I was attending a 3 days 2 night camp at a camp site which I shall not mention, to prevent scaring the kids there. The program that day lasted til late at night and so, we let the cadets bathe first. When it was finally our turn to bathe, we were too tired and so decided to get up at 5am to bathe instead.

The alarm rang and we got up to bathe. There was only two of us, both guys. At the toilet, my friend and I were separated by 1 cubicle because it was dirty. So we started bathing and talking at the same time. Then all of a sudden, the lights started blinking and went out. It was so dark we could not even see our own hands. I thought some one (perhaps the care taker of the school) had mistaken the toilet to be empty and so, I wanted to go back outside to switch on the light. As soon as my hand touched the door knob, I heard a voice speaking directly outside my cubicle. It was an old lady and she spoke in a language I could not understand. It seemed like she was scolding us. For that whole minute I was frozen with fear. The last thing and the only thing I could understand was that she said ‘Don’t bathe with the lights on’ (zang zui mai kui hei) in hokkien. I was very scared but I remembered that my friend was in the other cubicle. I quickly called out to him and the lights started to flicker back on again. We quickly put on our clothes and rushed out of the toilets.

At this time, the cadets were already walking towards the toilet to wash up. From where they were, they could see if the toilet lights were on or off. So we asked them about it and they said it was on ALL THE TIME! Later in the morning we also asked the camp commander if there was a caretaker living in the school itself and he said, ‘there is one, but he doesn’t live in the school and it’s a male.’ At this, we were stunned. We didn’t know what to make of last night’s experience and perhaps, some things are better left unsaid…..