Survival Camp; I survived!

Survival Camp; I survived!


          Last Friday, after sweeping away all my sadness, I joined a 3-days survival camp organized by my mother's school at Pulau Pangkor. At first, it was me alone who wanted to go. Then I forced my beloved younger-brother-with-different-parents to squire me. And as a very good little brother he is, Eddie agreed to go to the camp.


          The journey started on 9pm. Me and another 42 students including Eddie rode the bus with 2 female teachers to the Jetty at Lumut. Then, we continued our journey to Pulau Pangkor with the ferry. Along the way, I made some friends with the other students there and the same goes with Eddie. But it's still awkward so the best way is to stick close with Eddie. Even in the ferry, we were together. And that, sparks controversy and gossips among the students and also the teachers. How lame is that.


          Right after arriving at Pangkor, the girls went to have lunch and the boys went to perform the Friday prayer with the teachers. After the boys had their lunch, we were required to walk about 11km to the camp site from the jetty. It was a quite thrilling beginning for a camp. But yeah, I just faced it without not much complaining. It wasn't called survival camp for nothing right? At first, I walked with the girls but then it was so boring and tiring for me to walk slowly under the prickling sun. In my mind, I prefer walking faster when it's hot so that the heat that reached me could be reduced (a/n ; as if..LMAO). So I ran and walk fast like I usually do. And at a point, I met Eddie! Yay! So we continued the journey together. We were among the first ones on the line of 43 students. There were some indecent voices saying that me and Eddie were lovers since we stick together from the beginning. However, the camp leader, Mama and another teacher, who are my mother's and Eddie's mother's friends know that we are almost like siblings. So there's nothing to worry about. Some other kids walk together in couples and they ended up being reproved by the teachers.


          Then, we arrived at the camp site. It was situated at Teluk Nipah. Yes, we walked all the way to Teluk Nipah from the main Pangkor Jetty. It was quite far from the town Pasir Bogak, and it felt further because we were walking under the hot burning sun. We were divided into groups and was asked to set up a tent. Yes, just one. Because we were not going to sleep in the tent. It was just a storage to store our things. There was a short briefing about the flow of the camp. After that, there were an ice breaking slot. I was appointed to be the 'Penghuluwati', voted by the camp participants. Then, each groups was asked to make our own flags and group yell. Everyone was trying to be funny. And I swear, most of them were influenced by the movie HKLBR, including my group. I helped to draw the flag of my group. And uhh, before I forgot, Eddie was placed in the same group as me because Mama knows that we need each other there. LOL. (t/n ; Mama is a teacher, she is also a counselor in the school and everyone calls her Mama). When I was drawing, Eddie made his I'm-surprised-face as if he never see me drawing. This boy, he deserve a flying kick from me. 


          There, the camp commander had a very unique greeting. We all ended up following his greeting which is, "Yo! Punai!" It literally means 'yo bird' but typical Malay would think that it's a kind of bad word. However, the greetings was quite cool for me. Everyone was using that even if the person that you greet isn't your friend. After saying 'Yo! Punai!', it's continued with 'Wiki wiki..' and the other person must continue with '...zombie..'. Then both persons will say, '..ooootaaaakk..' in the zombie intonation. It was very cool and funny if it's spoken in the right way.


          That night, after maghrib, we were sent into the jungle with food supply, 4 ground sheets, some things to start fire, water, torch lights and without any utensils. We were required to stay in the jungle until the next morning. So that night, we have to cook our own dinner, without any utensils. Having some experience as a scout, I knew how to cook some of the food. In my group, some of us have had experiences participating in these kind of camping including Eddie. I think he was the most experienced since he was ready with everything needed for a survival camp. Unfortunately, most of the things that Eddie brought was seized by the teachers since we had to test our survivability. 


          At first, the boys tried to start the fire using some paper to burn. But it was an epic failure. Thank god Eddie was smart enough to remember that we were supplied with some fire starters. I ended up laughing by myself at their obliviousness. So, that night, we had chicken cooked in bamboo, rice cooked in coconut, some 'half-cooked' eggs, roasted sweet potato and twisted bread. The only thing that's finished was the chicken. I was quite proud since my hands were the ones that marinated the chicken. And it was unexpectedly delicious. The so called partially cooked eggs aren't really cooked actually. In fact, it wasn't cooked at all! When we were talking near the fire, Eddie was holding one of the eggs, suddenly, the egg popped in his hands and he just slurped them out thinking that it was a partially cooked egg. But the gross thing is, it's raw! The girls freaked out and he made his I'm-surprised-face again. Eww. However it was forgiven since Eddie can't really see at night and it was him who ate the egg, not me. So, who cares.


          Next, it's time to go to sleep. The boys built two tents for sleeping. The four girls supposed to sleep in the smaller tent and the five boys were supposed to sleep in the bigger tent. But we didn't sleep at all. I had my migraine attacked me that night because I didn't take my medicine at all that day. Worse, i can't even close my eyes. I had to sleep to reduce the pain. We couldn't sleep an inch throughout the night except a person. He's quite weird. He even snored. One of us wanted to prank him. He screamed at the sleeping Hasnul, saying that a boar was coming towards us and that weird-sleeping-boy jumped out, surprised, throwing everything out of his hand. He lost  his compass and we had a big laugh at that moment. Then, on 3am, we were asked to return to the base camp since the day was going to rain. We packed our things and moved out from the jungle. At the base camp, we slept on the ground sheet under the roof. I thanked god. Finally I was able to sleep even for two hours.


          The next day, we started our day with our subuh prayers. Then we played some games for the morning exercise. I had fun. After that, we cooked our breakfast. Yes, we had to cook to eat. No one supplied food for us. After having breakfast, we went for jungle trekking. I was annoyed during the jungle trekking since some of the girls were in front of me to walk near Eddie. It's not that I'm jealous or what so ever that I couldn't walk with him but it's just the matter of fact that I walked between two girls and ended up landing on my butt 4 times along the jungle trekking because no boys were there to help me. -.-". It's still painful. When we got out of the jungle and walked on the main road, I ran, again. Yea, I do love to run there. And miraculously, my legs weren't painful at all. As I ran, someone was beside me, yeah, Eddie catch up with me. As I said, he's a good little brother that won't leave his sister alone. LMAO. When we arrived at the camp, they were complaining about how their legs hurt. It wasn't painful at all for me. However, the thing that bothers me was the feverish temperature on the island. I could feel my skin was tanning.


          Then, after a short rest, we cooked our lunch. Some of the dishes were given by the teachers as present for our good behavior during the activities. I was hungry, but couldn't eat more. After zuhur, the teachers, again, surprised us with another present. We were allowed to go snorkeling. It was a new experience for me since I never went snorkeling before. However, since the activity wasn't included in the schedule, we had to pay another RM10 for it. I had RM 11 and 35 cents in my purse and Eddie had RM8 in his wallet. How funny is that. I really wanted to go but Eddie had to be there with me. So he searched for his coins and there were exactly RM1. We were laughing out loud and I gave him another RM1. That's how strong our will to play at the sea. 


          Then, in line, the 43 students walked from the camp to the seaside waiting for the boat to fetch us and take us to the Coral Island. We prepared ourselves with the life jackets. I was being naughty and tried to prank people. My first victim was my little brother. Oh yeah. Eddie! When you wear a life jacket, there's a cord or should I say a rope that goes between your legs and secured near your waist. It could be adjusted by pulling it to tighten it. I went to Eddie, held the rope, and...pulled it hard and fast. LOL. Please don't blame me me if anything happens to your future, Eddie! I tried to do other things to other people but they weren't really in the mood since we were waiting under the sun at the seashore.


          After arriving at th island, there was a small briefing. Then, we went in to the sea. The camp commander taught each one of us how to float and swim. When it was my turn, he was like "Okay, relax and try to float your body..". I smiled and said, "Sir, I can swim..". He then pushed me away and was like.."Next..". HAHAHAHAHAHA. It's better not to waste his time on me right? So I tried to familiarize myself with the sea condition. First, I was snorkeling with the girls. They who can't swim pulled my hands and it was putting tense on me. If you're panicked, you're not supposed to hold the person beside you because you will end up drowning that person. The right way is to either let them hold you or just hold their life jacket. NOT their body parts. So at last, I left them and swam to Eddie. After snorkeling, we went to the other side of the island to wait for the boat and swim. When I got out of the water, some of them freaked out seeing the blood that came out of my toes. I, myself was quite surprised. The bleeding won't stop. It looked like someone just chopped my toe. Then the 'Penghulu' played his role. He held my toes and read something. He pured some mineral water then the bleeding stopped. Teacher Siti was worried sick and it was quite hilarious. It wasn't painful for me. But the bleeding made it looked so painful. 


          After 3 hours at the sea, we went back to the camp. I ran with Eddie, again, along with the leader of the camp and a very kind 'abang'. Yes, I ran with the very injured soles. LOL. On my way back, Eddie suddenly sprinted and left me behind with the camp leader. I yelled at Eddie but he was too far ahead. Then, Sir Amin, the camp leader said, 'Your 'abang' left you..'. I almost laughed my ass off, he was the one who didn't misunderstood our relationship but he thought that Eddie was my older brother when in fact he was my little bro. Holding my laugh inside, I sprinted and arrived at the camp, seeing my mother and my family was already there. 


          Then, we prepared for prayers. After that, because there were many teachers there, including my mother, they decided to cook for the students along. So for dinner that night, we got food! yes! No cooking! I was sick of cooking. LOL. After dinner, we had to perform for 'Malam Kebudayaan'. It's supposed to be very exciting and noisy and fun but everyone was so tired, the night became very insipid. Then we went to sleep. We were allowed to sleep early because according to the schedule, we got Qiamullail and solo drop late at night. However, I woke up at 2am following the time table but I ended up sleeping again when I saw no one around. Again, waking up at 4, for the solo drop or more known as 'burung hantu', I slept again because no one woke up. Even the teachers weren't around. At last, we were woken up by th teachers on 5.35am. oh yeah! Subuh! That night, we got enough sleep.


          After subuh, we went for riadhah and played games. It was really fun since everyone was relaxed. But I hate it how the girls was complaining all along about how their legs hurt and how tired they were. Like duh, everyone WAS tired. Not only you. So please, shut your mouth. We played crazy train and friends that morning. After playing, we cooked breakfast. I made sardine roll. And how ugly it looks, it tasted really good. I swear. Ask Eddie if you don't believe me. Everything was finished. I was proud since I was the one who made most of them.


          Then, we packed to leave. And there was the closing ceremony. After that, we went to the Jetty, this time, by van. I was still with Eddie. After arriving at Lumut, we went for lunch. I was with Eddie again, but he left me. And I was like a crazy girl looking for him. Pft, such a pain on the ass. Most of the went shopping there. And remember how I only got 35 cents and Eddie got none? Before we went to Jetty from the camp site, my mother gave us some money. Thank god.


          Then, we went home by bus. It was a very fun trip. I was having fun. But the only thing that upset me is that my skin got tanned more. Very annoying.