Hello Guides! (:
On Friday, we had Patrol Activity and Physical
Training! Here are reflections for PA!
P1
Bougainvillea
Firstly, our patrol leader gave us 7 minutes to
build four emergency shelters concurrently, and we decided to split ourselves
up into three respective groups, each of the Y3s handling their own juniors to
educate them on the procedure. We revised it together, and this activity was
also to give us a better sense of urgency and to show the Y1s the function of a
emergency shelter. Halfway through, we met with some difficulties as the
remaining two 中木
we had chosen were not of equal length and when I propped it under the poncho,
it somehow always broke and could not stand on its own for too long, with the 八字结 becoming
loose. Too occupied with the task at hand, we did not notice the time and had
to ask for repeated time extensions. After our first attempt, we had to 拆掉 our
structures and then had another 7 minutes to build it again. This time, noting
our past mistakes, we improved on it and managed to finish faster as well. Our
next activity was to build a flagpole, boil some water in a mess tin, build
another emergency shelter and a shoe rack. We managed to teach the Y1s some
basic 礼节s
like how the flag pole and kit should not touch the ground as a sign of
respect, and how we had to form an equilateral triangle or other simple
knowledge like knocking the 青头
45 degrees down. Afterwards, we had to erect a dome tent and an eight-man tent.
The dome tent, being the easier one, was done much quicker and we focused the
rest of our attention on the eight-man tent. Again, we did much work to 打 the 青头s and it
was pretty much filled with frustration as we all had to 抽 our
lashes at the same time to enable our structure to stand straight, and somehow
problems were always posed for us. When we were finally done with the PA
activities, we felt accomplished and united as a patrol, and even more so doing
the next activity designed for the company -
P2 Ixora
This 集合 was the first time we had PA as a patrol with the
year ones and it was a really good opportunity for the year threes to learn to
lead the entire patrol. First, we had to build a heart-shaped structure and a
baggage rack under 35 minutes. Then, we taught the year ones how to tie lashes
on spars, before building two Roman chariots. The year ones learnt really
quickly and were very cooperative as well. We (the year threes) had to
opportunity to practise learning how to give clear instructions, especially
because it was also the first time the year ones built something using spars
and hence were unclear on a few aspects, especially on how to tie lashes for
spars. However, we exceeded the time limit a few times. Thus, for future 集合s, we must remember to improve our time management
skills and increase our sense of urgency, so that we do not need to ask for so
many time extensions. Overall, this PA was rather fun as everyone had a
new experience as a patrol.
P3 Jasmine
For patrol activity during
集合 today, we built tents and then split into our
different batches to carry out different activities. We were given 7 minutes to
take down a 8-men tent, 1 dome tent, 30 tent pegs poncho for every member, 12 青头, 6 中木, and
sufficient 白绳. After that, we were
given 15 minutes to build 3 emergency shelters and one dome tent. However, we
were stopped halfway as we had taken the 8-men tent instead of the dome tent.
We had to thus go back and take another dome tent, which caused us to be behind
time. We then 集合-ed and given another 15
minutes to build all the required structures. In the midst of building, many of
us did not take note of our other logistics and the seniors took away many of
our logistics that were needed in building the basha. Once our time was up, we 集合-ed and the seniors passed us some blindfolds to
blindfold ourselves. They then tasked us to rebuild the dome tent within 5
minutes. This was very difficult as those who were blindfolded
were always getting pulled away and kupped. Also, as they could not see, many
of them had to be guided to each location and took very long for us to get
going to build the tent. Eventually, after many tries, we managed to get the
job done and all of us felt very accomplished. However, due to the lack of 报时, this resulted in us repeatedly 过时-ing and were punished for it. After that, we were
given 15 minutes to build an 8-men tent. Once again, the 8-men tent we supposed
to take was actually a dome tent. Hence, we had to stop and go back up to take
the actual 8-men tent. We were then given another 15 minutes to build an 8-men
tent. Our process was very slow as the sun was very hot and our patrol morale
was low. Despite many tries, we still could not finish the tent in time and
could not see the finished product. After building the tents, we had batch
activity with the year 2s. We were given 6 minutes to mass change into our
guides uniform. After that, the time slowly decreased and it became more
challenging. However, we managed to do well for most of the attempts and many
of us felt a sense of satisfaction after the entire activity was over. All in
all, we learnt that we need to 照顾 both
our logistics and members and we should not leave any one behind.
P4 Orchid
We had a mini obstacle journey and physical
training which was part of the obstacle journey. For the first station we had
to build a creative kitchen rack/shelf with our given logistics whilst building
emergency shelters concurrently. Though our gadget was a tee bit shaky and slanted,
it still stood which was a relief. For the second station, the Y3s were
separated from the others and had to build a 3m tall structure that could stand
alone with our given logistics within 10 minutes while decoding trekking signs.
Having used the wrong lash as we had never been hit with this kind of mammoth
task with 青木
which were merely 2m long, we were at a loss and were unable to complete our
task. After taking apart our structure, we were tasked to light a fuel fire and
build a shelter with a poncho. Upon realisation that we had very few matches
most of which did not light up, we were not able to light the fuel. As for the
poncho, in a fit of rash thinking, it was built too small, but alas a shelter
was still a shelter and we quickly headed to our next station due to time
constraint. Our last station was physical training and we ran around the Y3 and
Y4 block looking for post its’, each post it with a set of PT. Some of us were
slower than others and were unable to catch up, resulting in a rather large
unsightly gap between the front runners and the slower ones. I think one thing
we could improve on from this is to be more inclusive and make sure that we
move together as one since patrol is family and no one gets left behind.
P5 Sunflower
Today, after we gathered for Patrol Activity, the Year 3s were split up
from the Year 1s and 2s. Afterwards, we 集合-ed with the Year 3s from P2, and did a separate task
from our juniors. We were told to get 4 青木, 4 黄木, 11 红木, 2 浅蓝木, 2 白木, 2 粗麻绳 as well as
sufficient 麻绳 within 12
minutes, and that we were going to build a viking. However, while getting the
logistics, we had a miscommunication which resulted in our of our patrol
members going to take extra 木 and hence we had to ask for more time extensions.
After both logistics and manpower were accounted for, we were given 2 minutes
to read the proposal, and 50 minutes to build the viking. Halfway through, we
realised that there was another miscommunication as we were supposed to take 6 青木, not 4 青木. However, we were able to improvise
on our structure and managed to overcome that obstacle. Finally, we managed to
complete our structure, with the help of several time extensions.After which,
we had some fun playing around with the structure and taking several photos for
memory's sake, before we had to 拆掉 our structure and return the logistics. Despite the fact that we were
able to complete the structure and had fun with it at the end, we learnt to
have a higher morale, have a better sense of urgency, and to have better
communication, and we hope to improve on this even more throughout our guiding
journey.
P6 Morning Glory
For the first half of the 集合 we had patrol activity which was pioneering to build a slide. First we had to take our logistics from backstore and 团部 but our sense of urgency was very low and we did not allocate manpower properly, causing us to 过时 although we were actually given enough time and had already asked for time extension. Hence this was a part that we could have improved, especially for the Y1s who might not be so familiar with everything yet. Then we started building our structure, but again our sense of urgency was not there and progress was very slow. Furthermore we did not cheer or 报时 regularly despite being reminded and eventually punished. Halfway through building, the Y4s decided to emphasise on the point of sense of urgency by making everyone tie square and diagonal lashes within the standard timing. Many of the Y1s had difficulty finish tying their lashes and despite the tight time limit there was no frequent 报时 which we really should have improved upon. Then we continued with the building of the slide but because of too little time, we could not finish it and had to cai the structure. The important lesson we learnt is that we really need to work on our sense of urgency during 集合s. Even though the Y1s might still be inexperienced it does not mean we can slack off or take our time, instead we should make good examples for our juniors. Especially since we as Y3s are going to have PLTC soon, we have to take note of things like manpower allocation and 报时 so that we can lead better or risk the patrol not being able to finish the task. So this is really something we need to take note of.
After that was PT! Two patrols paired together and travelled to three stations!
First
station:
The first station being to break into even smaller
groups and huddle in a circle in our leg raise positions to support a pail of
water. At certain periods of time, different people had to go up to seniors to
complete tasks given out and this lasted for around 10 minutes.
Second
Station:
The second station was relatively tougher, as it
played more on circuits. The two patrols had to do consistently do 20 jumping
jacks, 45 seconds of planking, 1 round of crab walk around the level, and so
on. We did this until the time limit was up and needless to say, we were all
exhausted, especially the Y1s as this was their first experience of PT.
Third
Station:
The final and last station was to incur some
competitive spirit between the patrols, as each member would take turns and
compete against another to run around the MRL designed track and the faster
person would gain the upper hand.
Cheers,
Michelle
47th Batch Secretary
No comments:
Post a Comment