From 21 to 23 December 2014, I participated in the Leadership Development Camp, which happened in the Sai Kung Country Park. Being able to mingle with nature after stressful exam period would be relaxing; however, because this was the first time I went to an overnight wild camp, I both felt excited and nervous. My first goal when participating in this activity was to identify and practice wilderness surviving skills. Besides, I also wanted to deepen my friendships with other members in my Merlin group and, when opportunities arose, practiced leadership skills.
I spent a whole day before the camp optimizing personal items in my backpack, especially clothes and medicine as my health could be more vulnerable in wild environment. Although I tried to reduce the total weight of my items as much as possible, the size of the backpack was still considerable after I put in my team’s food and the camp gears. This became my first challenges: hiking with that huge backpack from the carpark to the campsite. Besides, during the hike, I also carried the my Merlin group’s big, heavy common bag in turn. It took us nearly 1 hour to reach the destination. After finishing setting up the tents and eating lunch, we played some “warm-up” games. However, before they started, each sub teams in a nest were asked to come up with a unique nickname. Our team, Merlin 1, came up with a pun “Merbird” (= Merlin + Redbird).
My huge backpack
Day 1: Dinner Master Chief – Forest In The Dark
I called the first real big challenge for nests’ sub teams “Dinner Master Chief”. Each teams, which consisted of 12 members, had to prepare dinner for themselves and an extra dish for judges, who were our Chief Trainers. As discussed before, Merbird cooked pasta with tomato sauce, carrots, chicken, sausage and luncheon meat. Since I had never cooked anything except rice before, I paid attention to what Boon How was doing and learnt how he cooked. We had previously agreed to “boil everything” in order to simplify and speed up the cooking process. In fact, this strategy worked perfectly and we was the first team who finished dinner.
Our first epic dinner
As soon as we completed dishwashing, Kathy, our camp guide, led us into the forest. She told not to use flashlights to make our eyes familiar with the dark of mountainous area. At first, I thought it was just a casual evening hike. Suddenly, Kathy stopped at the beginning of a small trail and ask us to walk through it alone, one by one. Although she reassured that the trial was completely safe and suggested calming ourselves down by listening to the sound of nature, I still felt nervous. Then came my turn. I walked fast, but didn’t run. Thinking about my families, my achievements in the term and then about my plans for the future, I tried to keep calm and moving forward. Darkness and silence covered around me. It was a windy night and I could clearly hear leaves rustling and sea waves whispering. When I saw a small bright spot and then realized the gathering location, I was very happy.
Thinking back on my lonely journey in the dark, I found myself being over-concentrated. I should have walked slower, relaxed my mind more and enjoyed the sounds of nature. Anyway, I felt more confident since my bravery and patience had been challenged in a new level. From now on, whenever I encounter something difficult, I can recall this moment to encourage myself and then overcome it.
Day 2: Number Chases – Word Attacks – Wilderness Survival
The second day at the camp started with the game “Number Chases”. 26 cards numbered from 1 to 26 were put inside a big circle. The task was to touch them by foot in numerical order and only 1 person are allowed to be in the circle at any time. Each teams had 4 trials and the shorter the trial time, the better. Fortunately, Salma, a Merbird’s member, played this game before and she presented to the team a strategy optimized from her experience. We succeeded the first trial but failed the second time. Immediately, we held a discussion to identify our mistakes, which was the lack of consistency in our communication method, and quickly came up with a solution. We succeeded again and significantly improved our record, which was the best one at that moment. However, it was later broken by another team with a different strategy. “Should we change our strategy?”, few members timidly asked. Only 1 turn remained. Finally, we agreed to stick with the original strategy as changes were too risky. We encouraged ourselves to move faster in this decisive trial. Unfortunately, we made a mistake again while almost setting a new record. Anyway, I felt satisfied as every members had made great efforts and efficiently collaborated with each other.
The second game was “Word Attacks”. 4 teams sat around a big circle with a basket of alphabet letters in the middle. In each turns, 1 member from each teams stepped in the circle and either took a letter from the basket or stole it from other teams. Teams could even explicitly send “spies” to each other. A team won a round when they could create a 4-letter word with all members gathering in their team’s place. The team who gain 3 victories would be the final winner. 6 Merbird girls were in charge of creating words, 3 boys were runners and the other 3 boys (including me) were spies. After winning the first 2 rounds, our team became the stealing target of the others. Soon each of them gained 1 victory. Game-rounds became longer and longer. Suddenly, another team reached 2 victories. As a spy, I realized the “stealing” strategy was important in preventing other teams from winning. I also noticed that if our runners started a little bit later than other runners, they could spend time identifying the team with less “damages” after stealing time (thus more potential to win) and then stole from them, thus we could gain some advantages. I shared that improved strategy to my team. With the new strategy, we quickly got 4 letters but what a pity, they couldn’t form a word. Another team won. There were 3 teams who possessed 2 victories now. The situation was getting tougher. We encouraged ourselves. However, again, we were unlucky in the last minutes: another team won 3 rounds first. But that didn’t matter, we smiled to each other. For me, I felt closer with my Merlin buddies. During lunch time, I started sharing more personal stories with them.
In the afternoon, all teams entered the final game, which is perhaps the toughest challenge in the camp: “Wilderness Survival”. Using a paper map and a compass, each teams had to navigate around the mountainous area of Sai Kung to find food for their dinner. The difficult aspect was some crucial food, such as breads and noodles, had very limited supply and were located in rugged and remote area. Therefore, our team carefully planned for the routes. Firstly, we vote up which food we would pick up. Secondly, we selected the less physical-demanding route based on the terrain showed on the map and also Nadia’s experiences (our Coach, which turned out to be very useful). The food hunt started at 2:30pm. Merbird team quickly finished 2 checkpoints in 1 hour. There were still 2 more checkpoints to reach. One of them was on the top of a mountain and contained the most important food: instant noodles. I couldn’t imagine that the noodle checkpoint took us 3 hours. Sometimes, we were seemingly lost in the forest as we couldn’t recognize the trail. I frequently checked whether the distance between the first group (mostly boys and I was the last person) and the second group (mostly girls) became too long that two groups couldn’t see each other. If this happened, I told the first group to stop and wait for the second group. However, during those anxious moments, I could feel that my Merbird didn’t never give up. Some boys asked the girls if they needed a rest several times but they always refused. I couldn’t recall how many hills we had climbed up and then climbed down, but I clearly remembered that there weren’t any complaints during the whole journey. Only blissful shouts resounded when we reached the noodle checkpoint and found out that we were the first team to get there. “We’ve got dinner!”, I and Boon How screamed out. After that, we went back to the camp site in satisfaction. When we get back, Kathy said: “You guys walked so fast that I had to try hard to keep pace with you!”. Merbird had a jubilant dinner with our booties.
Me, at the top of the mountain where the "noodle" checkpoint was located
Climbing down from the "noodle" checkpoint
It was a long, but wonderful day. In all 3 challenges, we cooperated well under the common plan/strategy, perhaps because we had organized good discussions before stepping into each tasks. Besides, we always motivated each other in tough moments. Especially, Merbird had good leaders: Salma in “Number Chases” and Edison “Wilderness Survival”. Their experiences somehow united the team’s actions. However, I also felt a little bit disappointed as I didn’t have chances to practice leadership skills. Anyway, happiness was still my major emotion. I was happy because the relationship between me and other teammates had become stronger. I was happy because I could do something in each challenges in order to contribute to the success of my team. And finally, I was happy because I learnt new skills from the leaders, such as Edison’s orienteering skills. That night, I had a very good sleep.
Day 3: Blind Squares – Closing ceremony
I called the last game in the series of Leadership Development activities “Blind Squares”. In this game, each teams held a big rope by hand while all team members were blindfolded. The task of a team is to form a square with the rope. Kathy secretly told me to be the team’s cheerleader. However, the initial situation was very chaotic. Many people spoke at the same time and I didn’t know whose commands to follow. Therefore, I decided to take the leadership role and stabilize the situation. Using loud voice, I urged my teammates to speak slowly, one by one as well as speak out their names so that other members can easily follow and discuss with them. After the communication between us became more disciplined and effective, I proposed a solution for the game. Our team accepted it, but after half of the solution was implemented, new problems arose. In addition, I heard Boon How continuously asking “Can we give up?”. While keeping discussing with other members, I also continuously encouraged the whole team by saying: “Come on guys, we can do it!”. Time remained less and less. Luckily, Chin Li found the answer for our current issues, and she guided us to successfully finished the game. In the reflection period after the game, we discovered that some team members were secretly assigned a role, such as me (a cheerleader) and Boon How (a pessimist, that was why he kept moaning about giving up).
Finally, the camp came to an end. In the closing ceremony, Merbird was awarded the 3rd prize. We felt contented. For me, this camp would be an unforgettable experience. I obtained some wilderness survival skills (cooking and orienteering) and took the opportunity to practice leadership skills (in the “Blind Squares” games). But most importantly, I had closer friendships and I will actively maintain them.
Happy Merbirder on the ending day of the camp