Scouts Camp Singapore

[Tea Rochlitz]

Ina time (1999-2002) when the internet was still on dial-up and the revolutionary Nokia 3310 would cost $400, Scouting was still pretty much a very relevant Extra Curricular Activity that kept me in constant contact with nature and away from the confines of an increasingly urbanized and wired society.

I remember adventures to Punggol End to cut bamboo for outdoor cooking classes, the never-ending ultra dangerous structures we built for pioneering competitions, countless campfire disguised as vain attempts to woo girl guides, as well as the amazing furniture we built from nothing but rattan, tek kohs and some twine.

Camps and scouting go hand in hand, and unlike many orientation camps in Universities that encourage sexual dry humping, camps for us were rough and tough battles that toned our muscles, made us more knowledgeable of scouting skills, and also made sure we had little or no dignity left after mass shower sessions where uncomfortable pubescent moments left you wishing you had your underwear on.

I still recall a route march that we undertook in our Sec 1 Training Camp, where we hiked approximately 15km to Bukit Brown cemetery before embarking on a confidence walk with two other scouts through the cemetery at 1am with nothing but a small torchlight between us. To compound this, we soon discovered what a groin abrasion looked and felt like.

Campfires were initially done to create a harmonious and life saving circle of friendship for scouts when it began, but soon evolved to be the biggest excuse for a desperate teenager from an all boys school to attempt to meet a girl guide.

Yet campfires were also a good time to test the resilience of friendship, where true friends never ditched their friends for a girl guide. Unfortunately, I must admit to breaking that rule once or twice with no end results to show for it.

As a scout, we were also entrusted to many duties in school. This included raising and lowering the flags during assembly, showing everyone how a tekkan session was really like, and disobeying all safety regulations by constructing Flying Foxes and abseiling structures led by angry post National Service Leaders.

We also took part in many vigorous national competitions like the National Patrol Camp (NPC) held at the Scout Sarimbun campsite. We prepared for months on end designing structures on graph paper, tying an average of 10,000 lashings through our scouting life and through which, we soon appreciated how tough the life of a foreign worker was in a construction industry.

Due to the varied demographics of Singapore, it is not surprising to hear that in addition to its own scouts and guides associations there are a few other international scout associations include three British Scouting Overseas groups.

Scouting at Tanglin Trust School started many years ago, however around 5 years ago in 2015, the 1st Singapore group was formed to include Dulwich College and Dover Court as well as Tanglin Trust School. There are now near 300 scouting boys and girls across the 3 schools and quite a few leaders, so the group split into each school as this as becoming a very very large group to remain as one! Most children are of British origin but there are other nationalities in the group including Australian.

One of the biggest differences form the UK is that the climate is generally hot and humid which can make the scout uniform quite uncomfortable. This also makes it different when it comes to all outdoor activities and the hazards to look for are a bit different.

The group would love to hear from other BSO groups about different campsite activities, which games they do during their sessions and diffictulties faced on any whittling experiences. Any carvers out there looking to share?

When I received the form for my first ever hike with my Elias Park cub scouts group, I was over the moon. I have heard from my seniors that hikes were extremely fun and there are activities there for us.

In our groups, we had to do activities together from the start to the end of the hike. My favorite activity was the last one. In our groups, we were given a big, thick plastic. One of the teammates must sit on it while the others carry him or her to the finish point.

The main objective of the Job Week is to inculcate the concept of the dignity of labour and the value of honest work in young people. As instilled in our minds, we did job week not only to earn the badge but to show that we cared for the community by doing some simple house chores for them.

We did chores such as folding the clothes, sweeping the floor in living room and bedroom, rake the leaves in the front yard, wash cars ( our favourite chore to do ), clean and arrange shelves. As we were requested to help out in the kitchen to help bake some pastries, we went in and helped. Who would have thought that helping to bake pastries could be so much fun!

There was one elderly who gave us a lot of tedious chores to do. At first, we were upset with the chores she gave us as it was very difficult ; she made us clean almost the whole house! We spend a few hours doing chores in her house. However, the three of us did not want to disappoint her and put in a lot of effort to complete her chores.

After around 2-3 hours, we finally completed the chores. We felt elated with ourselves. The elderly woman was very pleased with our work. She thanked us for doing chores for her. After giving us 5 dollars each, we thanked her and left.

We navigated ourselves to the checkpoints using a map. Reaching each checkpoint felt like weight lifting up our shoulders. At times, we would not know where to go next but with each others encouragement and our positive attitude, we managed to figure out where to go next.

This Cub Scout Leadership Course is a leadership training for cub scouts who are selected to be trained as sixers ( leaders ). This course aims to inculcate values , leadership skills and aspire cub scouts to excel in their appointment as Sixers. It is also as pre-requisite for Akela Award, the highest award for the cub scouts.

We saw many new faces. The schools attending this camp was Angsana Primary School, Elias Park Primary School, Gong Shang Primary School, Meridian Primary School, Tampines Primary School and White Sands Primary School.

When all the schools and instructors arrived, the instructors from Sarimbun introduced themselves. After that, we got assigned to our Six ( Six is what cub scouts call group ) Each Six consists of cub scouts from different schools. There were Six 1, Six 2, Six 3, Six 4, Six 5, Six 6, Six 7 and Six 8. I was grouped in Six 7. A teacher and a service scout was then assigned to each Six. My Six, Six 7, got Mdm Farhana ( From EPPS ) as our teacher and Marcus as our service scout.

The crowd broke up into their Six for some ice breakers after receiving the camp booklets, one camp booklet and one hike booklet. First, we introduced ourselves. My group mates were Pradyun from Elias Park Primary School, Kai Cheng ( KC for short ) from Gong Shang Primary School, Elva from Gong Shang Primary School, Nithesh from White Sands Primary School, Gou Feng from White Sands Primary School and Zayed from Meridian Primary School.

We then pitched the tents we were going to sleep in. With the help from teamwork and cooperation, my Six, Six 7, was one of the first Six to pitch the tent. There were 10 tents but only 8 groups so once we were done, we helped to pitch the remaining 2 tents.

After that, we had our shower. Once we had finished our shower, we assembled at our dining area. There we had our briefing on the campfire which would take place the following day. We also had our briefing for our hike which would also be taking place the next day. We received the map we were going to use for the hike too and was told to keep it safely. We had to plan our route for the hike the next day using that map. Once that was done, we had our dinner. By then, it was almost pitch black.

What we do for confidence walk is basically we would walk out of the campsite. We would walk until our Akela said to stop. The campsite would be beside us but it was a few hundred metre hike from the entrance of the campsite to where we were.

We were then told to walk back to the MPH ( multipopurse hall ) in the campsite alone. One by one we went, about 1-2 minute distance away from each other. Service scouts would stand at the side of the trail just in case any of us walked the wrong route or felt scared of the dark and being alone.

It was already 11pm+ when everyone returned. It was supposed to be supper after the confidence walk but since it was time for bed, we skipped supper. We had our shower ( if we wanted ), prepared our things we needed for sleeping and headed to bed.

In my tent, there were Ariel, Amelia, Danya, Safiqa and me. All of us were from Elias Park. The girls were allowed to choose who to sleep with but they boys had to sleep in their groups they were assigned to.

For the first few hours, chatters could be heard throughout the sleeping area. However, at one point, everyone went dead quiet. We heard barking and howling around the area we were in. We were told wild boars like to roam about the campsite and eat the fruits from the fruit trees so we were excited to see one. However, it was too dark to see anything and none of us dared to flash our torchlights as it might attract the wild boars.

We woke up at around 4-5 am in the morning feeling wet. It was raining. Our tent was flooded. We tried our best to lift our sleeping bags and other items up in the air. Flashlights were shining everywhere. We hung our flashlights on the hook at the top middle of our tent so it brights the whole tent up.

During the hike, we would walk at the side of the road, on the grass. We would look out for each other. When one was tired and needed a rest or needed to tie his or her shoelace, we would not think twice and take a short break. On the way, we walked past farms and more. We would hear dogs bark ferociously in the farms beside us and see the dogs chase us but thankfully the dogs could not escape the farms and harm us.

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