Hi Guides! On the 2nd of November, we had a sharing with the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade (SJB) CCA, where we shared our skills with the St. John members while strengthening our inter-CCA relationship with them. 3 stations were set up to teach them about lashes, survival skills, and pioneering, and the SJB members split into 2 groups to visit the stations in rotational order.
Station 1: Lashes
At this station, the SJB members were taught how to tie a square lash and a diagonal lash by tying a tripod with 顶脚.
Reflection from a Year 3:
The station started off with a step by step lesson on how to tie a tripod, and I was really impressed by how the SJB members were all listening attentively to the sharing. After which, everyone split up into sub groups, with 1-2 guides following 2-3 SJB members. We then ran through the steps on how to tie a tripod with them again while they tried to tie the tripod on their own this time. After that, we taught them how to tie a square lash before they practiced the lash by tying 顶脚s simultaneously. When they were finished with the 顶脚s, we wanted to teach them how to tie a diagonal lash next, but we had already overrun the time given to us for one station, hence we gathered as a group and demonstrated the diagonal lash to everyone at once. However, I felt that this was less effective than splitting up into sub groups as less attention is given to everyone and thus the ability to absorb the information is limited too. Nonetheless, I understand that the lack of time was an obstacle to us. From this, I feel that we should have had better time management and spread out our time more wisely so that every component could have been given an equal amount of attention to.
Station 2: Survival Skills
At this station, the SJB members were taught how to build an emergency shelter as well as fire-lighting.
Reflection from a Year 3:
I feel that the SJB members caught on to the concepts well and were able to build the emergency shelters on their own quickly, which is really applaudable. However, the fire-lighting was less successful as the kindlings were rather wet since it was a rainy season. Due to the wet kindlings, it was very hard to sustain the fire, and large amounts of smoke were produced whenever we tried to re-light the fire from the ambers. I felt that it was rather embarrassing to not be able to sustain a fire well in front of the SJB members as we were supposed to be the ones teaching them about the right way to light and sustain the fire. Therefore I feel that in the future, we should try to be more prepared for the planned program, such as picking the kindlings at an earlier date, etc.
Station 3: Pioneering
At this station, each group built one quadpod tower with the lashing skills they have obtained at Station 1.
Reflection from a Year 3:
This station left the deepest impression on me due to the SJB members’ perseverance. The building of the quadpod tower required much manpower to bring the spars over to the elevated platform, and it also required efficiency in order to finish building the tower in time. Throughout the duration of the station, it was evident how both guides and SJB members worked hard together to build the tower and complete the entire structure. However, due to the overrun of the schedule right from the start, we knew that we would not be able to finish the tower in time, hence we considered stopping the activity so that we would not hold back the SJB members. However, to our surprise, they insisted on carrying on, saying that they would finish what they set out to do. I feel that their determination is extremely admirable and it is also a good learning point for us to keep pushing on to finish what we started.
Published by:
Chen Wei
48th Batch Secretary
