Life

Mile by Mile, it's a trial,
but inch by inch, it's a cinch.
No one can persuade another to change. 
Each of us guards a gate of change that can be opened from the inside.

P5 camp

Whenever I see a p5 girl in my school, I remember  about this camp. "Yes!" I answered my mother as she was checking if I had all the items for the camp.
 It was an early morning, about 5 am. I woke up as the sun greeted me with the bright and cheerful shades of yellow. "What a good start for a 3-day 2-night camp!" I thought brushing my teeth."Hurry! You have to catch the public bus on the dot,so that we can reach your school!"alerted my father,concerned.Usually, I take my school bus but that day was special as my father would drop me in school. I re-checked if I had all the items with the help of my mother. My mother will usually lend me a hand when in trouble times.
Once, I had all my items,I was back to my school uniform after 2 days of holidays. I wore my sparkling white shoes and my socks. I took big footsteps, pulling my camping bag. I missed my mother, and said good-bye in a high-tone. My mother gave me the warmest hug,I ever had in my 10 years of life. My father followed me as I reached the elevator. Luckily, we reached the bus-stop at the correct time. We took the public bus,to reach our destination, the school. We alighted after many bus-stops. We walked to my school." Yes! We made it!" I yelled in excitement,seeing my friends." Miss you father!" I told him with a broken heart, missing my family. I made a last glance at my father, as my friends pulled me away to me to the venue we had to reach. Drops of tears rolled down my cheeks,missing my family. I wiped the tears out of my face, and tried to be cheerful as I could, looking at the sun. Holding our hands together, my partner and I walked up the stairs of the bus, which lead us to the campsite. The campsite was at Labrador Moe  Park.   

  We sat according to the groups, we had been assigned to. There were seven groups. All the groups including mine went to our domes. We kept our bags gently on the floor and started arranging our beds, before we laid down our sleeping bags. Then we took our day packs(small bags ) and marched, to the beat of our I incomplete cheer,to the canteen. We laid our cutlery in a neat manner and yelled the eating cheer. After that, we were being served with food. I adapted to the food slowly as there was a big change from the food being cooked by my mother.Then we washed our own cutlery. We followed our instructors, to the respective places. My group, group 4 combined with group 3 to Pandang river, to do our kayaking. My partner and I listening carefully to the instructions on how to

control  our kayak with our paddles. Both of us were  seated comfortably on the kayak wearing our life jackets  and holding firmly to hold our paddles. 'Whee!' I screamed, joyfully  as we made our way to the middle of the river, guided by our kayak  coach. We 

had lots of fun paddling our kayaks on the river.
   We were completely drenched in water, when we ended our session. We carried the 

heavy kayaks back to their places  before we had a quick shower. We reached the campsite. Then we went back to our domes to ready ourselves for lunch.

After our heavy lunch,we walked to the venue.Many groups were assembled there. We listened to our instructor and our chiefs. They wanted us to go through a tough challenge. The challenge was to guess a number in a big box, holding 25 mini boxes. When the number being guessed was opened, and sometimes we could retrieve a key. The challenge was for each group to get 2 keys! The tricky part was that  most of the boxes did not have a key and to get a chance for guessing we had to finish a game as a group by the given time. When we won the game we got 50 points and if we lose we got 10 points. There were many games. The happy news was that we were the  second       group to get the two keys. When all of the teams finished the challenge, it was 10:15      pm. We went to brush our teeth,followed by going to bed at 10:30 pm and all of us woke up at 7 am , which was the appointed time. We went to take our morning bath. The water was freezing cold. Then we assembled in our domes. My team wanted to gain more points as when we sang our cheer to one of the chiefs and they if the chief was satisfied, we could earn a HUNDRED points! We sang to the chiefs our cheer and earned a hundred points!

That day,we had a switch of games. Those who did the zip line and the high elements went to kayak. Those who did cooking went to kayak. My team and group 3 went to do the zip line and high elements. My team did the zip line first. I went for zip line second. The zip line was mind blowing. The zip line is also known as the flying fox. I felt as if gloating  in the sky when I did the zip line. It was big, long and VERY FAST! I wanted to go on it a ZILLION times! You should definitely try it.
  Next, we went to do the obstacle course. It looked simple but it was VERY HARD!     
Some people cried their lungs out! When I tried it, panic seized me and panic robbed my lungs leaving  very little amount of oxygen. I forced myself not to cry as I saw my 

partner drenched with tears. She did not want to experience it, but she had no choice. When all of us finished it, she was the happiest among us. It was a terrifying  experience. At that very moment, I understood the meaning of the phrase," Do not judge the book by its cover". Well, I managed to complete the obstacle without getting stuck or crying. Luckily we were attached to cables or else we would have fell on the floor with great  force, instead of getting stuck in between ropes. My teachers and instructors helped us a lot. It was quite scary. Then, we went to the fun part. We had to find sweet potatoes which were dug out for us. I found an orange-coloured sweet potato. We washed our sweet potatoes sparkling clean. We were also given 2 choices. The choices were to barbeque  or boil them. I chose to barbeque my sweet potato as I had never    tasted one. That activity thought us patience, as we had to wait for the sweet potatoes to be fully cooked. Among  all  the barbecqued sweet potatoes, mine was the last to be fully cooked as mine was very fat, but it ended up sweet, tasty and juicy.

  All the teams finished all the activities. By the  second day including my team too! The moment all of us were waiting for had come. It was campfire time! Some of our school teachers and our principal came there, that night to watch the campfire. Many parents came there too. The campfire was filled with group performances. All the groups performed their cheers, sang songs and dances we had prepared. At the end  all of us were dog-tired as beads of perspiration rolled down our cheeks. We had our supper and went to bed as we had our dinner before the campfire.
  All of us woke up as the clock ticked 7 am. We had our bath. Then all of our groups were given a specific  place to clean. Our team was to clean one of the toilets. All of us    were disgusted at the moment.But we only had to clean the toilet for 10 minutes. All we did was scrubbing the floor with our shoes as there were no items to help as clean. We collected the things which were left behind by others. We earned a hundred points for 

that. Then we did our reflection  in a booklet which was provided. Then the instructors announced the points.  My team came in second as we missed the first place by 20 points, but I remained happy as I learnt  and adapted to many  new things. I thanked my instructors for giving us such a lovely and memorable camp.Then, we took a bus back to school as the camp came to an end. We chattered happily about our experiences in the camp. The camp was etched in my mind ever since then.
                                                                   Thank you!
                                                                                                                                                 - Ishvaryaa.