Rain, Rain, Go Away

Dear Diary

It is a nice Sunday… =) Did not expect to be out of camp today when I typed my previous blog entry. In fact, since I got into the military camp on Monday morning… I managed to stay out of camp on Monday’s and Tuesday’s evenings. Then last night (Saturday), I got to book out from camp and will only return back tonight. Glad to be able to go to church today.

Monday’s book-out was a total surprise and the medics were practically singing hallelujahs for that unexpected good fortune. We were told that we had to report to School of Military Medicine (SMM) on Tuesday and Wednesday for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Patient Assessment Model (Paramedical) and Intravenous infusion trainings. It did not bother me much that I had to be pierced by a 16-gauge vennula and having a catheter forced into my veins. Two evenings back in my own bedroom was enough to compensate all the agony, haha… So… I had a pretty nice Tuesday and Wednesday at SMM. It was a morale boost too, that I could successfully set up an intravenous drip into a fellow medic’s vein on first attempt! =)

On Wednesday evening, we were “chauffeured” back to the reservist training camp in Tanjong Gul which is in Tuas. On Thursday, did the battle drills with my platoon and we ended the day soaked to our skins. It was a rainy afternoon and if we thought it could not get any worse, we were thoroughly wrong. On Friday, the rain fell unceasingly the whole day. It was our live-firing exercise and I practically walked and rested under the onslaught of the merciless downpour. I was drenched, to say the least. It was so bad that the last time I thought I ever experienced that was when I was doing Exercise High Noon in Taiwan during my National Service (NS) days in 2000. At that time in Taiwan, during our 9-day outfield… the rain fell heavily for 7 days.

On Friday (12/1/07), it felt like the ancient days in Taiwan, except that I am now much older and possibly less fit. The boots, the rifle, the stretcher, the medical orderly pouch, the army greens and the skeletal battle order (SBO) were totally soaked. Nothing was spared. There were moments when I was trudging in muddy water which was knee-deep! Morale is usually as low as it gets when your underwear and socks are all wet…. at least for me, hahaha…. We ate in the rain, walked in the rain, waited in the rain. The seconds ticked like as if the world had stopped rotating. I went through that day successfully though. I know that my troops are getting old too. There were so many who came for medical treatment as I tended to them when we were back in our bunks in camp late Friday evening.

It was amazing how some soldiers could be whining away over small knocks and minor discomforts. As for me, I was having a really bad back pain but still managed to persevere through the training with some help from the mefenamic acid (Ponstan) prescribed to me by the medical officer though. I had initially wanted to ask for Naproxen but I doubted the army’s formulary has that anyway. Ponstan isn’t as lousy a drug as many pharmacists made out to be. In fact, based on recent personal experience… I thought Naproxen is less effective in pain-relieving and has more gastrointestinal side effects than Mefenamic acid! Talk about pharmacology textbooks and medical journals…. Can’t believe everything they say. =P

Wearing the army greens is a total change in the lifestyle. Suddenly, I was breathing in second-hand smoke from cigarette-smokers who smoked regularly like chimneys. To have mud on my face is as common as having an email in my inbox. Mosquitoes were everywhere and I realised that the mosquito patches I bought from my pharmacy were helpless against those thirsty vampires…. One sergeant said that whenever one wears the army greens, one can speak vulgarities fluently again. How true…. I hear vulgarities like verbally expressed punctuations to a spoken sentence. I am going to hear that for the next 5 days…. Geeesshhh… I don’t speak vulgarities by the way, hahaha… Of course, the soldiers were indulging in gambling, drinking and cajoling others to betray their wives by visiting prostitutes over the weekends. As many told me… reservist training is a good opportunity to run “havoc” again. The reservist army training is like adapting to a whole new lifestyle again. In a way, it is a reminder how fortunate I am to be now working in a civilian world. =)

On Saturday, watched the live-firing of 120mm mortars, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and line charges blasting the hills from a distance. We were briefed how some of those phosphorous bombs can blind, maim and burn soldiers to death. Ocular and respiratory burning… etc. I hope we never need to go to war. With the kind of “softening the enemy” firepower which United States and Israeli army usually employ, we were assured that 80% of our enemies would have been wiped out by the time the infantry assaults the objectives… errr… War is cruel indeed.

Anyway, I was shocked when a guy I did not know at all, placed his hand on my lap when I was eating breakfast in a hawker centre this morning. He told me politely to stop shaking my leg because it is not right for a guy to do so… hmmm… I didn’t notice I did that… I just smiled weakly. Talk about superstition: Shake your leg and your money goes away… Oh well… I don’t believe in that but I respected his entitled opinion and did not shake my leg. Then again, I remember how the late Anglican missionary Rev Gerald Khoo who was with his family in Thailand then. His children were strickened with fear over some strange supernatural phenomena…. which to put it plainly, evil spirits. Being a charismatic Anglican (Anglicans tend to be littered along the line of charismatism or conservativism), Rev Khoo prayed over his children and the accommodation. He tried to cast out demonic presence like most Charismatics always do by “charismatically” invoking the name of Christ Jesus. It worked for a few days but after a while, it would always recur.

Troubled, Rev Khoo sought the advice of the Anglican vicar of the church in Thailand and being a conservative, traditional priest, he asked to be allowed to celebrate the Holy Communion in the missionary’s house. He did just that and the supernatural disturbance left ever since. Sometimes, certain church traditions border almost towards superstition but the sacramental nature of the Holy Communion is almost like Christ being with us. Today is coincidentally the Second Sunday of Epiphany. In fact, the calendar which we all use these days is the Gregorian Calendar which was decreed and named after Pope Gregory XIII in 1587. On 1st January, it is actually commemorated as the circumcision of Christ. In fact, the first 4 Sundays of the year are known as the Epiphany. Epiphany, literally, means the revelation of God to mankind in the form of a human, Jesus Christ.

We are reminded that Christ’s epiphany is an act of God’s grace and enabling us to renounce evil, be forgiven of our sins and to live righteously (Titus 2:11 – 14). The epiphany of Christ is most important not because we can cast out demons in the name of Christ Jesus, or because we become nicer people, but rather because we are made right with God and have salvation (Luke 10:20). I believe the act of the Holy Communion is a statement of our unity with God and the Church of God, and hence a powerful sacrament of God’s grace in the life of a Christian. Just by demonstrating our allegiance to God, we can be sure we will be protected.

That’s about all I want to share. Got to go to army soon… pray that the weather gets better… hate the feeling of being soaking wet the whole day. Still very surprised I haven’t got a fever or any cold. Thank God! ;-)

Love this hymn I sang in church today… leave you with this…

The Church’s One Foundation


The church's one Foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is his new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav'n he came and sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her,
And for her life he died.

Elect from ev'ry nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food.
And to one hope she presses,
With ev'ry grace endued.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.

The church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain and cherish
Is with her to the end;
Though there be those that hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against or foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

'Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious
Shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With the God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with thee.

God Bless,

Andrew