Young Reporters Training Camp 2009 by Koh Tingyi

I pushed the door open. The room was abuzz with excitement – a mixture of enthusiastic voices and joyous laughter. I stepped in and was greeted by a whole room of unfamiliar faces. My stomach twisted into a tight knot. I felt out of place and I was very late. Earlier, I had taken the wrong bus and had to endure a 1.6km walk in order to reach my destination, NacLi.  Sweating profusely and trying to catch my breath, I was quickly ushered into a seat in the front by one of the facilitators. I glanced around, offering a smile to whoever looked my way. My long awaited camp was finally beginning.

Each of us was assigned a project, which we had to complete and submit at the end of the camp. Hence, each of us were presented with a camera at the opening dinner, and we snapped up pictures wherever we went.

It was truly fascinating to discover and learn about our different cultures and countries from the other young reporters around the world. I did not realize that Cayman Island actually existed till then! I learnt about Croatia and their seaports. I learnt about Cyprus and their extremely hot weather which made me stop complaining about Singapore’s weather! I also learnt about their unique festivals and practices. Those were indeed, an eye-opener for me. In exchange, I thought them how to use chopsticks. That was another hilarious moment we shared. They were good, grabbing peanuts with their newly acquired skill minutes after being taugh.! Best of all, I succeeded alongside my Singaporean counterparts in imparting our “Singlish” to them. Not long after, everyone was inserting the famous “lah”, “hor”, and “meh”  in their sentences, producing something that sounded like a perfect sentence, followed by a pause and an abrupt “lah” at the end.

I recall the last week of the camp during which I stayed over in NacLi. Racing to complete our projects, we would all gather outside our rooms where the Internet was readily available. Sometimes, when we got tired after long hours on the computer, we would snack, listen to music, play a round or two of games and just chill out. It was tough working on the project when the Internet kept disconnecting, when pictures could not be uploaded and when many a times, a few had to re-do their entire project. However, we continued to urge and encourage each other. Frankly, this project pretty much drained us of our energy but it was something we had to complete so we pressed on.

After spending so many wonderful days with them, saying good-bye seemed impossible. It was really difficult. Teary-eyed, I bid farewell to them and that was the last we saw each other. On another note, all of us refused to believe that we would never see each other again and so we promised each other that we would meet again one day, somewhere in the middle of this world! Looking back, we had treasured our days together knowing that the camp would not last forever. We had spent every opportunity we had to find out more about each other and we definitely did make the best out of everything we did. I truly miss them!

Those days spent with them were more than I could ever ask for and I want to take this opportunity to thank my teachers who had given me this wonderful opportunity! My life would be so different now, if not for this amazing bunch of friends.