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7 November 2010

Hello guides, our annual training camp has come to an end.

We hope that it has opened you up to more possibilities and allowed you to know yourselves better. All of us are work in progress and are constantly learning and changing, it is never too late to change your attitude and amend your mistakes!

Here is a blog post regarding ATC by a year3;

Hello guides :)

3 November marked the end of ATC 10. Through this 3-day camp, we hope that all of the trainees have learnt something not only new but also valuable from this camp and will apply them during future jihes.

This year, the camp was held in Sarimbun Camp and it is the first time the year 1s, 2s and also the 3s are camping there. The year 2s, being the ones to lead, were worried as the surroundings were unfamiliar to them. First, we jihe in school and the trainees had to bring all their logistics down to the foyer. There was lack of sense of urgency and the trainees guo shi. Next was goal setting in the respective patrols. We hope that you have achieved your goals at the end of the camp!

On the way to Sarimbun Camp, the bus was filled with excitement; most of the guides were most probably discussing how it would be like there, or perhaps already discussing about the activities and manpower allocation.

On arrival, we could see that most of the trainees were quite blur. Very soon, the first activity started and as usual, it is camp D. The tents we were supposed to pitch were somewhat different from what we usually pitch, and many of the guides were unsure of what to do. However, we worked together and overcame this problem. Communication is definitely something very important.

If unsure of anything, you can always approach the year 3s or seniors. Do not be afraid as the camp is for you to learn new things. Of course, certain things we expect you to know by the camp and you should not be over reliant on your seniors. You will have to learn to adapt to changes and put your skills in use! :)

Meanwhile, some of the trainees were putting up the kitchen tents. The help of the seniors were required and this should not be so. For things like this, you should know at the back of your hand and come to the camp prepared. Many of the kitchen tents were extremely unstable and the canvas was sagging. The year 3s were worrying that should there be heavy rain, your kitchen tent would just collapse. The seniors and year 3s even helped to adjust your kitchen tents.

We could see that some of your gadgets such as shoe racks were quite creative, and the other gadgets were rather stable too. Good job! However, some of the flagpoles were not stable and the ma sheng was not taut at all so time was wasted to re-tie the flagpoles. Do take note that you are supposed to wrap your flag around the pole using the la sheng, if not it would be considered as sheng ban qi.

At night was night PT. We could see many of you pia-ing and giving your best although you were tired. However, there were also some who gave up easily. We hope that all of you will not give up so easily next time. All of you are going through this together. Constantly cheer each other on to boost your morale! After night PT, it was supposed to be night games. Unfortunately, it started raining heavily and night games could not be carried out :(

On the second morning, we had morning warm up and then flag raising. Afterwards it was inspection. Many things were kupped and even a pei bei and first aid kit were kupped! These two things are very important and you should take care of them. Of course, every other thing is important as well and you must take care of them! We could see that many things were not standardized such as the direction your items were facing. Other than that, your overall layout is more or less neat :)

Next was outdoor cooking. This time, the kitchen dresser was not built hence preparation of food was at the dining hall. When transporting the food or other things from the dining hall to the kitchen tents, we could see that some of you were walking. We hope to see a sense of urgency in everything that you do. Do take note to cover your food while cooking, if not you will be eating ash for lunch :) the food was tasty and we hope you enjoyed the process and bonded with your patrol during that time.

After outdoor cooking and lunch was OJ. This time, OJ is very different from the typical OJs. We wanted the trainees to be able to adapt to change and put in use your skills. This OJ required the trainees to think out of the box and make use of your skills learnt. If you know your skills well enough, you would not fluster and you would be able to go through this OJ smoothly. Many of you were unsure of how to build a signal. This is very important and although ATC is over, we hope that you will still look through your notes and take note of these important things.

Then it was flag lowering and then dinner. Later on at night, it was campfire! The performances put up by the patrols were all very entertaining :) This year for campfire, we had something different, which was the fashion showcase. Every patrol had their own dress code and they were all unique and interesting :) The yarn was given by Yiting and Nicholette, it definitely spoke to us a lot and we hope that all of you will remember it and apply it into every that you do too!

Following campfire was supper and we had a mini barbeque. Sadly, almost all of the patrols did not clear up. Remember that it is a camp and you do not have servants to clean up after you!

Soon, the trainees fell asleep after a long and tiring day. At 1.08am, fire drill started. Some of the year 3s were at the campsite, shouting: “Fire, fire!” All if not many of the trainees were blur, confused and did not know what to do. It took at total of 8 minutes for all the trainees to evacuate the campsite and get to the main field. If there was a real fire, the consequences would be dire if you actually took such a long time to evacuate. What we hoped to see is that you could help one another and wake each other up. Some of you just ran out of the tents without waking up your other patrol mates, not even to say the other patrols. Many of you also ignored the “casualties” who were shouting for help. We hope that through this fire drill, you have learnt something valuable: do not just think about your own safety, but also remember that other lives are just as important!

Day 3 morning started with strike camp and clearing up of the campsite. Next was company games to celebrate almost the end of ATC. We hope that all of you had fun and bonded with the company!

We then carried all the logistics up the bus and headed back to school. Many of us were tired and fast fell asleep on the bus. We hope that this is a sign that all of you have pia-ed hard during the camp! Back at school, we had lunch. Then it was mystery games.

Overall, we hope that all the guides, be it year 1, 2 or 3 have learnt something from this camp and will continue to improve! It does not matter whether your patrol came in first or last, what matters most is that you have really done your best and sincerely helped each other. There have been tears but also bonds which have been forged. We hope to see the spirit of guiding to continue to grow in all of you!

Love guides!

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