Beginning of a new chaper. Is this the end? When will be the next time?

For the past few days, I've been looking through the camp photos and video I have.
Some of my old blog entries.
Blogs of campers.
Reminiscing.

School is going to start this coming Monday.
4th August 2008.

Wanted to do that last camp from Monday to today.
28th-30th July 2008
Wanted to mirror Zedong or Baoyun.
Wanted to mark this point in my life with something dramatic or at least something really memorable.

But, sadly, CANNOT.
Zedong can I had to go for diving lesson.
Leaving for Dayang for a recce/exploration trip next Tuesday.
The lesson ended at 1030pm.
By the time we got back to Choa Chu Kang, it was 1137pm, the last 975 was gone too.
Not only couldn't we attend the last campfire,
we could not go in to crap with the instructors for the last time too.
I was intending to write this post in JBac, where I immerse myself in the atmosphere there.

It is a pity I couldn't end it the way I wanted.
However, it may just be a good thing too.
It's not like it's really the "full-stop" in my "career" as an instructor.
It's still in me.
I'd probably still do camps when I have the time.
But, this "imperfect ending" will probably make sure I'll be back for more camps.
Because I'll be reminded that, "there wasn't an ending"

I wonder when will be the next time....
The next time I put on the instructor T....
The next time I wash the toilet at JBac...
The next time cheering with campers....
The next time I feel like throwing up blood because of campers....
The next time I cannot sleep because I need to do sentry....
The next time I have a campfire...
The next time I hear, "Instructor, when can we wash up~?!!?".....
The next time.....

So many memories....
The fun with campers.
The fun with instructors.
The lame joke sessions at night.
The problems campers give me.
The happy faces of campers.
The improvement you see in the campers.
The....


I'm sure going to miss camp.

Don't worry.
I'll continue to post on this blog.
Stories, show recommendations and reviews, outdoor stuff....etc...
Though there won't be can camp post for sometime...


P.s: was looking at uni schedule....maybe September 20th - 28th can do camp! lol...

Taggie replies.

Racy: Hey~ haha...yeah... long time no talk....glad you're doing well. ^_^

Amanda: haha....yeah....the injury sucks... I'll be going for diving lesson later think it's going to hinder me.... and the expedition next tues day, hope it's not going to stop me from doing anything.

Rena: Hey... haha... Well, it's company policy to protect campers and mainly male instructors i guess. Things like campers getting too attached to instructors, feeling betrayed when instructors get busy to talk to them, sch or parents no happy about campers being too close the instructors, more extreme cases of camper being raped by instructor(seriously i dunno how true this is)....yadayadayada......
I dun really care cos I believe I'm not the type that female campers will go crazy over, and if remaining in contact means that I can continue to influence them positively, why not?
I know I may not be the best role model, but I hope my campers can learn form my positive side.
I think i explained in one of my post. but for got which one...
BUT, it's different when we get hunted down by campers(as in somehow find our emails and add us), which happens really often...haha...so... yea...

23rd-25th July 2008, Greenwood Pri P5 Adventure Camp

After slightly more that two weeks from rest from full camps, finally back to doing full camps.
But the camp that just ended is probably going to be my last camp.
School's starting next week. Going to miss camp days, miss the people and the fun we've had together...
Shall leave this for the next post or something
For the past 2 weeks, I've only been doing 1 or 2 day events here and there and going to JBac to help out in a camp.
Been taking courses these past 2 weeks too.

Well... let's talk about the camp now...

The camp didn't start well for me actually. It's the first time ever that I dreaded the start of the camp so much.
My mood wasn't right due to some personal problems.

I thought I wouldn't be in the mood to be handling 40 little monkeys, but for this camp, there a change in the system.
Instead of the usual, where the 2Ic is the station IC and only the IC follows the group.
Both Ic and 2Ic follows the group. Making the handling of campers much easier.
And apparently, according to the camp operations, the campers are quite good, so I thought it will not be so bad after all.
But on Monday I starting dreading the start of the camp again, all the way till Wednesday when the campers arrived at the campsite.

I didn't want to push away the camp just because of my mood because I though that it is irresponsible to do that.
Just because of some personal problems, if I pushed away the camp only 1 or 2 days before the camp started, the company would have a hard time trying to find replacement.
Plus, my troubles had nothing to do with the camper or the company.
I cannot affect them because of my personal problems.
I had to do what I had to do.
I locked myself for this camp, so I am responsible.

The weird thing is, when the students arrived and when I took over my group, the moment I realised there are "problematic" campers in my group, my drive came back.
Though probably not 100% of what I usually have for camps, but I felt motivated for the camp again.

The camp started with Ice-breaking which lasted slightly longer than 1 hour.
I made sure the ice breaking session was done well because--lesson learnt from Jurong West Pri camp...

Generally, the camp went on quite smoothly besides the fact that the hand full of "problem" kids giving me problems throughout the camp.
The 5 of them were constant up to some monkey business and they had very short attention span. Most of the time they did not listen to briefing and debriefs. I had to stop activities or briefings so many times just to talk to them.
Despite many repeated reminders and they still carried on their ways, they are primary school students after all, they need constant reminder.
It was really unfair for the group, having to stop and waste the group's activity time or wash-up time juts because of these few students -- look at the big picture. Don't neglect the majority for that small minority.
On the last night, I left them alone and spoke to the rest of the group only after debrief.
The few of them were blatantly lying on the floor and sleeping. Not wanting to do their reflections or listen to the debrief. So I kept them back to finish everything after I let everyone go.

Some of the activities that are especially worth mentioning are River Challenge and Command and Conquer.

River Challenge was our first activity.
The task was to get the whole class from 1 end of the "river"(the Milo pond) to the other in a given time.
On their first try,they took 18 mins and got only 8 people across because the wasted a lot of time getting in and out of the water and deciding who sends the floats and PFDs back.
Though in fact, around 13 people already went across, some of them just wanted to play more and didn't care about completing the task. So after the got out of the water and took of the PFDs, on subsequent trips, the wanted to send the floats back, so time was wasted for them to put on the PFD again, getting into the water then send the floats back.
Alot of time was wasted this way.
Largely because they didn't plan well and stick to their plan when they were given the time. Also many of them were only thinking of whether they got to play.
Had to make them learn.
So I cut the activity and debriefed them on their first try.
Wanted to prove to them how much better it would be if they planned and stuck to it. And also how much better it would be if they worked as a team.
Wanted them to know the importance of having a shared vision in a team.
I gave them the plan, told them the record timing and that usually it would only take 20mins for a class of 40 to finish the task.
Then challenged them to finish it, to prove to themselves that it can actually be done in 20mins.
In the end, the task was completed in 20min 30 sec.
Hope they learnt from that experience.

Command and Conquer is worth mentioning because of the the team spirit they showed. Especially the girls.
Command and Conquer is a game where the kids get to play with water bombs.
The task was to take out their opponent's castle or people. The number of water bombs each group/each person has is actually limited. You would expect the kids to want to throw the water bombs themselves but the girls and a few boys in my group surprised me.
The group was split into 2 smaller groups and we played against another group.
When 1 sub group ran out of water bombs I went over to the other group and ask, "hey, our other group has ran out of water bombs to defend or to attack, we are a group right? You are allowed to pass them some water bombs. Do you want to do that?"
Without any delay, they immediately handed a few water bombs.
The team work and spirit they showed really surprised me.
Maybe the debriefs really got into them.

My reflections:

After camp, for some weird reason I actually felt better.
Maybe the injury to my hamstring helped a bit too.
(I injured my hamstring AGAIN during campfire. Got sabo-ed to come out to do split during campfire. Thanks to my lousy mood I think I forgot to tell them I'm injured. 3rd time this month. It never got to recover totally. This time it serious. I couldn't walk or stand after that and also for the next day. It's stupid, but I didn't want to disappoint the kids. Passion/stupidity is going to kill me one day.)
This sounds stupid. but it was so painful I couldn't think of any other thing. Then I suddenly though to myself, what's been bothering be for the past weeks, suddenly I'm not thinking of it just because of pain. Maybe it doesn't mean so much after all??

Guess what I can bring away from this camp for myself is that don't run away from things. You'll never know what's installed for you. Maybe you'll feel better after that. It may not be the camp that really made me feel better but it's a fact that after the camp I feel better.

I'm sorry that this post may sound negative to you readers out there. But I hope you guys can understand and learn from this.
I'm not afraid of showing/sharing my feelings, even some of the more negative ones.
Even when I know that some of you(I'm not flattering myself) might look up to me as a leader of some sort.
What I hope you guys see is not just the negative side of me. But my willingness to face up to the problem and to solve the problem. Not run away from it. Some of you who have been talking to me might know that it wasn't easy for me either. It was really a mess and I was really quite lost.
But what's important is that you have to face the problem.
For those who still think that a leader needs to be perfect, this is what I think--a leader need not be perfect, no one is. You just need to have the courage to face your problem.


For those who are actually worried for me, if there are any,
sorry for making you worry.
Though it wouldn't harm if you dropped a few comments or taggies?hahha...
to let me know you're reading too...XP
I'm ok. Just that I'm still recovering form the hamstring injury.
Hope I'll recover in time for diving class tomorrow evening and for my expedition next week~


P.S.:
Thank you Jesslyn for what you said to me. It really helped.
HuiMing, thank you too^_^

Back from camp!

Yo!
Back from camp!!
hmm....blog seems to be dying...
wonder how many ppl are still reading...haha...
cos no comments or tags....
but at least I know there are still a few that are reading....
as long as anyone still reads, I'll write.
haha....
anyway, before I go on to post about the camp I just had with Greenwood Pri,
taggies reply...


Daniel: o. THAT daniel. lol....hi.

Samuel: sorry....which samuel r u? camper? which school? or instructor???>.<

pokpok: yo! lol... haha...i'm ok. wa abt u?

Jiahui: haha....hey....yea....it was painful too and showering with that hand like that was worst.... ur banned lifted??

evelina: hey. i'm doing ok. you? hope all's ok for u too.

jesslyn: haha...i'll try... passion and stupidity is going to kill me someday. lol...


ok...
that's that...

stay tuned for the post on Greenwood pri camp.
comign soon...

5-7th July 2008 Meridian JC Leadership Camp

To MJC campers who actually know about or read my blog, really sorry for the late update(2 weeks...I know...).
Been really busy attending courses and yes, procrastinating...
I, too, need to to discipline myself more...
That aside, here's the post about your camp.

The camp's the last one of my 5 back to back camp streak.
Unlike any other camps that I've done before, besides being a leadership camp, this is the first camp that I've done that is joint with the soft skill side of High Achievers.
The leaders of MJC where there to lead a leadership model(which name I forgot, was it TLC???).
My debrief points after activities, though they are essentially the same thing as what I usually teach. It's made more challenging because we have to fit these points into The Leadership Challenge’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®.
Shall not talk about the leadership model here though.

The camp started for the camper in the morning where to attended the soft skill module during they day time on the first day. We took over only in the evening.
When we got there, the campers were already very "high", shouting, cheering and all. Guess that's what you'll be expecting form leaders.
Took over the campers and did allocation of huts, then it was dinner time followed by the night activity--candle war.
It's a game where we just need to observe the campers. Their integrity, teamwork and planning.
Shall not talk about how the game is played.
The game is designed to tempt the participants to cheat. Also, they are given limited resources which when ran out, means they can only defend. It's up to them to decided how to play the game.

The game also very much about Choice.
"Spies" are also planted in every group to observe the group.
My group, Cool Heat, really had the spirit to have fun. They didn't care if they won. They cheer and laugh at everything and had fun.
This is the kind of spirit you should have when facing anything.
Being able to--Shake It Of.
Especially when you encounter failure and difficulties in life. Instead of drowning yourselves in sorrow, think about things you've learnt from the failure/the process, and how much fun you had during the process.
You haven't lost everything.
You learnt a lesson and you gained experience.

It was the campers choice whether they wanted to cheat.
The place was really dark and it would be really tempting to cheat, because if you really follow the rules, the game would be so much more troublesome to play.
It's to make participant cheat.
True enough people cheated, thinking that no one was looking.
We would keep quiet and just watch them cheat and only talk about it during debrief.
The point here is, in life, there are many many situations that you can cheat, you can do something illegal. Because you think no one is looking, because you think you can get away with it.
It's your CHOICE.
Can you answer to you conscience?
Will you be proud to succeed by cheating?
Do you have the integrity to play by the book even when no one is looking?
When you won't get caught?
Then again, are you really sure no one is looking?
Could it be like in the game, "hidden observers" have been planted?

Also, as a leader, what will your team think of you when they see you cheating and going for the easy way out?
You ARE modeling the way.
Do you want you team to be cheating and "cutting corners" for the easier way out when you give them instructions?


Rafting was the first activity and I was the one doing the briefing for all 3 groups doing the activity in that slot. Similarly the briefing had to be linked to the 5 practises. Chief Jeremy was there to observe. Everything went on fine, but he observed that I use "ok" very often to assure myself before I start a sentence. I need to work on that. haha...
Anyway, back to the activity.
Since they were leaders, the challenge to them was to set the time needed to plan and complete the floatation device themselves and stick to it.
There was no time reminders by instructors as we want them to be able to keep time in check themselves.
Also, since they are old enough, the "rafts" are expected to stay in one piece after entering the water.
As the timer counted down, I observed that my group lacked a sense of urgency. Something I observed and already pointed out to them on the first night.
Many were talking and sharing ideas, but they are not focus enough on the job. though everyone is working, but they are working very slowly.
Only when they realised they only had 5 mins left, then they started rushing.
This actually also one of the biggest problems of Cool Heat.

You can have a great plan, a great idea, but if it cannot be materialized in the given time, it's as good as nothing.
As a leader, you must really be able to get the team to focus and work fast.
You must always keep track of the dateline.
Know your priorities.
Think, being punctual vs being early. In this case, finishing early vs finishing on time.
Why wait till the last minute then go into a mad rush?
Have you considered, if you take things too easily till the last min then start rushing, what if you realise there's a mistake somewhere and things need to be changed?
Besides the risk of not being able to complete a task, last minute work not only compromises the quality of the product that was rushed to complete, it also leaves no room for error and changes.
I.e., even if you manage to finish things the last min, there's no room for changes/improvement/correction after completion.
Compared to, if you plan well and with a sense of urgency, complete it fast. You'll have time to do checks to remedy any errors and improvements to produce the best results.
Think. Doing good vs Doing you BEST.
Note, having a sense of urgency does not mean you rush to complete things producing sub-standard products.

After Rafting was campfire preparation. Everything went on really smoothly as expected.
My group missed abseiling due to bad weather. It's really a pity for them, many of them have never tried abseiling before.
However, when the rain stopped, we had the MOST entertaining CRC session ever!
Tabitah was so cute! Screaming and shouting "Wait wait wait..."
I got it on video.

Song session after dinner was almost entirely ran by the campers. After we practised a few campfire songs, got people to come out to lead cheers, the cheering just went on and on.
So many people where standing and stomping on the small stage we were afraid it'll collapse.
The campfire was great too(though I sprained my ankle running around the campfire. dumb me.). Though every single group did skit, which is actually what we really hate to see during campfires because usually it gets very dry and the audiences will get bored. But surprisingly, all the skits were really entertaining. The only problem was they are all too long. Except for Cool Heat's, short and sweet. Chief Jeremy was telling me, get you group to cut short their performance, we are really overrun. But I told him, not to worry because ours is short.


My Reflections:

Generally, the camp was great.
However, I think I have done better.
Half way into the camp, I was actually a little taken aback by the calibre of the campers.
I very much felt that many of them, if only the just had a bit more drive and spirit to strive of the best, they can very much be as good as any of us instructors.
This actually shook my confidence a little.
I thought, "am i good enough to have them look up to me as their instructor?"
One of the reasons cause this negative thinking could also be the fact that I was too tired and wasn't able to think well. I was question myself if i was delivering what i set out to teach.
Probably because I was too tired, I couldn't really tell if I did a good job.
Come to think of it, now that I've had enough rest, I shouldn't be thinking the way I did.
Clearly, I was able to spot their flawless and point out to them where to improve on.
I shouldn't have been shaken even by that tiny bit.
It could have affected the quality of my guidance.

Lesson learnt: Always be confident in what you do.
And, when I'm doing back to back camps, remember to sleep instead of staying up till 4 am for lame joke sessions...-.-

I wanted to do this camp despite my tiredness because I felt I needed some energizer, a really great camp, to perk me up(Hong Kah Sec did too. but I've already locked myself for this camp).
To make that burning passion in me even stronger, like what Xinmin Sec Camp did.
Also wanted to challenge myself as this camp is ran very differently from other leadership camps where we "tekan" the campers.

Also, this camp has soft skill sessions that other camps do not have.
Like I always tell my campers to challenge themselves and try new things, I wanted to challenge myself with this new style, which really proved to be quite hard.
Throughout the camp, the campers where rather laid back and relaxed.
A little too relaxed in fact(again, no sense of urgency).
The biggest challenge to me is actually instilling the sense of urgency in the campers without any punishment of any sort(without tekan-ing them). This would have been easily achieved if I used my usual style.
The objective was to make the campers think and truly understand the importance of having a sense of urgency. Therefore we only talk to them about it and leave them to think and decide if they want to waste time.

Despite the great camp, level of fulfillment for us instructors form the camp was actually not very high, as we do not see marked improvement in the campers.
It's good because it shows that these campers are really leaders.
But bad because it means that we do not see marked improvement in areas that we pointed out.
Hope campers will remember things they learnt in camp and apply them.
And work on weak areas we pointed out.

Message to Cool Heat(if anyone from Cool Heat is reading, help me get the whole group to read?):
I hope I've done a my best in leading you guy in the camp. Hope you've learnt something from the camp and from me. Hope I managed to Model the way for you guys by showing you guys what I think a good leader should be like--my monkey spirit, my passion and my determination. Hope it not just a tired guy trying to hype up himself and finish his job. Remember what I said about sense of urgency and perseverance. A good leader needs lots of determination and passion to overcome difficulties and setbacks. You guys have got what it takes. Work on the flaws I've mentioned to you guys. You guys can certainly achieve much more.
And who knows, maybe we can be fellow instructors in High Achievers or Trekkers?

Key to self improvement: Self realization.

You need to know and acknowledge your flaws before you can improve on them.


Also, something extra, now that it's 2 weeks after camp. Have you guys, not only those who are from my group, thought about this--how much have you learnt(from your instructors or from the camp generally) and how much have you brought back? Are these skill/lesson useful? Are you applying them?
Leave your comments so that I know?
Thank you.



Toilet party! haha...

16th July. Cable Ski at BATAM!!!! WOOT!

Woot!
Went to Batam for cable ski with Zedong and Lesh(a fellow instructor from trekkers).
Lesh's the one that organized the trip.
I'd probably be organizing one myself soon.
This is going to be a photo intensive post.
Haven't recover from the sprain ankle I got from the MJC camp actually.
But went for the trip anyway, I don't regret!
It's was fun!!!
Compared to SKi360 at East Coast, I think Cable Ski park at Batam is much more worth it.
Why?

Rates:
Ski360: $115 for 8 hours on weekdays.
Cable Ski park at Batam: $97 for the whole day(will reach the place at around 10am Sg time. Can Ski till 7pm Sg time), plus, the $97 includes the ferry tickets, tax and lunch!
So much more value for money. The Ski park is much bigger at Batam too!
You can also experience much more at Batam. I'll talk about it later in the post.

We met at 8am at Habourfront Centre Mac. Waited for everyone to gather, Lesh handed us our boarding passes and we took the ferry to Batam at around 9.20am.


Here we are, on the ferry going to Batam. Great Whether!!

Arriving at the place!!!
Some pictures of the place. Nice right!?
So much bigger than Ski360.
The place is also very relaxing.
If you still cant ski, go on a we day like us. You'll have almost the whole place to yourselves and you can ski till you drop.
No long waits!

There were monkeys at the the gate!!
Kept by the person running the place!!

Day beds!

Pool table!!!

It was a weekday and few people were there, so we can even do the Batam jump, or some call it the Batam Fear Factor---climb up the cable tower and jump down!

Scary. But fun. It's also really an experience for me as an instructor.
Very often in camps we tell campers to overcome their fears when doing high elements like abseiling, challenge pole and zip line.
However, sometimes it's hard for us to understand their fears because we've done it so many times. We trust the equipment and we've forgotten what the fear is like.
Jumping of that tower with no safety other than the water below was nerve wrecking. But I told myself, it's a chance to experience the fear. I have to overcome my fears too.
I was a chance for me to experience what campers feel.
Will try to upload vids of the jump. haha...


Lesh hanging on cos he didn't dare to just jump down. LOL!!
Posing with the knee board!
I did 360 spin with the knee board! weee...
will try to upload the video.
Yes, we are chilling. Can?

Me and Zedong trying the wake board.
The photos look cool.
But seconds after then picture were taken, we fell. haha...
I held on to the handle too tightly when my board went into the water. Though I pull myself out. Instead it got ripped out of my hands. Skin got torn.
First aid given was, clean with alcohol swipes, which was super painful, then tape it so that it doesn't rub against the handle. Yes, scotch-tape! First layer is up-side-down so that it doesn't stick on my dropping skin. 2nd lays was to wrap around and secure it. This way I can carry on playing! Kinda crazy, but it was only 2pm, we had 5 more hours!
Though, before going for it again, I decided to take a break on the day beds. The music was playing and the wind was good. Some of us, including me, even fell asleep!
The place is just so relaxing. The music played comes from our own Ipods.
You can just bring your Mp3 player there and play it there. So you can listen to anything you want. The sound system's pretty good too.
If you go with a bunch of friends on a weekday like we did, it's almost like you have the whole place to yourselves. There's not many other people.
Really a good place to chill out.
After we got enough rest(sleep), we went to try wake boarding again. And the handle got ripped out again. This time the dropping skin plus more skin and the tape all came off together.
Pain!
But this time it's almost time to go back already.
Wanted to stop, but suddenly realised I haven got a picture taken of me in action.
I.e., standing on the wake board in water.
So, went on with that injured left hand anyway.
haha...
That photo up there of me on the wake board was taken after my hand became like what you see below.

After that it was time to go and they shut off the motor for the cable ski.
But guess what?! That's not the end.
One of the workers there climbed up the tower and tie one of the ski handles to the top, so we can play...er...Swinging Tarzan?
haha....He let us climb up the tower half-way, grab the handle, swing and drop into the water.
Was really fun!
No pics for that, only vid. will try to upload.

Aside from skiing, I also learnt how to ride a bike there(should have taken a photo)! haha...
The place was big, so if we fall far from the launching point, there a motorbike to pick us up and ride us back. That's actually the most dangerous part about the trip. Because you will be riding with no protection. No helmet, no shoes. Only your shorts, PFD and your board. lol...
Plus, it's kinda off-road and they ride pretty fast(I dunno how fast cos there isn't even a speed0meter for me to look at!!).

To end this, the trip was really fun. Most of the people working at the ski park are actually pro or semi-pro wake boarders. We even got to watch free show! One of them did lot of stunts for us. He competed in one of the competitions in Singapore and actually got 2nd place. He's really good.
Not only did we have fun skiing, we got free show. haha...
Going to organise another trip there myself....

Will try to up load the vids asap.

P.s.: Btw, just got my sport climbing lvl 1 today. wahahha...

Taggie replies.

Just got back form Batam!!
haha....
first to reply than blog about the trip.


Nive: hi. I'm not sure if he has a blog lay. haha...

Shihui: lol... cos rumble no group photo ma...got meh?

Sirong: haha....u all happily tgt dun fight i happy le. hmm....really dunno sia... that time i'm prob doing my last camp before school starts.

Alison: ur alison from where? sorry, really bag with names. plus os many alison. see u will remember ba...

HuiMing: lol....of course. li hai rite? haha....cos zd keep saying " with a 'g'." lol... so i know lo. then saw ur name on ur shirt too. ya. i remember liao. haha... lol... wad pro...eh...y u not so "crappy" during camp, joke with u u always like blur blur one. now liddat?
u means u accidentially stumbbled across my blog? my group ppl wants the camp photo can i cant pass them man. though they gave me my blog. but nth lay. though they gave me their email(no chance to return them), i cant contact them. cos technically we are not supposed to keep in contact... but if they hunt me down then not that bad. stupid rite. but it's like that.