Back from camp...

Here's a long one...

Day 1 - 25th July 2007
I got to school in the morning as usual. The weather didn't look kind at all. My only concern was the weather. What's going to happen to all the activities planned if there was heavy downpour? After all, it's been consistently raining for the past 1 week or so. Will my students be deprived of the activities? Let's hope not.
I wasn't actually looking forward to going for the camp (because of the weather). I love going for camps when the weather is good. Camping is never fun when it's raining all the time. Furthermore, it's only recently (2 weeks ago) that I went for the sec 2 NYAA Adventure Camp. At the same time, I'm looking forward to stepping into Pulau Ubin for the very first time of my life. It seems like all of my friends said that it's pretty fun camping in Pulau Ubin.

As we boarded the bus, I could see some of the students' faces looking so uninterested in the trip. It was meant to be a fun and enjoyable trip. Let's face it..."studying" outside is ALWAYS better than inside a classroom. We had to get to Changi Jetty to catch the bum boats to Pulau Ubin. The boat ride was cool. It was literally cooling with bits of water splashing into the boat. I'm pretty sure that if the boat ride was longer than that 10 minutes, some of the students would be sea sick. One incident that I didn't quite like though is the foul language used by the students. I don't get it, why do they need to use vulgarities in their conversation? I question myself...is this the type of language they use at home? I doubt so.....then why is there a need to use vulgarities when talking to their friends?

The moment we got there, we headed towards Jelutong Campsite. It's only about 5 minutes walking distance from the jetty. Everyone started pitching their tents. I see LOTS of groupwork and cooperation be it in groups or in pairs. I guess in life, it is necessary to work hand in hand to accomplish a project. It's also good to see students asking teachers for help (while pitching their tents). If in doubt, always ask. I hope they will apply this to their classroom and every day life. When in doubt, always ask.

Once the tents are up, we proceeded with our first activity - team bonding game. It sure was fun. Most of the students in my team worked together to figure out the puzzle (they had to form a perfect square with awkward shapes). Obviously it wasn't as easy as some of them thought it was. Being over confident doesn't help. Even in real life, we need to analyze the situation first. The second part of the bonding activity was much better. Even though they had difficulty remembering how to place the awkward shapes, it was at least strategically planned out by the teams e.g. you put the triangle on the top right corner etc.

After lunch was the fun part. Everyone (teachers and students) had the opportunity to rent a bicycle. We all rode to Chek Jawa for the land expedition. There wasn't much cohesiveness in my team, unfortunately. The better ones (in terms of cycling) would cycle was ahead leaving the less competent cyclist lagging behind. Where is the care and concern for one another? I feel that care and concern for one another is lacking. I made it a point to tell them to cycle together on their way back.

Our trip in Chek Jawa took a pause as there was lighting risk alert between 1505hours to 1600hours. I got the SMS and quickly hurried the few groups that were there to take shelter. Once the weather cleared up, we proceed with our boardwalk. They took lots of pictures together. I saw a bit of bonding there. They looked genuinely happy and interested while looking out for sea animals/creatures as they walked along the boardwalk.

I do have to comment the teamwork when they cycled back to base camp. This time round, the team did wait for one another. It was much better (though it can still be improved). Some managed to instill confident to their team members, especially when they had difficulty cycling downhill.

I'm grateful that there were no casualties in my group. We returned to base camp for dinner. Students were cooking for one another (but none cooked for me). None cooked for me...I wonder if my ex-students would have cooked for me. I'm pretty sure my ex-students would. It's at times like this that I miss my ex-students. Anyway, I just had crackers for dinner. I'm good going without food as long as I have water. It's only for one day anyway. Some were cooking together (boys and girls) but they had to come out to a common area as the campsite was divided between boys side and girls side.

They had Candle War game at night. Looked pretty fun....but I didn't quite like the lack of integrity in some of them. Some cheated just so they can win...that's so silly. They really need to understand that cheating will hurt them eventually. You may not be caught once, twice but eventually you will. It doesn't pay. After the Candle War, it was time to wash up and zzzzz.

Day 2
Students were supposed to be up and cooking their breakfast by 7am. We proceeded with a short walk to Noordin Beach. Nice quiet, tiny beach. I was bitten by tons of mosquitoes on our way there. I'm still itching from it now. The trip to the beach was nice I felt. Even though some of them were irritating one another, they looked like they had fun. Oh...I forgot to tell you that 3 students from my group decided to fall out. And then there were 7. We made one wrong turn and yet they put the blame on one person. That's so silly especially when THEY were given the task that they should plan the route together. When a person leads and you just follow blindly, then you have no right to put the blame on that person...after all, you did not even say anything when you went the wrong way. I'm glad that they really thought about what and how Noordin Beach can be developed into an eco-tourist area for the near future.

Oh ya....MY group had the opportunity to taste FRESH durian. You can't get any fresher than that because we came across a durian in the middle of the road. I am positively sure that the durian had just fell from the tree. It was slightly cracked open (impact from falling at great height). They had the opportunity to taste FRESH durian. I took a bite myself. I personally don't like durian but I don't mind tasting it. It's such a waste of opportunity to not taste it when it is right in front of you. How often can you taste a durian that just dropped from the tree...probably not ever. I'm glad that it was my group who had this opportunity.

They had lunch the back in base camp after that and a short debrief and reflection session. I haven't read what they've written yet. We all got back in school by 1545hours. End of trip.

End of post. Very tired. Eat and zzzz...

Regards,
RuDy