NYJC LTC 2004

It seems so weird to be back at the office, back to reality after five days of discovery, adventure and fun. It's like walking into a completely different world and being expected to immediately re-start, as if nothing ever happened. Also kind of reminded me how far I've come since I've left NYJC around a year ago. How NY has helped me to face the challenges that the real world poses me.

NYJC LTC 2004 had a fantastic start on the 27th November 2004. Everyone was in high spirits when the camp started, although it didn't really show outwardly as everyone was still new to each other, except for the facilitators who were busy making last minute arrangements, doing last minute planning or just laughing and joking with each other. Soon, after a short briefing we set off for the Jalan Bahtera camp on a rather long bus journey on which I became the self-appointed entertainer. Goodness knows if I was any good entertaining.

The camp started with camp development and a session with my group. My fellow facilitators, the charming Xiu Mei and my sweet sis Jia Shyuan, and myself got the group to set target and aims for themselves to achieve by the end of the leadership training camp. We made several progress chars for them to fil up as each day comes along. One of them, "Boy-girl interaction", interestingly had a very steep gradient.

Then came a series of mini games forcing the group to get to know each other better. The whole series was called "the quest" and they were supposed to clap and cheer when they heard the name. My group took it rather far and did it throughout the camp and even after it ended causing a lot of sore throats as the other groups decided to repeat the two words over and over again.

We had high elements which made the participants deal with their fears and expand their limits and at the same time look at problems in a new perspective in order to solve them. Some of them were pretty scared but managed to overcome their fears. My group even left me hanging on purpose after the doing the ziplineleaving me slightly worried that I might not make it down....haha.

The sea expedition was also quite cool. I had my first experience kayaking in heavy rain during the kayak school. The next day when we set off for the expedition, the weather was pretty hot. I had to do a demonstration with another facilitator on capsizing. It wasn't exactly very fun....haha. Anyway, perserverance was the them of the event as participants tried their very best to row against the currents on the way back causing many sore muscles at the end.

There was also the exciting and adventurous moonlight walk where everyone had to be a member of the fellowship of the ring for the night and protect the ring bearer as he walked through middle earth. I think it was extremely well done. The path for the activity was like totally in the wilderness and it was so dark. The characters and props, including the storyline was so real it was as if we had walked into J R Tolkein's novel.

My group was the best. Arwen definately was full of spirit and enthusiasm that made their learning journey so much more fun. They made their facilitators proud as they had grown and developed so much as leaders and individuals throughout the five day camp. They expanded their horizons, took risks, faced fears, persevered beyond their assumed strength and went out of their comforts zones to explore and realise their true potential. Good job guys!

To my two fellow arwen facilitators, thank you for making this experience such a memorable one. Xiu Mei, It was really great knowing you all over again and working with you on this. I've really learnt a lot. And to my sis, thank you for taking such good care of me....haha. It was so great working with you!

My goodness.....what a great experience it has been.

Going off to experience something new tomorrow. Wish me luck.

take care guys....cya!

-HoZeFa-