A Personal Recount of my Secondary 2 Camp: Day 1

On the early morning 6th of May 2008, Fairfield Methodist Secondary 2 students embarked on a 4 day, 3 night outdoor experience camp at a campsite in Jalan Bahtera. Students and teachers alike were carrying heavy backpacks and other necessities. Everyone’s faces either showed looks of anticipation, apprehension or perhaps mixed feelings about the camp. I had butterflies in my stomach, and yet they were stopped as I thought of the experiences and good values such as having more confidence, perseverance and getting to know my classmates better through the camp. That’s what camps are for!

Upon reaching the Jalan Bahtera, my thoughts were frenzied seeing how the layout of the campsite was like. As my class was sorted into two big groups, my good friends and I were all separated. This was no wonder as we were supposed to mix around with our classmates, especially with those whom I don’t really know. Imagine that! We did not sleep in tents on the fields; we stayed in spacious wooden huts which could fit 30 to 40 people inside! They remind me of tree houses as they had stairs leading to our “room”. These huts are also better than chalets as we could get natural wind to cool ourselves while sleeping and even to dry our wet clothes hung on the strings at the base of the hut or so says the instructors. It’s hard not to agree with them. Our class’s instructors, Yuan Shan and Tammy, and many others are all young, fresh faced and energetic.

After the introductions and briefing of the camp, we started off with some real good outdoor experience which the whole class was waiting for. My toes were tingling, wondering how it would go. Some of the first daring classmates did flying foxes from such a great height of 3 storeys. The rest of us cheered for every single one of them whenever they ‘flew’ down the rope as if like a flying fox indeed! Following that, we did some lower elemental rope courses and I managed to complete some of them. Although my arms were aching, I was pushed on by all my group mates and Yuan Shan and I persevered till the very end. My efforts weren’t wasted. Although I wasn’t a sport, my coat of awkwardness eventually fell away. In the late afternoon, the class built a raft from 4 barrels and 6 poles and carried it out to sea. The rafting was a success! 12 classmates could sit on the raft, floating on the sea without fail. I had never seen my entire class so bonded before; everyone did their part faithfully with enthusiasm. Shouts and tears of laughter and joy filled the surroundings though our tired faces showed otherwise. We had a night activity; all of us were blindfolded, following one another through obstacles such as climbing down the stairs and crawling under tables. We lost contact a few times, being tugged forward and backward at the same time and I almost got strangled. The day passed by fine. By the time it was lights out, we were so tired to even think about the next day.

Huts; where we stayed.