by faith.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Home sweet home yesterday at 11am. Initially intended to go church, but Soon Lee and me decided not to go in the end as we slept for less than 3hours in the whole camp! I believed all the Year 3s were wearied out completely yesterday. Think I broke my new record of the least number of sleep in 3days. After coming back from the bus stop, I went straight to my room and laid like a log for about 7hours(1+ to 8pm).

The cause of our fatigueness are as follows. First night: Slept at 3am because of fire drill for the Year 1's. It was meant to be a surprise activity. I believe the Year 1s also felt the tiredness the following day. Second night: Did not sleep at all! There was Night Hike activity! Guess the checkpoints of the hike? The checkpoints led to Old Choa Chu Kang Road, which consisted of cemeteries.

The hike set off at 10pm. However when we reached the last few checkpoints along Old Choa Chu Kang Road, it is already 2am going on 3. As I walked pass Jalan Bahar Road, I thought I heard an old lady's voice chanting inside the forested area beyond the pathway. In the midnight at 2pm? I hafta be insane to imagine what I hear. Soon we entered the Chinese cemetery. Did see some "hallucinations" perhaps, but I wasn't afraid of them. What I was afraid of were the mosquitoes! I thought they didn't look like mosquitoes. Anyway, really got afraid of them. They are not mosquitoes, yet they suck even more blood than mosquitoes! Still having severe itchiness on my limbs.I was so worried that at anytime I scratch, a piece of flesh might get detached from my skin!

The previous time during the June Adventure Camp, there were numerous dogs at the cemetries in the night!(And Soon Lee's group got chased by them!) The difference this time is that the dogs were replaced by frogs! They grew some ponds near the cemetries! When I heard the croaking of the frog, I thought what it was! But the bravehearted Soon Lee told me that I am really hallucinating(without inverted commas).

In the Choa Chu Kang Columbrarium, there's a distance where we were in complete darkness. There was not a single street lamp. The left was full of tombstones. The right was full of tombstones too. What to do? Either look up to the sky or look in front, or else... And we looked up. It was beautiful, the stars were real stars, not satellites. They didn't blink. That was the only time where I could see such a beautiful piece of sky. There was no obstructing building to interfere the presence of these stars. There was no light, most of all. They really looked like the ones in drama series, where all along I didn't believe to be true as I thought all the stars have become fake stars(satellites).

The bus came to pick us at 6am. We arrived back at school at about 6.30. Everybody was shag tired, and we all snugged into our sleeping bags, departuring into lumberland within minutes. Past notice and it was 9am when we were finally asked to get up, and cleaned up the places and finally off to home.

Wonder if the Year 1s enjoyed it. I believe they did, especially the night hike, as it was their first experience at the cemetery. Hope they brought lessons home from this camp. If any of them see this, please remember: In order for a group to function, its members, not only the leader, must communicate well, as it is many times more important than finishing the task itself. It takes all to spell success.

For myself I think I also learnt something as a logistic i/c: that in order to control an unexpected situation you must not panick, even in the worst situation. When the night hike logistic list was confirmed at the eleventh hour, my face colour changed like Gobstopper! I thought I was almost unable to make it! In just 1hour! But in my heart I thought, give it a try for once and stay relax while packing the store.
So I did try my best to be calm, and it did work. I repacked the required things in less than an hour. Wonder how I did it also. But I want to thank God that I made it on time, or perhaps, way before time.

It's SANA course today! It was all kinds of Anti-Drug abuse talks again, as the ones presented in school. I wouldn't have feel curious of what is "high" if they hadn't inversely-psychoed me not to abuse drugs! Of course, I did knock myself back to my senses, that curiosity kills the cat. It's all about choices, in summary, which eventually lead to consequences. In conclusion of my opinion going there, I feel the length of the course abit too draggy, as the points were being repeated and repeated again. And I heard too much of anti-drug abuse talks, making me resistant to it. I got afraid of it seriously!

Mark Tan at 11:08 PM