I know, this is very long overdue, but it's here!
Day I (Friday)
It’s time for camp! Finally, I got out from
class (which was half-empty anyway) and took my bags. I was so excited that I
tired myself out, with all the packing and what not! After slight confusions
with the rendezvous, we finally got to the Co-curriculum Arena. It was pretty
jam-packed with buzzed campers eager to leave for camp! Did some registration,
waved goodbye to friends and off we go!
11.30 am
Finally I got on the bus with the others.
Chatter was widespread, like a pandemic. After everyone was up, it was time to
hit the road! I got some easy listening as I lull myself to sleep with the
rocking of the bus….
1.00 pm
Three words: I can’t sleep! The buzz still
hasn’t worn me out. Somehow, our bus got lost in the limbo between Negeri
Sembilan and Melaka. Even so, every cloud has a silver lining, the clichéd
always say. I got to see the opulent beaches of Port Dickson and the rustic
hamlets in rural Negeri Sembilan. I was by then humming to myself to the buzz
charging in the campers’ aura, and was trying to get a few winks of sleep.
2.30 p.m.
Finally, we have reached camp. Linggi’s the
word as we got our luggage and had lunch at the cafeteria. Pretty quaint place,
I’ve got to admit. Serving time is the all-too-out-of-place Major Chris, who
smiled at me with warmth. I don’t know what to make of this, but we’ll see, and
let me enjoy my lunch.
6.43 p.m.
Sitting under my dormitory, bashing in the
failing golden sun rays; we have gone through the ice-breakers and let me
recollect what we’ve been going through. After the introductory briefing, Major
Chris got us to do a personality test, to see our strengths and weakness. After
that, we were split into teams. Mine is team Alpha, and what a ruckus it was.
Yells galore, as if we were buying slaves, and it was a total muddle. We all
have elected our leaders, and as usual, the seniors land the jobs. However,
with the usual sarcastic twist, Major Chris simply tossed parcels at the
juniors and pronounce them leaders. A lesson on the role reversal, it seems.
Then, the ice-breaking games began. First, a game of coins warmed us up, with
boys and girls grouping with each other in composite values. After that, each
team formed dragons and tried to break the human link between the opposing
team. Lastly, we played a game of burst pipes, in; in which we have to fill up
the pipes to retrieve the ball within it. Soaked to the skin, that was what
defined the moment. Even deeper, we learnt about how we both need noise and
silence in communication.
6.55 p.m.
A quick jot, I guess. Every team was called
to think up a war cry. After much suggestions (and perspiration) we (okay, I
admit it’s me!) compiled and unanimously approved of the cheer for our team. It
goes something like this:
Head: What is A in Greek?
All: Awesome Alpha
Head: Why is it so awesome?
All: Alpha, the first
Alpha, the best
We are team Alpha
And we will defeat the rest
After that, we went off for dinner duty.
What an exhausting night. After dinner, we
gathered in the hall. Major Chris taught us a thing or two about our master
senses, and how cutting off one sense sharpens another. While I was clueless in
finding my master eye (later I found out that I had none!), he immediately
called us out in the dark night. As the lights within the camp were switched
off one by one, the stars became brighter, and I even managed to make out a few
constellations! Anyways, we were paired up, and one by one we were sent in to
the woods, like Hansel and Gretel tracing a path behind them, only we were a
trail of glow sticks the coconut plantation was saturated with cricket chirps;
the mirrors on the ground avoided and eyes sharply observing, the deceivingly
dark surroundings. Even if a ring of diamonds is put on a rusty chain, it will
only be as strong as the weakest link, a clichéd quote goes. However, it was
true for our white elephant of or group. Even so, it was not all lost, as my
ears pricked up at the slightest rustle of Major Chris’ gave us. He suddenly
emerged from behind and heads us back to the now-blindingly-bright camp. I
almost tripped at the drain because I was temporarily blinded by the
fluorescent cafeteria. When we regrouped at the hall, we did some feedback, and
thought about our previous assignment on choosing people to leave a nuclear
bunker in an apocalyptic war-ravaged world; where we learnt of the different
ways of reaching consensus. After been half- frightened to death by a peckish
spider crawling beside me then we had supper, cleaned up and went to bed. It
will be a long, but, day ahead….
Day II (Saturday)
6.23 am
Just woke up, and feeling good to go! All
through the night, I was trying to get myself fully covered by my blanket, but
I just realized that it was a few threads too short for me. Luckily, sleep
kicked in, but now I’m bombarded by complaints of the blanket length (not that
it mattered to me anyway). Anyway, I just had a shower, and it was like bathing
with ice cubes! No coffee for me, just a shower will do. Okay, nothing much
now, but I guess morning workout will start soon, drizzle or no drizzle…
12.25 pm
What a day! Now, we’re having lunch under
our dormitories. After a game of listening (which everyone got right, but with
detrimental errors), it was time for adventurous cooking. Armed with two
recipes, we headed off to our cooking area. Soup and bread was the name of the
game, but then other ingredients were soon added (and some chocolate from our
stash), so the recipe was largely abandoned. We were so excited that the food
was everywhere. Soon, it got uber-chaotic and Colonel had to come to sort
things out. Even so, the pancakes and eggs still was a disaster as the rice and
chicken sluggishly boiled away in the bamboo and our potato and onion soup
simmered to perfection. However, we managed to get everything done on time, and
with the teachers’ approval. It is still funny remembering how we set the table
on fire, as our parcel was stolen away. Even so, it was promptly returned and
we even managed to overturn Colonel’s opinion that our ‘roti lilit’ was not an
epic failure, as he had predicted. Well done, Team Alpha!
6.00 pm
More is done! After lunch (apparently,
other teams were starving), we had an explorace. It led us everywhere, but our
lead was totally wrong from the third clue. With that, we ended up playing
burst pipes thrice. Imagine how soaked we were! After all that, we watched
other teams did the flying fox. How I wanted to do that! After a perilous game
of see-saw, we ended up playing a game of slippers. My, how fun it was!
Throwing slippers at one another is super-fun, whilst trying to restack the
slippers without being caught, and super-exhausting, at least for me!
12.00 am (Sunday)
We had an early night tonight. Now, we were
supposed to have a campfire, but it didn’t seem that the weather would ever
permit. With that, we had a performance. For our team, it was conceptually
simple. A random bottle causes randomly awesome scenes when pressed, and the
source for all the sorcery simply stemmed from our war cry. The most hilarious
I’ve seen, was a sketch on how a team acquired an opposing teams parcel when
they set a table on fire (which was what exactly what happened to us) and how
they returned it to them; however it was plainly offending. Rants cast aside;
I’m off to bed, waiting for morning to come.
Day III (Sunday)
12.30 pm
I can’t believe it is already the end of
camp. Woke up in the morning, and found Major Chris smirking to himself. Then I
remembered what he said yesterday: double dose of morning workout, that’s his
prescription! We split up, and team Alpha and two other teams follow the
facilitator and ran to the rock-climbing area. After warm-ups (shouldn’t
warm-ups come before running?), we started playing a game of catch, in which
two opposing teams try to catch one another. We ran like there was no tomorrow,
and how tired my legs were! After a game of touch and cooling down, we darted
to the canteen, and we darted to the canteen, and we had nasi lemak (okay, just
coconut rice and anchovy sambal, but who cares!). Next, it was finally time to
do some extreme activities. After the safety briefing, we were all hyped up;
but when I got into the structure, I got petrified by the sheer height of it. I
don’t know how but I managed to climb up the tall ladder. Don’t look down, that
was my mojo. It must have been super-obvious that I have vertigo once I got up,
because the facilitator teased me because of it! Sarcasm aside, I took a water
balloon, got ready and I zipped away! Suddenly, I didn’t feel scared anymore,
and I took aim and fired (way off target!). Landed with a crash, but unharmed.
By then, I was so jumpy that I rushed back to the structure and put on my
repelling gear and the rest of Team Alpha followed suit. We were so excited,
that we lost our parcel, again to the same team! Anyway, once again, I got
scared climbing up the ladder (with sarcastic remarks from the facilitator,
again). Primed myself for repelling, and I just realized that I wasn’t falling
to my death, which drove the vertigo out of me. I jumped down perfectly, like
how the facilitator demonstrated it, but then I just decided to free-fall!
Exhilarating, that was what defined it. Finally, we got to play broken bridges,
where we had to cross a pool of acid with only two planks. It was good fun
arranging everyone and moving them like chess pieces, but we formulated our
strategy too late, so we were overtime. Then the facilitators started a water
balloon bombardment, and we got all wet! After a refreshing bath, and a
delicious lunch of chicken rice, we gathered at the hall. After speeches of
thanks and evaluations from all sides, the scores were finally revealed, and
Team Alpha did quite well. The whole course ended with everyone singing along
to ‘If We Hold On Together’. We then
boarded our buses and waved goodbye to Major Chris.
6.45 pm
Finally at school! It has been such a fun
trip, and I thought, as I waved goodbye to fellow campers, that it was a
memorable experience that I would definitely cherish for life!
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