MY OBS JOURNEY STARTS HERE...

On 9th June 2008,
I stepped onto the ground of Outward Bond Singapore. It is my first experience and I felt kind of excited. It had always been my dream to attend the OBS course. I knew 16 more friends including Jill, our instructor. My group name is Batuta which means “that stone” but at times people name us as Batutu which means “stone that”.
First day today and we did nothing much but I learnt something new, I learnt how to kayak. It’s my first attempt but was doing pretty well. I knew how to capsize too. After everything, went to wash up, followed by dinner, pitch tent, briefing, debrief, packing of stuffs and lights off. That’s the end of day 1.
F.Y.I we will be out of this campsite for the next 3days 2nights.

On 10th June 2008,
Carrying that heavy haversack, we continued our journey in OBS.
I am carrying a haversack consisting 2persons’ 3days 2nights clothings, toiletries, 2life vests and 2 ponchos. PLUS 4 2litres of water bottles. HEAVY !!!!
Today, we really walked a lot. Chatting while walking, walking while chatting, we finally reached our destination after about 2-3hours of walk including breaks. When we reached, we had some games and at about 5pm, we went to our campsite which is beside the sea to pitch tents. Followed by dinner. We didn’t get to bath as there is no water supply. If we need to use the ladies or gents, it will not be easy. For gents, they have to go to the sea. As for ladies, we had to go somewhere near the tree and cover ourselves with poncho. We had dinner, followed by briefing, debrief and a powder bath which I didn’t did it before. We just had to put the powder at out joints and that will be fine. It’s to prevent us from getting rashes and of course applying our dearest insect repellent. We, the Batuta members lied on the blue turp for some entertainments and off course to see stars. Me and my best partner, Gary was playing stone as well. At 10.30pm, the first sentry duty started and it is time for us to get back to our tents for our rest. While we were going back to our tents, dark clouds started to form and had covered the stars in the sky. A storm strikes, with thunder and lightings followed by a heavy downpour. Our tent were moving and our men were trying their best with all their might to hold onto the tent pole and to ensure the tent will not collapse. Our buddy group, Living Stone, their tents were destroyed by the storm and so, we invited them to our tent and everyone tried to hold on to the tent. The tents were all flooded with water and everyone were wet. After the storm, we went to help Living Stone with their tent. After the tent pitching, its already about 1am and everyone went back to sleep.
To me, its my first time experiencing all these storms. I did not expect it will be so bad. It is all about teamwork, if no teamwork shown, I believe our tent will collapse and we will not get to sleep that night. In this scene, everyone plays a part. Every different important role, I guess. Maybe we will get a nice rest after that as our tents are wet and stuffs, but to me, we learnt a lot that night and always know that, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.

On 11th June 2008,
After one tired night, we headed for breakfast and everyone noticed that we didn’t brush teeth. Anyway, after breakfast, we had our morning games. Half way through, dark clouds started to form again and it seems that Singapore is raining. There is a line cutting in between the sky of Singapore and Pulau Ubin. It looks scary to us. Our instructors told us to carry our faster and quickly get into the forest before the storm arrive. Before we got into the forest, it’s already raining, but we enjoyed the process though. Walking after one hour, we reached campsite2.
We were all drenched and we carried on with rafting. There is a lot of fun going on. Although our group is slow and didn’t win the race, but I saw the teamwork in Batuta. After rafting, we went to have our high elements.
Firstly, we tried out on belaying and carry on with rock climbing. For rock climbing, we had to earn for our own dinner. For rice and drinks, it cost each one of us 20 points each. For vegetable is 30 points and meat is 50 points. So, if we want to get full dinner, each one of us must get 120 points and my group had to get 1800 points in total. Ended up, Batuta got a score of 3700 points and we were all proud of it. Of course, I did improve in my rock climbing. Gary was the belayer of mine and he keep asking to climb as high as I could to earn for my own dinner. I was hanging there for a long time and finally I couldn’t take it and came down.
During dinner, it’s at cookhouse and finally, we need not cook our own food and we had a proper chair to sit and table to put our utensils for dinner. After dinner, me, Gary and PongPong helped to clean up the utensils while the guys help to dry and packed it into the cabinate.
With all these teamwork, we finished this work very quickly and all of us went to shower and meet Jill for briefing and debrief. After all the stuffs, we went to pack our stuffs for the sea expedition the next day. With that, goodnight buddy. All the best for tomorrow.

On 12th June 2008,
It is the last day and tomorrow, we will be heading back to Singapore. Kind of don’t wish. Today, we had our sea expedition. We need to kayak the whole of Pulau Ubin with the distance of about 18km. During the trip, I had fun and I am lucky to have a wonderful partner and not someone that is slack- thanks Gary.
I had never even dream that one day, I wll be out of the sea kayaking and also, not giving up. The two of us were motivating one another not to give up. Ended up, we were always faster then the navigator and always get scolded by him. Gary started to be unhappy about it and he told me to slow down. We had a short break as we were 2hours ahead of our target time and it is at the beach behind our NPCC ATC campsite. We had our lunch there and Gary thought me how to throw stone. After which, we went to the sea and play with water. About half an hour later, we set off and heading to our destination. We left only about 4km to reach campsite 2. this time round, me and Gary started off slowly as we don’t wish to get scolded by the navigator again. But we don’t know why, whenever the navigator saw us, he will always speed up and the people behind will start to blow their whistle and show him the slowing down signal. When he stopped, me and Gary just wanted to catch up with him but he ended up keep moving forward. And so, the back people get to pissed off and they started to block the navigator and called him ‘speed boat’. About half an hour later, we reached our destination and at that moment, my back is hurting.
After a while, we went for our Jetty Jump and I was thinking whether to jump not. Gary told me he will go down first and wait for me below. I shouted ‘I love Batuta!’ and I jumped down. It is very scary but fun at the same time. I could not believe that I will be able to jump down. After that we went to change and walk back to campsite 1. again, with that heavy haversack and the rod of bottles, chatting around and walked back to campsite 1. about an hour later, we reached. We packed our stuffs and we head to pitch our tents up. After tent pitching, we continue with dinner. Half way through, Gary got emotional out of the sudden and sat near the sea. I stood up and went towards him and sat down. He said nothing and went to cook his noodles and now it’s my turn to be emotional as I somehow miss home and mainland. We also learnt how to cook a dessert with apple, digestive biscuits crumbs and oat.
Went to shower, had briefing and debrief, off to bed. Heading back to Singapore tomorrow. Last night with you guys.

On 13th June 2008,
Friday the 13 2008, I made this statement, and I rang the bell ‘I must help YuYing NPCC sustain a gold unit!’ Luckily, I hit the bell and this will be my commitment. We made a Batuta web today and now, each of us had a twine with us. Got out photos, certificate, stuffs and heading back to Singapore. Waited for our turn and we reached Singapore at 1.45pm.
That will be the end of my 5days course in Outward Bound Singapore.

Own reflection
To me, although the course had ended, but this journey will never end. Everything we did in OBS will be able to apply to our real life’s journey. I am proud to say that I had carried that heavy haversack walking around for a few hours, think of giving up in the beginning but ended up pull it through. This is like our real life. Put this scene into our real life, we studied hard for exams and that’s where we are carrying that heavy haversack. Wanted to give up but didn’t. Reached the destination with pride and that’s where we got our good results. Everything we do be it easy or difficult. Don’t judge it by it’s look if you never even try it out. If there’s a will, there will be a of way doing it. When you made a statement, try doing it out, no matter how difficult it is, give in your best and I am confident to say, you are a great leader.
Don’t always expect things to turn out well and the road be prepared for you to walk. It should be we are the ones preparing our own roads for us to walk it through. Always remember, expect the unexpected. I had made my statement, and now its time for me to hold my whole unit’s hand, holding one another, working hand in hand and make my statement a success.
I will never forget all the things I learnt there.