Presents from leadership camp (warning: super long post)

HEY HEY!!
I am back!!
yes, I survived leadership camp.

Let's see, my muscles are aching like crazy, I can't breathe, eat, sleep or even type out this post without some part of my body aching. My head was pounding half the time I was there, I had cough, flu, breathing difficulty (due to the cough) AND fever. Sorry, no pictures because although I brought my cam, I didn't take it to the jungle so no pictures of what we did.

Let's see, what we did there is really worth jotting down as memories because seriously, I really doubt I actually did so many physical stuff in 1 day. The first day was okay I guess. We arrived at the resort, Trolak Country Resort (FELDA residences) - in Trolak, Sungkai at about 5??. Yes, we stayed in a resident area provided by FELDA. We had 34 people in total - 5 boys, 26 girls, 2 lecturers and 1 lecturer's friend.

We had a tea session and we met our 'trainers' for the whole camp - Alex, Terence and Dr. Natalie (in charge of health). They sort of briefed us about the stuff we are going to do in camp in general like, after activities we will have a meeting to discuss about the stuff we learn. We got into our groups and we are assigned with our first project, creating a group name, logo, war cry and our expectations. We named ourselves, - the ferocious fairies - haha.. seriously, that's our name and we even had a guy in our group. I think our logo is the most feminine one with butterflies and stuff like that. :D then, we were assigned to our room.

I got into the same room with Miki, a chinese gal and Limmy, an african. They are quite nice people. We had our dinner and then we went for our solo drop. It started off with all sort of scary stories like we might meet native people, we might see animals and stuff like that - which needless to say gave some of us the creeps when they told us NOT to smile at the native people if we meet them (in case that means "Hi! take me to your village as your wife" or stuff like that). we were given a code to call out so that we can identify if the figure we saw is one of our people. code is.... Course - HMC.

At about 8pm, we walked towards the jungle, took us about half an hour (just by walking from our residences to the jungle) and we were told not to talk at all. we have to walk in a straight line (like school kids) and then when we reach the jungle, we were told to hold each other shirts. in the end, all of us hold hands instead because of the terrain. they started dropping us unknowningly from the back, so to me who was in front, it felt like the hike was exceptionally long. The terrain was horrible like all forest do, there were roots and plants. To make things worse, it was raining and we still had to trek.

I was dropped off somewhere towards the end and the solo drop begins for me. I didn't really know how long we were there - maybe half an hour or so. At first I thought that I would freaked out but it turns out that I was really pretty calm about it. I couldn't see anything at all - heck, I can't even see my hands when I put it in front of me. We were told to use the time to reflect and I think I MIGHT be a little night vision impaired. Haha... what a thing to reflect. I stood there, not moving at all, staring into the darkness, thinking about petty stuff and feeling cold because of the rain. Finally, the came to pick us up and we left.

went to bath, and went to bed. Just to find out that our aircon is not working. Well, it's working but it's emitting warm air instead of cold air. Miki moved to her friend's room to sleep, leaving only me and Limmy alone in the room. Called mom, messaged Mae, Eliza, Luc and Izzie before going to bed.

We woke up at 5.45 am the next morning for a 2KM morning jog at 6.15am. Because of the rain the night before, I had cough (I had flu before I went) and as most of you guys know, I can't breathe when I have cough. Running made it worse, I had to stop at Dr. Natalie and she kept on telling me to take deep breaths (they looked kind of worried because Alex that was running with us stopped with me and stayed with me throughout the whole time). Talked for a while and finally joined the gang for a very short run from my stop to the pitstop.

had breakfast and went for our real first activity of the day. (by now some of the people are tired from running). We hiked to the forest ourself and went for the short ropes.

it's an obstacle course that consist of (in order) walking over a swing plank at ground level, walking on a rope above ground level with only another rope on top as your grip, commando crawl (crawling on two parallel ropes using only your hands to drag yourself - it's basically looked like a very long stretcher without the middle part. we have to lie on the rope, quite high from group level, with our knees sticking out and feet tuck in and drag ourself over the other side), walking on another 2 swing planks located high up, swinging tires (5 tires, connected to the rope, we have to step on one, and try to move to another, look easy but freaking hard to do and requires lots of hand muscles since the only thing that is standing beside you and getting yourself paralysed is two students supporting you in case you fall) then walk zig zag on the tight rope and then climb the pyramid lookalike rope thing where we usually see in NS and army movies.

Muscles are aching by then, especially the arm muscles because it all requires strength from our arms. I almost fell at the zig zag thing, giving my friends a scare but thank god i have okay upper body muscles to stop me from falling down. When we thought it was all over, we were bought over to the high ropes. this time, it's 20 feet from the ground, we have to climb a J ladder and walk a rope, this time with the safety equipment present. then it's the flying fox! enjoyed that the most. I fell again at the J ladder, giving my friends another scare, but the guy held on tight (thank god they are professionals). chat with him later on and he say that he thinks i weight 60 KG? Really? haha... erm, thank you for the compliment?? haha....

Went back to our room, had lunch and had our third outdoor activity. By now, ALL of us are tired and our muscles are aching. We have to get into our groups and this time play something that goes along the line of 'the blind leading the blind'. We have to plan 4 stations, and walk there blindfolded. Before we get to plan, it started raining again and we were forced to play under the rain (which made me have fever the next day). It was raining so heavy that lighting and thunder were coming about and we all hundled under the hut cos they don't want us to be striked by lighting. when the lighting stop, we have to continue.

It was soggy and all. times up and we have to start our game but there are some changes. Additional 2 stations which made my team got lost around. Seriously, i think my team leader have a 'not very good sense of directions'. We were laughing like crazy cos he fell into the pond and knock his head on the tree and all. In the end, the Miss Jasmine took pity on us and sort of lead us to our first pitstop. we have 20 minutes to find 5 pitstops, and by the time it ended, we only found 1. oh yeah, for every pitstop we miss, it's 10 PUSH UP. So, 40 push ups we go. Shit!

bath and had dinner. then it's night activity. Terence, Alex and Natalie left us with Miss Jasmine, Mr. Joel and Mr. Searson (Mr. Joel's friend) and we mostly talked about stuff and played some games (quite a change after all the outdoor stuff). we even participated in earth hour and talked about the earth and then we were assigned to do a skit revolving our group name. Noticed I said our group name was Ferocious Fairies in the beginning? It was sooo hard to figure out a storyline for it. but in the end we did. Ours revolved around people destroying earth and fairies got ferocious. Get the idea? Good....

We had a good laugh in everyone's skit and then it's bed. I had difficulty sleeping that night, because my airway is like seriously 3/4 block so a deep breath would only give me very little oxygen. It was horrible and so painful to take a deep breath. In the end, I slept sitting up for an hour or two to let the airway clear a little before I went back to sleep on the bed.

Woke up at 7.30 this morning, had breakfast and went for another indoor activity. We mostly did inner self stuff, like negative and positive thoughts and I really think that Mr. Joel and Searson's speech made everyone think. I know i did. Then we have to write a note to our group members, 2 positive and 1 negative thing about them.

here are some of mine from my groupmates....
Positive
- Listen and participates in collaboration of goup ideas
- Easy going person (hmmm... okay, maybe you havent my pissed off mode yet. )
- Made her feel special (okay, understand that, no discrimination)
- Spontaneus, brave (hmm... okay, thanks!)
- Good postive member? (erm, okay... but I didn't really do much!)
- Giving good guidance ( erm, okay...)

Negative... (everyone have their bad side :D)
- Did not do a very good job on the acting part. (yes, I am a horrible actor.. haha. I admit that)
- Got good ideas but shy to express it.
- Too quiet
- can take advice from other people

basically, most of the negative opinions are 'too quiet'. I have to say it's the cough problem!! Nonetheless, they were quite understanding and all. It was fun, working with these people, getting to know them personally.

I took medicine from Miss Jasmine cos my fever was seriously burning up. My cheeks were super red, I was super hot and had to take panadol. then, it was the ride home. The bus driver drove quite fast I think, cos most of us are sleeping and the lecturers went home by themselves. We reach 1 hour earlier than the estimation time. Called my mom, and said goodbye to my friends.

Drank herbal tea, went to bed, tried to clear my airway again since it got blocked AGAIN and now typing the post.

I was really reluctant to go to the camp at first because I thought it was a waste of time. but from the camp, I learn things i never thought i would learn, I know people I never think I would know.

If you minus all muscle aches, headaches, breathing difficulty and rain, I would really enjoy the trip. Too bad the breathing difficulty took away some fun and joy, but nonetheless it was still great. Even then, going for this leadership camp again is not something I want to do in a month or two. Let my muscles rest for a moment or two first. haha.....

Signing out,
Wen