Nothing in Particular

OBS (Day 2) - 08/01/19

Day 2

I woke up at 4.45 am because people from another tent from another watch (Bo Seng) were talking. Apparently, they had been awake since 1 am since it was very uncomfortable. We then unpitched our tents and headed to the Expedition Court.

We were to assemble there at 5.55 am but we were ready at 6.07 am. Well, we were late. We were actually early but the other groups were slow. We were told that we were a mobile called Camp 1 Delta, consisting of 4 watches: Kurt, Bo Seng, Yusof and Keng Swee.

We played some games and some exercises in the morning before taking a quick jog into the place where we pitched our tents to check if we had left anything behind, especially litter and tent pegs.

We hiked from OBS Camp 1 to OBS Camp 2 which was a distance of about 1.2 km. It took 45 minutes for us to cover that since we were still quite weak. To make matters worse, our bag was extremely heavy. It was an OBS bag which could fit in a lot of things, but that means our bags were heavy. We left our own bags in the Kurt Store.

One of the girls (Nithila) had scoliosis so she couldn't carry the heavy bag. She went to the medical centre and was deemed unfit to continue the OBS course. She had to go back home. She wrote a note for us and gave us her number so that we could add her to our group chat :)

The story doesn't end here. It continues in Day 5.

While hiking to Camp 2, Ben was saying how we should be careful not to get injured or sick because if it gets serious like they can't walk, everyone would have to split the contents in the casualty's bag and carry the person on a stretcher which, he said, would be really heavy.

So we asked, "What if the instructor faints?" Ben said to use his walkie talkie to page OBS, saying, "Ops Room, Ops Room. This is Kurt. Our instructor has fainted. Over." or something like that. I'm not a walkie talkie type of person. Then he said we could also use his phone and call the emergency number labelled "Spouse".

The funny part was when he said this: "If I faint, just call my wife and tell her I love her." We were like, "His last words were 'I love you'. Such dedication."

Okay, back to story.

At Camp 2, we did trust fall and it was quite a success. We had a talk on trust, bringing up the T-rescue on Day 1 where we trusted each other to save us from danger. It takes a long time to build trust but it only takes a split second to break it.

There would be some commands. So the person falling would be like, "Kurt ready?" and we would be holding the trust fall mat and say, "Kurt ready, Kurt pull!" in a firm voice to assure the falling person that it was safe to fall. The falling person would then say, "Falling" and the others would say, "Fall on". After the instructor, also known as Ben, checks that it's safe, he would say, "Carry on," and the person is then allowed to fall.

We then did belay on the belaying school which was just some wooden poles with some metal handholds/footholds stuck to it. I learnt to belay last year for rock climbing so it was quite easy for me to climb the pole and belay the person climbing.

There were also commands for this which was different from the one I learnt in school. So the climber asks, "Am I on belay?" and the belayer replies, "No, you are not." The belayer would then take in the rope via the ATC which stands for Air Traffic Control. I wonder why. The ATC is a friction device so the rope wouldn't move as long as it's not parallel. 

Back to the lesson on commands. When the climber feels the rope pulling him or her upwards (meaning it's tight), he or she would reply, "That is me." I never understood that but okay. The belayer would then do a squeeze check to check if the carabiner is locked and a pull check to check if the rope is actually tight. Of course, the belayer would have to shout "Squeeze Check" and "Pull Check" to inform the climber. 

Then there is the "Instructor Check". So Ben would check the double figure of 8 knot and the posture of the belayer, assistant belayer and anchor. If it's all right, he would say "Carry on". And the climber climbs. What am I saying?

When the climber wants to get down, he or she has to say, "Lower me" and the belayer will say "Sit down slowly". When the person puts his or her entire weight on the rope and lets go off the pole, the belayer does a squeeze check and a pull check. The instructor would check and if he says "Carry on", the belayer will lower the climber down slowly by releasing the rope bit by bit.

That was practice for belaying. Now for the real thing.

We went to the rope challenge course and the one we did was hand holding rope course, whatever it's called. So there would be 2 ropes that go in a V shape, getting further from each other as it goes longer. The 2 participants would have to hold hands and shuffle their feet sideways to get to the end of the line. The platform was shaky which Ben said was done on purpose.

Of course, no one in Kurt made it to the end.

We learnt that OBS used to be for training the military when they realised that it was actually really useful. OBS started to evolve and became a course that anyone can join and was made compulsory for Secondary 3 students. By 2020, OBS aims to allow every Secondary 3 students in every school to take part in OBS. 

I know that for now, Anderson Secondary School doesn't take part in OBS. My friend was very sad because he really wanted to take part in OBS since his friends in other schools said it was very fun.

Back to the story. 

I counted the number of steps on the stairs between the blocks and the rope courses and there were a total of 100. I asked for its significance and he said, "Water boils at 100 degrees, no more and no less. It shows that you should put your 100% in your work." I asked for its legitimacy and he said, "No, I just made it up." LOL.

Night 2

We pitched our tents on flat ground so it was more comfortable than the previous night. While the other 6 girls were pitching the tents, the boys and I were cooking dinner using mess tins and a spatula or a scoop. I can't remember.

I left my utensils in Camp 1 so I had to borrow a fork and a spoon from my friend from another watch who already finished dinner. We cooked udon with chicken meatloaves and small corn which were both from the can. To be honest, I think the meatloaves were simply luncheon meat.

Okay, I just searched Google. Meatloaves are luncheon meat.

So we had our dinner and we had to cook it twice for it to be enough for everyone. After dinner, we kept everything and met up in one of the many blocks in Camp 2. 

There was a briefing on the sea expedition the next day and 2 sea expedition leaders from each watch of Camp 1 Delta had to be chosen. It was me and some other guy whom I'm not going to name who became the sea expedition leaders from Kurt. 

We had a separate briefing on the sea expedition which included information on what time there would be what kind of tide. We planned the sea expedition as to what time to wake up and started planning all such stuff. We then presented it to the whole of Camp 1 Delta. 

Stressed.

After that, we went to the shower and slept in our tents.

It was definitely more comfortable than the first night but, nevertheless, the ground was not our bed. It was not soft and comfy. It was hard and I couldn't sleep sideways without hurting my shoulder and waist, just like the first night.