The Camp Experience

To be able to survive in the real-world rarely involves theory knowledge that we gain through books. Knowledge is not measured by how many books we read, but how we can implement our learning from what we see. My camp experience taught me a lot that I seldom learnt through glancing over literary opuses or encyclopedias. The hands-on activities was what caught my attention as they involved agility and thinking capacity. In the camp, we were segregated into 6 groups, each bearing a name of “North Pole” or “South Pole” respectively. Ranging from foosball to picking up balls without touching them, each activity required group cooperation and athletic ability. Blending in with my seniors gave me the scope to peek at the world from a different angle, thus gaining new perspectives and ideas.

The activity I enjoyed the most was “Leaky Pond”. The whole group (of about 21 members) would form a human chain starting from the river and ending in front of a pipe filled with holes. Our task was to fill the pipe with water by passing a bucket hand to hand. We were restricted to move our position. A group of people would surround the pipe and make sure water is not pouring out of the holes. Although our team lost, I could realize how harmony between a group is of the utmost significance and that harmony is not constructed by one member, but by all of the members working together in coordination.

Apart from the activities, staying in tents with my friends removed the feeling of loneliness and homesickness. Cracking jokes and horror stories that kept us awake not only helped in making us feel occupied but kept us on the edge of our seats.

However, I have not reached the funniest part of the story yet. This one day, probably the 3rd day of our camp. It started raining about at 4am. I was the first one to awake in my tent as I am a light sleeper. I hear the sound of the rain, but I do not panic thinking that our tents are waterproof. My tent-mates are very heavy sleepers, so much so that if you even scream their name out, they would not awake. I thought of not disturbing them thinking it is not a major problem, but as I went to sleep, drops of water soaked my hair. Immediately, I arose looking at the big tidal waves plunging into the tent. I panicked. I REALLY PANICKED.

With a palpitating heart, I shout to awake my group members. They all wake up hastily, some still surrounded by a stupor of sleepiness. The instructors and teachers all command us to go inside the canopy area where there are rooms for the staff. Thankfully, the staff members sacrificed their warm blankets and rooms for us. They were outside helping all the other sleepy students get a room while they themselves were soaked in water during a freezing night. My tent-mates and I got a room and immediately, as is expected, they all dozed off, leaving me to count numbers. I was not sleepy, but rather excited to share this piece of news with my mother. In the future, I would hopefully share it with my children to give them some words of advice. NEVER SLEEP WITH HEAVY SLEEPERS!

The latter days of the camp rolled by quite fast as each and every one of us were pre-occupied with proving ourselves and trying out new activities. What a wonderful time we had by stepping foot on various obstacles and enhancing our agility. What I really liked was how other friends supported us while we were trying out the obstacles, regardless of whether we knew them or not.

On a happy note, we, the students of Aga Khan, bade farewell to the camp, hoping to return once again with an increased maturity but a decrease in the number of heavy sleepers!