Ok, now about the camp... it's hard to narrate a fully saturated 4 days... so I'm just going to highlight what strucked me the most during the camp:
- It's amazing that a church camp would attract so many participants, 100+. The committee initially intended a 80-participant camp, but eventually they just accepted whoever wanted to join, so it's very encouraging to see that church activities are still "in" with the youngsters nowadays...
- The speaker/motivator, Martin Jalleh was provocative and very open and realistic in his approach in sharing his ideas and preaching. He talked so openly about the church, young people, self-discovery and awareness, boy-girl relationship and sex and marriage. He was so direct that some campers gave their feedbacks that they were uncomfortable and told him off that some issues were not supposed to be discussed openly... so he gently responded to all that in his Q&A session... I thought eventually the campers warmed up to him and asked very highly intelligent and insightful questions (even for their ages!) I was very surprised... I think I was not even that "aware" when I was their age.
- Martin was also extremely hillarious! I thought that made him a hit with the campers... I find myself drawn to his jokes and life stories (which he related in very humourous ways) and of course his observation of people. He's a combination of Phua Chu Kang + Mr. Bean + Tom Hanks (in Forrest Gump) + Peter Falk (in Colombo)!
- Initially I didn't really like him because he started off by saying, "I didn't know you Sarawakians..." and "I didn't know that in Sarawak, people...." But I realized that's what he does... he travels to many different places on weekly basis for the past 30 years and he's able to tell the differences even the most subtle. I wish I have his "eyes"... he's able even to now what somebody is doing without looking at the person.... he's always noticing some girl or boy in the crowd that looked lost or was unhappy... all those come with great experience...
- I noticed that certain people rised to the occasion... particularly those in the working committee... there were a few people that I now realized that I've judged prematurely... they really showed their true capabilities and talents during the camp... so for them I thank God!
- The campers (especially the girls) were soooo (direct translation from Hokkien) thin-skinned, spoilt, sensitive.... I was awoken several times in the middle of the night for some very minor cuts and abrasions... some even woke me up because they thought their blisters were serious (only 0.5cm in diameter)... and some knocked their arms against the table and wondered why it hurt!!! I had to carry the First Aid around most of the time... then quite a few of them came down with fever, so I took their temperature, made them drink some Milo and take Paracetamol 500mg and ask them about themselves and send them to bed... :) so easy.... and the next morning, they come and thank me.... I realized that all that sick people really want was some TLC! :)
- But the most horrifying experience came on the last day (Thank God!) from a 16-year girl with poorly controlled asthma, who didn't indicate in her form that she was asthmatic, and brought the wrong inhaler!!! I was truly worried that day when she started to become breathless during one of the talks and she suddenly became pale and she was wheezing very loudly... luckily the girl sitting next to her had the sense to run out of the room to look for me... I immediately went to her and found that she was having a real attack.... her pulse rate 120bpm and her respiratory rate 60cpm! Her extremities were cold... on top of her wheezing, when I put my ears near her chest wall, I could easily hear rhonchi! When I heard that she didn't bring the correct inhaler, I asked Olivia (my assistant... she's a trained nurse at Normah) to find the known asthmatic in the camp to get hold of her Salbutamol inhaler.... so we made the girl take one puff and 3 mins later she recovered... but before that, right after her puff, she actually collapsed because she didn't have enough oxygen to her brain during the attack.... before I brought her back to her room and asked her housemates to look out for her, I sort of gave her a piece of my mind for her irresponsibility... but in less than 1-min she poured her heart out to me.... she said that she didn't want to "burden" anybody with her condition, that her mum always said that she was "burden" to her because of her asthma, she even told me that the night before her attack, she had felt breathless middle of the night... so she had to crawl from her bed to her bag on the floor to get her inhaler (which was the wrong one anyway)... I almost fainted when I heard her story! So I arranged for her to go come back to Kuching in one of the cars (with Olivia) together with another girl who had motion sickness (she became nauseous one the way to Siar)... on the way back, she had another attack, but luckily she was holding on to the Salbutamol inhaler, so Olivia made her take 2 puffs... by the time she reached Kuching, and by the time I heard their little misadventure, she's already recovered fully... Before we all parted, the girl (who had the asthma attacks) came to give me a big hug and thanked me... I just told her to promise to take care of herself and that she wasn't a burden... as for the inhaler, the committee decided that we keep it in our First Aid Kit and we pay the cost of the inhaler to the girl we got hold of it from...
- On a personal level, I gained one thing... I gained some form of reassurance from God. I realized now I was never alone... that I did the right thing in all those critical moments in my life... and that it was because He was with me that I could make those decisions... and now with that realization I shouldn't feel any regrets or doubts or allowed myself to feel ridiculed by whatever decisions I made... and that my guts to be different then has helped me to be what I am today.... Thank you Jesus!
- I also realized that I have to make some changes in my life now... and some decisions have to be made about who I really am, what I really want out of life and how I want to serve... those are tough issues, and I hope I can make them at the right time...
- Remember Philip? My longest ever crush! At least 5 years?! His 2 younger siblings were at the camp! Darren (Form 4) and Julia (Form 3)... and for some reasons, I took a special interest in them, particularly Darren because we stayed in the same lodging house (I had to stay in the Longhouse with 25 boys because I had guard duty so easier for me to leave the house 3am or 4am... and I didn't want to squeeze in the room with 4 or 5 big-sized girls like me that was meant for 3 normal-sized people) He was very much like his brother... very quiet and reserved and quite a loner.... so I constantly made small conversations with him, trying to find out why he was soooo shy... but he was more smiley than Philip... and he answered all my questions (unlike Philip if I remembered correctly, Philip was naughtier and could be nasty if provoked... haha!). Julia was normal, very pretty, mixing well with her girlfriends, and even with some of the boys... so I'm glad that she's normal. She's also very aware that her brother was very shy, so I noticed that she occasionally sat with her brother or went over to talk to him, or invited him to join her in games. Julia was also very sporting and active in all the singings and dancing, unlike poor Darren who looked like he had mind-body dissociation! Haha! But anyways, it's great seeing them! I asked Darren to send my regards to Philip when he sees him. :) Oh ya, I even asked Darren whether Philip already had a girlfriend!!! Muahahahaha!!!
- Overall, I had a blast at the camp! I would do it over and over again, despite the lack of sleep, my caffeine withdrawal state, 100+ school boys and girls driving the facilitators nutts with some of their antics! I would say that I couldn't really relate to the campers as much as the other facilitators... I guess I'm not a naturally friendly person, or that I'm not as warm and loving, so I'm trying... one of the things I want to change...
I think I better stop here for now... I was supposed to resume studying tonight... :)
Cheers!
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