HELL Training

The gathering time was 6.30am, and obviously I was at the roundabout in my university at 6.10am. I’m the first one who arrived at the gathering spot and tried to let my sub-conscious mind awake. A gentle breath in and out while waiting the rest to appear; my mind told me that, “alright, this is going to be an unforgettable memory for me”. Yes, I and my entire fellow classmate who took “Organizational Behavior” (BOB2027) were heading our way to the University of Defense at Sg.Besi, Selangor. The day we decided to take this subject as our elective, we had a well-prepared mindset for some challenging stuffs coming ahead. And the day finally comes. Everyone finally shown up and my group were proud because one of our group mates who suffered from dehydration also participated in this activity. While waiting our beloved lecturer (Miss Ong) and our tutor (Pei Leng) to check on the attendance list, we took the chance to shot photo group by group.

(hamza, kiru, yong ching, yola, lee hui, kwee foong, ah chai, viranjit, me, and james)
Looking at the photo we took before we go, I can only feel that we were going as a group, as a team. But the spirit and force from the internal self was low. We were a team just because we were meant to. We had been arranged. So, we had not yet gone through anything. Basically, we were a bunch of classmates being grouped together going for a challenge in the jungle with pretty optimistic mindset. The mission of creating “one band, one sound” was still a dream.
we were all divided into team formed by interracial members. above were group of my buddy, edward and ah foo.

some of the nice pose we managed to capture before departing. featuring from top: edward, sing soon, and ah foo.
I still clearly treasured in my mind that what we did on the bus. The driver was screening “King Kong” on the bus and some guys complained that it was too noisy. Thus, after the first stop at the highway rest stop, the driver stopped the movie and everyone can enjoy their peaceful rest. The most important thing was to get enough sleep and get ourselves prepared for the tough and rough activities. I slept and when the time I woke up, we were almost there. When we reached the front gate of the University of Defense (or previously known as ATMA), we were liked “oh my god, the soldiers looked pretty smart and cool with their uniforms on.” However, it gave me some sort of pressure that we were going to face a very strict and harsh team building training.

Then, I managed to see the overall environment of the defense academy from my fast glances. I can see soldiers marching in the campus, soldiers jogging in pairs, soldiers cycling in pairs, and the field is big yet being fully occupied by the soldiers. Apparently, they were going through lots of physical training. “Can I do these? Can I pass the entire physical test given?” I asked myself. After a few moments, I said aloud in my heart, “I can do it. We were a bunch of daring teens and risk-takers.” “Nothing should be afraid of and since we had taken it, we go for it!”

We stepped down from the bus and we were greeted warmly by the soldiers and committees in charge. Probably just not to freak us out at the very beginning. And well, my guess was right. Right after we registered ourselves and put our luggage aside, we were ordered to be in team at the line. Then, we were brief one some safety stuff in the “Soldier Way” and I bet you know what I mean here. It means they expect firm and loud response from us. So, common response we gave was like shouting “Ya, Tuan!”, “Faham, Tuan!”, “Boleh, Tuan!” etc. Not so sure why they like to shout and be so aggressive in army training. Probably that is another way to boost our inner confidence. Because at the moment you shouted out you can do it aloud, you have to some how make sure you mean it. That is how soldiers motivate their trainees I guess.

the army life started....shout louder!

intructors who gave us some briefing on "Do" and "Don't" in the camp.

we making flags for our team....

we were performing the war cry(cheers) for our team...
one of the facilitator taught us how to sing the army song "Darah Satria"
we open our mouth widely to give our best in singing this song
Then, we were divided into males and females before we were guided to our living room. On the way to our room, we never expect much in our mind. Our lecturer had told us that there was a possibility that we might need to stay on the tree top. LOL. Luckily, we were accommodated with a soldiers’ barrack. However, the condition of the barrack was awful. Seemed to be abandoned some a period of time, with all the spider web around and unknown insects or animals shit on the floor. Anyway, it was not so bad after all because the room was windy and had electricity. Thanks God for that. One more thing is that, the toilet was just nearby within a few footsteps away. Good for us. Good news would be: we don’t have to sleep on the floor but instead on a portable stretcher-form bed which we need to “build” it on our own. Alright, before lunch time we managed to settle down with our living room.

Everyone was hungry and lunch finally arrived. The meal looked great and better than what we had expected. But…. LOL, there is always a “but” because thing wont go on so easily and smoothly. When we were so excited to eat as much as we can, we were told we going to use plates and glasses provided by the army. Yupe, and that is when hell style began. When we approaching the containers with all the plate and glasses. Holly shit, the plates and glasses were so dirty, some with curry oil sticking on it, some with unclean rice sticking on it, some with mud inside the glasses. Argh…. Have to wash it before we use it, but the first glance of the plates and glasses was vividly inn our mind. Thus, it somehow affected our appetite. Furthermore, we had to eat with our bare hand. (Obviously we as Chinese people were not used to it) Anyway, we still managed to push the food inside our stomach. But imagine eating with our hand which we used to clean off the curry oil and mud. Yuckss… Just not going to do that ever again.

everyone in sub-conscious or blur-mode...too hungry
the condition of the female room...the insect shit or animal shit is all under the bed...even the kacang kulit can be found....
this is what i mean by using our "bare hand"!follow the rules of beggar when u r in their community..sigh

We started off the first activity with obstacles cross. Some called it as “commando cross”. Well, sounded simple since I had joined few camps before at the Hutan Rekreasi playing the same thing. However, the feeling was totally different. We had some weak members in the group. Every time we passed through all the barriers leaving the weak one behind, we need to motivate them from the other side. And here, we managed to form a good teamwork. We learned to give positive reinforcement towards our team members. We learned to give confidence in them by putting it in ourselves first. At the time we told them that they can do it, we need to prove to them that the tasks were easy and we managed to do it. So, indirectly, it built confidence in us being a role model. We cheered for them, we motivated them, we encouraged them, we praised them, we complimented them, we appreciated their efforts, and we comforted their failures. That is all about Organizational Behavior and it had been practiced out so suitably to the situation at that time. Never leave them mentally alone, the greatest motivation is not merely holding their hands but to heal their weak heart and fear mind.

"tangga kambing" demonstrated by our beloved miss ong...
climbing the 6 feet wall...

hohoho...i feel like a tarzan when i pass this obstacle!~wo wo wo!
some other "strike" straight into the water.......and some...

make it double when they failed to save their team mate!~lol......but indeed a hero
some fly like a bird .....(some sort of kung fu kick)

some would just give up easily...arh....just walk la...

i can do it like a monkey.....hu hu ha ha ha
miss lee doing "tapak gajah"...
this is the only obstacle i failed to reach the top...just a few inch more...but i'm totally exhausted...
correct way to put the leg...

To be continued…..