5th International Students' Camp (Part One)

So here is the post about the 5th ISC that I recently attended.. As promised. =)

*This will be quite a long post, so if you're not up for it, don't bother reading on.* LOL

I uploaded most of the pictures on Facebook but I will put some up here as well..

Friday, 26th of December 2008 (Day One) ~ I was dreading to go for camp.. 10 days seemed too long for me. I left Ipoh at 2 something in the afternoon and headed for the SUFES Campsite in Tapah. Was really lazy when I reached.. It was hot and I had no mood for anything. Then I met Christina, Peninisula Malaysia's national leader for the camp.. She's a really nice person.

Me and Christina on the last day of camp.

To cut things short, I soon met my pavilion mates.. 3 Japanese girls and one from Sarawak.

The first pavilion mate that I met (also the first camper I talked to) turned out to be my best friend throughout the camp.. She is none other than Hikari Yoshizawa.

Then there were Aika and Hitomi (Hikari's younger sister) from Japan.

I was given an 80-page camp booklet when I arrived.. Yeah, that thick. Haha.. Anyway it was free time till dinner. And we were told we had to change into our national costumes right after dinner. We played some icebreakers during the first night, got to know each other and things like that.. Also we learned the Scripture Union East/West Asia Theme Song, a really good and powerful one. There were ten countries involved in this camp. Namely; Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia - Peninsula, Sarawak and the Orang Asli.. Then we broke into our groups to elect our leader.. I was placed in Group 4..

Back row (From left) - Se-Hyun (Kor), Su-Jung (Kor), Malaysian. =D, Pham Thi Thanh Hang (Vietnam), Jane Chan (HK), Andrew (Sarawak), Jack (OA).

Dudes sitting - Byeong-Gi (Kor) and Shingo (Jap)

Had supper after that and had a great chat with some of the Japanese.

Saturday, 27th December 2008 (Day Two) ~ I became my pavilion's alarm clock.. So yeah, to cut the long story short, day two was filled with activities.. Simulation games (we had to really use our brains), teaching sessions (challenging) and some sort of treasure hunt (but there was no treasure). Dinner was hosted by Korea. Ah, I should've taken shots of the food. But anyway, it was good. There was Kimchi of course.. Some beef stew and a few more.. Then we had briefing for the Orang Asli Church visit which was supposed to be on the next day.. End of Day Two..

Sunday, 28th December 2008 (Day Three) ~ Main highlight was visiting the Orang Asli Church.. There were 12 groups so we broke into 6 groups by merging.. So we went to the different churches by bus.. The church I went to was in Batu 8..

Me and Madoka (Japan), on the way to the village..

Me, Su-Jung and Ho-Jin from Korea..

It was a really touching and wonderful experience and no one could deny that.. The worship was simply amazing.. The service was conducted in Malay and though most of the campers could not understand anything (especially the worship), they did testify that God's presence was real in the midst of it.. And I sensed it too.. I really do respect these indigenous people and their passion for God.. Just beautiful..

After service, the ladies in the church had already prepared food for us.. So after eating we had a small tour around the village.. And saw quite a few things.. After that the bus came and we headed to Kuala Woh, Tapah.. If you don't know, it's a waterfall area..With both hot and cold springs.. Had great fun there. The current was really strong, so most of the time, we were floating.. =D.

Me, Shingo (my cool group leader) and Mamoru.. (Both from Japan) before the swim.

We went back to the campsite late in the afternoon. BBQ Dinner that night, and it was great.. During dinner, the Koreans brought out their Ramen in a cup and I was lucky to be given one by one of the guys.. That guy ate 12 chickens, 2 plates of rice, 4 sausages, 1 ramen and I don't know what else.. He claims that he loves the chicken.. Oh, well..

There was a sharing session after Praise and Worship. Oh and I forgot to mention that every praise and worship session was handled by different countries. So it was fun to learn different songs in different languages and there are many nice ones too. Sharing session was based on their experience during the OA church visitation. Many lives were changed because of that one experience and it was really encouraging to hear their stories. Especially those from other countries..

Monday, 29th December 2008 (Day 4) ~ By this day, I DID NOT want camp to end.. I was too attached to the camp.. And the people there.. Anyway, teaching sessions were on again. And later on, we were informed that That very night, we had to present an item to the 'King' according to our nations.. So we had a couple of hours to discuss and prepare.. We, Peninsula Malaysia ended up with the 'Malaysia's Cultural LIVE Museum'. We broke ourselves into the Malays, Indians and Chinese.. Though all of us were Chinese. And then there were two tourists walking around, interested to learn about Malaysian Culture. So it was some 'dance' for the Malays, Chinese wedding tea ceremony and of course, MAMAK. It was an interesting night. With all the countries and their performances.. And Japan hosted dinner that night. It was Japanese Curry. SOOOO GOOOD!! OISHIIII!! (Delicious)

The Japs with their drama

Kenichii (The SAMURAI) and Shingo. With Madoka (The Villain) All smiles.. =D

The two ADORABLE Korean boys.. Hyun-Dong and Ahn Drew.. playing the recorder

Korean Performance No. 2.. The guys wearing the Hanbok, the Korean traditional dress for GIRLS... They did really well. And the King fell in love with them, so they became His concubines for the night. =D

The third concubine. The 'prettiest' of them all. Haha, he's also the 12 chicken guy

A traditional dance from the Philippines

It was a really interesting night and we went way past the time allocated for the event.. So lights out was at 1 something instead of 12.. Before we left the hall, everyone was busy taking pictures..

Tuesday, 30th December 2008 (Day 5) ~ Day 5 started off well. The teaching session that day was interesting.. There were 6 different speakers.. And each of them gave a short preview on what they would be sharing in their workshops.. We were supposed to pick 3 to go to, but due to the time, we could only pick 2.. It was half-an-hour each workshop so after an hour, it was lunch time. We had station games in the afternoon and we were supposed to do stream-trotting.. But it started raining heavily halfway through the games so we had to stop.. Still, they said we could still play on our own if we wanted to.. After all, we were already drenched.. It was real fun but I had to wash up early cause it was Malaysia's turn to host dinner.. We had Nasi Lemak, Chicken Curry, Air Limau and later on, Sago Pudding. It was not bad, but the Sambal was abit too spicy for most of the people..

That night was Challenge Night. It was like a Teaching session, but they imposed a challenge on all of us. I haven't mentioned the Camp Theme - Many Faces, One Function.. So that very night, it was a challenge for us to serve God in our own lands.. After that, it was photo taking session again.. That night was also called 'National Costume Exchange Night', where we had to change our national costumes with someone from a different country.. So yeah, it was interesting to see everyone look different.. I exchanged costumes with Hikari, we decided to do so ever since they told us about it on the first day.. I wore the yukata (not kimono) and she wore the cheongsam..

Konichiwa =)

So that was it for the first 5 days of Camp.. I'll post the rest in Part 2.. Till then!