yeah im back from brunei, back from jcc and im glad and definitely proud enough to say that i wear that badge proudly above my left breast pocket now. apart from losing 7 kg in the 9 days, im also covered from head to toe all over with these insane amount of sandfly bites i look like a homeless std victim. and the quantity from tube of cream the doc gave me only permitted its usage twice. my feet all cracked and cut up from the many torturous hours stumbling ard in the two swimming pool boots of mud and water. and i have all these little cuts all over from the thorns of various creepers and plants i feel so, torn.

i dont think i would wanna go indept into the details of the entire jcc process but well, it was really 9 days i wont forget i suppose. i never felt so beaten, defeated, anguished, wasted, lost, homesick, depressed and every feeling that comes close to bringing justice to the absolute annul we all felt, especially on the 5 and 6 day where we were totally lost and disorientated with almost no water left, stranded at the downward side of the mountain. and there was rain and more rain. the nights were the longest, and the coldest. with the onslaught of sandflies and all, sleep was really literally painful, slow and very wet.

on the night before jcc itself, they passed us letters from our families back in singapore, most of which contained encouragements and pictures of all sorts to spur us and motivate us to press on for the next 9 days. i must say i was really encouraged by it, it being a first for me. it was the first time my parents wrote me a letter, as with many others that night. and yes you have no idea the impact and significance those seemingly unadorned and simple words could bring you when you're at rock bottom dragging yourself along only with a stubborn saneless will. so many times you feel like breaking down but pull yourself together knowing that it wont solve a thing, and the letters from further away keep pulling you close to home, something to cushion the callous sighs.

out of my group of 10, 2 fell out (cause of a sprained ankle and an almost truncated left thumb), 4 failed (very largely due to the fact of lack of time for ex forager and overly bitchy assessors.) and 4 passed. i would say my group went through perhaps alot more than what was required of the jcc itself, considering the amount of extra knolls and ravines we had to overcome given the fact we lost our way so many times. ay oh well. hope they give us our block leave next week. and then the two weeks of training before we fly off to thailand this time, for yet another 3 weeks.