DHS-psyCOYlogy!

Hello guides!(:

Today about 20 Year 2 and Year 3 guides went for a tent pitching and fire lighting workshop held at the Guides Headquarters.

Firstly, we were taught on tent pitching. The tent that we will be pitching during ATC is very different from the ones that we’ve been pitching during skills trainings. Firstly, the items used to support the tent are different, and the material of the tent is also different. Even the pegs and mallot used are wooden instead of metal. After a demonstration done by Mr Mail, we broke up into 2 groups, Year 3s and Year 2s, and did some hands-on.

From the hands-on session, we realised the mistakes with our tents, for example, when to roll up the tent doors and when not to. We also realised that during ATC, it is very important to allocate manpower properly and clearly to the patrol to ensure swift completion of the tents because we have to build 2 tents per patrol, and we should not spend too much time on them as we also have other Camp D gadgets to build. Another reason for allocating manpower properly is so that the patrol members will know what to do in the next steps of pitching the tent, and not have nothing to do while waiting for the other patrol members to finish their jobs.

For the fire lighting session, we were given a demonstration on digging a pit, lighting and sustaining a fire. From this we discovered some new stuff. For example, one of them was that we should not give the 3 blows immediately when the fire has been lighted, but to wait for the fire to warm up first, and blow only when the fire is dying out. After the demonstration, we were given a hands-on session in which we had to form groups of 3.

As some of us did not bring our kindling, we either shared or took some provided by Mr Mail. Some mistakes that were made by my group was that we either broke the matchsticks while lighting them, or that we just threw it into the wigwam after lighting them, thus we had problems sustaining the fire initially. In the end, we still managed to light the fire successfully, but we had already wasted about 10 matchsticks. Then, we proceeded on to boil water in the kettle. From this activity, my group, consisting of 2 other Year 2s, learnt that we should treasure each matchstick because during OJ and outdoor cooking, we would only be given a certain number of matchsticks. We also realised that fire lighting in preparation for outdoor cooking can be done by just 2 or 3 people, and not the whole patrol is needed. One of the mistakes that we usually make during outdoor cooking is that a lot of people in the patrol will be crowding around the cooking pit when the fire is being lit. Thus we learnt that during outdoor cooking, we should allocate the jobs properly to the patrol, for example, the others can start preparing the food while the 2 or 3 people are lighting the fire.

This workshop really taught us new stuff and also made us revise the skills that we have learnt.
As for the sec2s, the importance of efficient manpower allocation was emphasised once again, that we have to delegate the jobs properly in order to ensure completion of the task as soon as possible.

So let's jiayous for ATC!

♥guides