March Bonding Camp 2007
On March 14 2007, our cadets organised a March bonding camp and here is one of their reflections.
一
After weeks of studying, we finally got to take a breather during the one week of March holidays. Hoping to train us in our planning skills, Mervyn Sir suggested a March bonding camp, fully organised and set up by interested sec 3s. The camp was a test of planning skills, a platform for seniors to know and understand their juniors better and two days of fun and games in NPCC. Very soon, the planning committee was set up and the camp was set to be during the 11th and 12th March.
After we had felt more comfortable with our group mates, the actual games begin. The "sitting circle", where everyone will get into their groups and sit on each other's laps and see which group can hold on the longest.
Then, "the box challenge" where 2 teams play at a time. All team members are to be blindfolded. They have to form a square using the rope without any use of any communication, other than a few words that represents the directions "left", "right", "up", "down", etc. For eg, left would be oink!
That was followed by "the D-game". Each team is to send out one representative. Their objective is to retrieve the ball of twine that will be placed on the ground.Representatives are blindfolded. Team members have to shout and direct the representatives to getting the balls of twine. As all groups will be directing at the same time, it will be difficult to differentiate the voices. The representative that gets the ball of twine first wins.
After that was the "can't stand anymore" game in which benches will be arranged to form a circle. There will be two people standing in the middle of the circle, while the others will be sitting on the benches. The two people are supposed to move around without standing up and prevent the two people from getting a place on the benches.
After all the games, we were given 1hour30mins to wash up and plan for our campfire performance. My group decided to have a skit as our performance and we ended up with a skit depicting the DHL musclemen and helicopter fused with the samsung "imagine" advertisement.
I ended up as the helicopter which zooms around =.- . This activity also shows us how important a potential NCO should be of a role model, where i had to show that i am willing to act crazy in order for the sec1s to put down their pride and be crazy along with me.
After that was dinner again and then the long awaited campfire. CPL Ray Seen and I were appointed as fire feeders and our jobs was to make sure that the fire suits the moods of the campers with a big fire when we were all excited and a smaller fire when the campfire was ending. Our performance was met with applause and laughter too. Other groups did a sing along where the whole unit started singing along to Anastasia and Jay Chou. It was enjoyable and yet sad when the campfire ended. The highlight of the day was Mervyn Sir's rap of "月亮代表我的心":D.
We had debrief sessions in our respective levels where our officers will tell us what we did well today and what we will need to improve in. These skills are important if we want to be successful and good NCOs in the future.
The last highlight of the day- NIGHT GAMES. Anglican High School is a really big school and at night it is really really creepy. We were supposed to search around the school for clues as to what the story is about. We found numerous divorce statements, a birth certificate and others. The final story turned out like this:
Zali’s Mum wants to file for a divorce with her second husband. However Zali’s Stepfather refuses to accept the divorce and kept pestering her Mum. Stepfather abused Mum and pinned her against the wall one day, shaking her. Zali, being a small child, got frightened. She ran to her Mum’s bedroom where she knew she kept a gun. She threatened her Stepfather to fire the gun. Her stepfather sneered and threw her Mum towards her, and the gun went off. Before she knew it, her Mum crumpled to the ground. She couldn’t believe her eyes and shot her stepfather immediately. Zali was a murderer at 5. Because of her age, she was not charged for murder. She changed her name henceforth, to Megna.
When Megna grew up, she found a perfect husband and they had 2 kids. Her husband bought her a big house for their wedding anniversary. Megna had never seen the house. When he brought her to see it, she got a shock. It was the house where she killed her mum and stepfather. People in the neighborhood call it “ Little Zali’s House”. The vandals sprayed those words in red on the front yard, accompanying a skull beside it. Megna got a shock as the memories flash through her mind.
Mrs Beddingfield, a neighbour came over to greet her new neighbours. She stayed there all her life and had witnessed the murder. She even knew little Zali. Would she recognize the similarities in little Zali and the current Zali known as Megna?
Mrs Beddingfield and Megna became fast friends. They often had dinner in each other’s houses, and Mrs Beddingfield became the 2 kids godmother. One day, Megna’s husband had to go for an urgent meeting overseas and he left that very day. Mrs Beddingfield invited Megna and the 2 kids to her house for a sleepover.
That night, Mrs Beddingfield and Megna drank liquor. Drunk, Megna spilled out everything about her past, her being Zali, killing her parents etc. Mrs Beddingfield had loathed Zali for killing her parents, as Zali's father was Mrs Beddingfield's lover. Agitated, Mrs Beddingfield placed rat poison in Megna’s liquor. Megna died.
COOL story line.
After the night games it was wash up again and then lights out.
一
After weeks of studying, we finally got to take a breather during the one week of March holidays. Hoping to train us in our planning skills, Mervyn Sir suggested a March bonding camp, fully organised and set up by interested sec 3s. The camp was a test of planning skills, a platform for seniors to know and understand their juniors better and two days of fun and games in NPCC. Very soon, the planning committee was set up and the camp was set to be during the 11th and 12th March.
Every group was given pre-camp instructions such as creating something that shows your group identity(name tags, etc.), creating a group cheer and also to come up with a five-minute performance.
On the 11th, everyone arrived and lined up at the concourse at 0830. Bags were checked for prohibited items and after that, we proceeded to our bunks to unpack and fall in at the parade square again. We warmed our bodies up with a little bit of morning PT and went on with ice breaker games after that.
First up was the "haha" game where everyone got into their groups, laid down on the floor and placed one of their hands on each other's stomach. The first person will start by saying "ha", the second saying "ha" two times, the third saying "ha" three times and so on so forth. Whoever laughs will get eliminated from the game and sit at the side.
Second was the "suck the marbles" game.Everyone is to suck the marbles with the straws given and are to pass on to the person beside her.
Second was the "suck the marbles" game.Everyone is to suck the marbles with the straws given and are to pass on to the person beside her.
After we had felt more comfortable with our group mates, the actual games begin. The "sitting circle", where everyone will get into their groups and sit on each other's laps and see which group can hold on the longest.
Then, "the box challenge" where 2 teams play at a time. All team members are to be blindfolded. They have to form a square using the rope without any use of any communication, other than a few words that represents the directions "left", "right", "up", "down", etc. For eg, left would be oink!
That was followed by "the D-game". Each team is to send out one representative. Their objective is to retrieve the ball of twine that will be placed on the ground.Representatives are blindfolded. Team members have to shout and direct the representatives to getting the balls of twine. As all groups will be directing at the same time, it will be difficult to differentiate the voices. The representative that gets the ball of twine first wins.
After that was the "can't stand anymore" game in which benches will be arranged to form a circle. There will be two people standing in the middle of the circle, while the others will be sitting on the benches. The two people are supposed to move around without standing up and prevent the two people from getting a place on the benches.
Lastly, it was the box making activity where groups have to make a box out of ice cream sticks and decorate it. The best designed will be given a prize. Groups have to make use of the same materials to make different designs of boxes, which is a test of our creativity.
That was followed by lunch which was pre-packed food.
After lunch was games again, this time starting with the "watermelon digger". Every group was allocated to a table with a watermelon still wrapped in it's plastic bag. Our objective was to finish up the watermelon as fast as we could. Our group tied the plastic bag tightly and smashed the watermelon onto the table as hard as we could, breaking it into numerous pieces and we started gorging onto pieces watermelon like mad.
After lunch was games again, this time starting with the "watermelon digger". Every group was allocated to a table with a watermelon still wrapped in it's plastic bag. Our objective was to finish up the watermelon as fast as we could. Our group tied the plastic bag tightly and smashed the watermelon onto the table as hard as we could, breaking it into numerous pieces and we started gorging onto pieces watermelon like mad.
Then, we were lead to the parade square and lined up according to our groups. It was the "Grapey Dandy" game. Grapes where placed at the bottom of a mess-tin and coated with whipped cream. The players were supposed to pass the grape from the first person of the group to the last using potato chips held with our mouths. The first group to pass all of the grapes to the last person wins the game.
After getting our lips sticky and gross with all the cream and potato chip salt on it, we played the "Hopping Bombs". Each person is entitled to one water bomb. An area will be indicated on the floor. At any point in time, only 6 people are allowed in area ( one from each group). Members are only allowed to hop within the area and are to attempt to burst each other's water bombs. Team that has the last member with an intact water bomb, wins.
Then, we proceeded to the concourse for "the crouching game". A person will be seated on a chair with a tambourine placed on the ground below her. Everybody will crowd around the chair and try to grab the tambourine. The person seated on the chair can swipe his hands around to block people from grabbing the tambourine. Whoever who gets touched by him will be out of the game. The difficulty will increase as the time passes when no one grabs hold of the tambourine. A time limit of 5 minutes will be given.
After all the games, we were given 1hour30mins to wash up and plan for our campfire performance. My group decided to have a skit as our performance and we ended up with a skit depicting the DHL musclemen and helicopter fused with the samsung "imagine" advertisement.
I ended up as the helicopter which zooms around =.- . This activity also shows us how important a potential NCO should be of a role model, where i had to show that i am willing to act crazy in order for the sec1s to put down their pride and be crazy along with me.
After that was dinner again and then the long awaited campfire. CPL Ray Seen and I were appointed as fire feeders and our jobs was to make sure that the fire suits the moods of the campers with a big fire when we were all excited and a smaller fire when the campfire was ending. Our performance was met with applause and laughter too. Other groups did a sing along where the whole unit started singing along to Anastasia and Jay Chou. It was enjoyable and yet sad when the campfire ended. The highlight of the day was Mervyn Sir's rap of "月亮代表我的心":D.
We had debrief sessions in our respective levels where our officers will tell us what we did well today and what we will need to improve in. These skills are important if we want to be successful and good NCOs in the future.
The last highlight of the day- NIGHT GAMES. Anglican High School is a really big school and at night it is really really creepy. We were supposed to search around the school for clues as to what the story is about. We found numerous divorce statements, a birth certificate and others. The final story turned out like this:
Zali’s Mum wants to file for a divorce with her second husband. However Zali’s Stepfather refuses to accept the divorce and kept pestering her Mum. Stepfather abused Mum and pinned her against the wall one day, shaking her. Zali, being a small child, got frightened. She ran to her Mum’s bedroom where she knew she kept a gun. She threatened her Stepfather to fire the gun. Her stepfather sneered and threw her Mum towards her, and the gun went off. Before she knew it, her Mum crumpled to the ground. She couldn’t believe her eyes and shot her stepfather immediately. Zali was a murderer at 5. Because of her age, she was not charged for murder. She changed her name henceforth, to Megna.
When Megna grew up, she found a perfect husband and they had 2 kids. Her husband bought her a big house for their wedding anniversary. Megna had never seen the house. When he brought her to see it, she got a shock. It was the house where she killed her mum and stepfather. People in the neighborhood call it “ Little Zali’s House”. The vandals sprayed those words in red on the front yard, accompanying a skull beside it. Megna got a shock as the memories flash through her mind.
Mrs Beddingfield, a neighbour came over to greet her new neighbours. She stayed there all her life and had witnessed the murder. She even knew little Zali. Would she recognize the similarities in little Zali and the current Zali known as Megna?
Mrs Beddingfield and Megna became fast friends. They often had dinner in each other’s houses, and Mrs Beddingfield became the 2 kids godmother. One day, Megna’s husband had to go for an urgent meeting overseas and he left that very day. Mrs Beddingfield invited Megna and the 2 kids to her house for a sleepover.
That night, Mrs Beddingfield and Megna drank liquor. Drunk, Megna spilled out everything about her past, her being Zali, killing her parents etc. Mrs Beddingfield had loathed Zali for killing her parents, as Zali's father was Mrs Beddingfield's lover. Agitated, Mrs Beddingfield placed rat poison in Megna’s liquor. Megna died.
COOL story line.
After the night games it was wash up again and then lights out.
DAY2
We woke up and washed up before 0700. Fall in time was at 0730 followed by PT and after that we proceeded with breakfast. After breakfast was yet another round of games.
Captain Soap
This is exactly the same like captain ball, except that instead of using a ball, we use a bar of soap.
200秒不NG
200 seconds are given to each team. All these obstacles are placed in sequence, and they have to complete them one by one. There are 6 obstacles, and they have to complete all ( only 4 of them as 1 is being ‘ kidnapped’ ). Say they complete obstacle 1 and 2, but fail obstacle 3, they have to repeat obstacle 2 and pass it before they can try obstacle 3 again. Once 200 seconds is up, wherever they are, they have to repeat the whole thing from obstacle 1 again.
Obstacle 1 – 2 people are two skip the rope ten rounds.
Obstacle 2 – Each of the team members are supposed to hula hoop a few rounds.
Obstacle 3 – Bounce the coin into the cup. All must do.
Obstacle 4 – Drink from a milk bottle till the water level is between 50 and 70ml.
Obstacle 5 – Place a potato chip in between 2 cheeks and walk to the finish line.
After the games we proceeded with area cleaning, groups were appointed to clean the toilets, campfire site and bunks respectively. After that would be our final debrief and break camp.
- CPL (NPCC) Teo Wan Ling
Captain Soap
This is exactly the same like captain ball, except that instead of using a ball, we use a bar of soap.
200秒不NG
200 seconds are given to each team. All these obstacles are placed in sequence, and they have to complete them one by one. There are 6 obstacles, and they have to complete all ( only 4 of them as 1 is being ‘ kidnapped’ ). Say they complete obstacle 1 and 2, but fail obstacle 3, they have to repeat obstacle 2 and pass it before they can try obstacle 3 again. Once 200 seconds is up, wherever they are, they have to repeat the whole thing from obstacle 1 again.
Obstacle 1 – 2 people are two skip the rope ten rounds.
Obstacle 2 – Each of the team members are supposed to hula hoop a few rounds.
Obstacle 3 – Bounce the coin into the cup. All must do.
Obstacle 4 – Drink from a milk bottle till the water level is between 50 and 70ml.
Obstacle 5 – Place a potato chip in between 2 cheeks and walk to the finish line.
After the games we proceeded with area cleaning, groups were appointed to clean the toilets, campfire site and bunks respectively. After that would be our final debrief and break camp.
- CPL (NPCC) Teo Wan Ling
