K eep
S taying
T oo
C lose,
Z ealous
Y ouths,
K eep
I t
D rivin'.
after ten thousand years of not blogging, i now come with some news. hear hear!
so many things transpired since the last time i posted.
but to recall everything, plus knowing the fact that i take forever to finish my story, will, well, take forever, i will sum my experiences up as the story of the camp that i attended with 34 other sisters and brothers whom i hold dear to myself - Kem Remaja Cemerlang 4.
my contribution to the camp was simple. the teeshirt design and the teeshirt production. tho time was not favoring us, ustaz ahmad and i managed to get the teeshirts printed on time, alhamdulillah all Glory and Praises be to Him.
dawn came and we were still zooming on the highways of malaysia, and all praise to God we reached the campsite at Perak around 2pm.
we rested in the surau and basically some of us dozed off. later on we got dipatched to our bunks and had our food and all and finally nearing dusk, we started the camp proper. The instructors were excellent people, and taught us all very valuable lessons.
the participants had to write a name on a piece of paper and fold it up and put the papers in a box and then the slips of paper were redistributed. that person's name that I get was siti Amirah, a junior who happened to be in our whacky group. what we were supposed to do was to write notes to out "admirer" (and make sure that that person doesnt noe who got his/her name) and notes were to be read out loud in front of everyone during a session. very sweet.
my group Sri Embun (named after the canteen where all of us had our meals) consisted of Nadia, Ain, Hida, Amirah, Kamarul and Me. was a very, very batu grp. Rocks to the core. We endured alot of hardship together as one, felt excitement and extreme laughters together as one, cooperated and worked as a team together as one, and once, cried togther as one. there was a game that required four ppl from each grp only to partipate in a race, and since my grp was girl-majority, the girls were chosen to play whereas other grps had all-boy teams. thruout the game we failed and we were sent to the starting line again, and failed and sent again and failed and sent again, for three times, while other teams were like ten thousand kilometers ahead of us. BUT we never gave up. we moved onnnnnnn and since the other ten thousand kilometers teams started to fail and were sent to the starting line, we persevered and what seemed like a dying team of girls emerged champion and victorious among them all. all Honor and Glory belongs only to God.
then there was field cooking. we were all given like a couple of fruits and three matches as well as some rice butter and salt to cook. so naturally we were all determined to get the fire started. but within the first few minutes of the commencement of the activity, other grps already got their fire started and we were still struggling. once i felt humiliated because boys were like supposed to get fires started. felt cut deep. but we persevered. burnt everything we cld find but nuthing happened. soon the grp's morale dropped, as other teams were already cooking and cutting stuff while our team was squatting like lost ducks on a deserted island. so we sought help from the camp commandants and other teams, willing to lose points for our team.. but nothing worked. since whatever thing that we manage to cook was to be our dinner, we felt double hopeless. no fire, no food, no dinner. other teams? happy cooking happy eating. 15 more minutes to times up, and other teams' potatoes were on their way to getting cookded. our team? we were acting like potatoes squatting on our butts waiting to get cooked. hopeless. 5 more minutes to times up and you noe what? forget it. were just gonna eat the fruits raw. but we kept cheering each other up. BUT WE KEPT OUR MORALES HIGH. cmon guys dun feel bad theres sure a way round. but all that pretense of being happy din work. and so while time was up and all teasm were to present their food to be judged, we sent a pot of raw potatoes in river water and raw rice. dinner came, and suddenly kamarul who was the most naive guy in the team asked "isit my fault?" i just felt soo darn bad i cried. nadia was crying as being leader she felt bad not being able to do anything. soon everyone was like down but they kept cheering everyone up. it was very very emotional, but amidst the failure to learn field cooking skills, my team learnt the life skill of determination and perseverance, team support and encouragement, a valuable lesson above all else that the field cooking cld offer.
Sri embun, kental power!!
to list down all the activities and the games during the camp is alot. the experience? beyond words. the feeling? ecstatic. the friendship? powerful. the love? Godly. for the Love of God transcends all mutual differences.
we did:
flying fox (across river)
make our own rafts
river rafting (PURE FUN. all caution and safety thrown to the winds one by one we jumped off the raft and like plunged into the river. SHIOK!)
night trekking/solo drop ( around midnight all of us walk into the jungle where lots of scary things were said about and got the gilrs crying and dying not to go for the night trekking, and the darkness was soooo intense that you cldnt see your hand kinda thing but the stars that dot the sky was SOO magnificent! ALL glory be to God who created all that is in the heavens and the earth and all that is in between them two. then somewhere in the jungle one by one were solo dropped, mening were to stay behind as the rest moved on, and another person will be left behind while the line proceeded, and those that were supposed to solo drop were told to like sit there for sometime and brave the darkness and scariness of the night jungle. some cried like what while others, too tired to care abt ghosts and wild animals just slept soundly on the jungle floor. luckily i was among the first nine ppl in the line, and because for some reason the first nine were not solo dropped, they were instead solo dropped as a grp. lucky us. tho i wld personally wanna experience the feeling of being scared to sleep in the jungle.)
some soulful activities (where participants felt their souls inside and just, cried. dun wanna elaborate on this, cus some experiences are just more that words.)
river games
field cooking.
character building games and teambuiling games
and many more.
like i said, to recollect everything that happened, i think readers wld feel the itching urge to just click the X button on the right hand top corner of the screen.
if there was one thing above all else which i wanna say abt the camp, it would be this one thing:
To my brothers and sisters.
I am glad, no wait, ecstatic and thankful to Allah Most High for having granted this rare opportunity to attend KRC4 with the people whom I hold dearest to my heart. Some of us might be strangers beofre the camp, while others were acquaintances and a special few were, well, special to me. But as we trudged through the challanges that the camp offered, the happiness and sadness, anger and bitterness and laughters and cries, we bonded not only as friends, not only as Fityan members, not only as Brothers and Sisters but more importantly the message was clear like water, that we tied the bonds of Ukhuwwah. Because when there is this special bond that unites a Muslim to another Muslim by the special strings and ties of God, nothing will defeat us in this perilous journey of war against self, of striving for excellence and of sacrifice. For Believers will emerge Victorious. The Love that I felt during the camp, and after the camp was so collossal and immense I swear it cld move the very mountains upon which we stood during the camp. Remember our one pupose of existence - to gain Mardhatillah. and thats enough for us all. ALONE GOD is enough for us all. You have God, and you have Everything. Be on a constant strive to upgrade ourselves all the time, and observe the Laws that perchance we will be the truest Servants of Allah. May Allah bless us for our efforts to be as one, and may we continue this soulful experience that we had from the camp. last but not least, I love you guys to the core of this earth, to the furthest stars on the night where we went night trekking and "OH MY GAWD LOOK AT THE STARS!" and back.
For we shall be the ones to RAWK the face of God's earth
Faizal
KRC4 RAWKS!!!