When the first semester of school holidays were almost over, I received terrible news ; kem ibadah was cancelled. There were two reactions in my head, a) WHAT THE DAMN HELL and b) surely Allah has a good reason for this.
This cannot be happening?! Kem Ibadah has been going on for years, and now suddenly its cancelled? Someone has some explaining to do. The whole batch was just as upset as I am, including Ustazah Suhana. We begged the teachers to tell us why, and the only excuse they gave is that we'll be having a sekolah ganti on the day, but obviously that isn't the main reason. Since the school already cancelled the venue, what else could we do? We could only try to move the date, but the odds weren't in our favour. Apparently, SAB was having all kinds of events all on the other weekends after that.
Gosh, some of us were heart broken, some didn't mind, some were accepting the fact.
Honestly, coming from a girl who has waited for Kem Ibadah since form 1, I was devastated, but I kept it inside of course. So my girls, Anisah & Amiera went to see Bonda *suicide music* and Bonda decided to do the same weekend but this time at school, and I was like, syukur alhamdulillah, eventhough it was for 2 day only. At least its happening right?
So much that I have learnt thanks to Alang, his wife, and the other 4 facilitators ( im sorry its been so long i forgot their names T.T) Those were one of the best 2 days of my life, despite the fact that I was on my period coudn't pray with them. And as weird as it is, was really looking forward to cry, lol grateful that I did, and it wasn't once. So heres what happened ;
Saturday, 21st June :
- finished sekolah ganti
- went to register our names and then put our bags inside the hall
- tukar tudung hehe, was supposed to eat but had no time, waited for some friends who refused to go to sekolah ganti arrive, then waited for all of them to solat zuhur.
- Alang gave an introduction, then informed us to take our notebooks and pens and gathered in the middle of the hall. (missing it as im writing this)
- Alang gave a talk (pictures below)
- Asar prayers
- Mandi-manda at the asrama's toilet (for the first time!!) lol I hate showering in other places though, it took so long for each of us to get ready.
- Imilia was asking me to help her put her watch in her bag while she was in the stall, I panicked cause I didn't know which one was her bag and she said it was colourful, so being fool I am, i accidentally put it in someones else's toiletry bag oopsies.
- Jubah time! Everyone was instructed to change in their baju melayus/baju kurungs/jubahs and I was pretty sure Ameer & Syed were the only ones who didn't wear them hehe besties for life.
- I swear my friends and I were like the last ones in the toilet, even the last when we were eating!! Of course I could take my own sweet time but my friends had to rush to do maghrib prayers.
- Forgot to add in that earlier when the camp started, Aisyah broke her spectacles and Ustazah was such and angel to go to the store to ger it fixed and returned it back to her later that night.
- After maghrib we immediately gathered back in the middle of the hall, preparing ourselves for the sedih-sedih kinda talk.
- Alang did the thing where everyone had to close their eyes, and visualise our parents.
- Did some intense crying, and I'm pretty sure they were all girls.
- How can guys NOT cry? After that, Alang made like an open-mic where anyone could come up and express their feelings. Oh before that, Alang asked if we wanted to feel Allah's SWT presence, we agreed for sure. So we all did a prayer that was led by Alang, asking if we could feel His presence. Honestly, I didn't but Alang said if they did they would feel a cold shiver or a slight current I think? Can't recall.
- So, Aida was the first to go infront (girl power bebeh) and expressed what she had to say. Was really proud of her for being so brave, and she looked pretty although she was crying!!
- Oh yeah! forgot to mention that before the crying started, Alang asked generally if any of us lost both or one of our parents, and he called Sakinah to the front. She lost her dad when the was 11 I think. And she cried telling us all about it, which made me tear up. Then she said how all of us were so lucky and advised the girls and the boys that if we love our fathers, cover your aurat and I can't remember :p
- Unsurprisingly, the students who came out to talk were ALL girls, which made me think that to me, girls are more stronger than boys in a way. I have always thought about this, but that night made me sure that no matter how tough boys seem, girls will always be the toughest.
- After that I was all cried out, but when Anis came up she me cry even more, like sobbing. Kind of gave me a wake-up call.
- During the whole thing we sang some songs, berzikir, oh and did I mention Alang's voice is the zikir we listen to every morning in school? :D He's is a nasyid group but tells us it doesn't sell in stores lol.
- At about 11 plus they did isya' prayers, then we all had to have a tshirt for burung hantu!!!
- Almost everyone brought out their koko shirt, I had my laksamana shirt and turns out we had to cover our entire head with it. Mine was more jarang than koko shirts so I kinda saw what was in front of me. LOL I was so scared because no matter how much obhs I've done, I still don't know how it's going to turn out.
- We were barefoot! (had socks on) but I felt the tajam tajam stuff on the ground. I could totally know where we were but I couldn't tell who we were with. Eventually everyone was seated at the big padang and the areas close to it but just farther apart from each other, I think i was close to the astaka. I swear I could hear some of my friend's chatting but I didn't cause they told us not to.
- We had to baca some surahs, and after that we had to get up and azan. So there are two amazing azan voices in my batch, Aiman & Haziq, both my archer buddies!!
- I swear I think slept in between the whole thing, just sitting there in the dark made me sleepy. Heard some other people making voices I guess? But kinda bummed I didn't get kacau-ed by the organisers.
- I think I was one of the last to get up! Alang did announce something but it wasn't clear, so I just got up and asked around with the tshirt on, and no freakin' replied me! Haha its a good thing i just took it off cause then I saw everyone walking towards the hall already.
- Ahhh, it wouldn't be burung hantu at all if there aren't typical cases of missing students. 2 students were planned, 1 was unplanned. It was kind of fun having drama on who is gonna find them and all.We found the unplanned missing student first, apperantly, after a few searches of the same place, she suddenly appeared! When she got the hall she started crying and told us how many students walked by but didn't see her. Then the group members of the other missing students went on a search for them. THEN my group suddenly realised we didnt have MISHA. Gosh, I panicked. Guess what? Made a total fool of my self cause she was just behind the curtains at the girls' sleeping place in the hall. Turns out she didn't even join the burung hantu, stayed back cause of a stomachache?
- And then the 2 students appeared! People were just relieved cause they finally could sleep, but now the other groups haven't returned, oh God. Haha Sabrina & Muzafar were purposely hidden in the surau, shocker. But the suspense was totally fun.
- Sleep, sweet peaceful sleep was CRUSHED when we found out each of us were "assigned" sleeping places. Sabrina and Muzafar's group got a punishment casue they weren't "responsible" so they had to sleep at the field, aha. And the rest of us ; the form 5 girls had to sleep at the jalan tar, close to the dumpster. The guys at the teacher's parking lot infront of the pejabat, and the form 3 girls outside the hall, all around it. AND we could only bring our tshirts with us. And Alang said we had to be like a metre apart? But nobody cared ahah we just cramped next to each other. There we laid, on the solid hard ground with our baju raya, with only a tshirt, and realised that this was how the people we saw on the streets slept. We all fell asleep eventually, for like 5-10 mins and Alang woke us up, when I finally was sleeping peacefully haha. He told us to go back to the hall to sleep properly, God bless, and the guys back to the surau. I think we went to sleep at like 3++ am and had to wake up again for qiamullail. Too lazy to change so everyone practically slept in their raya attire haha.
Sunday, 22nd June :
- Morning! 5++ am and still groggy as ever. When they were praying I might have slept a little bit. Brushed our teeth and faces, then continued sleeping again after they finished their prayers. I swear those 5-10 mins sleep Alang gave us felt like hours.
- Ate breakfast first, then showered. After that went back to the hall with fresh faces, and some workout + dancing fun! The abang (lupa nama haih) led us and the song has been stuck in our heads ever since! Did some fun + weird dance moves. Super fun singing and dancing along to a chinese song.
- Then the girls were separated from the boys to have a private talk. Cried again this time. Ukhti ( Alang's wife), was the girl Alang was referring to, whose dad has died when she was 9, and later registered herself to and orphanage. She studied really hard and didn't talk to her mom for so many years cause she was afraid and worried. She didn't want her mom, to worry. Now, she graduated from UM and has 3 kids with Alang.
- We closed our eyes again, and she's gonna ask some questions and if we have done them, we should raise our hand. I raised my hand, honestly according to the questions. Later, she showed us a video about babies being thrown away in such a horrible state.
- After it was all done, and the boys haven't entered the hall yet, took pictures with Ukhti, the gang and walked around the hall cause it was so empty. THEN I REMEMBERED. Imilia's watch! I quickly went to Alang who was by the stage, and asked him to make an announcement. A few seconds after, to my realisation, being the fool I am, again, Imilia's watch was on the table right where Alang was sitting, infront of me, with a bunch of other lost items. I wasn't sure at first, but then Imilia came to me and I was like, picking up the purple watch and went, "Is this yours?". She went, " Sampai hati you tak tahu jam I !!". Hilarious, I honestly thought her watch was digital, that's why. Then Alang gave me this "look" that I have been a fool or something, and was like being sarcastic and saying "terima kasih".
- Group photo! The form 3 boys, form 3 girls followed by the form 5 students as a group cause they weren't so many. I must say, the form 3 girls were the most of them, and we had some difficulties cause everyone couldn't fit in the picture. I got to sit on the chair, hehe.
- When it's all done, we gathered round one last time. Cries. I just did not want it to end. Open-mic again, this time Sarah came up (more girl power) and she cried and thanked all of us for being her friend. God bless you Sarah, I hate how people always pick on you. Then a few other girls. Told ya girls are tough. Then Alang gave a talk again on how to recite our Al-Fatihah properly, and corrected our ways of rukuk, sujud and how we stand. Before that, Alang was talking about the topic "Dream" and told us how he once wrote down all that he wanted and one by once, they came true. And gave us a handbook, and asked to to list down what we want, and always say bimsmillah when writing each of them. Then he showed us pictures of his wife getting all lovey-dovey pffft. My list was pretty long, and writing it made me feel happy, and how everyone was so quiet, concentrating on their own list. Afterwards, oh my God, he told us he entered an Azan competition, and got first place. Subhanallah, his azan was top notch, beyond amazing. It was just so merdu I wish I had heard more of it.
- This is it, the end of Kem Ibadah. I seriously hope there is a phase 2 like the 97's batch, insyaAllah. We packed our stuff, cleaned up our sleeping places, picked up the rubbish. When we were done, we took pictures with Ustazah and Alang. This camp was one of the bests ever.
