First, let's see... on Friday there was the visit by a China minister. I heard he was a deputy premier or something, so it was pretty important. UGs were summoned to line the road so that the China people can get a good look at us while they drive past. Hmph, maybe when they see the scouts uniform they wish they had scouts too. Then again...
We welcomed them, then about 15 mins later stood at attention to show them out. I bought a milo and didnt finish, so i sneakily hide it behind the bushes, along with my maths notes (TA later!). i dun think anyone noticed haha.
The whole thing lasted for almost one and a half period, then we got permission to skip the last part of the second period too. lol, didnt miss much, it was english. After two sian lessons, it was the end of school. wanted to do something more for class deco, but had to rush off for scouts, so didnt bother. anyway, if the judges were judging according to notice boards we are quite good; if not, well, at least we did something!
after that, we finally got down to the real business: start of campfire camp! loading up props and other last minute items, we rode a bus to Sarimbun and begin our prep honest.The rest of Friday and the start of Saturday were spent on the gateway. it is seriously very time-consuming. but the end product is quite satisfying (: this is probably the structure i am most proud of, because it was done by us, the ventures, and it really is something!
Banner and front of gateway. Thanks to the banner comm for coming up with this, even if the head of the 'gryphon' does look like eagle/dragon =P
Two roads diverged...Besides bringing the gateway to life, 01 was also doing a lot of other stuff related to the campfire. there were performances to rehearse, logistics to check, equipment to be set up... thats why we stayed over on Friday night. we were assigned A-huts, which has improved since P5 (lol), but in the end i still slept at the MPH, because how many chances do you get to actually sleep outside in the open air with your good friends?
Next day, the rest of the SU arrived in drips and draps. So began the rehearsals, in the afternoon.
Yenter doing a really random pose.
Campfire circle - pre-campfire.
SU practising one of their songs. It was a great idea, as the songs were familiar, the props werent bad, and the singers/performers were serious too. especially sukiyaki, which i heard got a great reaction ;)
Going through the motions - Look up!
Then it was our turn to practice our haka. we screwed up quite a bit, because we changed our heavy wood sticks to lightsticks, which was really different. as well, having spent a lot of energy on gateway and more practice, it was quite tiring to stand in the sun for very long...
Atoki-toki... Natoki-toki...
The teachers were there to help out too. Mr. Chan, Mr. Yuen, Mr. Tan, Ms. Goh. we're lucky we have great teachers. In the picture is one of them climbing to greater heights for 01. Guess who?
Finally, the campfire came, all too soon. I was helping out with the Old Boy reception, but had to rush off to welcome our friends from Pathlight! they were amazed with our gateway lol. After that, had to rush to get face painted. Thanks Anurak! really a good job done.
The campfire started with a bang! A flaming fireball (kerosene + t-shirt) flew down from the air via a wire and lighted up the words 01, and slowly the flame touched the firewood below, igniting it and starting off sparkler powder that produced nice colors and a firecracker noise.
Zhi Xuan, Jon Trach and Wayne were emcees, they did quite well, and the audience was incredibly hyper and pumped up! Especially st margs, and maris stella, who won best supporting in the end.
Our haka and stick dance, though not perfect, was generally quite good. It is so different to perform in front of a mirror to in front of a crowd. The sticks fell a few times, but we redeem ourselves with the haka.
Caught the sec 3 performance, and a few other games and performances before i had to go off to get ready the buses. Sadly, meant that i missed the rest of the show. :( hope we'll get to see it on video or something.
After the campfire, was clean-up. And basically to start missing the great time we had here over the two days. Sarimbun wasn't a super camp, it was far away from anywhere else, there was little motivational stuff (except for ice!), but what we've accomplished that night made the time and effort we put in worth it.
Whoosh!
01 Campfires are always so fun. No wonder other schools want to come and watch. Surfing the web for comments on our campfire, most of them are positive and I think its great that we have consistently managed to do great events like this. Have a look at the comments on this blog. The atmosphere that night, I can't describe.
What's better than watching is the preparation. It might seem like a chore, but with great friends, camping out overnight, doing all the random stuff, it just feels like there's not a worry in the world. homework should take a back seat sometimes.
Us, 01 Scouts, good job everyone!
You can turn off the sun
But we're still gonna shine
