Saturday, June 24, 2006
wooh! what a fun week it was! haha...
MONDAY
woke up at 6.20am to go to SJI for the LLTC(Lasallian Leadership Training Camp)... reached SJI at 7 plus... we went into our groups, and I got into Brennan Group... consisted of Jason Abraham, Hilmi, Jeremy Tan, Fabian Koh, Lin Wei Jie, Arjun, Foo Ce Qing, Benjamin Byrne and Fredrick... Ben and Fredrick are also prefects in my sch, so i already knew them... but the rest of my group were from SJI... our facil, Husnian, was also from st. pat's, so we also knew him... we did some icebreakers, then went to the hall for a breifing on the walk we were going to have... at the hall, we learnt that we were going to walk all the way to St. Stephen's... haha... was quite expected, cos the previous year too the groups had to walk all the way to St Pat's from SJI... anw, our route was: out through SJI's front gates, left at Bukit Timah Road, past Newton Circus, past KK Hospital, past Little India, then turned left Bugis mrt station... after that, we followed the mrt line... walked past Lavender, Aljunied, Kallang, Paya Lebar, then at Eunos, we took a shortcut through the houses at Joo Jiat... it took us about 3 hours to reach St Stephen's... we started out at 9.40am, and reached at 12.40pm... after that, we had lunch at St Stephen's canteen, and had a lecture of paradigms and attitude there... after that, around 3pm, we took bus back to SJI, where we had station games, teambuilding games like Spiderweb, Pass the Message, Brigde Crossing, Rearrange Desks in Numbers, and other stuff... when we finished the station games around 6pm, we went to have our showers... we found out that SJI showers were communal ones... not cubicle types! haha... in St. Pat's, there were cubicle showerooms! anw, had a shower, then had quite a bit of free time while waiting for dinner... meanwhile, we did a lot of crazy stuff, like Fabian found an empty box, so had took of his shirt, put on the box, and went to the secetariat to say that he was locked out of the room, while we waited in our room to see what they would do... they found out, and also had a good laugh... after that, Fabian sat inside the box, and we dragged him around... haha... after we accidentally broke the box, haha, we did a 'Singapore Idol - LLTC Special'... haha... a few of our facils took part, and a Fabian, Husnain, and an EGG were the judges! haha... was damn funny... later, went for dinner... after dinner, at 8.30pm, we went into the LT1(Lecture Theatre) for a talk on 'La Salle - Servant Leader' by Brother Michael, the Principal of SJI... we had an intro to reflection after that and then went to the canteen for supper and reflection time... after that, around 10.40pm, we went back to our rooms to do our personal jounaling and then had lights out at 11.50pm...
TUESDAY
woke up at 5.20am... brushed our teeth and then reported in at 5.45 to collect our ez-link cards... followed Husnain to the bustop then took a 132 to MacRitchie for our morning run... did some warms ups then ran the women's route(tho we walked half the way... haha...)... it started raining on our way back, and we ran all the way to the bustop, getting drenched on the way... we came back, ran back to sch, then had showers again and then had breakfast... after breakfast, we went for a lecture on 'Challenging Our Boundaries'. was quite interesting, though i was dozing thru about half of it... haha... we had a break, then went for another lecture about the '7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders(Habits 1-3) by Steven Covey'... at around 12.45pm, we kept our stuff, then had lunch on the go, as we were running a little late for the ropes course... when we reached the ITE(Ang Mo Kio) , it was drizzling, so our ropes course was cancelled, and we only did some rock climbing... we were the first group, and after we had our turn, we had quite a lot of waiting time, as we had to wait for the rest of the groups... we played a few games to pass our time there, like Dare or Dare, instead of Truth or Dare, and the Hand Game... was quite fun... after that, we went back, had our showers again, then did my homework again during the free time after the showers while waiting for dinner, which was at 7.30pm... during that time, we also sent out affirmations to each other in our group and in the camp... after dinner, we went to the LT1 for a play on 'Our Heritage' dne by the facils, about the life about De La Salle... after that, we had our night reflection and then brushed our teeth and lights out again at 12am...
WEDNESDAY
woke up at 5.35am this time, quickly brushed my teeth, then we reported in again at 5.45... we took 132 again to MacRitchie and this time had a talk by SJI's head of PE on how to conduct morning PT... missed half the talk, as i was damn tired and sleepy... haha... we did the same route again, this time running more... after the run, we took another 132 back to SJI, and we bought some snacks at the Esso in front of SJI while nobody was looking... haha... on the way back to the classroom, a facil approached us.... we were like 'uh oh....' we quickly threw the bag of chips into the bushes along the driveway, and walked like as though nothing happened... haha... we couldnt go back, but after we had our showers and stuff, Husnain helped us to retrieve the bag of snacks and bring it to our classroom... haha... then we had a lecture on '7 Habits' again... this time Habits 4-6... dozed off quite a bit then... haha... after that, had a toilet break, and we ploughed on with another talk on 'Our Social Realities'... we saw videos of homeless people and a short clip of Mother Teresa making a speech on people not hungry for food, but people hungry for love... we had lunch after that,at 12.30pm, then went to Kallang for dragon boating. during the breifing on how to paddle, a Chinook carrying a Singapore flag flanked by a few Apache Longbows flew past, practising for National Day... while we were dragon boating too, a group of F-15s flew right over our heads, spinning and making formations... halfway through our drogon boating, out in the bay, we jumped off one by one... haha... i tightened my sandals before i jumped, but when i got in the water and started kicking, my heart skipped a beat as i felt my right sandal leave my foot... haha... luckily, my sandal floated... i then took off my other sandal then threw them into the boat... we got back into the boat at around 3.10pm, after 20 mins of swimming... halfway through, Fabian called those who were on board to row off, leaving those in the water, me included, in the middle of the bay... haha... anw, after we finally got back on the boat, we had races with other groups on other boats(we were packed two groups in a boat).... when we came back to SJI at around 5pm plus, we had mass games, playing 'Blow, Wind, Blow!'... had quite a good time... after that, we went group by group into the showerooms for our baths... did my homwork again before dinner... at 7pm, we went to the LT1 for a briefing about dinner... we then went to the parade square to have our dinner, which consisted of bland broth and plain water... after our "scrumptious" meal, we had a talk by some guy named Eric about the poor people in Singapore, and that the meal that we just had was eaten everyday by people not only overseas, but also byu the poor in Singapore... at around 9, we had an intro to the 'Journey With a Dream' that we were going to do the next day... my group, Brennan, was assigned to go to the St. Jospeh's Hospice and Home... after the prep, we had our night reflection, did our personal journaling, and had lights out at 12.15am...
THURSDAY
we woke up later this morning, at 6am, as we didnt have any morning run today... we did some morning PT, then changed into our sch uniforms... came back to the tracks, then had a phototaking session of the whole group... had a quick breakfast after that, then left with brother Nicholas at 8.25am for St. Jospeh's Home, as it was at Boon Lay... we reached the Home at 10.10am, 40 mins late, as my group took the wrong bus, 105, and got lost... we got to the home, and we separated... some of us, me included, went to help feed the old people, some of whom were so frail that they were just sitting there staring at a point in the ceiling... some others went to help push the people in the wheelchairs to the dining areas... about 80% of the residents there were in wheelchairs... after feeding them, we talked to them and interacted with them... we did a short play in front of the dining hall, then helped the staff push the old people back to their rooms, where they were going to have a nap... it was quite a touching experience, as i saw most of the old people just sitting there, with no visitors... i met and talked with an old sister of CHIJ, and she told me that she was a sister at the old CHIJ when it was at victoria street... we did area cleaning for an hour after that, helping to clean up the Home's extensive gardens... after we did the cleaning up, we had a short break, and we watched an 8 minute show about the Home, while eating some cakes that the Home had very generously bought for us... after the show, we thanked the director, then went to Jurong Point for lunch... we ate at KFC, then took mrt back to newton and bus 57 back to SJI... rested a b it in our room, then went to the sch library for a debriefing... we got into groups of mages, keepers of the keys etc, and shared our experiences... i teared when i was giving a recount of my trip... at around 6pm, we had our showertime, then went for our last dinner together... cheered our friendship with each other, and celebrated being together... after dinner, we went to the sch hall for 'Solidarity Lasalliana'... we sat on the floor of the hall, and saw that we had a bit of rice, rock sugar, bittergourd and lime with a cup of water on a banana leaf each... first, we ate the bittergourd, to remind us of bitter times, then drank a sip of the water... then we tasted the lime, to remind us of the sour relationships and stuff... we drank another sip of water, then ate the rice, to remind us about the staples in life... then had another sip, and took the rock sugar, to remind us about our new friendships we had made and of our friends, and that we should never take friends and family for granted... we collected our affirmations that people had sent to us, and celebrated by singing 'Lasallian' and 'Passing On The Passion'... cheered for each of our schs, then ran around, giving verbal affirmations, hugging each other and giving complicated handshakes all round... after that, we went to have our "Last Supper"... haha... we were joking, (we had chocolate chip cupcakes and green tea) and then Ben said "He broke the cupcake, gave it to his friends, and said,'Pass the Greentea!"... haha... after supper, we went for partying in our rooms, as it was our last night together... by the time we slept, it was at 1am plus...
FRIDAY
woke up at 5.30am, went toMacRitchie for our usual morning run, but just we reach there, there was lightning and thunder... and then it started to rain heavily... haha... so then took another 132 back, took a shower, where Fredrick was singing "Raindrops keep falling on my head", making everybody laugh, as it was raining heavily outside and the water from the showers were quite cold... haha... after the showers, we went to the LT1 for a lecture on 'Lasallian Leadership;... after a break, we had the last talk on 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders', the 7th Habit... then we had lunch at 12.30pm, then a talk on 'Our Commitment'... after that, we had a 'Mega Summary', pictures of ourselves during the camp... after that, we went back to our rooms to pack up and clean up... we also exchanged emails and msn and numbers while clearing our room, promising to keep in touch and stuff... at 5pm, we went back to LT1 for camp evaluation, then went down to the parade square for commisioning and closing, where we sang songs like Lasallian and Passing on the Passion again... then at 6.30 plus, we left SJI... i took bus 154 back home...
in all, this was THE most fun camp i had been to, and i really TOTALLY wish i could live throug it again... you know, it's funny... i was dreading coming to the camp, and was thinking, damn sway sia... last week somemore... but now, i wanna go back! haha...
"You are engaged in a ministry, wherein you have to touch hearts" - La Salle
our camp schedule...
our group...
x It´s been a long time,
but my time is finally near
at 4:37 pm