Wholly Yours: 5th International Students' Camp (Part Two)

Wednesday, 31st December 2008 (Day 6) ~ It was Jungle Craft day. A very interesting one indeed.. Some of the indigenous people were invited to teach us to make certain things.. Earlier on, we had to choose our workshop. There were 6 workshops.. 3 types of food and 3 items. Namely; ketupat, lemang, bamboo chicken for the food and for the items it was the catapult, musical instrument (bird whistle) and the blowpipe. For the food, those who chose it would learn how to cook it and it would then become our lunch for the day.. And for the items, we would be taught how to make it and yes, it would be ours! For me, I only registered for a workshop after majority of the people did. So I ended up learning how to make the bird whistle. It was cool.

The Making of the Bird Whistle

The Bamboo Chicken.. it was AWESOME

Ketupat Making Process

After nearly 3 hours of hard work, all of us gathered in the dining hall for lunch.. We ate the cooked food and the OA brought sambal prawns too (TOO GOOD). It was a very, very good lunch.. Right after lunch, some of us continued making our bird whistles. It wasn't easy to make it, cause if you don't get the write length and things like that, there won't be any sound.. There was this boy, a very cute 13-year old Japanese boy named Shunya Tateno.

Isn't he cute? I thought he looked like an Anime Character.. hehe.. KAWAII!!

Anyway, he made 5 bird whistles, but even so, he still couldn't make a proper one. I felt really bad for him, so I helped him after I finished mine. But when he continued doing it, it still couldn't work.. So me and two other girls helped him to do No.6 and it finally worked! But he misplaced it after lunch and was starting another one. I managed to find it for him, and he was really happy. Then he was busy making something, and when I asked him what it was, he said he was making a stick. It looked pretty cool. No picture, but it was a long stick. I had no idea what it was for. When I asked if it was a fighting stick, he went like 'Ah, ah, ah'. >.<. I think he doesn't even know what he's talking. Haha, but he was so cute. AH. I miss him so much! At around 3pm, we were asked to gather at the Amphitheater. The OA were going to teach us their dance, called the 'Sawang'. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Later, some campers joined them in the dance. It was pretty amusing watching campers of different nationalities doing some traditional thing. They had to wear the grass stuff as well. Headgear, skirt, you name it. Sorry, no pictures here. After the dance, we had a short Blowpipe and Catapult shooting competition.. Those who entered would have to shoot the balloons from afar.. And the prize? A miserable packet of Cheezels. HAHA, only one guy managed to do it. It was a special night. 31st December 2008, the Last day of the year. And New Year would be spent, far away from home for most of the people. After Praise and Worship, there was a slot for Sharing and Review about the camp so far.. At 10pm, the watchnight service started. It started off with a few songs and then a representative from each of the 10 nations involved in the 5th ISC shared about the SU movement in his country and the prayer needs as well. I was actually looking forward to the countdown, but there wasn't any. The sharing went past 12. Haha, but it didn't really matter after all. There was much more important things to think about. After the sharing, a guy from SU shared with us and he gave us a few questions to think about. He made us reflect on our year and how much we have done to serve His purpose. We were all given a small candle in a cup and after reflecting, we were supposed to light it up and place it at the foot of the cross right in front of the hall.

It was a very quiet and reflective moment.

As the night went by, I was changed. Somehow, this new year was different from any I've ever had before. It was a moment where I really experienced true surrender. More to come later. That was the end of 2008 and a fresh start to 2009. Lights out were at 2am. I only settled down and went to bed at 3something. Suddenly, some of the camp officers came in and kept asking us to sleep. They weren't gonna leave till we did. So we slept.

Thursday, 1st January 2009 (Day 7) ~ When I woke up, my pavilion mate (the Sarawakian) told me that our slippers were missing.. And our shoes too. So I went to check and yeah it was GONE. And who else would have taken it besides the CAMP OFFICERS. They were so desperate for us to sleep the night before. Haha. So both of us went out to check. My shoes were not taken cause it was still in my shoe bag. Thank God. The amphitheater was just outside our pavilion. And yeah, our slippers were there. The wonderful officers did a great job by scattering the slippers EVERYWHERE. Every single chair had a different slipper.. So we searched for some time.. Some lucky slippers were stashed on top of some wooden thing as well. Being a kind soul (LOL), I woke the guys at the pavilions up and told them to find their slippers and lend them mine to use for awhile. Those who were sleeping in the rooms found their slippers much harder. Some were even stashed and hidden away.. It was the last day at the SUFES Campsite. After Praise and Worship (Peninsula Malaysia's turn), we had the closing session. And after lunch we left for Ipoh. We went in three buses, as usual. The bus ride back was pretty fun. Though nearly the whole bus was sleeping.

Nothing much happened after that. The foster parents were all gathered in the hall already, so when our names were called, we had to go.

Friday, 2nd January 2009 (Day 8) ~ We gathered at MYC at 10am and left for Daybreak.. We were split into 5 different groups for our jobs.. My group did some weeding, it was FUN under the SUN.. Except for the fact that we fed the mozzies NICELY. And it was funny how some of the Koreans and a few others freaked out when they saw a frog..