ATC for NYAA

This is the ATC 2006 Record From Walter, pls thank him if you get the chance. Remember to alter some of the activities according to what you did in ATC.

DAY 1

The Victoria npcc squad arrived at the jetty in Changi at about 3pm.

We took a bump boat to pulau ubin, the bump boat was rather noisy, and we had to raise our voices to be heard.

We trekked to the ubin camp site, the estimated distance was about 3 to 5 km.

When we reached the camp site, we placed our bags down at the assembly area

We collected tentage materials We were sent to the tentage area. At the tentage area, we started to set the tents up. I did some pegging and tying of knots, thanks to the trainings we had earlier, it was rather easy.

After pitching the tents we got into pre-assigned groups. The CIs made us line up in about 8 vertical rows, and split us into our groups horiziontally. This was to splilt those from the same schools up into different groups, allowing us to interact with people from other schools.

Then, we were dismissed to eat our food. The water at the site tasted slightly funny, and most of us initally tried to avoid it.

After our dinner, CI Samuel had a campfire rehearsal with us. Some secondary three seniors volunteered to be demostrators. We sat on the ground at the assembly area and rehearsed the campfire songs and protocol.

After that was debriefing. Our officers asked us how we felt that day was, and if there were anythings to be improved, and our feelings on how the day was like.



DAY 2

RAINED TODAY

We woke up at about 5 in the morning, and did PT at 5.30. The officer in charge had a whistle. He would blow the whistle to get us to do different kinds of exercises. For example, 2 blows of the whistle was for us to go into pushup position. It was only slightly tiring as I was not accustomed to exercising at 5.30 in the morning.

We ate breakfast after the morning PT. The solid fuel had to be rationed; it was not nearly enough.

Later that day, we went for a trek in the around the ubin area(orienteering). A CI brought us around. Firstly he brought us to the hut of the malay and chinese chief on the Ubin campsites. Then he brought us to significant landmarks in Pulau Ubin. After that, he brought us to a garden where everything grown there had medicinal purposes. There, we saw a number of scarecrows. Then, we headed back to the campsite. All over our trip, we saw a number of stray dogs.

After that, we had lunch. It was the usual, maggi mee, with curry chicken and baked beans. Some others opted for fruit bars though. During lunch, I volunteered to be a “demostrator” in the campfire, I would help keep the enthusiasm of the campfire up, and help to conduct the campfire in an orderly, yet fun manner.

After lunch, we had a rope confidence course. We were given a harness to put on. The instructors, who were not officers taught us what to do. then my group was sent to do the rope confidence course first. For example, we had to do things like balance on a moving log, walk across a tightrope. Unfortunately, the activity had to stop due to rain. We stayed in the assembly area for the rest of the afternoon, rehearsing for the campfire, and playing indoor games, such as everyone stood on a long chair, and tried to arrange themselves in order of the first to last in whatever order the officer named, for example, height, or age. Some people in my group got the skit perfected and made up some cheers for the campfire.

We then had dinner, which was usual, by then I was getting used to the heavily chlorinated water in the camp, and totally did not mind drinking it.

After dinner we had the last round of campfire preperations, final rehersals for our skit and such.

Then the campfire started. As a “demostrator”, I had to sit at the bottom of the amphitheatre along with other demostrators and cheer or sing along much louder than the usual people. I had a bit of trouble when it came to climax songs like the “friendship song”; almost no more than 10 people actually knew how to do this dance, and I did not know. It was very difficult to be a model for others to follow in this part, so I just played along and tried to be as enthusiastic as I could. Throughout the campfire, groups were sent out to present skits and cheers which were rehearsed before the campfire started, and it was also the demostrators job to invent inpromtu cheers to encourage them at the end of each performance.

After the campfire we had our debriefing.
Our officers asked us how we felt that day was, and if there were anythings to be improved, and our feelings on how the day and the campfire was like.



DAY 3

We then went to sleep in our tents. But at 3.30am, my group had to go for patrol duty. We had to walk around the campsite, and check if the main gate was open or closed. We then reported back to our officer, and went to sleep. This experience was supposed to instill a sense of security in the camp. It was rather tiring to be up at 3.30am, walking around after a day of streneous activities

We woke up at the usual time, and had a PT which was much like our PT yesterday.
We then had our breakfast


Then all of us were tasked to clean different parts of the camp. My group was sent to clean the boys tentage area. It was an easy task as there was not much litter, so we helped the secondary 3s to fold the tents, and clean the dirt the groundsheets.

After all the cleaning had been done, we took our bags and went to the assembly point on the field. We broke up our groups and went back to our school squads. After the distribution of the leftover food, we treked back to the side of ubin, and took the bumpboat back to singapore mainland

We were then debriefed outside the jetty by our teacher officer. Finally we were sent back home.