As the title says, I've been away from 20-22 March for the annual Bulan Sabit Merah Malaysia camp at school. Initially I didnt intend to join, since I had joined last year, and planned to come back next year. But since my First Aid Quartermaster "could not" come, I had no option but to take over her place to prepare the for the first aid quiz on Day 1. However, taking over meant I would be holding a senior AJK's post, and that meant I'm excluded from all the campers' activities, and I got to experience the behind-the-scenes plans of the activities; something only the Form 5 AJKs are eligible of.
Day 1
8.45am - All campers and AJKs prepare the classes to sleep in. Who would want to pitch tents in the middle of the rainy season?
9.00 - Members are divided into groups and discuss on their group name and group cheer. The 6 groups formed are:
Strikers
Rockers
Kaya Cat Evolution
Alpha
Teen Ace
8 Lucky Stars (8 being number of members. At the end only 6 remained.)
10-ish - Members start their cooking activity. Meanwhile, AJK's were supposed to have steamboat lunch like last year, but apparently in the end we had to make a "steamboat" out of a kuali and a metal pot, with twigs, sticks and charcoal.
1-ish pm - I found out that the noodles that were supposed to go with the steamboat had gone. Thrown away, eaten up, I dont know. In the end I borrowed RM2 from Siew Huang for a plate of bihun and boxed juice from the canteen. ''--
3pm - My turn had come to carry out the first aid quizzes. Devin and Syafiq acted out burn wounds, broken jawbone, bee sting, venomous snake bite, heat stroke and a situation requiring CPR. Everything went smoothly, except that most of the members could not carry out correct emergency situation procedures. And me being the stand-in First Aid AJK, I taught all of them the correct steps to identify and treat victims in such situations.
Rest of the evening was time for the campers to discuss their sketches for Malam Kebudayaan. For us AJKs, goyang kaki la... hehehehehe
At night, we had our ice-breaker session. First activity went like this:
Each camper is given a piece of paper, with different characteristics and features of people (e.g hadsome, wearing short pants, etc.). Everyone had to find somebody else who matches only one of the given features, and write down their names (handphone number optional too. ^^).
Next was a game of dodgeball with a partially deflated volleyball. The game works by aiming the ball at the opponent's knee and lower leg. If he/she has been hit at the said area, he/she is eliminated from the game, until all the members of one team are KO-ed. The final dodgeball game was between the AJKs and the Strikers. It became a one-on-one showdown, but in the end we lost. Nyeh.
Before tucking in, we had to say goodbye to Rahul due to an inflammed left leg (he broke it last year while playing basketball, and underwent operation) due to too much walking and standing.
Day 2
7.30am - Morning aerobics exercises brought to us by Devin and Loogeswarran, and also a Chicken Dance by the AJKs.
9.00 - Campers are divided into 3 platoons for the following day's marching competition. Whole morning was used up for them to practice, while the AJKs gave help.
1.30pm - Each group was given a piece of A4 paper and a small bottle of paint. Members have to create a logo of the group, using only the paint and their fingers.
4.30 - Treasure hunt time! Me and Syafiq joined team Alpha because 2 of their members were involved in organising the game. We were given 2 eggs and 3 water balloons. If we were unable to find the clue, we would have to sacrifice either 1 egg or 1 balloon. We were also tied in a ring by string so that we dont cheat. My group got off to a really poor start with the "hardest clue" of the game. Later it turned out that the plastic bag holding the next clue had fallen off from where it was supposed to be, that's why we cant find it. We were then given the next clue without sacrificing anything. We pretty much blazed through the following clues, and ended up first! :D
9.10 - Time for Malam Kebudayaan. Special guest Syahir (who had left last month for boarding school) dropped by, and we had a 2-hour non-stop chat while watching the groups performances. To be frank the performances this year were confusing and lackluster. Probably because there was only one microphone and passing it between actors/actresses was a hassle, and then adding that I couldn't hear what they were saying. The only two performances I liked was KayaCats' version of Harry Potter and Teen Ace's Ugly Betty. Last year's show was properly entertaining.
Day 3
9.00am - Time for the marching competition. Platoon 1 went pretty okay, until they did the "tukar langkah semasa berjalan" command when their timing and footsteps went out of sync.
Platoon 2 was a disaster, the commander gave a few commands wrongly, and the platoon stalled when given the "skuad akan bergerak ke kiri semasa berjalan, ke kiri pusing" to turn into the field. Looks like they had forgotten that order. Even when I was training them I was told they'd do a simple "kiri belok".
Platoon 3, personally, I felt was the best, eventhough they had some minor hiccups like Platoon 1. No matter, Platoon 3 Commander Arif was rated as the best commander of the competition.
11am - Prize giving ceremony. The standings at the end of the camp are as follows:
1st - Strikers
2nd- Kaya Cats
3rd - Alpha
4th- Teen Ace
5th- Lucky Stars
6th- Rockers
And we topped it off with a group photo shoot. There you have it, what pretty much goes on during our BSMM camps every year. Overall, I could say I enjoyed it, and next year, well, time will tell how it will be.
