OBBD: Going back to basic...

Months ago, I volunteered myself to help out in the International Summer Medical School Programme, not knowing what I would be doing. Now, the 6 Japanese students are finally here for the programme and I have been assigned to become a personal buddy for one of the Japanese students. Before everything fell into place, it felt very heavy on the shoulder, especially since it's in my long summer vacation as well. But now, I'm beginning to enjoy being in the programme.

For the past 2 weeks that they've been here, the daily programme has been pretty light. We had a presentation comparing our libraries and also a debate about medical education systems. Both are pretty fun...and congratulations to our team for winning! The debate was especially more exciting and enjoyable...

Oh well, back to the main topic: OBBD. It was more of a compulsory thing for us, buddies, to join the Outward Bound Brunei Darussalam (OBBD) in Temburong for 3 days 2 nights. Having said that, I was also very interested in the programme as I have never been to Temburong itself. Moreover, it's free for the buddies. So I just went for it!

Before the OBBD, we had a briefing about the weekend we're going to spend there. Nothing much was said by the instructors apart from listing the essential things we are supposed to bring there. Everything was supposed to be a surprise. Ideas started running through my mind and most of my colleagues'. Friends have told us that it'd be all fun and we'll be sleeping on proper mattresses. So we didn't prepare much, just bringing the essentials they've listed for us...and some snacks of course.

The day came. It was a Friday morning. We departed the jetty in Bandar and took a speed boat to Bangar. After the 45-minute boat ride, we had to take a 30-minute bus ride to reach the OBBD Logistics Centre. All excited, all the 17 of us were brought to meet our instructor. We started off with ice-breaking activities. I had a good time laughing...

After all that fun, he had an announcement, "We will safe-keep for you ALL of your source of entertainment, plus ALL of the snacks you brought." Haha! That means all mobile phones, MP3 players, magazines, etc as well as the snacks we brought have to be surrendered while we were in the camp. Sounding like a boot camp now...more surprises coming up!

Then we had a decent lunch, before crossing the bridge over to our dorm. Surprise!!! We were shown our bedroom: a big piece of flat wood in the jungle. Interesting...and who were talking about pillows and all that blankets? Lol. Being optimistic, we were fine with things, and all of us began to set all our expectations low and back to all the basic survival skills.

After unloading our stuffs, we went for more activities and the highlight was floating in the rapids. Gosh...it must be one of the most relaxing things I have done this holiday. Floating in the cold, pure water of Temburong River and enjoying the emerald green scenery. It was just very refreshing...

Like all good things that happen, it felt really fast that we had to move on to the next thing arranged for us. Another surprise after dinner! We are going jungle trekking and sleep overnight in the jungle...Wooo, how exciting - my first ever experience camping.

We packed the things we were going to bring in like a huge trekking bag. We were given rations and we separated the equipments that we needed in the jungle. I had to carry one of the tents. Not too bad, although my bag plus the tent was pretty heavy actually. Anyways, I didn't sleep that night; busy talking while sitting on the grass and not realising the time, especially when we were not allowed watches as well (except for the leader). Then a fire drill at 4.30am...Funny when we were talking just so close to the assembly area.

On the next 2 days, I was elected as the team leader for our team, Pengiran Bendahara Sakam. Assembly at 6am sharp. There was a national anthem singing and flag rising ceremony...and then a motivational speech by ME! Oh God...I really didn't know what I was saying. It was pretty spontaneous and I think I pulled it off by ending with the famous "Hipp Hipp Hooray!" Lol =]

After a light warm-up exercise and a pretty heavy breakfast, we were set to go. Our navigators were Nadzir and Naoky. We were told that they only give us up to 4.30pm to actually reach there. We were like "Huh?", particularly when we left the place at 8.30am. Anyways, we believed in ourselves and with good team spirit, we moved very smoothly through the journey. There were many times when we were told that we're almost there, but we were not even close...and when they said it was the last hill, it's like the last 5 hills. Nevertheless, we got there by 2.30pm. Imagine 6 hours trekking! A few of Bukit Shahbandar's 9 hills...But glad all of us made it! Well done...

At the camp site, we set up our tents and got everything ready before our canoeing lesson. We had to design a toilet nearby the camp site...and it was a hole, 1 feet deep. Interesting huh? And everytime you do your business, you just need to put a layer of soil over it. Everybody share the shit hole. So glad I didn't have a natural calling for the time I was there.

We were pretty early for the canoeing lesson, so we started collecting river water for drinking. Basically no other choices...Hey, it actually tastes pretty good, better than some of the bottled mineral water. And then, the very tiring canoeing lesson...

Then, we were back to our tents before it became dark. The girls started cooking and the guys helped out with the water and washing the dishes later on. It was good teamwork throughout. After dinner was over, we set up a campfire and all of us sat around it and started playing games. Although we were so tired at the end of the day, it was fun!

I had a really good sleep that night...and I was so glad I was able to wake up to wake the whole group up. As a team leader for the camp, I had to do that. Once everyone was up, we all had very light breakfast, packed all our stuffs to be carried back to the Logistics Centre by the Temuai and got ready for our canoes. We would be paddling back to the centre.

There was a short feedback session, where everyone has to talk about what they think about the whole programme...and then we paddled back to the centre. It was 1.5 hours of very hard work. But getting wet in such a scenic place was really pleasing.

Sadly, that's the end of the whole programme. I'm glad to say that the instructor is very impressed with the whole group's performance. We cleaned ourselves up, had lunch and then the closing ceremony, before we headed back to the Bandar jetty.

It was such an experience. I would say it was very tiring but FUN...and there were many skills and lessons I've picked up throughout the programme. I really enjoyed it!