Alex and Scouting

Last Saturday, as was my usual practice when I am in town, I sent Alex to his Scout meeting in school. He had joined the scouting movement in school since late Feb 2007. Things has certainly changed from the time when I was scouting. Maybe it was my school - Victoria Institution. Maybe it was the times. But I was certainly not aware of any scouts movement that has a co-ed participation. I clearly remember that there were Boy Scouts and there were Girl Scouts.

I still remember when I first tried to join the scouts movement in VI. VI had 2 troops - 1st KL and 2nd KL. As part of the school curriculum, you had to join one uniformed group. In my naivety, I showed up at the 2nd KL's meeting on Saturday and said I would like to join them. They hmmed and hawed and finally told me that it was not possible as they they preparing to go camping right after the meeting. I was so disappointed.

I tried again when the 1st KL had their troop meeting. Got accepted and within 2 weeks, had to prepare for a camping trip to Castle Camp. Castle camp is located near MINDEF at the end of Jalan Semarak (previously known as Gurney Road). So I attended my first scouts camp in school uniform, looking very lost and unprepared. What was the scouts motto?? - BE PREPARED!! Never mind. I was part of Falcon patrol and Sze Toh (a secondary upper) was my PL (Patrol Leader).

We had to take a series of test to qualify for our first badge - the TENDERFOOT badge. I remember Knots and Kim's game were amongst the test that I had to take. Alex does not have that today. Even the knots test he has is so simple. I had to tie reef knots, clove hitch, bowline, sheepshank, sheetbend and a couple of others that I forget now.

The fun part of scouting was camping and campfires. I remember after my first camping trip, I was singing almost all the songs that I learn at the campfire. Seems so much easier to remember songs back then. Today, I have still not figured out the lines to Subaru, except for the first line. Same with You raise me up by Josh Groban. Signs of early Alzheimers??

Couple of other trips were memorable for me. One was to Penang during the school holidays when I was in Form 1 (Lower Secondary 1). We camped inside the Botanical gardens and had daily run ins with the monkeys inhabiting the gardens. We had to be careful with our food stuff as the monkeys would steal them when they can. That was my first trip out of KL. On reflection, it was also quite selfish of me to have gone for that trip as my mum had just lost her job. The day I left for the trip, my mum was staying in a budget hotel courtesy of a family friend. When I got back a week later, I found that mum had managed to get us put up with a Grandaunt in Hot Spring New Village. That was also the time that I had to look after my sister and cook for her - at 12 years old. My mum's new employer could not accommodate 2 small kids at her work place. When school re-opened, Mum asked me to stop scouting. I did for a while, but the attraction of scouting was too great and I rejoined some months later.

Another memorable trip was to Port Dickson. We had set up the tent such that the entrance was parallel to the sea. This was to prevent water from getting in if the rain blew in from the sea. One night, the wind must have been very strong and very wet. We had placed the groundsheet inside the tent as usual, but had placed our haversack under the groundsheet at the edge. As a result, rain water came into the tent and could not go out. The groundsheet was collecting the water. My tent mates realized that it was flooding inside the tent and had evacuated -and I was sleeping like a log oblivious to everything. next morning, I found myself sleeping in about 2 to 3 inches of water up to my ears - totally drenched.

Needless to say -I was the laughing stock for the day.

We also had Scout Job week - interesting when you go up to houses with big dogs that roam freely. I learned very quickly that dogs are actually more afraid of humans - as long as you do not retreat. The moment you do, that fear is gone from the dogs. I remember standing absolutely still as an Alsatian sniffed me all over as I wait for it's owner to show up. Till today, I do not fear dogs. I respect them, but do not fear them. Maybe that's because I am born in the year of the dog??!!