Leadership Training Camp 2010

During the June holidays, I attended the 4-day Leadership Training Camp. It was held at Dunman Secondary School on the first day and at Jalan Bahtera Adventure Camp for the next 3 days.

On the first day, we had to do duties and help out in the Financial Literacy Carnival. There were duties such as ushers and game masters. I was the game master for one of the games. Together with 3 other LTC members, we had to give instructions and record points scored by the visitors for our games. It was rather hectic when the groups came in and we had to work fast. The primary school children were excited about the game so it was not that difficult to get them to co-operate. I felt glad when the children told me they liked the game.

The next day, we got to the campsite by bus. Each group is assigned one bus each. On our way to the campsite, we sang cheers and got ourselves hyped up for the rest of the day. After everyone assembled, we brought our bags to our respective huts, the place where we will be sleeping in at night. My friend was surprised when she saw that there were no rugs or mats provided for us to sleep on. After arranging our bags, we then reassembled at the gathering hall. Then we were ready to start the camp.

The Land and Sea Activities and High Elements were awesome too. Both kayaking and rock-climbing were muscle-straining and required us to persevere in order to complete them. During the rock climbing, I got past the first few rocks easily but got stuck in the middle as I could not reach the far-placed rocks. I felt like giving up as my arms were already tired from all the pulling but my friends cheered me on. Finally, I went to another spot and managed to climb to the top.
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Kayaking made my arms painful too. We had to wear the life jacket tightly and I think I almost suffocated in mine. But as we went into the sea for warm-ups, I got used to the tightness.
Overall, I enjoyed the kayak as I like the feeling of floating on the sea. My partner and were also synchronized in our paddling. As for High Elements, we had to cross ropes tied very high above ground level. Of course we were buckled safely first and wore helmets. It was scary having to slowly cross the rope to get to the other side. We had to concentrate getting past the obstacles in order not to fall. The flying fox was the best of the High Elements. Although it made me scream, I enjoyed it thoroughly as it was very exhilarating when I jumped off the platform.

My friend Syafiq from 2F and I were the emcees for the Campfire Night. I felt very nervous about the whole event as my script was not completed and I had to host some parts spontaneously. Luckily, my senior helped me out with some parts and relieved some of my stress. The group performances were interesting. Some were funny and interactive and some were rather messy. But what i know is that my group’s performance was successful. We danced to Iyaz’s ‘Solo’ and we got everyone to dance with us during the ending part. We were even happier when our friends from other groups told us that they liked our performance the best.

And then came the last day of camp. We had orienteering on that day. We had to travel to the game stations located all around Singapore. The orienteering was inspired by Monopoly, and we got to ‘buy’ the places that we passed and completed the tasks. It was very tiring as we had to walk in the hot weather, bringing all the things we had brought for LTC along with us. It was important that we drank lots and lots of water throughout the orienteering.

Finally, we travelled back to Dunman Secondary School for our last debrief. It was a sad occasion for some of us because we had forged such close bonds during the last 4 days. Everyone was glad that they got to know each other and promised to stay in touch with their respective group facilitators. Then, we went to the netball court and had a photo taking session. We then bade our final farewells.

In all, I enjoyed the LTC very much. I got to experience new activities like the flying fox, and visit places like the Hort Park during the orienteering. I also made new friends who were very nice and enthusiastic. It is probably going the the last adventure camp in a while, for me. I totally didn’t regret attending the camp because it was fun-filled and very exciting. I also learnt some lessons throughout the camp. One of the things that I have learnt is to work together with my team members and to co-operate. Without cooperation, we cannot get things done correctly. It is also very essential to always contribute our ideas. Our group performance would not have been successful if we did not plan and discuss among ourselves. Lastly, I also learnt that we have to be determined and work hard to complete our tasks. If my group just gave up during orienteering and the other activities, we would not have enjoyed ourselves as much as we did.

If given the opportunity, I would like to help out in next year’s Leadership Training Camp. I would like to see what goes on behind the scenes of the great camp.