It’s the BEST jungle place to live @ EL Sanctuary!
Date: 19 - 21 Nov 2011
By Ng Charn Chuen and photos by Kenny Teo

Saturday-Monday, 19th-21st Nov 2011- All participants of the Junior Camp gathered in YMCA at 7.30a.m. After a short briefing and headcount done by SSgt Kenny Teo, we departed from YMCA at around eight o’clock in the morning. There were about 18 juniors and 8 officers, staff sergeants and instructor joined this second camp of the year.

First event on the list was visiting 2nd Melaka Company. We reached there at about 10.30a.m. After a joint opening parade with the 2nd Melaka Company, the junior section and senior section were separated and ran their respective activities. On our side, once again we have SSgt Kenny Teo with the aid of a “translator”, SSgt Ng Charn Chuen to run a simple yet exciting game – “Hunter, Forest Fire & Earthquake?” Haha… yes and the juniors enjoyed the game. Although there is a slight language problem in between but it doesn’t matter, the game still ran smoothly.

Yea…. And the losers of the game did not manage to escape from the fate of punishment…that’s too bad, but I guess they enjoyed it as well.

After a tiring session, 2nd Melaka Company provided us with some delicious “Char Siew Fan/Rice” as our lunch.

We then continued our journey to the Zoo Melaka!

Not long after we reached our destination, Mr. Lawrence with two juniors namely, Bryan and Scott joined us! Entering the zoo, we saw many amazing animals which some of us had never had a chance to see before, including parrots, elephants, donkeys, baboons, tigers, lions, flamingos, crocodiles, birdSSSSS~~………….

After a long and tiring visitation at the zoo, we departed and moved on to our long awaited destination – EL SANCTUARY! Along the way, we learned a few interesting Tamil words/ sentences from our dear junior member, Saravana - ‘The pen kills the chicken’. Hehehe….

Finally, we reached EL SANCTUARY!!! It’s a very “junglish” place judging from its appearance. After dividing the juniors into their squads and rooms, they’re allowed to have free time right up to dinner time. There were 5 very friendly dogs roaming around the area.

Yes, it’s dinner time, people!!! Mr. Jarod, our instructor told us before this that the food here was very delicious. And guess what… It’s proven by all of us and it was extremely good! Angel’s Hair spaghetti was one of the dishes we had for our dinner that night. YUMMY!

After a fantastic dinner, the members gathered at meeting room and had worship & sharing session led by SSgt Bryan Fernandez. Mr. Ng Jiehan too shared some interesting vomiting experience with all of us. After vesper, that marks the end of the first day.

DAY 2

Rise and Shine everybody, it’s time for your exercise!! Its 5BX (5 Basic Exercises), led by SSgt Bryan Fernandez. After that, it’s breakfast time and followed by morning devotion led by Mr. Lawrence and Ms. Ruth.

Up next, we had a country code class, which are the 10 rules a camper needs to know, taught by Mr. Ng Jiehan. Thanks to Mr. Ng’s extraordinary creativity, the juniors were somehow kept awake. Haha…

Next, we had a series of station games! It was designed by SSgt Kenny Teo. The juniors had a great time participating in the games, especially in the games that involved usage of H2O…just ask Ms. Shirley…

After lunch, we had bible class led by Ms. Ruth. The juniors were then separated into their own groups to discuss and come up with a sketch based on a script given to them. After that, the juniors were given some rest time all the way up to 8 o’clock since everyone was so worn out.

After dinner, we had a night hike led by the tour guides there. It was exciting and terrifying to some of us. One of the challenging parts of the hike was we had to cross the river just by using only 2 ropes! It was kind of shaky if you do not know how to balance yourself of course. Somehow, everyone managed to cross the river safely.

Up next, we had the group sketch presentation. All the groups did their best to impress the crowd. Well done, everyone did a great job! After that, we had vesper and it was time for lights out as well.

DAY 3

The day was started off with breakfast at 8 o’clock. Then, we had a singspiration session; followed by sharing of biblical message led by Mr. Jarod. Then, he had a games session with the boys based on the biblical message shared. All groups were tasked to guard their respective candles to prevent it from blowing off by the “devils”, while checking through four different stations in order to finish the race. Some boys used an ‘interesting’ defensive method to chase away the ‘devils’ - spitting saliva! Eww….

Throughout the game, some of them cried, while some were angry. Nevertheless, everyone learned a lesson or two by the end of the session and cheered up as well! It was indeed a fun, challenging and meaningful game. After checking out and cleaning up the area, we had our last meal there before we proceed back to Kuala Lumpur. We reached YMCA at around 4.00p.m.

And that’s the end of the junior camp 2011!