Find your faith

Chapter 67: Girl Guides Camp

Fiona Chan's POV
I was going to lead the Secondary 1 girl guides for their camp, Crystal the secondary 2. I had the easier group of staying in school for 2 days 1 night and pitch tents. Honestly, I'd say preparing for this camp was easier. Our school had handphone lockers, so we locked them up and decided to engage in a time of bonding.

I decided to hold this girl guide camp a little different from how all my predecessors did it. We got each girl to bring a fully charged Personal Learning Device (PLD; a compulsory device for all to use in secondary school) and present to the company what they have learnt over the past semester, before I presented each of them their badges. All were in half uniform, so you might be asking why I didn't get them in full uniform and sew it for them. Come on, I trust they'll sew it in their own time.

I decided to do the impossible for the camp: to try and get the girls to obtain the "Traditions of Guiding" within the camp itself. I just created a doable agenda, Mrs Teo approved it and that's how we made it the camp for our camp.
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Watching the Secondary 1 students pitch their tents, I stood at every tent, making sure everyone wasn't struggling too much with the pitching. To my surprise, they were doing better than during the stimulation lessons I prepared for them before the June break started. I just had to help them with parts they haven't finished to buy them some time. Other than that, they pitched their own tents and that was a relief. I swore I would be pitching half their tent for them!

We managed to stimulate Mrs Teo's phone torchlight as a fake campfire, and started showcasing the campfire songs we taught them during the afternoon session, before dinner. Everyone was in unison, smiling and making eye contact with one another. Their voices contained a passion and joy that didn't really exist when I was a Secondary 1 girl guide, and I'm glad Crystal and I made our vision making Girl Guides "less feminine" per se worked out.
Crystal's POV
East Coast Park
Feeling bad for leaving my girls to just the instructors, I ended up renting one kayak by myself (no Fiona) and paddled my way to the girls. We were having an experiential kayaking expedition, where they were paddling. Everyone looked like they were all putting in effort, and they clearly looked like they wanted to take part in it. Unlike my secondary 2 camp, where everyone looked like they were more concerned about when they can return to their social media and games, not making sure they were in sync.

"Hey girls, you having fun?" I screamed while paddling. Everyone turned around and smiled, waving at me. I caught up to all the girls,* deciding there and then to make myself comfortable in the expedition, and actually hype the minority that weren't exactly the outdoors kind. While paddling, some girls that could multitask poked me about my "double life," and I shared whatever I was comfortable with them. They then shared more about their holidays and we ended up asking questions about our holidays.

I'm not going for the local camp Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) until September, but it felt I created my own OBS at Girl Guides. Everyone was so connected to one another, we interacted with one another even when paddling to the point the instructor joked about me being kepo (busybody). But I just replied "This is the CCA I'm creating!" and continued paddling, ensuring my chatty nature didn't overturn my own boat.
*they had instructors to guide them and ensure the activity was carried out safely because Crystal is a humane person. Crystal just loves her CCA too much to stay on shore.