Scriber's Note
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| Top row 1st from right - Vince Koh |
Anyone who would like to share their thoughts, stories, photos etc - please do not hesitate to send it to "PioneerScouts@gmail.com".
Led by our no nonsense scout leader David Neo Boon Tuan from the late 70’s to the 80’s, one whom we all had great respect but trembled in fear upon hearing his name. Boon Tuan had always given more than 100% in refining all of us to be the gentlemen we are today. Weekend trainings were held every week and different skills were taught to us, June holidays were a nightmare as we had to train for a week like commandoes and when it came to December it was as hellish as ever. Training was absolutely mandatory otherwise we won’t be able to get our proficiency badges and be promoted to Patrol leaders. We had to do it because we needed to impress the girls : -P
From learning jungle survival techniques in June and training to sea activities like canoeing, boat rowing, power boating and life saving during December you might think this was all fun but none of us found it fun back than because of the extremity of the training involved. We had to carry canoes which were tripled layered, the 24 footer row boat weighted more like a T-Rex and we had to carry the boats all out to sea each time we had our training, the ordeal would be almost 1 kilometer to and fro from the beach .Our boats were than parked in someone’s kampong house until the shed was built.
During sea training around some of our islands in Singapore we were taught to catch crabs, rock oysters and learn how to cook and eat them, weird looking crabs were caught but only their pincers were taken as some contain toxins. Rock oysters were happily knocked off from the rocks and on many occasions went straight down our pipes before we got them back to camp. On one very memorable sea training we were forced to eat boiled bee hoon (vermicelli) with kaya (coconut jam) as that was our only food left, the taste was memorably horrible, ask those who had tried it and they will tell you that you will be paranoid for the next three years. Mind you, this is NOT the delicious Putu Mayam that the Indians sell; this is literally Bee Hoon With Kaya Pioneer Scouts style! Looks the same but the ingredients are different!!!
Another memorable occasion was this, we were on Pulau Serimbun and had to dig and make a toilet at the summit. My friend Paneerselvam and I were given the honors to DIG the hole. It was raining and it was getting darker by the minutes, Pannerselvam and I just managed to dig only a few inches when we heard owls and strange noises around us, both of us started getting nervous and just dug and tried to get it over with asap than Paneerselvam just said “Hey Vincent Suda lah(Thats's it) enough lah! so dark already and i heard funny noises lah” I agreed with him"Yah man faster chow lah, see bay jia lat leh(very bad)" and went back down to camp. When we saw Teng who was the in-charge we told him that we have settled the toilet issue. About an hour later after dinner Teng had to go to the toilet to release himself, he came back almost immediately and called out angrily on both of us, here’s what he said “ You two@*#%&& dig until so wide I have to split my legs as if I am giving birth, my shit won’t even come out because it is not used to such position!!!” we had to go cover the excess width and dig deeper and it took us another hour before all is done.
Sitting at the table with only seven guys from Pioneer Scouts last night was still as exciting as it was almost 30 years ago as we reminisced the good old days. I was quite lucky actually as Juan Yuan and Hock Eng were both my Patrol leaders back than. It was also the first time I was able to sit side by side with Boon Tuan without having any anxiety disorder, Boon Tuan was really nice to all of us as he scooped food onto our plates and talked to us like brothers. I can’t help but wonder that we had such a genius in him; he was only in his early 20’s when he single handedly brought all the training specs and put them into action. If it weren’t for Boon Tuan most of us would not have been able to learn so much. I doubt that there can ever be such training for the youngsters of today again as most of the things we did back than were really out of this world and possibly not acceptable in this modern day era.
This years 2010 BTA on the 29th October was just one of those meaningful get together, it was made possible by a group of dedicated guys whose loyalty to Boys Town is so ever commending. Thank you guys for the magazine and rushing the pics you took for us on every table and the rest of the hard work that you have put into this to make it all possible for us to attend. I really appreciate every bit of it!
