St James Bond Camp - Day1

this shall be posted here since the cadcfoc is still not completed on the other blog. then after its done it can be shifted over.



On June 13 - 15 was the mid-year church camp. This one is focused just on fun, fellowship and bonding, like the name suggests. no sermons and altar calls. but theres still a bit of time reserved for God, such as a short time of worship and morning devotions. just the day before, i was called up to ask if i can be the group leader of one of the groups. i was quite puzzled so i asked who are the other leaders. i found, theyre all my age or younger, the youngest being lawrence. so i figured that they are sending the younger ones to the special roles, and found no reason to reject. i had my doubts though.

I woke up earlier on the morning of 13 june to catch a ride to church. i was there more than an hour earlier than the normal campers to have some briefing and also cos its not good for a leader to be later than his members. we got the camp booklet earlier. i was quite relieved when i saw that my team members r all not difficult people and my assistant is Joyce teo, who i recognise for leadership capabilites. so we hang around and watch the campers flow in as it neared the meeting time of 10pm.

When most of them had arrived, we gathered in the auditorium and were distributed into our groups. There were 6 groups: James, Metallic, Ionic, Covalent, atomic and Molecular Bond. i was leading molecular bond. I had 10 members : Gloria, Joyce, Enli, Sien, Joycelyn, Joel mak, Joshua, David lim, jonathan and lester, who didnt turn up for the whole camp. i was told that the new girl Enli was 12, and her brother 14. when i met them, they were not what i expected, and its seems their identities got mixed. Its more like he's 12 and she's 14, plus she isnt feminine; talks alot, likes to watch WWE, always finishes eating the first in the group (leaving little behind), quite sporty, doesnt wear dresses and gave me a very firm handshake. while he is soft spoken, quiet, reserved, keeps to himself and shy.

We had a speech by the camp commandant which was over in 10mins but scheduled to last 30mins. so the surplus time was used to bring our belongings to our sleeping areas - boys in old chapel and girls in new chapel. there was an autographs page for us to collect each other's signatures. the one with the most signatures would get a priaze at the end, but i guessed it would be just a lousy gift. still, i went around collecting signatures for fun. helps to break a bit of ice.

Then it was lunchtime. packeted food of half cooked kailan, glazed chicken wing, a piece of fishcake and rice cooked in insufficient water. i just took the ingredients.

Then we had a briefing of the amazing race. the campers were split to 3 category, 2 groups each. namely historical, city and traditional. historical would be places like old buildings and maybe museums, traditional being places liek chinatown, little india, etc. my group got city, and there were 8 destinations in total: Esplanade, padang, clarke quay, orchard, science centre, omnimax theatre, bukit timah nature reserve, and fort canning, which was swapped from the historicals with suntec city.

we plotted out all the destinations on a map and found that all the destinations are between jurong and the marina area, with the church somewhere in the middle. nothing on the north and east. so we planned to go orchard first, then fort canning, then the 3 places at marina, then science centre and omnimax, then bukit timah on the way back. time given is 5.5 hours starting 12.30. each group has 1 or 2 gamemasters following, mine being joycelyn and jon. when we reach a place, they will give us a envelope with information on what to do or find out at the destination. each task has different amount of points awarded.

our first destination, orchard, was the hardest of all, since the sub-destinations are all far apart and elusive. we had to find a specific book by clive clusser in borders. found the section with all his books, but not that one. we assumed it was outta stock and got the points. we had to find rabbit brand seafood delicacies. we tot its a product off a supermarket, but it was actually a small restuarant at a corner of far east plaza. we had to buy shisamo and eat it. by right its to be bouhgt from the rabbit brand, but we tot its from sakae sushi so we went there to buy $6.50 of it. we had to go to some forum at toys r us but since we alr spent more than an hour at orchard and its not on the way, we skipped it and moved on to fort canning.

we decided to run around instead of walk, but i think its a bad idea cos it hardly saves any time compared to the physical stress we incur. there was a team of malay ppl touring the place. i guess they were having their own 'a-malay-zing race'. haha. they shouted to us "hey! excuse me! where is sally fort?!" we just ignored them. we had to find a cannon and count the number of screws. done quickly. then there was the charles henry thing we couldnt find. at the cannon, i wanted to go left, but my group insisted on going right. so we searched high n low in futility. it was actually just somewhere down on the left side. but since they refused to follow their leader, we wasted 7 points. our score was really pathetic, with only 14 pts in about 2 hours.



Next up was clark quay. due to time constraint, my group wanted to skip the whole place. but they sought my decision and i decided we do it since its nearby. and good that we did, cos we got another 15 pts there in abt only half an hour. we were given a riddle ' where do aliens get their currency' and the ans was starbucks. we had to go there and count the number of lights. then count the number of fountains at some wet area, take photo of 2 ppl outside a toilet and something else.

next was padang. 1 task 12 pts: count the number of steps needed to reach from 1 end of it to the other. joshua went too far and had to reverse count.


next, the esplanade. find pictures, count planks of wood, find out cost of some show.

then moving across the island to jurong east, the science centre and omnimax. my group was very active at this point. completing tasks very quickly so it was over before i knew what it was. mostly finding stuff, and also fixing a puzzle and doing a balance beam.

lastly was the nature reserve. no need to go in. just find stuff in some wooden builidng and thats it. 15 pts.

now we were really running late, so we had to take cab back to church cos every 5 mins late is -2 pts penalty. there were 2 kids in the group, joel and enli. but the cabby didnt accept enli as a kid, so joel had to take the place so that 5 ppl can ride. but there was 5 of us remaining. but no choice, try to fit 5 in the next cab. the cabby said no at first, but relented when knowing its a short distance. He happened to be an ex teacher at victoria school, cedar girls, cresent girls, fajar and greenridge sec. he gave us a lecture and rattled about his discontentment with today's teens. he said stuff like "today's young ppl are spoilt. look at their pocket money. just take what they want from their parents then spend like theres no tomorow.", "back in the our time, we respect teachers even if they cant teach or beat us. today, little bit of punishment they rebel or complain to parents." , "teenagers come into my taxi all sweaty and dirty theni have to clean up later. also stuff used tissues into the sides of seats.", "i see teens at orchard road at night, i dun pick them up cos they make a lot of noise and scold vulgarities.", "i can continue teaching and earn much more money than now, but rather be free from the stress and troubles with the students." and something that quite pissed me off: "i go to neighbourhood schools like fajar and greenridge, the students there just snatch exercise books, have no respect for teachers. its all about upbringing. they are not brought up properly. go to cedar girls, they are very nice. give them exercise book they say thank you." myself being a neighbourhood school student, i really hate those who look down on us as inferior students.

We reached church last, but with our score we were 3rd position.

For dinner there was the same hardened rice, fried chicken wing and chilli veg. david gave me his chicken wing, the best part of the meal.

there was some free time between return from race and 8pm. most went to bathe but i didnt cos its very crowded.

at 8 it was movie time. in the auditorium, we watched 'music and lyrics'. a drama with some comedy. based on a true story, but i guess some parts like the indian style girl are made up.

after that was group time. supposed to do bonding activity but we just briefed the ppl on things to do for the next day, like packing clothes for the sentosa trip. then i went to bathe.

by the time i finished all my stuff and went to the bunk, it was lights out and everyone inside was sleeping. i found ivan sleeping on the spot i wanted, so i went outside to sleep. i slept on the comfortable sofas but without aircon. charis was so privileged to have the whole ex youth lounge to herself to sleep, with sofa and aircon. i slept fast, but those who also slept outside stayed awake a while longer.