Anyway, camp was GREAT. I was allocated the smallest group of the camp yet we were undeniably the most united and dynamic one around. ;)
Day One:
Arrived at the meeting place just on time, paid my dues, took my attendance and joined my group. We played icebreakers (I didn't do a single forfeit! Hahaha!), made people do silly forfeits like sing in front of all the campers, make clown faces to the groups and dance silly dances. Lol. Afterwards, we had lunch and then it was off to the Institute of Mental Health for a visit. It was my first time to the IMH despite me doing a project on depression for Project Work in junior college (I still remember the authorities putting into place the suggestions my group made and then gave us only a Band 2 for our efforts). Anyway, the place doesn't even feel like a hospital, the environment was spacious and had a tinge of a resort feel to it. We visited a ward and it struck me how different the inside was as compared to the outside. Furnishings were sparse in the ward, with only the bare essentials (understandable when these patients didn't have the finances to be living in the better wards). Some of them looked normal, almost just like anyone you would walk pass on the streets without batting an eyelid. Some were friendly, coming up to you to tell you stories, make comments on your shoes and read the words off your clothes. I didn't dare to interact with the reserved ones as I was actually afraid that I'd somehow set them off. Lol. After we left the IMH, we proceeded to the Moral Home which houses intellectually disabled children. Just like all other children, the kids there really liked attention a lot, they would run around, talk to you, quiz you (lol, yes, quiz). They were out of control too. Soon, it was back to the school where we had dinner followed by more games. We ran around the campus playing games which results in a group of people who had climbed up and slid down a slope full of detergent water, with drawn cheeks to resemble dolls and who had eaten lots of flour. We had war games where our best attack happened to be our defence because we kinda sucked at trying to burn the strings of the other groups and ended up letting them destroy each other before we were exterminated by our 'allies'. We washed up and took a bus down to Changi Village and walked to our chalet, our home for the next 2 and a half days.
Day Two:
After a rather fitful night and 5 hours of sleep, I was the first (in the chalet) up at 6.45am. Rolled up my sleeping bag, which woke some of my 3 room mates up, then washed up for the day. We then wrote our first letters to our respective Secret Pals (SPs), posted the letters and collected our letters from our SP and ended up writing the 2nd letters on the spot. We had breakfast before setting off for our version of The Amazing Race (TAR). We were the 3rd group out of 4 to leave and quickly found our way to the first stop. Along the way, we had successfully completed the Fast Forward and made the jump into 2nd place. After TAR, we had beach games where we got VERY, VERY wet. SOAKED TO THE BONE, in seawater. Washed up, had dinner and played a round of Mafia before returning to the chalet where my nightmare was to begin. It was Fright Night and I was paired with the only male freshman of the group. It wasn't a bad thing, probably good for me and bad for him. Lol. He actually enjoyed the whole process of entering a 'haunted' mansion with wandering (vicious) spirits. We entered the kitchen and saw a butcher butchering HUMANS. He then told us to give him his fresh meat and as I lifted the door of the freezer, this guy popped out. My partner tried yanking the 'meat' out of the freezer but he wouldn't budge until I helped. We had to 'marinate' the fresh meat and I was soooooooo afraid that he would make a grab for my hands which he didn't. As we left the room, he make a budge in the direction of the door which sent me from the Very Freaked Out mood into the EXTREMELY Freaked Out mood. Left the room where another spirit pushed a chair out from under the table near the stairs which elevated my mood into HYSTERICAL. Lol. It was then I decided enough was enough and asked for out. We climbed the stairs and saw a female spirit combing her hair in the eerie manner and was about to enter the first room when the ordeal ended. I VERY gladly left the house and went into the waiting room and proceeded to tear for the next 10 to 20 minutes. As I waited for the rest, I watched football with some of the other campers. After debrief, I was still so paranoid, I ended up watching the match between Spain and France till 5am before sleeping.
Day Three:
Woke up at 9.10am. Washed up and had breakfast. We wouldn't do a lot of things that day but it was good, considering our muscles were aching all over the place and I couldn't handle another day of running about. We played games, the first one being a name-calling game. It was a little like Wacko, except instead of being whacked, you'd have to shout another person's nickname out and do the action associated with it. I went out almost instantly in that one lol. I fared a lot better in the 2nd where we were to hold 2 flags of different colours and would raise and lower them according to the gamemaster's decision. Following the games, we had a short rest, then lunch before we started on the next activity. It was a 'case study' where we were to be exposed to different scenarios. The first was volunteering at a prison and the 2nd being being attached to an autistic child. I would say it was quite an eye opener and actually prepared me when I was to handle an autistic child in Day Four. After everyone had their go at the case studies, each of us were given a different disability for us to experience what it was like to live life like that. I was blind and it was interesting to see that the moment your eyesight goes, your sense of balance automatically deteriorates. I couldn't even take off my sandals without threatening to fall over. I couldn't walk down steps without placing too much weight on one foot, almost causing me to roll down the stairs. Being blind, you can't see where you're going and your guide( a groupmate who had stubs for fingers as her disability) and the walls became your best friends. When people laughed at visual things, you'd feel left out. You feel alone when everyone leaves to help the wheelchair-bound. You feel helpless when you can't do things like cook, or return the cutlery without running the risk of hurting yourself (I almost ran my fingers over kitchen knives trying to return the cutlery, nope, didn't have to cook).When you go blind, all the background noise like people talking in the adjacant room becomes ten times louder than it normally does and you really have to strain to filter out the unnecessary noise. When you button up blouses, you miss some buttons and end up wearing it all wrong. When your guide tells you take 2 steps to the right, you wonder why and wonder how large your steps should be. When the challenge ended, it was time for dinner. This time, a barbeque. The strange thing was we didn't bbq ANYTHING!Not my group of girls. Lol. We sat there, had fried noodles and coaxed the guys into doing everything for us. From heating dessert on the pit, to cooking chicken wings to melting marshmellows. I know, we're horrid. The entire camp, we were extremely nice to the guys when we needed them to.. throw our lunch boxes.. get our water bottles etc. Lol. Dinner preceded our camp performances where we acted out our thoughts on how this fictatious girl gets killed and then I showered, chat with a couple of the girls as the rest went on a tour of the Old Changi Hospital which has a reputation of being very haunted. The rest came back very early, disappointed as the place was crawling with people as the Faculty of Science was holding their Fright Night there. After they left for supper at Changi Village, the 3 of us fell asleep.
Day Four:
First one up, AGAIN! Lazed around in bed till my room mate woke up, went out to wash up, came back and then I started packing. Rolled up the sleeping bed, washed up, packed, checked my mail and had breakfast. Brought our things down, carried them to the bus before climbing onto a lorry to get to the MINDS school to bring some of the kids to NUS for some games. I was attached to a young autistic charge of mine who was really quite harmless. Other than being unresponsive and a little too active, he was fine , minus the lack of hygiene. The highlight of the day was when I managed to coax him into saying the word 'fish'. And when he started, he wouldn't stop. So I kept hearing "FISH!! FISH!! FISSHHH!!!" Lol. I would try to eat and he would run off, I'd put my food down, run after him and settle him down again before eating. Then he'd do the same thing, I'd do the same thing and then threw my food away. Lol. He did well for the games with a lot of help from other campers. On the bus on the way back to his school, he lost his water bottle cap and as he still had a little bit of water left in the bottle, I tried my best to stop the water from coming out (stop him from overturning the bottle). I almost succeeded. As we were about 50m from the school, I turned to a fellow camper and said "I'm falling sleeping and can hardly keep my eyes open as I try to stop him from spilling the water". Now the moment I said that, guess what he did? Yes, he overturned his bottle and the water came out and onto his shorts, my shorts and the seat. Lol. The timing was so impeccable the camper told me "I think he knows what you're saying. He was probably waiting for you to say that". LOL. We returned the kids to their school and went back in the lorry. A girl had left her bag on the bus and we went on a 2 hour chase of her bag. The lorry was so crowded as we managed to pack 19 people onto the lorry. To cut the story short, by the time we got back to NUS, not only were we late, we all had aching legs and butts. Everyone had already showered except for us, which was what we did. Showered, packed for the final time and moved to the function room. It was then I found out who my SP was. It was none other than the 'Fresh Meat' who had traumatised me on Fright Night. Lol. To give him some credit, he was a gentleman that night. He pulled out the seat and pushed it in for me. Got the drinks and dessert for me. So he wasn't the horrifying 'Fresh Meat' of Fright Night. Lol. I left early soon after dinner as YOU came to pick me up. Thank YOU =)
Came home, washed up and slept. Had a great sleep. Lol.
Anyway, turns out my camp group won the
"Never Say Die" Award Best Counsellor Award and Best Camper Award!
I'm a 3rd year student in what is probably the largest autonomous university in Singapore majoring in a Science-related subject (well it sorta IS SCIENCE). I'm known to be introverted, sarcastic (at times), funny when I rant (which isn't a good thing lol) and somewhat of a loner. I miss LA and would move there in a heartbeat :(
