♥ BABYT'S WORLD OF CRAP ♥

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

As everyone expected, I felt extremely disappointed and was really pissed off when I found out that I am the lucky one chosen for National Service. I believe that nine out of ten Malaysians do not look forward to attending this special programme called National Service, specially introduced last year by the government for some of those after Form 5 students. I felt really unsatisfied and was so heartbroken when my friends told me that, I, out of so many other fellow Malaysians out there was selected to attend this ‘unnecessary’ National Service. What’s worse is that none of my best friends were chosen except me. All of them were so glad and so relieved except me who was so devastated over the fact that I will have to go to ‘jail’ in like a few months time, and just a few days after SPM. All my holiday plans, GONE!! So I began to actually think of ways to escape what I thought was going to be like prison. I thought of going to the doctor and ask for medical leave or something (well, I do have really sensitive skin and nose problem) but I guess I finally realize that I cannot escape reality, which is the fact that I have to go no matter what. I know myself too well, I’m definitely going to be homesick and I’m definitely going to cry badly in camp. I’m a person who can’t survive even for a few days away from home. But then I keep reminding myself of the positive aspect of National Service. I do believe that God has given me an opportunity to learn how to live independently on my own, away from the comfort of home and away from my dearest mum. My mum is definitely the person I miss most during the whole programme and of course my dad and my two siblings. (Even though sometimes it’s good to not have them around to get on my nerves) News about me going for National Service spread really fast and in a matter of seconds, all my aunts and uncles knew that I, the girl my mum pampered most at home is going for NS. Everyone kept telling me that this is a really good chance for me to experience what it is like to live independently because everyone kind of knows how spoilt I am at home. I was really lazy and I always depend on my mum to do things for me. (Sometimes even washing my own cup) I am a really untidy person and I love messiness. (I still do now) So I guess God has create this as some sort of a punishment for me, but I’m glad that He arranged this for me.

Anyway, after I received the news about myself going for NS, I still have to sit for my SPM first. I still have a few months before going for NS. So I didn’t think about NS for 3 months and concentrated on my SPM, an exam Form 5 students had to sit for before leaving secondary school. (Which I don’t really want to talk about) On the day before my physics paper, I called the hotline to find out the location of my camp. I was really eager to find out where my home for 3 months will be and I was so hoping that it will be some where near Ipoh, my hometown. And again I received bad news. I was placed in Kelantan out of so many places. I mean, why Kelantan, it’s like 8 hours drive from Ipoh and so far from home. I have 12 friends in my class who were also selected for NS and out of the 12; all of them were placed in Perak except some who were in the second batch. Why am I the odd one again? I am the only one going to Kelantan. Once again my family consoled me by saying that it’s better to be placed somewhere further rather than stuck in Perak. When I come to think of it, it’s true. I mean, right now, I’m so glad to be in Kelantan because I actually got a chance to see what ‘kampung’ life is. Besides I never had a chance to visit East Malaysia until now, all because of National Service, so I guess it’s another favour that God has given me.

Time flies really fast. In the blink of the eye, SPM was over and it was time for me to go for NS training. And to tell the truth, my mum was the one who packed almost everything for me again. Well, I was a bit busy with SPM. (lame excuses) Anyway, my trip to camp was delayed for one week because of the floods in Kelantan. At that time I was really happy that I escaped one week training but pity my friends who had to go earlier. So I managed to get some inside stories about camp from one of my friend who went earlier. She told me what to bring and gave me an idea of how the whole NS thing is. I was really shocked when she told me one day that even the girls have to cut their hair. My long hair is like my priced possession, they can’t do that to me. (I look really ugly in short hair) I kept praying that all this is not true and fortunately the next day my friend told me that her teacher pulled her leg. Thank God!

Finally on the 19th of December, I had to leave for Kelantan. I was placed in Kisana Beach Resort, Pasir Puteh, Kelantan. I was kind of excited that day. I was really anxious to see how my camp looks like. I kept telling myself that Ns would be fun even though I wasn’t too sure myself. Well, it looked fun from the advertisement that kept showing itself on television. (The one with the really nice song in it….’Kami anak-anak Malaysia…’) I remember I used to really hate that ad because it always reminds me of NS. That day, my aunts, uncles, grandpa, my sister, my brother, cousins and my mum were there to send me off. The bus left at 10 o’clock and reached Kelantan at almost 6 o’clock. I sat with this guy, Mun Fook on the bus. He was the first person I met. As soon as we reached camp, we separated because he has to go to the WIRA (that is what boys are known as) side while I’m on the WIRAWATI side. So I had to make some new friends. I then had all my luggage checked up by the teachers in charge and then was given a bed in Dorm A. I was the first girl who completed the whole registration process. So I went to the beach, which is so beautiful. I love the beach; it’s now my favourite place in camp. The sea is breathtaking. There I started crying because I’m beginning to miss home and I was not allowed to keep my hand phone so I can’t call home. Fortunately they have public phones. But at that moment I didn’t know where the public phones were and I was not in the mood to call because I was too sad. So after crying secretly for a while I went back to dorm and met Si Mei, my first friend in camp. She is also from Ipoh. So for a few days, she was my companion. The trainees from KL and Selangor reached later that night but I really didn’t bother to talk to any one of them that day. Well I was so homesick. Somehow I knew that I had to mix around in order to get used to the new environment so I tried to talk to them on the second day. I didn’t really want anyone to dislike me. I really want to meet some new friends. Besides I promised myself that I want to enjoy myself and make my friends back home jealous that I got chosen for NS and they’re not. From Selangor, I met Huey Ning, Ah Chin, Mei Cheeng, Chew Mei and See Mun; from Taiping, I met Yin Yin. We didn’t click well at first but later we bonded. Now we are closer than close. We share our problems and shared our good and bad times together. I think the best part of this whole programme is meeting new friends with so many different backgrounds. I learnt so much from every single one of them because each one of them have different stories to tell about their past. I learnt that compared to some of my friends, I’m considered really lucky to have such a happy family and such a blissful life. I really shouldn’t be complaining too much.

Anyway, the first two days was filled with extreme boredom. We have nothing to do at all. No activities and no fun. All we did was wait, wait and wait. Finally, on the third day, some activities started. We were first divided into four flights – Alpha (A), Bravo (B), Charlie(C) and Delta (D). I was placed in Delta. In Delta, we were once again divided into 3 groups – D1, D2, D3. I’m in D1, Si Mei in D2 and Yin Yin in D3. Huey Ning was in A4 with Chew Mei and a few other girls from KL and I don’t think I will mention everyone of them. In my new group, I didn’t know anyone at all. But now, I love my group so much even though I don’t really like some of them. We then move to our first assignment – create a group name, come up with a motto and design a flag (which we have to take really good care of). After what seems like hours, we finally named our group BATIK. BATIK is a mixture of different colours and we hope that we, Malaysians will mix together even though we have different skin colours. (I hope I’m correct with the explanation, I don’t really know the real meaning behind the group name actually) The BATIK group consists of 12 WIRA and 12 WIRAWATI. I don’t think I will name all of them, it is not that important anyway. Our group leader was Mohd. Hafiz.(One of the members which i totally hate) In fact he’s the leader of the whole Delta flight. (Unfortunately, a lot of people were not so satisfied with him. (He is too bad tempered) But I made good friends with a few of them – Wai Han, Atikah, Azie and Akma. All of them are really nice and they treat me really well. I found a lot of big sisters in camp actually. All of them treat me like their little sister, maybe because of my small size (I’m extremely short). I like them to treat me like their little sister because I don’t have big sisters. Now I have a chance to feel what it’s like to have big sisters. The WIRAs are also really funny. I kind of change my perception on Malay guys after meeting the boys in my group. I feel that they too have some leadership qualities in them. Before this, I always thought that Malay boys are really lazy and all they do is ‘lepak’. The boys in my group are all really intelligent and are all different and special in their own ways. When they are together, they can always come out with really funny jokes.

The next morning, we started our first module – ‘Kenegaraan’. We met our teacher, Cikgu Norhayati. She’s really sweet and really pretty. For ‘Kenegaraan’ we had learnt about “DAULAT, KERAJAAN, RAKYAT and TANAH” (DKRT). We also learned to work in groups. (Latihan dalam kumpulan -LDK) Each morning, from 9.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. (we have breaks in between) we will attend ‘kenegaraan’ lessons. We do different activities each day. Some I really enjoy while some I don’t. One of the activities that I really enjoyed was the one where we had to search for rubbish and create something out of it that represents our country. For this activity, BATIK was divided into small groups consisting of 6 people each. Our teacher then let us out to the seaside for a few minutes and we were to collect as many rubbish as we can. It really disappoints me to see that there are so many different types of rubbish out there – sweet wrappers, strings, aluminium cans, bottles, etc. I realize how dirty the beach is but on the positive side, we have more stuff for our project. (Come to think of it, this whole activity is actually a scheme to get us help clean up the beach) So, after collecting enough rubbish, or should I say project materials, we gathered in our groups and tried to come up with something. My group collected a few pieces of polystyrene (which were very useful), sticks, water bottles, lovely seashells and two of my friends even managed do some ‘crabbing’, meaning catch some small crabs. After like about an hour or less (we have really limited time) all the four small groups completed their task. Most of them made the Twin Towers, the KL tower or just some buildings that we can totally relate to Malaysia. But I, who misunderstood what the teacher had said, suggested to my group that we make a fish. (How stupid. What does a fish have to do with Malaysia?) So we, instead of all those magnificent buildings, made a fish. (Hey, it’s a really beautiful one, ok!) But my friend who presented did a really good job. He managed to somehow relate the fish to Malaysia, I don’t know how. So in other words, we were not completely wrong. When I told my dad about the activity, he told me that fish do represent our country in some ways. If we really put our minds into it, fishes do contribute to our country. Fish are a source of food and protein. Fish also provide jobs for our fellow fishermen out there. Without fishermen who catch, there won’t be factories that produce products using fish, and without factories, there won’t be development in our country. (In this sector) To summarize, I would say that fish represents the development of the country as well, even though not as apparent as other sectors.

Other fun activities include the one where we have to design our own country and the one where we designed robots. For the country designing activity, we work in groups of six again and we were supposed to draw a country in any shape or size on a piece of manila cardboard. Then we equipped it with whatever we want, for example, forts for defence, museums, towers, shopping complexes and beaches for tourism, and whatever we can think of. Later we have to present it to the others. My team designed a papaya shaped country (I have no idea why) and we simply named it D since none of us were diligent enough to think of a suitable name. Besides, to us the most important thing is that we did an excellent job with the country we designed. The robot designing activity was really fun for me as I’ve done it before in school and I knew exactly what I wanted in a robot. For this activity, we had to find a partner. We were given a piece of paper with a blank robot. Our job was to add special features to that robot in order to make it our ideal robot. Azie and I were partners and we had a great time designing our robot. Our robot can either be male or female; well it’s its owner’s choice (Not that it matters anyway-they can’t get married or something). Then you can scan anyone’s picture and programme it into your robot so that it has the looks of that particular person. It can be just anyone; may it be Britney Spears, Tom Cruise or even yourself. Then it has an ATM machine (money comes out from its mouth), a monitor that acts as the computer monitor and television, and a cd/vcd player all equipped in its body. But then it has no feelings so that it won’t rebel or anything. OH and it has an alarm system programmed in it so it can help detect any strangers that try to intrude your house. Besides that, one of its eyes works as a digital camera, so you can take photos using it. You can fold it so it’s absolutely portable.

Another fun activity during ‘Kenegaraan’ was the one were we need to blindfold ourselves. One person was selected as the leader, in my group’s case; Hafiz was once again the leader. Then six were chosen as distracters and the others were left blindfolded. I was really unlucky to be one of the blindfolded. The game goes like this: the leader must lead the ‘blind’ to a certain destination. Well, it’s a really big bunch of blind followers and he must do his best to ensure that all of his followers safely reach the specified area. The distracters on the other hand will create problems and troubles to fail the leader. They can do whatever they want to interrupt – give fake instructions, throw sand at us, pull our hair and what ever they can think of as long as it is not dangerous. I was the first girl in line and I was behind a boy. I held on to a cloth the boy was holding in order to follow the right track. We had to hold on to each other’s hand so that we wouldn’t get lost. Hafiz stood at the very front leading all of us – 7 boys and 7 girls. Before the game started, Hafiz reminded us only to listen to his orders and not other people’s. But when the game started, I find it really hard to hear his voice as 7 guys were between him and me. That’s why I didn’t exactly followed his instructions. Then there was this stupid distracter who keeps attacking me resulting me to bump on to my other friend’s head (Both of us suffered minor injuries, just kidding but it sure hurt) In the end we managed to complete our task, we successfully reached our destination even though everyone (well the blindfolded ones) was really pissed off at the end of the game after being bullied by the distracters. When asked about our feelings, I told the teacher that I was extremely mad at what the distracters had done to us and that I was unable to hear orders from the leader. That’s why I almost got lost. The motive of this game is to show us what will happen if the followers do not obey a leader. It’s like in Malaysia, if no one listens or supports the Prime Minister, our leader, our country will never be able to achieve our vision. The distracters are like other countries who look down on us. They are also the ones who try to lead our citizens into a wrong direction and they create lots of problems. The conclusion of this whole game is that we have to work with our leaders and not listen to distracters in order to achieve success. I think that this game is really fun (Even though I hate the distracters) and it actually succeeded in making me realized that it’s true that we need to follow and support the government so that our country continues to bloom.

There were many other activities during ‘Kenegaraan’. Some of them were really not so interesting and I hardly remember them. Overall, even though there were good and boring times, I had a wonderful time getting to know my group members while working together in a group. During the last day of the ‘Kenegaraan’ module, the camp organised a barbecue to celebrate the teachers. Every group (A1 to D3) had to come up with a performance for the teachers. Our group BATIK (D1) sang a song specially for our teacher, Cikgu Norhayati and all the other teachers. That night, some were busy barbecuing for the rest of the group members (so nice of them), while others were busy chatting all night away. I was one of the lazy ones who did nothing but chat and eat at the same time. Well, I did help by contributing my appetite. (Imagine how would the people who put in all their efforts in making us food feel when nobody eats their food) When the party was over, it was time to bid farewell to Cikgu Norhayati for there wouldn’t be anymore ‘Kenegaraan’ classes after that. We had done about 3 weeks of ‘Kenegaraan’ and on the last day, everyone was feeling bitter. Everyone in D1 cried, even the boys. I think I’m the only one who didn’t. It was really embarrassing. The truth is, I am sad. But two weeks is not enough to make me cry for someone. Besides, during the first week of ‘Kenegaraan’, I didn’t click at all with the group yet because I was still extremely homesick. I still despise the government for putting me through this programme. It’s only after a few days that I started to adapt to the whole programme and start liking the activities. I really liked my teacher for she’s really sweet and nice to me. But on that day, I find it really tough to cry at all. I can’t pretend to cry. I don’t do such things. So, I just stood there, consoled my friends and looked extremely stupid next to them. At least I hugged my teacher and thanked her for everything. I truly meant it. THANK YOU once again Cikgu Norhayati! When I went back to dorm, I kept telling my friends about how useless I was for not crying. I mean, everyone in my group were except me. But then they told me that it wasn’t the tears that matter, it was the heart. Besides none of my best friends cried, so I felt better. At least I’m not the odd one out. If I was not mistaken, ‘kenegaraan’ classes end on the 19th January, just before our trip home for Hari Raya Haji holidays.

With Lots of Love & Hugs & Kisses & Chris Richardson's scent from BabyT ;