The second event was Student Leadership Camp.

The story started in the evening, when a few of our Alpha HC people, Mat, Theen Yew, Crystal, Teresa, Tiong Wei and me were sitting around a table in the hawker centre opposite the College. Most of us ordered shrimp noodles. Everyone was exhilarated about the upcoming Camp.

Back to school, in the Sports Complex, Mr Loh asked all of us to collect booklets and T-shirts. The design was done by Clarence, in the library to be specific. But that would be another story. Later, we organizers, which mainly consists of SC, HC, SportsXcel and OAC people were grouped together and shared our five strengths, while over hundred participants were having their ice breakers. After the sharing session, we were free, and it was now the participants’ turn to be explained about their strengths. Ms Kwan, Ms Norsheha, Mr Heng, Mr Loh, Mr Lim, Mrs Ang and Ms Chong were there. In the meantime, many of the HC people went to CR 106 to store their belongings that were not needed for night orienteering and the next day’s rafting and team bonding session.

I did not leave anything in CR 106, since I deemed that after team bonding tomorrow the Camp would be more or less done. However, I went there with Mat and Krystal anyway, just for the fun of it. When we headed back to the Sports Complex, I was still with my two bags. One was an exceptionally large travelling backpack which was bought for OBS in 2006, and one was my old school bag. And I still had two additional shoe bags (Orientation 2008) hanging from both sides of my backpack, which made Mr Loh joked: “Ni zai gan shen mo? Yao hui zhong guo ah?” (What are you doing? Are you preparing to go back China?)

Mr Loh was one of the busiest persons during the Camp. He had to transport a lot of equipments, materials as well as, humans between the Campsite at Changi Beach and the College with a rented lorry. A handful of the organizers such as Theen Yew, Mat, Eunice, Dinesh and I were not in the first batch that were to be loaned onto Mr Loh’s lorry, since our Stations were not the immediate ones. After Mat, Dinesh and I bought canned drinks from the vending machine, the rest of us organizers were transported by two other teachers who drove.

After getting lost at the Air Base area, Mrs Ang managed to drive us to the Campsite, where a big shelter had been set up and groundsheets had been spread out. It was around ten at night then.

We lay under the shelter for a while, and chitchatted a bit. I realised that I was surrounded my many SC people, not my usual acquaintances. But that could be the start of HC blending with SC. Cheryl was glad about that when the Camp ended. Oh, sidetracked – many of them then went to wash.

Dinesh had been off for 7-11 for a while when Mr Loh appeared and asked about him. Now Mr Loh left his packed dinner on the ground and gathered all the organizers at the Campsides (the rest had been left at respective Stations). Okay, the adventure had started at this point.

A lorry was driving on the slightly deserted main road. The wind produced by the fast travelling lorry was cooling, and it was so strong that our hair was blew backwards. And then we went abreast with another lorry which was full of dark foreign workers. We looked more or less the same. Shall we wave at them?

No more jokes, because here came one of the most haunted place in Singapore. The lorry left the main road and dashed into a dark uphill path. The path was not lit by any streetlamps. Only dark woods. Dark bushes. (Oh, no, dark bushes does not mean Obama and Bush!) Anyway, it was really tranquil in that area. And a bit bone-chilling and blood-curdling. The buildings were white. And it could be seen clearly in this particular night without moon. Yes, white buildings. Dark windows. Like hopeless eyes of nothingness. Of unknowns. A haunted place. Old Changi Hospital. It was not known why the Hospital has moved. But we were here anyway.

The lorry came to a halt at the dead end. The outline of a gate was visible in the darkness, as well as the silhouette of the morgue. Another car was already there. We jumped off the lorry and met Ms Ang, Mr Heng and other teachers. It was drizzling. Not that cold, but the icy silky tiny raindrops irritated me. We were all equipped with umbrellas and Mr Heng made sure we had teacher in-charges’ contact numbers. We reassured them not to worry. And the next minute they were gone. The car and the lorry disappeared from our sights. The red lights mixed with the darkness.

We were alone.

Mat, Dinesh, Theen Yew and me.

Just four of us.

The morgue.

I suggested to sit back to back so we could watch for each other’s backs. Having backs to unknowns gave us a sense of insecurity. We did not lean our backs to another wall of wire-net either simply because the thin wires could not be trusted.

So we sat in the open, a bit further away from the wired wall, and much further away from the morgue. We did not go anywhere near it at all. Beneath us was the tar road. Well, it was so not challenging. But that was what we did then. We sit under four umbrellas. Dinesh switched on his torchlight and shared his chocolate with us. So we crouched underneath the umbrellas and ate in a pool of orange light. Such a cozy night huh?

Now I will skip the details of the game and focus on the progress of the night instead.

Before the first group came, we heard people talking from the direction of the morgue.

At first, I thought there was another path there. But it seemed to be impossible. They were waving torchlights and laughing loudly. As they went out of the morgue and met us, I sensed very strong cigarette smell. This was a group of teenagers who were naughty enough to play games in the morgue in the middle of the night. Maybe they were more than teenagers. Some of them seemed to be drunk. One boy came forward and sat with Theen Yew. He looked rather sheepish, and was obviously asking for Theen Yew’s name. Theen Yew identified himself as “Michael”. Another guy approached Dinesh and claimed that we were daredevils. Wow, he was apparently drunk. But they soon took their leave and disappeared.

This is only the first wave. Second wave soon came. A black car rolled in. Its front light lit the bushes before we had a view of the car. It went passed us for a few metres and halted. The driver winded down the window.

“What (are) you guys doing here uh?” He enquired.

Theen Yew explained to him. He did not reply. “Are you patrolling?” Asked Theen Yew.

“No, I’m just driving pass.” Said the driver. Bah, you drove into the dead end of an old hospital premises? I think not. But the driver started the engine again and reversed. The second wave ended.

The third wave was before we started another round of game. One car and two motorcycles were parked in front of us. Three people went into the morgue. Well, people had had so much fun in that place. A belated Hallowe’en party? Anyway, when they came back, we were forced to call a stop for our game in order to make way for the vehicles.

We went back with the last group of participants. Washed, I lay in one corner of the groundsheet and drifted into sleep on the hard ground.

To be continued: Drifting, Rafting and Kayaking