me make some decisions. Thx! Haha and I think you are really funny and nice! xP

Jon Loke- I admit I didn’t have a gd impression at the start of the camp but later I found that you are matured and decisive even though you are not the very vocal kind of person. Haha and thx for singing Daniel Bedingfield’s ‘if you’re not the one’. It’s such a lovely song x)

Lee He- Thanks for being so enthusiastic and upbeat, it’s fun to have you around during camp =) I’m glad to see that you’ve recovered and picked yourself up, so take care and hope to see you ard in sch!

In short, this is what I wanted to convey (copied from Toon Wei’s email):

“I would like to say thanks to everyone for their help and cooperation along the way, without which I'm sure life would be tough during the camp. I've learnt a lot about how a leader should conduct oneself, how to cope with insubordination, coping with failures (i.e. rafting), but also that leading is all about going off the beaten track and finding one's own method of leading, especially during the Wakatobi trail, we managed to find our own shortcut out of the forest! :)  Many thanks especially to Ms Wong, who has shared much of her experience and providing us with such deep insights into what leadership really means, and explaining the relevance and what we can gain from the respective activities we went through.” --- Everyone ahh, I love you all to bits!