2nd March COJ!

Hi Guides!:)

On Friday, there was no Guides activities. Then on 2nd March, while our Year 2s did their Silver Total Defence Badge, our Year 3s had COJ!:D

COJ stands for Combined Obstacle Journey, and it is an OJ held every year for our Year 3 Scouts and Guides to participate in an OJ together in patrols. For this year's COJ, the theme was 'Prison Break'. There were a total of 6 stations and the patrols went to each station on a rotational basis.

Below are some thoughts from a Year 3 on COJ...

The most anticipated day – 2 March 2013 finally arrived. It was COJ. All the Year 3s had been preparing themselves for this OJ. Although many of us prepared ourselves sufficiently for this OJ, we were still afraid as we did not know what was in store for us.

We had an inspection on 1 March 2013, a day before COJ. The objective of this inspection is to make sure that we have prepared the right items for COJ. Through this inspection, we have learnt that we must communicate between patrols to ensure that the inspection layout for every patrol is standardized. This enhanced the communication between guides and scouts, as well as, between patrol mates.

During inspection, my patrol bonded well together as we communicated a lot with each other before COJ. Also, we discussed the songs and cheers as a patrol together. Not only that, we also packed our stuff for COJ together. This helped us throughout COJ as communication and cooperation is really important between patrol mates.

My patrol’s first station for COJ was the acid river station. For this station, we had to create a safe passageway for the whole patrol to cross the ‘acid river’ and onto the opposite side of the river. For the second part of the station, we had to build a dome tent. Half of the patrol was blindfolded, while the other half had to lead the blindfolded people in building the tent. For the acid river part, my patrol built a lowering bridge. However, as the structure was too heavy and we had difficulty lowering it, we did not cross the acid river. Thus, we failed this part. I felt that we should have used other methods to cross the river since our initial method did not work. Nonetheless, we cheered quite a lot and it helped to boost our patrol’s morale and we tried our best. For the dome tent part, my patrol successfully set up the dome tent. However, we forgot to secure the tent into the ground. Thus, I feel that we should be more aware of our surroundings and make use of whatever is provided.

 

Our next station was the survival skills station. We were required to build a structure which could transport us up a tree and elevate all of us off the ground. After which, we had 10 minutes to start a fire, boil water and build a shelter and treat one patrolmate who was suffering from hypothermia. Our patrol built a ladder. All of us managed to stand on the ladder or on the tree with all our belongings.  We treated our patrolmate with hypothermia by wrapping her in ponchos. At first, we had some trouble starting the fire, but when we did, it was a big and effective, and we could boil the water quickly. However, I feel that we could have had more sense of urgency and be more careful of our belongings as we dropped a matchbox into the 'flood', and a poncho and masheng was also kupped. The PL and PS could have given clearer instructions and took charge. Only the members near the tree were doing the tasks, and those at the bottom were uninvolved. We could have tried to involve everyone in the activity in the future. Our lashes were generally tight and were tied quickly for the ladder, considering that up to three or four people were standing on one mu at once for such a long time. Also, we managed to start a big fire which could boil water very quickly. We also knew how to treat our casualty. There was high patrol morale. This was an interesting and enriching activity which could sharpen our hard skills and exercise some creativity.

 

 

For the 3^rd station, it was the minesweeper station. The task was to transport everything we had and also to pick up stuff like trekking sigs to the other side of the station. What the patrol did was that they asked people to go ahead of the others so that the items can be passed across the obstacles instead of just carrying everything with us. This saved us a lot of strength and also time. I felt that the patrol was communicating well and also the morale was quite high for this station but on the other hand, the patrol could have 报时more often and also to do things more quickly. I felt that for this station, the patrol did quite well and they put in a lot of effort, and hopefully we all learnt something from this station. Also, we cheered constantly and it kept our patrol morale high. I feel that we should have tried to brainstorm to make climbing the structure easier for the patrol so that our patrol mates would not spend so much time trying to climb the structure. Our patrol decided to add a step to the ladder after 5 minutes into the task. We should have tied the extra ‘step’ to the ladder at the beginning of the station so that we will have sufficient time spent on crossing the minesweeper, instead of spending time on climbing the structure.

Our fourth station was the vertical rope station. For the vertical rope station, the task given to us was to climb the vertical rope and answer questions to collect parts of a code and at the same time, we had to treat a casualty and also to transport him up to the second level. For part 2 of the station, we needed to commando crawl and duck walk around the science labs and we had to warn each other for incoming lasers. The patrol allocated half the manpower to do the vertical rope and the other half to treat the casualty. But in the end, we failed this station as we could not think of a solution to get the casualty up. For part 2, we had to commando crawl and duck walk around the GSL. Also, the station master was pointing light at random places and we had to warn each other about the light. I feel that the patrol did well in terms of manpower allocation but did badly in terms of 报时, time usage and communication. I felt that we could have done better for this station if we had better communicated between ourselves and also clarified with the station master the task given as some of us are not really clear of the instructions.

 

 

Our fifth station was the gas room station. We were given seven minutes to enter a gas room and evacuate three casualties. We took the necessary precautions, such as covering our mouths and noses and crouching low. After that, we were given some time to treat all our casualties outside the gas room. Our patrol crawled into the gas room, opened the windows and turned on the fans. A few of us searched for the switch while others moved the casualties. We knew what to do in a gas room and managed to take out all our casualties. There was communication and allocation of manpower. We also knew how to treat the casualties, except some points that we missed out. However, we could only find three out four parts of the switch. We could have 报时 more often and reminded the PL when the time was running out to ask for time extension or 集合.  For first aid, we could have taken note what to do when a casualty has fainted, and not assume she is okay. We should have asked the station masters for clarification. Overall, it was an enriching station which exercised a lot of our first aid, communication and teamwork.

Our last station was survival skills station. I was the PL for this station. We had to climb through an electric fence within the time limit of 10mins. We also had to transport our patrol mates and our belongings across the electric fence. Our whole patrol managed to go across the electric fence within the time limit. We were happy as we 动作快. However, we touched the electric fence 51 times and also, we did not cheer and 报时 constantly. The patrol should have cheered more often to boost the morale. I feel that the instructions given to the patrol mates were clear as they managed to complete the electric fence station as quickly as possible, much to the surprise of everyone, as we had to jihe soon.

 

The second part of the station was first aid. A patrol member will be a casualty who has 3^rd degree burn. 2 patrol mates were sent out to treat the casualty while the rest of the patrol did 20 pumpings. For this section, I feel that the patrol morale was quite high as we cheered constantly. Also, we completed this part of the station very fast. However, I felt that the allocation of manpower needed improvement.

For the last part of the station, our patrol had to build 1 hike tent and 2 Emergency Shelters. The PL was in charge of giving instructions to the scouts to build the Emergency Shelters while one of the scouts was selected to give instructions to the guides to build the hike tent. However, the hike tent was unstable and was unable to be set up. I felt that the patrol did fairly well for this station as we cheered constantly and we made use of space to build the bashas and the hike tent. Also, there was sufficient communication between the patrol mates and they knew what to do, which saved time. Also, the PL’s instructions were clear and it minimized confusion. However, we should have 报时 more constantly so that the PL would know the timing. Unfortunately, our survival kit got confiscated for this station. I feel that we should have taken care of our things more carefully. Also, the people building the Emergency Shelters should have been faster so that they can help the people building the hike tent as more attention is needed there.

Overall, I felt that there was still room for improvement as we needed reminders from seniors to cheer and报时 constantly. Nonetheless, all of the Year 3s learnt a lot from this COJ as we learnt to cooperate and communicate better within ourselves. This COJ was a memorable and enriching journey for all of us:)