-This message below is Shu Han PBB reflection . COME & READ !
Hello, just wanted to share my thoughts and reflections for the PBB camp.
Well, the one thing I really learnt from the camp is don't procrastinate, as in don't do things at last minute.
Actually, I had kind of learnt my lesson before the start of the camp. I was almost late for the camp and I went paranoid luckily and thankfully, God answered my prayers and blessed me. At the starting of the bus ride the bus met with many red lights but when I transferred to another bus the ride was fast and I reached HQ with about 10minutes to spare.

Upon meeting our group people, I just realized that the other girls were really good from schools such as RGS, St. Margaret’s, PLMGSS, Zhonghua. I was thinking how on earth I would really be able to step up to them. Our group was more of a noisy group than to a quiet group and I felt so much pressure since I was one of the quiet ones.

We had group planning time everyday to plan the activities that the group is in charge of for the camp’s program. So basically all of us were actually planning for this camp, we had to think of the logistics, so on and forth.

For lunch, that was when my first lesson officially started in this camp. We were given 1 hour for lunch and we had to include the time for us to serve the officers and girls, and everybody to wash their used cutleries. My group was the first group to take care of lunch and we were told to report 20minutes before lunch. We were late for reporting and also, we thought that everything will go smoothly and didn’t expect ourselves to finish cleaning up late. As a result we had to punish ourselves by delaying our shower time for ½hour. That was a valuable lesson taught as this reminded us that we are in the PBB camp and we really needed to have higher standards for the officers. The sense of urgency, and not to assume everything.

We built our teamwork through games and got to know each other more, girls started to have more initiative and always looking for ways that they can help by dinner time.

During evaluation time we finally got to meet our officers in charge for our group and I was really honored to have Mrs Evangeline Chong and Ms Pearl Pang as our officers. To test your brigade knowledge girls, you all should know who Mrs Chong is, the East Zone Commissioner. Both officers have served in GB for so many years and I know that I could really learn a lot from them. Mrs Chong was also a PBB recipient and she told us her story, what she had to do just to achieve the brooch in her era. I’m actually quite thankful that in this present time, that the requirements are slightly lowered, so that more girls can have the chance to qualify for the camp.


To think of the second day, the first thing that ever came to my mind would be the skipping rope experience. We had to make a long rope using rubber bands then we had to have 10 people joining into the rope one at a time and when all 10 people are in we had to jump 5 times consecutively. Initially it was very hard a first but as time passed and after practices, we started to get the hang of it. However there was one girl who had difficulties jumping the rope and kept breaking the chain and we had to start all over. But none of us blamed her and encouraged her, tried to think of strategies to help. After 1½hours we managed to complete the task. This really showed me the power of perseverance. We all persevered on and managed to complete and gain satisfaction from the task. Even when the officers gave us another option of just everyone getting into the rope and jump together five times, we all refused and wanted to carry on. That also brought us closer, and I was thinking if we tried that in any other ordinary camp, people would definitely give up and not even try in the first place or blame the ones who cannot jump. Without God answering our prayers it would definitely be impossible too as people could have gotten injured while jumping the rope but all of us were fine at the end of the day.

The next day, we had a really tough morning. As the officer who is the orderly of the day complained that the exercise planned by the group the day before was not tough enough. Which was my group, this experience taught us to humble ourselves as we thought that the exercise we’ve planned was pretty well done. So, the other group who planned the exercise that morning really gave us a tough time, we had to run, jump, squat and do all sorts of vigorous exercises. Another thing I’ve learnt is not to complain when things are tough. After the exercise, no one complained to the duty group that their exercise was horrible or too tough. We just went on with what we were supposed to do and not even complain at all when the effects came in. Muscle aches!! Even though it really hurt, we didn’t show it on our faces. After a tough morning, the rest of the day went smoothly, we all had so much fun. Especially the Special Night where groups had to produce a skit about looking back. Some of us looked back to the start of this camp while some of us looked back to 4 years ago. The skits were really funny. At the end of the day during evaluation, it dawned upon us that the next day, we are all going to leave and go back to living our daily lives. We shared so much laughter and tears together and we talked for so long until we were the last group to leave.

What I learn also, throughout this camp is to keep your stuff tidy even though you will not be in your room for a long time! Well, because we had inspection every night on our dorms and I’m one of those lazy ones who would throw your stuff all over the place until someone asks you to clean it up. So I had to maintain the tidiness of my sleeping quarters. Inspection also trained me to be faster as we were given very little time to do last minute tidying, and if you are late, you will delay the entire program. At the end of the camp, we’ve learnt that by receiving the brooch it would just be a good bonus and even if you do not get the badge, it doesn’t matter as it was a really good learning experience. Before we all break camp, we exchanged numbers and hope that we’ll be able to see each other on July 25th the day of P & D ceremony. It was such a learning experience for all of us, I feel that I just writing it down, isn’t enough to show what I learnt from this camp, we need to show it too.
-Shuhan