NTC

I haven't been posting much these recent weeks. It's either taking took much time or I just don't have time. It took me a long time to finish this post. A whole week late but better late then never, right? Anyways, I wrote quite a bit on Royal Rangers on the past few post and I think a lot of you out there are curious about it. Royal Rangers is a ministry in the Assemblies of God. You can read all about it through the links. Now, this National Training Camp that I've just graduated from is a training camp for leaders. This camp teaches trainees how to reach out and teach boys as stated in the mission of Royal Rangers: "To reach, teach and keep boys for Christ." The camp was more or less a refresher course in some ways. I've been through the new system which Malaysia just only implemented and most of day 1 and day 2 during Junior Training Camp back in Singapore. On the first day itself, we had to build stuff like a chippewa kitchen, unfortunately I couldn't find a picture for this. Had an awesome one during JTC but sadly no photos. Then there was the usual camp stuff, pitching tents, quite an odd tent we had, looks exactly like an igloo. Then setting up the fire place, dining area, tool area, bulletin board and kitchen area. Done it all before and had to do it all again.

The first day went on pretty well, already started to blend with my patrol members. Nice people from Sel#6, Sel#7 and Sel#13. There was also the usual song and yell. Thank God no skit/stunt this time. So, then first day passed by real quick and we managed to get the basic stuff up and running. The day ended with a council fire by the staff. The theme was "Wild Wild West". We were greeted with chocolate coins and quite an entrance, literal entrance. The emcee was Cmdr. Darren Teoh with his Mexican ascent. An amazing performance I would say although the lighting of the council fire was a bit off, don't know whether intentional of not.

Anyways, the schedule was tight and before all of us knew it, 6am came and we had to wake up. That's right, it's like waking up and going to school. Did I mention that I got a leech bite last night? Don't know how it got me past midnight but I felt this itch on my right leg. Natural reaction was to scratch but before I could do that I felt this slimy patch. It all came back to me. This feeling was all so familiar to me. Went outside the tent, tried to fry the leech off with a pelita lamp but the fire wasn't close enough. So, I borrowed a lighter. Two strikes and it came off. The guys picked it up and gave the leech a proper frying. Turns out the whole place was infested. We saw a few in our campsite. A few of the trainees got bitten before camp even started. The hall surprisingly has a lot of 'em. Saw a least one everyday! Back to day 2, construction resumed and finished pretty much all of them. By evening, after we got dinner done, it started raining. That few drops of rain introduced us to the thunderstorm. If it rained during a normal camp, then it's acceptable but this was a training camp. So the 6 of us cowered under our flysheet. It rained and rained and rained just like annual camp. There was even a stream that formed right next to our ground sheet, threatening to flood us all...

After a few hours trapped by the rain, we decided to go back to check out our tents. The rain receded a lot but didn't stop. When we got into the tent, the ground sheet was wet, lots of our stuff were wet. Fortunately, my uniform which was hanging right in the middle of the tent very nicely had not a single drop. Used a towel to absorb all the water and we were done. Turns out that water was leaking from the window, apparently wasn't closed tightly enough. Nothing to do, so sleep la. It's the best thing to do during a rain anyway. After that, we got a ride to the hall, had lessons and when the rain stopped, we got back to our campsite.

Day 3 already felt like a routine. Morning parade had a little more this time. Went through the formal stuff, reporting in and morning devotion. Then senior guide got the patrol guides to check the staff's uniform. 1st time ever to be given that opportunity. After it all, senior guide did a little role-play. Didn't know whether to laugh or take it seriously. Sounded like sounding yet it was hilarious. Then he explained his act and the staff actually purposely make their uniform incomplete to show us how to treat the boys. The lessons started soon after. Overnighter orientation and the like. After 3 in the noon, we packed our stuff and campsite. Just as we were ready to move all the stuff back to the store house, guess what? It started raining again. Talk about worst case scenario. Can't do anything about the rain so just do it. Moved all the stuff from camp grounds to store house. 20 minutes to and fro each trip, carrying heavy equipment with backpacks. I got my poncho on in time but I can't say the same for my backpack and uniform. Both of them got wet..soaking, dripping, flooding whatever you call it wet.

Irony. That says it all. It's funny how God teaches me through this way. For example, everyone else actually got their bags waterproofed and kept their uniforms dry while mine got wet. Remember yesterday how my everything was dry while others all got wet? Serves me right some might say. Justice huh? Something to take back from camp. FULLY waterproof my bag, not just my clothes. Thankfully the overnighter was canceled and we were free from the cmdrs for the night. So we had a big family dinner and went on with our very own, very first council fire indoors. I was real impressed with the stunts. All of them were awesome. Awesome like our batch.

I showered for the first time in camp that night and took out my sleeping bag. Again, irony dictated my sleeping bag was to be wet. Wet like I've never seen before. Stayed up for a quite awhile and before I could sleep, senior guide came along and almost immediately, everyone moved to a new campsite...

Then came the worst morning I've ever had. Woke up, went to toilet, came out, drip, drip, rain cats and dogs. I have nothing to say. Six in the morning, packing up a tent under heavy rain. I'll see how you'll feel. Graduation was more casual than I expected. A lot of trainees got attacked by bees. I didn't but I had to wear a very wet uniform. The certificates were presented, took group photo and that was it. Helped to pack up all the stuff and went back home to blissful sleep.

P/S : Pictures are not my thing. I'm a writer, pure fantasy. I found a couple o' crazycontradictions but I can't seem to remember the full story. Have to wait till next time then. God Bless!