YEP leadership camp (Pulau Ubin)

Location: Pulau Ubin (near Ah-soh's kampung house.. facing Pulau Ketam)

Today was a slightly differenty morning .. the air was fresh & crisp.. the sun shining strongly bringing life to the entire island.. Over looking the coastline, were brightly coloured bumboats.. its strange that this tiny island is just about 15 mins away from the concrete jungle yet.. no one can deny its power to bring peace & energy back in your mnd & soul..

Well.. so far the camp has been going on great.. I was nicknamed as the 'baby' in the team.. owing to my petite & rather childish behaviour.. well.. it was nice getting all pampered by a bunch of professionals.. hehe.. I have to admit we were a colourful mixed of leaders.. from mere undergrads to research archeologist (he's a great person except for the fact that he drinks enough to drown himself..) to your education professional (who happens to be my new found partner / 'mummy' since my assigned partner had to attend to a much more important issues.. (yah rite.. ) to the most considerate & funny dentist, not forgetting his student (a hilarious duo i must say..) to of course, the zany & ever so full-of-life SIF professionals..

I won't forget the time when we were enjoying our night rounds in the woods.. beneath the clear sky, scattered with bright sparkling stars, singing to the tunes of the Carpenters, Bollywood hits, to the Bangles.. plus some old time nursery rhymes.. hehe.. so much for trying to scare ourselves by going through so-called forbidden areas.. lol.. Lucky Bunch..

well.. let's not forget the fact that Ive learnt to live side by side with 4 ferocious black dogs (half of my size, mind u .. ) In fact, Ive learnt to pick up or decipher some of their body language:- wagging means they're just being friendly.. & other than that.. just maintain your cool .. DUN RUN!!! I was lucky as I was protected by my thoughtful camp members.. (No wonder I was nicknamed as the 'baby'..hehe) I was almost being mauled by 1 idiotic one.. (must be down with PMS.. as it was happily lying down beside me during our lunch time.. Nutcase)

Anyway, the whole day had been an eye-opener.. right from the time we set feet on the island, to the time we reached our 'kampung' free accomodation, the cooking time, the play-pretend EMS, going through the variuos stages of the project, the sharing session & eventually the night walk.. I am still trying to swallow it all down.. locking it tight in my mind chest.. making sure I hold on to them dearly..

The sharing session after lunch was a no doubt a learning opportunity for me. To be able to share the problems that I face in handling the YEP with the other leaders had lightened off the load on my shoulder.. (been keeping all the sh*t to myself too much..to teh extent that I snapped at every single person that strike a conversation with me.. & that includes my innocent family members..) They had made it so easy for me to open to them.. It could be due to their experience & empathy.. we naturally had somewhat similar mindset (just that mine wasn't that well-formed). I was inspired by their courage & thier firm attitude but yet able to be sensitive & sweet at the right timing..

The best of it all, these wonderful people were all so ready to share their chunks of experience. It definitely provided me with different perspective of looking at things now..

Sitting by the coastline this morning was simply breathtaking.. (even though the sea cockcroaches were happily hanging out there too..) The whole entire course was a breakaway .. away from work, from my YEP group members, away from worrying over petty nitty gritty stuffs.. I know I needed the break... badly..

Im sitting here with one of the leaders, J. She's so full of life, very ambitious, very passionate about single thing that she does and its amazing to see how much strength this skinny short gal has .. this is her 4th YEP by the way.. ('',)

Well.. attending the course, it had at least gave me the answer to why I took up this project.. there is so much this project can offer.. I just have to play along and hang on.. Despite this, many times i felt that my assigned partner should have been here too..