Operation DHL

JYM camp 1 - 4 Dec 2008

Operation DHL (delivering hope & love)

MAIN EVENTS

- Amazing race (day 1 afternoon)

from what i heard, the places to go were in clementi, bukit timah, queensway and 1 more area that Acacia didnt go because they ran out of time. I couldnt join in due to GOM test. returned to church from school to join the camp at 5+.

-Predator and prey (day 1 night)

held at botanical gardens, involves a scissor-paper-stone type of 3 teams catching. Agape is blue team, to catch orange team Hagios and avoid green team Pistevo.

my team had the disadvantage of having our base in the middle of the 2 other team's. when the game started, we took so long to distribute ribbons, discuss our plans and take action. by the time we were ready, the greens have arrived at our base and started attacking those just outside, and camped there. my team ppl were just staying in base most of the time and running from greens the moment we get out. we were just really unwilling to go out of the comfort zone and get some action, so it became boring. after a while we set off towards the orange base, only to find that there were hardly any oranges there, but the area was crawling with greens. started running all over again.

My team had the worst tactic to go about the game, especially given the tactics of our predators and prey. Green were aggressive and patrolled around in pairs or single, waiting to ambush unwary blues. Orange just went hiding or to some unknown place we couldnt find them. But we blues went altogether to the orange base area in one whole big group!! needless to say, that tactic proved to be really useless and dumb, as seen when the greens rushed in and scattered the group like a wolf invading a herd of sheep. and how are we supposed to effectively find and catch any oranges by going in a big group.?.. it was a pitiful time.

problems with the gameplay: 

light sticks feature was no use at all. just had to stay in base and they are safe. or like my group did, hide it in really unobvious places like behind a corner dustbin, and covering up the light.

place was really dark and the ribbon colors cant be seen until we got so close that its too late to run. had to keep asking ppl "what color are you?". also caused alot of unnecessary fear, like my own teammates running from me, thinking im green.

can exploit by hiding ribbons to prevent identification before seeing or asking for colors.

can exploit by taking off ribbons and pretend to not have one to avoid being caught, then put back on when want to. or else, walk around without ribbon to serve as decoys.

- Telematch (day 2, afternoon)

held at ECP, at a grassy and swampy open area away from the beach. place was very muddy and wet and had a lot of creepy crawlies among the grass and soil. there were frogs, big ants, grass spiders, earthworms and even centipedes, like one which crawled onto my foot. major freak out for some of the girls. 

first game, spin 10 times before running across a soapy mat to a pail of water to draw some using a plastic bag held with 2 fingers. water to be filled into a 1.5l bottle. 

2nd game, spinning 5 times before running to a plate with an apple, take a bite then to another plate with polo sweets hidden in flour. no use of hands. was quite gross as the flour gets onto our face and clothes, plus the apple juice mixed with flour was disgusting. unhygenic. 

3rd game, captains fruit. captains ball but using fruits and vegetables instead. each faction to play twice with each other, thus we split into 4 teams of 7. during my game, the ball was a tomato, which bursted beyond recognition and had to be changed twice. easy to catch with 1 hand. at the end of the round, i caught the ball as a 1 third of a tomato peel. other rounds, the balls were cabbages, bananas, rock melon and the infamous giam chye. 

- indoor game (day 2 night)

game had to be cut short because the session before that ended an hour late, leaving only an hour for this game. played as 1v1 of faction, each side deploys 15 people around the team space separated from the opponent's by a barrier of sleeping bags. players are to lie down and each side take turns to throw 3 pillows onto the other side, hoping to hit opponent players to eliminate them. the sleeping bag used for throwing kept bursting open and was later replaced. a captain can advise shooters on player locations but didnt really work. my opponent players were hidden at the end or at corners and pillars while my team was nicely spaced out all around the space. wasnt a good tactic. game ends when 5 out of the 15 are hit.

- missions game (day 3 afternoon)

the game with the most amount of planning and preparation put into it. intended to create a real life RPG, in the setting of the upper levels of the church as Singapore and lower levels as communist vietnam. objective to smuggle as many bibles as possible to vietnam people. 

game money is earned by answering general knowledge qns in a 'prayer session', or asnwering ivan's tough riddles and puzzles, or doing song & dance, or doing jobs in vietnam. money is then used to buy bibles, visas or bribes. also receives an income every 10 mins which is affected by nunmber of 'souls'. 

my role was a vietnam police together with wai kit, to check on player visas and confiscate any bibles or excess cash discovered with players in vietnam. the whole game followed a timeline of events marked by 10mins intervals, each one having changes in situation, such as increase or decrease in income, prices, points and security. police operations are varied according to the level of security stated. managed to bust a number of bible smuggler operations, and uncover lots of bibles (or CDs) in bags. bibles had to be given to pas andrew in vietnam in order to gain the points. had to guard him closely. 

players started to use exploits like sneaking out of the window leading to the spiral staircase to enter vietnam, which saves them from the checkpoints. it was illegal and the bibles brought down through the illegal entrance were disqualified. 

last 30mins, secuirty level was 0, so i went to join in the player activites to observe. the last part was quite a mess and rush. but agape wont the game!

CAMP ELEMENTS

A&M

at first, asked joel to take one for me. later when i came, was given another one. so i decided to stick with having 2 mortals since many poor campers still had their name in the envelope and had no angel. so i got - Clement and Davin. wrote to both mortals using different handwritings and writing styles. Davin couldnt figure who i was and thought i was a young girl, but clement knew it was me very soon. coulnt find the chance to buy goodies for my mortals until the 3rd day evening. so meanhwile made use of church sweets and letters. clement was nice enough to buy his angel a choc bar.. my angel wrote at first in a way that really made me convinced it was a younger boy, at least 3 years younger. for the first 2 letters someone else helped her write. but after that, she wrote it in her own handwriting and style. made me confused. then on her last letter, it really sounded like Kara. but it turned out to be - Big Phoebe...

Baths

bath time was quite limited, given that there was so many guys to bathe in just 3 cubicles.but we all managed to get our fair share of baths for the camp. some overlaps onto dinner time, and while waiting for the Q, can do other stuff. 

had to bathe in cold water, which resulted in much shivering when having the session after dinner in the aircon sanctuary.

free time

there is little free time available, the only ones being in the wash up times while other have their bath, or a little time just before lights out. except the last night which had no lights out but sadly i had to be at home to sleep. the free times were usually used to play cards and write A&M letters.

Meals

the food for the camp was satisfactory. not fantastic but no complaints either. lunch and dinner was mostly mixed rice or meat rice, other than thai food on day 2 dinner and western on day 3. breakfast was mainly bread, but sometimes had bee hoon, porridge, chwee kueh. drinks was just milo for breafast and supper, and water for the rest. rather budget...

Sessions

the sessions, conducted by Joseph Chien, were great. very engaging and interesting. they are among the few i come across that can really catch and maintain my attention throughout, and also provide lots of useful, new and meaningful points. learned a lot from them. i guess its the speaker that counts in making it good. 

Sleep

guys dorm in the auditorium, girls in the old chapel. apparently the old chapel wasnt big enough and some girls had to overflow into the youth office. guys dorm had more than enough space for everyone though. i took my sleeping spot on the stage just beside the cross on the wall. nice spot. having to sleep on the floor, had to use my towel as bedsheet and sleeping bag as pillow. but later during the sleep the aircon got so cold and i had no blanket. had to change sleeping bag into the bedsheet, use someone's bag as pillow, then use towel as blanket. much better after that...