Hey people! I'm back from my CIP camp over at Metropolitan YMCA (MYMCA). It had been the best CIP activity in my entire life, better than anything that I could have asked for. It was so good, that I am starting to worry that I'll use this CIP activity as a benchmark of comparision with other future CIP activities. If future CIPs turn out sucky, I'll feel bored. Such a worry is bad, but I'll try to put this worry behind me and tell myself that I should stop predicting the outcome for such stuffs. Every CIP is a new one and every one of them will be unique.

I must say, Daryl, that you have not only just 'missed' this CIP camp. You have totally wasted a chance at bringing some spice to this bland December holiday that you think of it to be. But then again, having to take care of children between the age of 7 to 12, I wonder if you would feel insulted at having to bring yourself to their level of intelligence in order to communicate with them. This is Daryl who I am talking about, the smarter (or even the smartest) of the lot in 04s10.

The kids are lovely and adorable. Seriously. I must admit a few of them were snobbish or naughty, but they were still a nice bunch of children overall. The group which I took care of was very good. Maybe because they were all girls and that one of them was old enough to help me take care everyone. There is a girl who is very cute, she looked like Lilo in the movie 'Lilo & Stitch'. But she's quite a poor thing, she has lazy eyes. Left eye normal, right eye is the lazy one and is short-sighted. Omigosh, damn inbalance man. Two other girls, can see that they have the tai tai look, someday sure marry into a rich family. But whatever it is, they are rich by themselves already. Another girl, very shy and quiet. Siew Ee couldnt reach out to her and break down that barrier between the both of them. BUT, I managed to! To a limited extent that is... Haha... Not bad already, okay? It wasnt only just my group that I am all so familiar with, I manage to break that 'barrier' with almost everyone in this camp.

I am going to talk about whatever that is happening for each individual day during the camp. You can stop here if you want.

Day 1:

Siew Ee, Anna, Yuxuan and me reached MYMCA late, all thanks to Siew Ee. We had rock wall climbing that day. Of course, the leaders were the belayers. How can we let the children belay? They will fly up (like that of a pulley system) since they are all so light. Rock wall climbing is difficult. Only a handful manage to reach the top for some walls. After a while, the children got tired, but were still enthusiastic about climbing the wall. In the end, they became dependent on us leaders to pull them up from the bottom. When they couldnt reach to grap a piece of rock, they would shout down to you and say, "PULL ME UP!". At the end of the day, I was all so shagged up and almost had callouses on my two precious hands. But never mind, as long as the children had fun, I had fun. We had steamboat for dinner. There was definitely not enough food for everyone. But Siew Ee and my group were the most fortunate, we had the most food. We traded sufficiency with air-con. Luckily, in the absence of air-con, we had natural wind. So, we were really the most fortunate group. But, not too long after that, the other leaders and Uncle Monkey came over to our group and 'koup' our food. Food was still not enough for us, namely the leaders. In the end, after debrief and evaluation for the day with all the leaders and Uncle Monkey, the four of us head down to Far East 7-11 for supper. That certainly did satisfy our stomach. It was quite a tiring day for us, but the other three didnt seem to think so. They still wanted to play asshole dai-dee, which I followed suit too. Finally, it was time for sleep, but it didnt appear to be so. Many of the kids couldnt fall asleep and I could hear them constantly tossing in their tents. Many of them were walking around during midnight, according to Siew Ee, even though they were not allowed to be out of tent until 8am the next day. But by 6+am, many of them were out of their tents walking around and talking (yeah, not whispering). Close to 7am, many of them were running around and playing, chasing each other. I was awakened at 645am, and couldnt fall back asleep even though I was seriously tired. Too bad they were kids, otherwise I would have shouted at them to get back to their tents.

Day 2:

A simple yet fun day over at Wild Wild Wet. I love it. But too bad, somewhere in between, I encountered some bad times. Firstly, I lost on a bet after lunch and had to stay behind all alone to look after everyone's belongings. I am so unlucky. Secondly, a young girl that I was looking after for the first and second lap at the Shiok River ended up struggling to stay alive at the third lap. Me and Yuxuan were the last two behind everyone. We made sure that no one else was to be behind us. The both of us thought that everyone would go up after the second lap, that's why we didnt look out for the girl when we suddenly went for the third lap. We thought that the small girl would not go for the third lap. In the end, towards the end of the third lap, I saw her moving past us from behind with a lifeguard holding on to her. I thought of what might have happened, and that was not something positive.

There was hiccups over at lunch too. The food took a really long time to arrive, and the kids were all complaining about their devastating hunger. The leaders could tolerate, but children being children, they tend to blurt out whatever that is on their mind. It took great efforts to keep them down and let them know that food is coming soon.

Food came, after a really long wait. It was KFC. But it was a two piece 'hot & spicy' chicken. The boys had no problems munching down, but the girls gulping down their beverage for each bite. The chicken was too spicy for them to swallow. I felt so sorry for them, but all I could do was help them remove the skin, where most of the spices are. I wonder if they were full after eating that few small pieces of meat that they COULD swallow.

It was a long and tiring day for me and the other leaders. At night, when the kdis were watching a movie, many of us fell asleep. I was no different. For that roughly half an hour of time over at slumberland, it felt like days. I could tell I was badly in need of sleep. When it was time for them to set up their tents in the auditorium (yeah, they are so damn bloody pampered, but uncle monkey wanted it this way), I tried to show an enthusiastic face as much as possible. I didnt want them to see that it was a chore helping them and overseeing matters. To end off the day, many slept like a pig. I was awakened about three times by snores, SUPER LOUD SNORES. I think all were by Yuxuan...

Day 3:

YES, the final day and I can go home to my wonderful bed. But NO, I know that I am going to miss those adorable little tots. It was rafting day. All of us headed down to Changi to raft. It was a simple make-shift raft made of sturdy plastic tubes and big plastic barrels. I went with the girls because I know that I will be the one providing the main force of moving the raft. It was evident when I stopped paddling with the oar. Two canoes came soon after when they thought that we couldnt make it back to shore. The truth was that I had stopped paddling. We reached shore and it was time for the boys. Anna joined them while me, Yuxuan and Siew Ee went to the beach with the girls. It was quite scary because it was high tide at that time and I had to make sure that the girls dont go to far out. Back to MYMCA, it was games and almost time to break camp. When it was almost 530pm, the children had their certificate of participation for this adventure camp. One girl from my group sparked off the trend of getting the other leaders' autograph. She started with me... Yay! Haha. But she is an adorable one, along with Lilo.

I sure did learn alot from this camp. And for the first time, I did not want the camp to end. Maybe it's because the past few camps which I attended were NCC ones. I feed off the laughter and smiles from children. That is how I manage to become enthusiastic and alive even when I am seriously tired. I found out more about myself during this camp. =) I will help out more over at MYMCA in future. I am glad that I signed up for the War Camp next week. I am sure I will have a fun time over at Sentosa. But I hope I will not take this camp which had just passed as a benchmark for future camps.

I hope.

::praying::

-always.aim.high.neva.say.u.die.success.will.come.to.anyone.who.try-