It was a cold Monday morning and I got out of bed. I was filled with excitement and apprehension at the same time. For the past few days, I had been caught up in the excitement of preparing for a camp. However, to me, this was not just any camp. Being a student who had just joined St Andrew’s Secondary after 8 years of studying abroad, this was the first camp I was to attend in this school. This camp I am writing about is the Secondary Three Adventure Camp.
As I made my way to the school courtyard, the possibility that I may have forgotten something kept nagging at me. I shrugged it away as I reached the courtyard and sat with the rest of the class. I looked around as I did every day to see the faces of those around me. Typically, for the past several weeks, no one had shown their true colours yet. A sense of loneliness set in as I remembered the many friends I had left behind when I returned to Singapore and I felt like I did not belong here.
Nonetheless, morning assembly ended as quickly as it had started. The Sec three students were made to remain in the courtyard for a short briefing before we trooped to the waiting buses that were to bring us to Camp Christine. On the journey, I sat next to a boy I had not known in the past weeks. His name was Li Heng and we struck up a conversation to pass time. As we approached the road that led deep into an undeveloped landscape eventually ending at Camp Christine, I was amazed to see a vast area that had yet to be the foundation for business parks and skyscrapers. The scenery reminded me that Singapore was not completely, as people usually refer to it, a concrete jungle.
Shortly thereafter, we alighted together with our trainer, Mr Omar, who was to guide our class through all the activities in the camp. Each class had been named according to characters from the story and movie, “The Jungle Book”. Our class, 3ST, had been named “Banderlog”. In actual fact, Banderlogs are baboon-like primates with an aggressive nature. Later, we assembled in our groups on a large patch of grass under the scorching hot sun. Being typical city-kids, this was extremely uncomfortable and we realised we would have a lot of getting used-to.
Our first activity was something like a treasure hunt. We were given a list of things to find, including live frogs, crickets, and grasshoppers. We had a great time of fun the rest of the day in the warm weather. Through these activities I realised that I had chances to interact more frequently with those in the same group. I met another boy, Neville, who had transferred from Shanghai after two years. Slowly, I felt more and more relaxed as I started building friendships with very interesting people. By nightfall, we were exhausted. I longed for a hot shower, a good meal and a good night’s sleep. However, being an adventure camp, that was not to be the case. In fact, besides the rather delicious dinner, the remainder of the night was a nightmare.
We were only allowed to take a shower at 11pm. That too, there were not enough showers for everyone and the water was freezing cold. I thought I had suffered the worst already, but I was quite mistaken. Everyone had to sleep in tents and at least five people shared one tent. It was stuffy and the ground I slept on was hard. It was too hot to use a sleeping bag, so I used it as a pillow.
The next morning, I groggily woke up to realise I only had a few minutes before everyone was supposed to get up and get ready. With barely six hours of sleep, I shook my equally sleep-deprived tent-mates to wake them up. I freshened up and headed to the grounds where we were to meet every morning. Morning exercise commenced shortly after and the half-asleep campers began to come to life again. By now, I had learnt that my classmates had a ‘crazy’ side to their personalities as well, some termed by the trainer as ‘quai lan’.
The second day of camp was actually more interesting and we had plenty of fun. We also had the chance to get to know our trainer, a young man who almost always wore sunglasses and was well aware of the way a teenage boy would feel and think. There were many times when he would sit under a tree and we would all gather around him when we were tired.
The weather, however, was not as pleasant as the day before. While we were doing an activity, the rain came and started to drench the entire place. Our class crowded into the hall where we had meals every day.
After lunch, Mr Omar announced that we were going to do the ‘Nature Rumble’ which was a walk through the jungle and through mud. We had seen other teams come back from that activity and they reeked! Now, it was our turn. Fortunately, Mr Omar told us that after the ‘Nature Rumble’ we would straight away go and build our own raft so that we could wash ourselves in the sea.
That was a very appealing thought as we took our first steps into the jungle. I had been jungle trekking before, but I had never been through such a squelchy and scary trail. There were times when we had to walk through knee-deep mud and later through thick, black sewage water. Many times my shoes got stuck in the thick substances and I had no idea what was under the surface. To top this all off, it began raining. It seemed that all of nature was against us as the muddy trail became increasingly slippery and dangerous. The only way to keep going was to hold on to your classmates.
That is when I had to fully trust and depend on others around me. It taught me that I could not do everything alone and that we, as humans, are interdependent. The people each of us held on to were like a support that we used to pull ourselves up and on. It is interesting to think that the St Andrew’s motto had much to do with moving through the stickiest situations- getting up and moving onward.
After the rafting activity, we were wet and in need of a shower. Later, we assembled in the hall where we had our meals. The assistant instructor, Mr Hilmi, told us that we had to create a group cheer because we had to perform it during the campfire. Xavier introduced a very interesting move called the ‘Sexy Clap’. Everyone seemed to agree and we changed the lyrics of one of the FIFA songs and made that our group cheer. It was great fun and nice to see everyone feeling more open and free to express themselves.
Later, we trooped to the campfire site and sat on tarpaulin mats. Everyone was getting excited as the skies became darker and the music started. The camp instructors had set up two large speakers and Mr Omar was sitting at his MacBook controlling the sound system. Mrs Toh gave an opening speech about boys maturing into men before lighting the campfire.
The next morning, we gathered for announcements and our group was named the winner of ‘Best Group Cheer’. We spent the rest of the morning cleaning up and packing our stuff to go home. It had been a thrilling and challenging experience, but to me, it was worth it. I could take away so many lessons, experiences and memories that would last a lifetime. On the way back to school, I looked out of the window and I felt quite surprised to see cars, traffic lights, highways and tall buildings. It seemed that three days in the jungle made city-life so strange and yet I still prefer my bed and my hot shower. Nonetheless, I now have built friendships that I could not have made any other way and I feel a sense of belonging to the school.
Written by Abel George(2) 3ST
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