Monday, December 29, 2008

7th BISDS Youth Camp-In Unity We Stand

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Note: No pictures were taken in the making of this post. No animals(other than humans) were harmed in the making of this post.

Wow, just after 2 and a half days of rest and lots of tuition, I went for yet another camp>>>7th BISDS Youth Camp 2008!! It was held from 19-23 December 2008 at Buddhist Maha Vihara & Woods Resort, Ulu Yam. Hope I still remember about the activities because I so foolishly washed it together with my laundry.

19 December 2008-
I arrive at BMV around 8pm for registration after tuition classes. Thought I'd be late but no I was not. When I went up the stairs to the counter, my eyes immediately shot towards an extremely petite pretty girl at the top of the stairs and I was like "Who the hell is that?". I was having serious second thought of backing out while I still can because I haven't paid my camp fees, so I could just not show up. Was only about 75% recovered from my last camp so wasn't really happy. After registration went up to the Auditorium to gather and there were about 70+ participants already gathered in a circle. The guys as in Yu Ming and Sui Lun had to start the whole self-introduction thing. Then when everyone gathered, the committee played the camp's theme song which is Life is the Road from the show Anastasia, which made me think back how I used to love that show when I was young, which made me even more gloomier. After settling everything we played our ice breaking game>>Chicky Evolution! Kinda funny actually, it's basically the game one two jus but you'll have 5 stages to evolve into. For example, you'll start out as an egg, you'll then find a partner who is in the same stage as you are, play one two jus with him/her and if you win, you'll evolve into a chicken or something can't remember the name. Thought I was gonna lose haha...Oh yes you have to remember the name of the person you played with too, so that is how you get to 'break the ice' among the participants. Ooohhh and I found out the name of the pretty girl I mentioned earlier, her name is Veronica Ooi but everyone calls her Veron haha. Then we were sorted into our respective groups, I sort of hoped that I'll be in Yellow group because that was my group colour in my last camp but I got Orange instead. Given about 15 minutes for group name and group cheer and I was ready for it. In the end my group(Orange) became Buddha's Palm, Yellow changed from Yell to Cheetahs, Green became Wasabi, Pink became Wild Pinkies, Blue became Blue Hyppo, Purple became Red Indian and Beige changed from something about youth camp to Move It!. Oddly enough, they didn't ask to perform our group cheer, instead they hassled us all off to bed. Somehow I landed myself in the noisiest dorm, the other room had all the quiet people whereas my room were well..you know..I'm not saying it's bad actually it depends. The committee had to walk into our room about 4 or 5 times because the girls were making so much noise even though the lights were off. I recall lying beside Xuan Zhi discussing about some stuffs, then I said I want to have a moment of silence to reminisce about ICC 08 and "other" stuff but ended up zzzzzzzzz....
20 December 2008-
Somehow managed to wake up when the committee came in for morning call. My beloved handphone was taken away yesterday and I'll only get it back on the last day of camp. Had to borrow Xuan Shan's small bag to fit a few sets of clothes in because I only brought one big bag for this whole camp but I forgotten we were going to Woods Resort so I was in need of a smaller one. Had morning puja then dozed off in the bus. A few guys and some committee went to set up the tents(yeay!) while the rest just lepak in the hall. I ended up introducing the game 'The More We Get Together' too. Oh ya when everyone gathered in the hall ONLY the committee asked us to perform our group cheers, then they elected the group leaders and assistants which will rotate everyday. For my team Yu Ming became group leader while I became his assistant but only for while we're in Woods Resort(don't be fooled by the word 'Resort' because it's not). After we settled into our tents where we had to fit 6 people in one tent, we played Captain Ball, groups vs groups and since there are 7 groups, the 8th group would be committee(pity whoever played with them cause they're good). Buddha's Palm's first match was against Cheetahs and we won but we lost to er...Move It I think. My energy level dropped from 75% down to barely 50% and I sort of gotten myself a blister on both foot but ignored it and went through the game. Was quite fun... After Captain Ball there was some free time so Yu Ming suggested Pepsi Cola and I so foolishly agreed because I played so ganas until my right leg was full of scratches and slight bleeding.
Then we had lunch but only get one cup of syrup(bluek, sick of it cause of ICC), changed into trackpants and darker shirt, then went for a short walk to the waterfall for Repelling and my God was it thrilling. There was a vertical cliff beside the waterfall with ropes so we had to go down something like Absailing. When I saw other people attempt it and slipped I got freaked out because one hand will be holding the rope and the other will be sort of supporting you if not you'll fall. While waiting I kept worrying about leeches cause like I said, I don't like them, then suddenly a guy got cramp so helped him, then started worrying again. I considered chickening out in this activity cause it was really scary when you're waiting in line knowing for a fact that your life will literally be hanging on a thread. Finally managed to pull myself together and went ahead as I know I'll hate myself for not trying and i actually did it! I didn't slip nor fall, managed it without a scratch but slightly shaky when my foot touched the ground, but it was truly a one of a kind experience. When everyone was done, we trekked back down to our campsite, bathe, then it rained so had a hot cup of tea and lepaked. At night the game was Group Limbo where each group had to limbo their way together in a line through 3 levels of string. Every group couldn't pass the 3rd level but amazingly my group did so we earned extra points. After dinner we continued the game but with a twist, 1st round is every group had to send out their tallest member to limbo, 2nd round is limbo in pairs with a ball in between, 3rd is limbo with one leg and last is the shortest member in a group. Then we played Statue Dance where each group is given a theme and have to dance that theme throughout a song then give a pose based on that theme when the music suddenly stop, the leaders will be leading the dance of course haha. The themes could be animals in a zoo, going to toilet, washing the laundry and so on. My group's theme was something about Ah Ma going to market. The whole game was so funny we couldn't stop laughing. Next game was called Human Musical Chairs, just normal musical chairs with real humans(mostly boys) as the chairs, damn fun and funny. After the games we sang birthday song for the birthday boy>>Kai Cong, punished him by singing and stuff then all went back to tent to snooze. Oh ya Veron is in my tent and I came to find that she's actually not that bad haha....
21 December 2008-
Everyone was woken up by the committee all of a sudden and I thought it was the morning call so I slowly wore my watch but couldn't check the time cause it was still dark, tuck my toothbrush and toothpaste into my pocket and scramble my way out of the tent. When I was out where it was slightly brighter, I glanced at my watch only to find that it was just 2am and I knew it was just one of those emergency alarm calls that happen in the middle of the night for most camps
so didn't bother to keep my toothbrush and toothpaste. When everyone had gathered, I found out there was a catch. The next activity was Burung Hantu so had to drag myself to follow my group, let myself be led to some place and stood there for half an hour. It was not scary at all because less than 20 feet away stood other people and I could see them as I was not blindfolded. But one thing's for sure, it was really cold and I was stupid enough not to pack my sweater. I didn't really pack just sort of reused the things I didn't wear from last camp sigh... When it was over and we walk back to our tents, many were oooohh-ing and aaaahh-ing at the sky. There, up above us, was a view not many people in the city can enjoy. The star-filled sky was so beautiful all I could do was stop and stare with my mouth gaping open thinking if only I have a camera..
Then I crawled to my corner in the tent and as I laid down on the rough uneven surface of the ground, I remembered that my toothbrush and toothpaste went though the whole Burung Hantu with me. At 7am had our morning call, washed up then made my way to the field for morning exercise. Body aching like hell because the place I slept was rocky so I couldn't even do the simplest of stretching without saying Ouuuwww!! After breakfast we had River Trekking and my group went first. I was right in front behind Sui Yuan who was leading the way. That activity was really awesome, there's just something cool about trekking your way upstream, tackling the slippery rocks and current. There were times where I had to push myself to take the extra step even when the current is strong, really tiring. Throughout the journey I kept scolding myself on how stupid I am to get hurt in a game of Pepsi Cola instead of Repelling or River Trekking because my scratches stinged in the cold river water which bothered me but I did not complain, instead I hummed our camp theme song because I find the lyrics were appropriate for this activity:
Life is the road
And I wanna keep going
Love is a river
And I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

After reaching the end of our route, Sui Yuan let me choose whether to return to campsite via river or land and I replied if there's time then river so river it is. Turns out going downstream is quite tough too. Twice I almost got swept away by the current and twice my pants almost got swept away too, imagine the force needed to pull down an elastic trackpants. Sui Yuan's slipper even decided to take a swim downstream too! But he managed to get it back in time. One of the girls in my group kept getting swept off and it was funny to see the guys in my group getting a hold of her. Then Sui Yuan stopped to help some people so I had to lead the way downstream myself yeay! When everyone is done, we changed into dry clothes, had lunch, had group photo of everyone then board the bus back to BMV. Arrived in BMV early so had about 2 hours to bathe and rest, I decided to read my book instead of bathing then slept for about half an hour.
Before dinner we played Statue Dance round 2 at Sri Dhamma Hall and another round of The More We Get Together. The committee also elected the new group leaders so Yu Ming and I officially retired, or so we thought. During dinner the 'theme' was pure silence, it was tough not saying a word during dinnertime but managed to survive, despite Lynn giggling away nonstop. After dinner gathered back at SDH for the next activity>>Creative Flames which is basically an ad. Each group is given a product to advertise, a target group, a theme
, a song that must be incorporated, a list of items that must be incorporated, a list of words that must be mentioned and a list of words that cannot be mentioned, all in 90 seconds. My group's product was Dutch Lady Low-Fat milk, target group is old people, theme is Bollywood, song is Koi Mil Gaya, items to be incorporated is a comb, a towel and a pair of slippers, words that must be mentioned is bulldog and MSN. My group didn't have a list of words that cannot be mentioned. It was really tricky at first on how we have to incorporate all these but we manage to pull through and my group did the best. Then we were briefed about tomorrow night's group performance. Usually camps have talent nights and so on but this year it is called Project "Our Way". You see, BISDS is facing 3 major problems and each group pretending to be the staff, had to figure out solutions and present it in front of the school's ACTUAL staff committee. So basically the whole idea is to find out what our way is...
Problem 1: Why students do not like to attend Sunday Dhamma classes?
Problem 2: Why students do not like to attend puja?
Problem 3: Why students do not like to participate in Sunday School activities?
All the groups were given their own meeting room to have discussions till 1.30am, I can't remember whether my group actually sat in that room till that time but I don't think we did. We started off sitting on chairs then we gradually moved to the floor till finally most of us just laid on the ground while thinking, all except Lynn cause she was the new group leader so she had to write down the points. The 3 presenters are Yu Ming(Problem 1), Lynn(Problem 2) and myself(Problem 3). I remember dozing off the moment my head touched the pillow haha...
22 December 2008-
Body still sore when I got up, had to sleep with the sleeping bag under my waist cause had to support it after the night in tent on those rocks. During morning exercise the committee made us run around the BMV, and I'm telling you, it ain't small, I daresay it is either same as my school's Larian Merentas Desa track or longer. We got our camp t-shirts during breakfast which was red, kinda nice actually. I ordered S which was 34 and thankfully I can fit in haha.. Had to change after breakfast because we were taking group photo, then have to change back cause the camp shirt is to be worn tonight during the presentation of Project "Our Way". Then we had group meeting where Sui Yuan came in to listen to our points to check whether is it appropriate for the judges haha, elect new group leader then followed by the next activity>>>It's A Double! which is just 2 games in 1. Game1: Human Pyramid where each group have to form the tallest and the most stable human pyramid/tower. Game2: Blind and Dumb where half of the group members are dumb(means can't speak not stupid) and the other half is blind. The Blinds from each group will be blindfolded and have to find their way to their group members who can't call them because they are dumb. I was the blind and well..yea I don't wanna talk about it :( During lunch the theme was sign language so we couldn't make noise and can only communicate using sign languages or rather hand signals.
After lunch the new group leaders were elected continued by The Awakening Pose where 2 group members have to blow a ping pong ball from one end to another end of a designated distance while the other group members will strike different yoga pose that the leader picked out. The second part of this game is each group is given a certain number of body parts that are allowed to touch the floor, for example 2 bodies, 4 arms, 4 legs and 3 heads. Oh ya most of the groups have about 11 members, so yea...slowly figure it out. each group is given 1 minute to figure out and unfortunately don't know why my group did badly in this one. It really brought my spirit down because we breezed through the other games until now. The next activity was called Time to Dress Up and I had to fake my energy level and it worked haha. Each group gets to pick out 4 tops, 2 skirts and 2 pants from a pile of old clothes. Then a girl and guy from each group had to dress up as the opposite sex, complete with paint as make-up!! Yu Ming volunteered to be the "girl" even though he was tired from the previous game, maybe it's because his gang were the "girls" in other teams haha. We dressed Yu Ming in a short skirt under a longer skirt so he can strip on the runway to reveal the shorter one, then we added boobs and butt made of newspaper for him too. Everyone laughed their socks off during the runway show, it was beyond words..seeing guys as girls in make-up was just too much. Worst of it is after seeing Kai Yuan in a colourful striped t-shirt under a green spaghetti top matched with a short floral skirt, I knew life will never be the same again.
We had house meeting/rest/bath time after that. When I was waiting for my turn I kept on pestering my friend to be quick cause I had "big business" to settle as well, was really funny how I made so much noise in the toilet. Geetha popped in to our meeting room to give some advice and told us that other groups are having a special this and that which got me worried so during the last half hour of group meeting we just simply practiced 3 short scenes. We had tea after that then it was time for Project "Our Way" in SDH. I was trembling when the teachers aka judges arrived... When it was my turn to speak I remember at first abit hyper then slowly voice get draggy I think, was having sore throat since ICC then when I arrived in this camp it developed into cough. Somehow my group got the highest marks in the end so yeay!! And that's not all, dinner was at the Asoka Hall and you wouldn't believe what the committee had in store for us! The back part of the hall was dimly lit and the front half was completely dark, the only source of light was 8 big rings of candles(the small round ones from IKEA) for the groups to sit in. The floor in the candle rings were lined with newspapers and banana leafs so we ate indian food on them. There was a table at the back of the hall where the committee scooped food to serve us. The whole experience was sooooo romantic and magical, that was the BEST part of this camp, no other camp committees would spend so much time and effort in doing this for the participants so THANK YOU!! After that had open dance floor, some dancing, a lot of running for some reason then everything ended around 12am. Before sleeping the girls in my dorm were laughing hysterically because some of them can burp loudly while others can't(including me), the whole scene actually lasted for half an hour or so I think but I was reading in some corner.
23 December 2008-
Thank God they didn't make us run around BMV again haha.. After breakfast we had our last activity>>>Twisted Seven Challenge which is just 7 station games. My Station 1 was er, can't remember the name. A member of the group has to gargle 3 songs and the other members has to guess it. Yu Ming was the victim and he said that the water they gave was disgusting, I think it was deliberate, heard it was sea water yuck!! Anyway Yu Ming had to gargle Uptown Girl, Big Girls Don't Cry and one more can't remember. Station 2 was...can't think of a word for it. Each person in a group has to take turns bunny hopping to a certain point, then spin around 8 times, then bounce a ball to a mat, then front roll 3 times on that mat, then run back to where you started. I embarrassingly fell after i completed my 8 spins sigh... Station 3 was in the basement parking, can't think of a name for it too. Each member in the group have to line up in a line with our hands tied, the first person of each group will be blindfolded. There will be obstacles that they have to face like crawling under this and that, stepping over something, crawl through this and that, hop across this and that... The other members in the group has to guide the blindfolded person in the right direction so everyone will follow the right way since we were all tied to each other. Station 4 was...ya can't think of the name too. Every group has to send out one representative while the others will be blindfolded. The blindfolded ones will hold a long string of rope, then the representative has to guide the blindfolded ones to form a specific shape with the rope. The shape will of course be determined by the person in charged of that station. Station 4 was something about the show Transporter or something where we have to 'transport' a ball from one end of the walkway to the other without the ball touching the ground, there will be obstacles like passing through chairs and above tables of course. So my group laid on the ground and somehow managed to pass the ball to the finish line. Station 6 was at the fountain where we have to suck an oil-absorbing sheet(the one for face) using a straw and pass it around the fountain, the record so far was 4 rounds. My group only managed 2 rounds haha.. Station 7 was where each group has to be divided into 2 groups, then each group will stand on two wooden planks with their foot tied to it, then of course we have to walk around chairs from one end to the other. My group was early so we had to wait at least half an hour for Wild Pinkies and Cheetahs, I used the time to tell my group the strategy of that game and chatting with Yu Ming about movies. My group did amazingly well cause we completed it in 8 minutes!
Then we had lunch which had a twist to it. Half of the participants randomly chose a partner out of a box and they have to feed the person whose name they chose. So my name was picked by a younger boy and he had to literally feed me lunch with spoon and help me to drink from my cup! In return I had to wash both of our plates haha...was really cool cause the people being fed to had their hands tied up so couldn't do much. Most of the Backsitterz became the people being fed to. Since my hands were tied I couldn't scratch my nose which was annoying me, then Sze Mei had to use my shoulders to push up her specs too hahahahaha.... After lunch gathered in SDH to sing a few songs but I couldn't sing cause of my cough and sore throat so mostly just mumbled. After that we had to pack our luggages and bring them down. Then each group is assigned a different place to clean up and we all set off. My group just have to sweep and tidy up the meetings room used for Project "Our Way". When everything was done we gathered back at SDH for individual evaluation where the committees will comment on each person's performances throughout the camp, whether they improved or they show any good qualities and so on. Later on we had prize giving ceremony...drum roll please...Best Group went to Move it whereas Second Best Group went to Buddha's Palm!!!! yeay... Then there were 10 individual awards to hand out such as Most Friendly (M)&(F), Most Caring (M)&(F) and Most Sporting (M)&(F). Surprisingly I was awarded Most Outstanding (F)!! Thanks a lot! The first time I cried in camp was when Sui Yuan hugged his brother which somehow made my eyes filled with tears, was so emotional then. Second time I cried was when they showed a slideshow of what happened throughout this amazing 4 day 4 nights camp, really loved all these slideshows cause we get to walk down memory lane, see our cheers and tears sigh...
Soon it was time to leave, my mum was late so ended up playing some games with Veron, Shu Mei and the others.. Then had dinner at my Granma's house, all tired and sticky and dark and aching but my problems were not over. When I returned home I found it was completely dark. My dad was in China and he would usually leave a lamp on in his room but that was switched off too. Mum and I dared ourselves to go in and switch on the lights, check whether Lucky and Todd were okay. Everything seems to be alright so we thought it was just a false alarm. THEN when I was carrying my bag up the stairs I saw my room light was on and the door open which freaked me out even more so went down again to tell mum. She then opened the gate so we'd have an escape route if we needed it, picked up a bat and up we went to my room. Fortunately it was nothing again then we checked Dad's and Sis's room. When we were satisfied that the coast was clear only did I tell my mum "Mum, please remember to switch off the lights and so on. I really can't take this sort of thing again". This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, the first was even funnier but not gonna tell here cause this post is already long enough as it is, if you wanna know just find it in my old Friendster blog>>www.sadako-curse.blog.friendster.com. Throughout this camp it was so hard to refrain myself from yelling my group Yellow 5 Yellow 5!!!

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