#261; they built a ship titanic

Jun 19, 2011 00:54

P&O Camp in three words: Tiring, fulfilling, amazing.


Was dreading it initially, so many self-doubts, so many worries. What if I screw up my activity? What if we can't work together as a camp staff and make the camp successful? What if the campers end up so uncooperative that the camp falls through? What if I can't survive on 10 hours of sleep?

Somehow at the end of it I don't even know what I was worrying about anymore.
This post will not be able to sum up my feelings, but we learnt so, so much and it was just such an amazing time. I don't know exactly how fun it was for some campers (haha I think camp staff had more fun) but then again I think most of them were great and participative and everything and it made everything run so much more smoothly.

It was at the camp that we found out just how much we don't know and just how much we lacked. It was kind of disappointing to know that our seniors who went though the P&O camp didn't teach us all these skills and basically we went there with so little knowledge. But we managed to gain so much knowledge it's so amazing and we're going to bring so much change to April Camp.

Somehow at the camp all 10 of us were able to work so well together. No competition, no arguments, a whole lot of initiative, a whole lot of spirit and I think that maybe, as Ms Ng said, we were able to work so well together that the campers couldn't tell that we came from 4 different school. And even though we got so little rest, like being on our feet practically the whole time, with bare moments to sit down and rest, it wasn't frustrating or anything, but we somehow just kept walking and moving. Every time we had a moment to calm, somehow we usually just kept moving and finding things to do, just to make everything work a little better.

And at the end of it with our disgusting wrinkled feet, sore calves, bites from unknown sources, rashes, more bites, I don't think any of us has ever felt more accomplished than anything.

It was so fun working with you guys, and there are so many things I want to remember, although I probably won't. Thank you so much for giving me the most fun these four days and the 87 hours that we were awake. Thank you for teaching me so many things, especially to Amelia who tried to teach me how to close the tent doors, and Xin Hui and Amelia for being such good Camp Commandants that I don't think I was of much use. Thank you for teaching me new things like patrol inspection (although we didn't do it in the end), and thank you for always running around, esp on Day 2 night when my feet were blistered and I could hardly walk.
Thank you Jia Chee, for providing so much entertainment and for always volunteering to eat, especially with your gigantic cup and so you end up drinking that most (hahahaha green bean), and for being such enthusiastic RPs who helped so much. (: Thank you Hanin, even though you were full of crap esp on day 1 night and kept talking and talking, and for being my RP and getting the pail of water when I forgot. Thank you Mae, (hahaha this makes me crack up everytime) for being so strange and random and breaking out into NYAHHHH everytime and breaking the ice so much. Thank you Jojo for your constant dedication and never stopping for a rest, and for never failing to try and help whenever your can. Thank you Syahidah, for bringing in so much fun because somehow you're naturally funny :D Thank you Ashvari, for stepping up and always offering your help. Thank you Ashley, for your smiles and being so agreeable and happy. (: And not to forget, for being so mean to Mae hahahahaha so much entertainment. :D

And all the stupid/amazing things that we did:
1. Building the kitchen shelter and first aid tent in 2.5 hours
2. Staying up on Day 0 to accompany each other
3. Staying up on Day 1 till 3 am to watch for the red moon which eventually turned into crazy running for our sleeping bags and ponchos when it started and then sitting down in some crazy circle wearing our ponchos and then crazy running to evacuate the campers and then finally settling down and falling asleep immediately in the other lodge at like 4 am.
4. Failing to wake up on time on all three mornings especially on Day 1 with Xin Hui's crazy loud alarm that kept ringing and I didn't really want to crawl over her to turn it off so Amelia ended up doing it and we woke up late anyway (we were supposed to be up and starting the fire at 0645 but we ended up waking up at 0645.)
5. Making Ms Ng's terrible looking card on Day 3 while the campers were doing their appreciation activity and it ended up looking like a piece of work down by primary 1 kids (literally. it had crayon and stickers and stick figures) but it came from our hearts anyway :D
6. Eating our food from outdoor cooking during lunch AND supper because there was just so much food from the two pits and circling the food and stuffing ourselves so full that no one could move and yet there was still food
7. Holding the showerhead for Mayo over the stall wall because she got the stall without hot water and I felt nice
8. Shit crazy plan to stay up on Day 2 night but ending up flopping through and Mae (who came up with the idea) fell asleep first hahaha and Ms Ng taking pity on us that we hadn't laid our groundsheets told us to sleep in the lodge
9. Amazingly sweet South African apples and Spanish mandarin oranges (doesn't make sense) which taste so damn good and made Ms Ng so pleased with herself
10. Camwhoring as a campstaff on Day 3, after the campers left. (:

It's damn late right now, I started on this post so long ago but only now I'm posting it. Mmpf.











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