Facilitators' Pre-Camp Training at ACS Barker (23 June 2009 Saturday)
This is the room where it all started - I received briefings, training and instructions on the roles and responsibilities as a camp facilitator to lead groups of campers to educate, motivate and encourage them into action to reconstruct lives for the less fortunate children of the world who are currently plagued by poverty and HIV/AIDS. The Pre-Camp Training is a solid eight-hour event so I had to spend nearly the entire Saturday as a necessary step to becoming an efficient facilitator.
The first lunch provided by World Vision Singapore for the facilitators at the Pre-Camp Training - consisting of luncheon meat, cabbages and eggs with rice. Not too bad at all.
Those hairy legs belong to me and why my legs are tied together by a strap of rubbish plastic bag? Because I was designated as a Grandparent who suffered a leg injury. It's all part of the experiential activities where families (the campers) will have to live out 30 hours during the actual camp as 3rd world refugees escaping from a natural disaster, completed with missing and wounded family members and had to build shelters, seek medical help and find jobs to bring food to the starving members. Believe me, those with the leg injuries had to hobble around until they find the money to treat their injuries.
Yes, one of the jobs that those 3rd-world families can do is prostitution. Of course, it's just a simulated game but the point is there - most suffering families can be easily driven to desperation to try out anything that can bring in quick cash to feed themselves, no matter how dangerous or lowly the jobs are.
This is my "Identity Card" where I would need to show the Game Masters if I would to participate in any jobs or to seek medical attention. As you can see, my persona there had no education, had a leg injury, and only a strength of seven to do as much jobs before my strength ran out.
A quick shot of the chaos when the facilitators tried out the jobs. Everyone was confused - nobody knows which are the best jobs and what job hazards they entailed, nobody knows where to go to the various job stations. Chaos was deliberately created to simulate the conditions of the job markets in the 3rd world countries.Actual Famine Camp 2009 (5 June 2009 Friday to 6 June 2009 Saturday):
The time was 7.40am and I am at a MacDonald's restaurant at an undisclosed location in Singapore having my breakfast before I head off to ACS Barker Road with all my camping equipment. I had a lot of excitement and thoughts in my mind then so breakfast, though, leisurely, was not very appetizing that morning.
8.30am - I am already at the canteen of ACS Barker and there were already some World Vision staff running around with sheets of paper and a number of facilitators who were eating breakfast and getting ready for the Facilitators' Briefing at 9.30am. I spent my hour there checking my equipment and reading the day's newspapers and talking to some of the World Vision staff.
12.30pm - The final Pre-Camp briefing was done and World Vision gave an extra bonus to the Facilitators by providing lunch to them before the Famine Camp was to officially start at 2pm sharp. I tucked in heartily because it was the last solid food lunch I am going to have before the Famine Camp - cabbages, pork and eggs and a slice of honeydew.
1pm - The campers began to pour in to regiter themselves and they came from various secondary schools and junior colleges - totalling up to one thousand of them.
The Facilitators were given red T-shirts to wear whilst the campers black ones for Day One of Famine Camp. This was taken at around 1.30pm where campers and facilitators await the opening ceremony to start. I was seated with a RIJC girl who was bubbly enough to tell me how excited she was about the camp. I hope the campers would enjoy the camp and I was up to par to be the kind of camp facilitators that World Vision needed.
The stage backdrop for the opening ceremony - I CAN. I WILL. Make the difference. A non-sophisticated and straightforward slogan for Famine Camp 2009. I am going to do what I can. The time was already 1.45pm.
2.30pm. Campers were given the first major camp task of the day - build a shelter capable of accommodating all their family members with newspapers, cardboard and whatever they could scavenge in the simulated 3rd world conditions. With 1000 campers who are grouped into families which they are not familiar with, facilitators whom they had just met minutes ago, and a searing 30+ degrees in the hot afternoon sun, it was no mean feat. Some groups hastily constructed some flimsy structures and their lenient facilitators gave them the green light. Others, like mine, are determined to put up something weather-worthy before we end the task.
3pm - most of the campers are still struggling, figuring out how to get those cardboard boxes to work and make the best use of those flimsy newspapers. Already, the sun is taking a toll and most people are soaked to the skin with sweat and this was just the first hour of Famine Camp.
My group was quite slow in starting up the shelter because they were utterly confused by the noise, heat, chaos and the materials they had to use. It was a good hour before they finally got down to some decent construction work. I kept myself from directly providing any help to them because as instructed by the briefings, the family were supposed to struggle and experience all the frustrations and obstacles by themselves so no hand-holding was allowed.
3.30pm - I strolled around abit to see what other families had came up with - some of them were quite creative to roll up newspapers to use them as pillars. It was creative but personally, if I were to roll a bottle of mineral water against those pillars, the shelter would collapse immediately. 
3.40pm - my group finally finished their shelter. They overcame their difficulty by "stealing" tables and chairs from the classrooms in the school. Although it seemed unorthodox, it was 3rd world simulation and even stealing was considered as an option to secure resources needed for shelter, albeit illegal. I reminded them that it was a real risk faced by 3rd world countries' families to steal resources to build their homes and told them to return the furniture in good shape back into the classrooms immediately after the camp task was over.
3.45pm - I was particularly strict with my group because I did not want them to get the wrong idea that shelters could be constructed filmsily and be gotten away with in the real life situations with tough weather conditions. So I added further instructions by requiring all of them to perform the task of drinking water inside the shelter, thus preventing them to use their hands to support the shelter. Whilst they were drinking and distracted, I performed my quality control check of the shelter by throwing a full bottle of mineral water hard on the roof of the shelter and letting it roll across the entire roof of the shelter. The shelter's cardboard roofing held out and they were cleared to move on to the next task.
4pm - As the group moved on to the next location, I secretly hoped to myself that they would hold out and not balked out of the camp because it was difficult or tough. I followed them quietly to the next location, mind full of the instructions on how to lead them for the next camp activity.
5.10pm - Survival of the family rested on the ability to generate income to feed the family members. This was the farming station where campers had to pick up green peas in the midst of plants and soil to earn ice-cream sticks as money. The family with the highest number of sticks get extra presents at the end of the camp.
5.30pm - more campers flocked to the farming station and were concentrating hard at work to find those tiny green peas. The station had some small incidents of insect bites on the arms of at least two campers, one of them seeking help from me due to an itchy lump. I contacted the Programme Coordinator, Daniel, about it when I bumped into him and he radioed to check on the station while I moved on. Last check on the female camper - she was recovering well from the mysterious insect bite. I think it must be some insect which was disturbed from the hands prodding the plant hedges.
6.30pm - School was absolutely one of the life-savers in the game because if the family members were educated, they would be able to earn more ice-cream sticks and thus feed more people or heal more of their injured family members. However, you need money to study as well.
Within the classroom, campers get ready to be educated on the dangers and preventive measures of HIV/AIDS. In the background in white was Mandy, the Camp Coordinator , who was busy chatting with another female in formal business suit - most probably a sponsor representative observing the camp.
5.45pm - The Hospital where long queues were formed as numerous campers were branded with simulated work injuries - from head, eyes, arms, legs and the occasional "deaths". This was one of the toughest stations because many campers did not have the money to pay up or the Game Masters role-playing as medics and surgeons were deliberating giving the campers a hard time, simulating the harsh 3rd world medical conditions and situations of limited resources and unlimited demand for professional medical aid. Of course, there was a real-life paramedic right behind The Hospital station, whom I had the chance to interact and compare medical supplies with when I brought the female camper to seek medical attention. His general medical box was outfitted differently from my trauma medical pouch but the end objective was similar - preserve life, prevent condition from worsening and promote recovery. Thankfully, I did not encounter any serious medical conditions that require me to activate those trauma medicines and bandages. Hope the other paramedic did not either.
My group, happily basking in the airconditioning of the auditorium after their camp tasks for Day one. Some of them had to dress up in trash bags because they were simulated to be afflicted with HIV/AIDS when they did certain jobs which transmitted the disease to them. It was to create awareness about the social stigmatization of HIV/AIDS victims in the world. Morale was high within the group and even though they did not secure much money in the camp tasks, they were happy to learn as the de-briefing was done.
Whilst waiting for the evening camp tasks to start, they started playing some ice-breaking games to bond themselves further. I wished I could join them but that would mean missing out on announcements calling for facilitators for sudden briefings so I had to opt out and watch them play instead. With only one facilitator in each group, I could not miss out important announcements at all.
A special guest was invited to speak about HIV/AIDS and the campers were all ears listening to their stories and plights. I used to think most youths are totally apathetic about such things but with their attentive concentration shown on their faces then, I was proven wrong. Some of them do care. 
A candlelight vigil was held on the evening of Day One to mark the campers commitment to help others. My camera phone was not of superior quality and I did not want to switch on my flash and disturb the solemn atmosphere then. My other eye was on the lookout for potential fire hazard since fire was involved so the shot was one of the poorest in the entire camp photo album.
12am Day Two - the Facilitators were gathered in a small room awaiting the briefing for the coming day's activities involving newspapers and old clothings collection at Tampines and Pasir Ris areas. Most of us were exhausted by then and morale was only kept up by the airconditioning and exchanging of stories of how the first day went by with the campers. No shower facilities were available that night and by the time the briefing was over. It was nearly 1am. We got permission to use a separate room from the 1000 campers to sleep in and the facilitators tucked in as soon as we could. I slept from 1.30am to 5.30am that night.
9.30am. Location - Somewhere in Tampines. Here's my temporary command post as I perused through all the instructions, map locations and phone numbers for the umpteen time whilst waiting for my group members to return from their newspapers and old clothings collections from the blocks of flats designated to us. Although I am accompanied by a cameraman volunteer from World Vision, I am solely responsible for the safety of my group out there so I was pouring in alot more concentration and caution. Two large blisters on my feet also prevented me from running up and down those stairs unless it was an emergency so I stationed myself to watch over those collected items and gave myself the duty to help upload all those items when the lorry came over. The blisters hurt like hell but I dared not show them to the group lest their morale is dampened. I was very pleased with my group because even under the blistering heat, they kept their smiles up for as long as they could and collected much more than I expected. I was so proud of them.
12pm. In between the waiting, I talked to the nice cameraman who took a break from the photographing and I took a shot of the mineral water bottles of my group with names written on them. They were a hardworking bunch, not hesitating to lug down heavy newspapers at the requests of residents approaching the command post and even stopping to help a wheelchair-bound elderly to move to the latter's destination nearby.
2.45pm - Such work obviously took the toll on even the strongest, let alone a group of youths so by the time we reached back to the auditorium, they were totally exhausted, dozing off and yawning away. Even the most enthusiastic of the lot was sullen and withdrawn, grabbing as much rest as they could. I kept my silence throughout, knowing they needed much more rest than I do.
6.30pm. After a series of area cleaning and cheer-leading, all the campers and facilitators headed off to Downtown East where there would be a closing ceremony and mini-concert and of course, to break fast and eat solid food. Two more hours before the 30 hour is up for everyone.
Inside the tent-like structure, the backdrop for the Finale Concert featuring prize presentation, performances and countdown ceremony. 1 hour before the Famine Camp is up but I was not feeling hungry at all. Maybe the hightened anticipation drowned out all other negative sensations.
Jack and Ray from Wala Wala performing songs like I'm Yours by Jason Miraz and The Tralala Love song from their first album. Their singing was fantastic and their guitar skills were equally astounding. That started to draw the tired campers out of their shells and warmed up the stage all right.
The dancers from NTU were doing their best with their dance moves to impress the audience with quick changes of dance costumes and slick modern moves to hip hop.
The star celebrity was of course, Zhang Hui Mei aka Amei, the reigning queen of pop music. She paired up with local songwriter David with three songs to entertain the campers.
By the end of the second song, almost all the 1000 campers, including those who had never heard of her before were already clapping, smiling or even dancing away in the audience seats or on the audience seats. Amei's ability to stir the crowd into action with her singing was par excellence and her jovial personality and friendliness onstage was equally mesmerizing. She sang and danced with every of the ten plus volunteers who went onstage and gave them equal opportunity to interact with her. Queen of Mandarin Pop - Of course. Airs of Queen of Mandarin Pop - unquestionably friendly. She even managed to coax the Principal of ACS Barker to croon onstage and drove the audience wilder with her interactions with them onstage.
Amei receiving a gift from one of the beneficiaries of the One Life Children Fund whilst the emcee was examing how beautiful the painting was.
The sing-a-long session with the volunteers onstage just before the countdown began.
Everyone congratulating themselves when the countdown was over. Time to celebrate, cheer and eat.
The campers right before the final announcements were given about where they should be heading to break their fast. Eager ears were all listening in.
The long, snaky queue to collect the long-awaited dinner to break fast for Famine Camp 2009. I was not hungry but I collected it anyway. I viewed it as a rite of passage that should be observed even though my group was waiting for me to sign their booklet so they could collect their 30 CIP points for attending and completing the camp.
9.30am. Downtown East. Whilst most of the campers were still busy eating and chatting the night away, I had to leave early, much to my reluctance, because I had to work on the following morning. Besides bading farewell and exchanging contacts with my group members, I shook hands with as many of the World Vision staff whom I was familiar with and worked with during the Famine Camp before I left to find a taxi home.Well, that's the end of Famine Camp 2009 blog post for me.
You can read more about some of the more recent news coverage of it by following the links below if you wish to. Time to sleep. I need to make up for the lost sleep during the camp. Bye.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/434369/1/.html
http://news.sg.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3361970
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_386487.html
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