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LEAP Advanced 2014
LEAP Advanced 2014
Singapore Polytechnic, LEAP Advanced @ Surabaya, Indonesia
Singapore Polytechnic, LEAP Advanced @ Surabaya, Indonesia
7 – 14 October 2014
7 – 14 October 2014
The first SP overseas community programme I opportune to participate was SP LEAP.
Bold as I always am, I 'flew' even before I knew how to 'crawl'!!!
LEAP in SP consists of Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. I never experienced the former two and went on to take up the latter. My appreciation goes to Kwok of DSA, the leader of this programme, for his guidance on pre-trip preparations along with all other students participants.
I particularly like the physical preparation where all of us climbed one of the 40-storey HDB blocks besides our school. We had a 10kg load on our back when we did that and we needed to complete 4 to 6 repetitions. It was my first time doing that and I must say I loved and still love it!
(I had since done that till now.)
The objective of the LEAP Advanced is:
The objective of the LEAP Advanced is:
1. To facilitate self-discovery through an organised trekking expedition of Mount Arjuna as a backdrop for outdoor experiential learning opportunities.
1. To facilitate self-discovery through an organised trekking expedition of Mount Arjuna as a backdrop for outdoor experiential learning opportunities.
2. To provide opportunities for character building and leadership development for the participants such as resilience, perseverance and team work.
2. To provide opportunities for character building and leadership development for the participants such as resilience, perseverance and team work.
3. To learn to appreciate another country’s culture and development.
3. To learn to appreciate another country’s culture and development.
4. To develop an appreciation for nature and the need for conservation of the environment and one’s ecological heritage.
4. To develop an appreciation for nature and the need for conservation of the environment and one’s ecological heritage.
Our accommodation was at the Kaliandra Sejati Resort.
This programme is 4 – 5 days longer than the Foundation and Intermediate. The activities here are hence more adventurous and require more courage. There was no time to rest. The moment we touched down at Surabaya International Airport, we headed straight to the Resort. The latter is about 800m above sea level. You can imagine the drop in ambience temperature as our bus ascended towards the Resort. It was nice cool air all around when we reached it and the works started: preparing to load further on our backpack with other trekking essentials.
It took us approximately 12 hours the next day to reach the base camp which is about 2800m above sea level. We continued out journey to the submit at 0200 on 9 Oct and reached the submit (3339m above sea level) at around 0830. It was quite an experience! I appreciated the HDB flat climbing we had prior this trekking. I could see all were helping one another to brave through darkness, steep slopes and unfriendly terrain.
Although we were not able to catch the sunrise at the summit, all of us felt a sense of achievement and satisfaction. I found it more difficult descending from the summit, than ascending. I believe one has to place on correct footing during the descend in order not to hurt one’s knee. We were grateful to Freddie (partner from YMCA Singapore) and Kwok, who are both avid mountain trekkers to guide us along. We camped for another night at the base camp. It was really pitch dark during the night at the base camp. The darkness contrasted the blinking stars and this allowed us to see the thousands of them blinking and at times, ‘raining’ at us. Such beautiful sight was not easily observed if we were to be in Singapore when most of the time, the stars would be obscurred by the background lights emits from the city. During the two nights’ sleep at the base camp, I was woken up many times by the howls of the wind and the continual contact amongst the forest trees.
We got back to the resort in the late afternoon on the fourth day. We reflected on the Mount Arjuna experience and each shared their thought on the activities, encounters and what they had self-discovered. The students then prepared items needed for the next day’s (11 Oct) Community Involvement Programme (CIP) [with the local schools: Khoir Primary and Secondary School, Jatiarjo, Prigen].
The students faced unexpected obstacles: whatever, they planned was not easily executed. They had to amend and even omit the plans and came out with resolution that suited the prevailing circumstances. Although it was a short CIP session, the students had to learn to be resilient, persevere with the hardship and more importantly, working as a team to overcome the obstacles. We trekked a short journey from the resort to the abseiling site.
There, we abseiled down a 40m cliff in the afternoon. Although there were a few assisted paths along the cliff, it was nevertheless heart pounding and not as easy as it looked: to be dangling along the rocky surfaces and be able to steady yourself for a smooth steerage downwards.
Hui Xin, Andre, Jin Yin, Nico, Suresh, Josiah, Akib, Japheth, Fang Yu, Teng Fone, Farid, Soleha, Avneet, Munmit, Najah, Atiqah, Siti, Felicia.
End note
End note
This is the last overseas LEAP Advance SP ever had. I was, and still feel am, so very lucky to have participated. Subsequently, I participated in LEAP Foundation, yes, sort of going backward. To know about LEAP, click here.
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