Every program has its activities. What is a program without activities right? Well, in National Service (NS) you can expect a lot of activities ahead of you. I would say that the activities are divided into two that is indoor and outdoor activities. The indoor activities would be our classes or any lecture by some invited guest or from the teacher. While the outdoor activities would be well...plenty!! If not why would most of the NS trainees come back home looking like roasted chicken..keke.. *no offence* ;)
First of all we had to do our KKJ. It is like our contract with the teachers there for this whole 3 months. We would need to come up with an alternative name for our companies, create our own song and cheer, explain the definition of our company’s names, explain the rules in our companies and design our own flags. Our names are Alpha Aragon, Bravo Raptors, Charlie cobra and Delta Spartans. You can check out the pictures in my previous blog. They are all totally awesome! ;)
Do you know that every day in NS we have classes too just like every other student that are studying? It’s just that our classes are in a much flexible time..hehe..a total of four hours of classes with a half an hour break in between. Our first ‘subject’ was Character Building class. We call it CB class for short. This class is divided into two modules:
1. Menampilkan yang terbaik dalam diri sendiri (bring out the best in yourself).
2. Menampilkan yang terbaik dalam diri orang (bring out the best in people).
I think these 2 modules say it all right. In the first module, the trainees are trained to build their confidence, leadership skills, their way of thinking-out of the box, willing to take risks etc. Then only after that, we learn to bring out the best in others. Already said is character building class ma so you get the point right. They teach us not just verbally but through games and activities. We will be divided into small groups to carry out discussions and activities. Some of the activities might look childish but it is has a meaning and purpose to it. That’s what our teachers told us and it’s true! So it is not as boring as you think it is. We even have books for this class!
Buku-buku kelas CB..i preferred Skyline Evo group..hehe..great timesss...... ^^
After CB classes were done, we had kelas integrasi. This class is about our country’s culture and religions. It is divided into 3 category-Kebudayaan (culture), Keagamaan (religion) and Peranan Lelaki dan Perempuan (the duties/responsibilities of guys and girls). It was quite an interesting class as we get to learn about other cultures and religions in Malaysia. We were divided into smaller groups too. In this class we not only explain about our own culture and religion but we also got the chance to act out other religions and culture. Ermm...but honestly, it was quite boring too. I don’t know whether it is because of the physical activities or the insufficient sleep or the way the teacher teach in class was just too boring..hehe..But I had fun too through it all. We even had to do a performance after everything is taught.
Buku-buku Kelas Integrasi: Kebudayaan->Keagamaan->Peranan Lelaki & Perempuan
Kelas Kenegaraan or KN class for short, well i did not really enjoy myself in this class as it was more talk than actions. Arrgghhh...it was so theoretical... =.= You guys who know me well understand that i am a hyperactive girl who can’t sit still wan la... ;) There weren’t any books for this class but it involved a lot and I mean A LOT of mah-jong papers, manila cards, marker pens & colour pencils. This class is about our country Malaysia, you know nation building. We did activities like creating our dream country, creating our own motto for this country, acted out the role of a prime minister, debating, thinking on ways to develop our country and etc. In this class, we would sit in a big circle or sometimes be divided into smaller groups and the teacher would start educating us. It was like 80% theory and 20% practical. So, Yeah... Quite bored but our teacher was quite the sporting type la.
At the same time, we had community service on every Wednesdays. Community service is the part where we get to go out form the camp (Yay!) to civilisation...hahaha...just being sarcastic. Well, we do community work but not exactly community work lah. It was more like a learning trip to the Police Department, council, Anti Agency Department, Fire Department and some more other places but we did some cleaning and painting too. we would also be divided into few groups and we would alternate each groups destination every week. We went for an event held by the Police Department of Jempol and we lucky NS trainees got to be the audiences. The program was quite entertaining and you can say that for this community service module it was the event that I enjoyed the most. The best part was when it started to rain heavily and we started singing making the whole place merrier. ^.^V
Well, that would be the theory/indoor/boring part of NS. Now comes the fun part! It is time we get physical. Hehehe... the first physical activity we did was duh! Marching.. we need to learn basics cause we need to march like hell in camp.. Everywhere we go must march wan ley, going from our dorms to the padang kawad, gather pun kene kawad, malam2 roll call pun kene kawad and we must be in our company at all times... But it is for our own good as it trains our discipline. Then there is the PT pagi, the program that everyone hates. Imagine la people, waking up at the break of dawn, wait..that time the sun not even up yet man! At 5 something to get ready for morning exercises. Peh, cam giler weih...okayla have morning exercise but at that time not at that time la. We were all like living zombies you know. But it is true that if you have PT Pagi, we are more active that is why teacher, at night during tayangan we tgh tido meh..hehe..
The dewan makan/dewan berkumpul
We have a kolam there, it is the place where we do our ‘swimming’ training and our kayak. The ‘swimming’ training was just like a confidence thing but the kayak practice was for competition between companies. It was kinda funny seeing us newbie row the kayak. There are those who went bengkang bengkok, langgar tebing pun ader, teramik shortcut pun ader, remain stationary pun ader..mcm2 ader lah. Hehe.. Me and Jing is in two of those category. It was all about the chemistry you have between each other and the trust too. Of course strength is needed lah. It was fun..i entered the competition for doubles with my best pal Jing. Hehe..although didn’t win but we had fun kayak...shouting...cheering... my voice was totally gone the next day!! ^^
That is Cikgu Daud and.....some other teacher in the back..hehe...
We had Navigasi which is like a jungle walk but not exactly in jungle la. We move in our companies and in different directions. We need to find our way through the jungle with the help of our compasses and of course our teachers were there. It was a 5km walk. We had to climb and go down an almost 90 degrees slopes, cross rivers with wooden branches, bear with the cow poo... we did have rest la, we had an half an hour break to have our lunch which was delivered to us.. It took us 5 hours to complete it and by the time we reached camp we were all so exhausted. Some of us didn’t even bathe and slept straight till dinner time. There was the flying fox but we didn’t get the chance to play cause of the schedule and timing i think but we played abseiling which was kinda exciting. We were strapped with the safety ropes and there were teachers around to guide us through to scale down the wooden kind of wall. Many of us wasn’t satisfied and wanted to go again but the teacher said cannot cause not enough time pulak... =(
This is the abseiling and flying fox
Ahaa...Kembara Halangan... The obstacle courses. There are 7 obstacles for the girls and 8 for the guys in our camp. The obstacle i hated and worry the most was the monkey bars. That was the only thing in the playground that i never played since young because i know i won’t pass. Believe me I’ve tried even before going to NS. In NS is different, if you fall, you’ll be taking a swim with the dead katak. I’m telling you..seriously got white buih2 mayat there wan ley..wth.. but you know what..i did not fall!!! For a moment i was relieved but i fell during the tarzan swing..wtf..damn wei..into the katak pool i went. The second practice pulak the other way round, i fell during the monkey rack but not the tarzan swing.. and for the real competition..i passed all!! Woohooo!!!! Hahaha..damn proud weih!!! ^^
*Kembara Halangan no 1 [no image] - jump over a horizontal tiang thingy
*Kembara Halangan no 2 [no image] – cross a small jambatan goyang-goyang
Kembara Halangan no 3-the wall..obviously we got through this with the help of our friends lar..
Kembara Halangan no 4-girls din do this cuz it was dangerous for us it seems...
Kembara Halangan no 5 & 6- Tarzan Swing and Monkey Rack: the 2 that I am absolutely proud of! Keke.. ;)
Kembara Halangan no7-the tunnel
*Kembara Halangan no8 [no image] - the wire crawling thingy lol..
Another great experience was getting to handle the Colt M16. The day before we get to use the Colt M16 at the shooting ranch, we were introduced to the basic parts of the gun, we were taught on the ways and positions to shoot the target. We went to the Mantin shooting ranch. It was a one and a half hour trip if I’m not mistaken. The gun shot was really loud but after spending few hours there, we got used to the sound already. We were given a total of 30 bullets. 10 for trials shooting at the lump of sand behind and 20 were counted for shooting the target. The bullets were reloaded by the supervised soldiers at each of our positions. The gun was quite heavy and when you shoot it will jolt back a lil so you need to handle it in the right position. Damn cekap wieh!! Muahahaha!!
Another awesome experience was the Wira Jaya on 25th May 2009.. hehe.i still remember the date because i was suppose to leave camp the day before. This is a one day camping in the jungle. We had to walk for some distance..seriously damn tiring carrying the bag somemore. We had kraf hutan, learning about the herbs in the jungle and finding them too, had to carry out a first aid activity. This is what i call real camping. We need to set up our own tent, sleeping on the ground with the poncho as your bed, cooking your own food, washing the utensils in the river, finding for wood to set up the fire... The fire was the tough part because the fire kept going off and the smoke was choking. The wira and Wirawati were separated (duh!). Our campsite was like 45 degrees uphill..omg, and Delta was at the highest position of other companies.. damn tiring weih..
One of the path ways out from the hutan...psstt...FYI: also a pathway out from camp.. ;)
Throughout the whole 3 months, everything we do was taken into count. We had our standings between companies and got our hampers. It was Charlie-Bravo-Delta-Alpha. Congrats to Charlie!! ;-) Then we had a night for each of our companies to open the hampers and makan!! Jamuan makan in our companies’ la... we were so crazy that night... hehehe... we were dancing, taking pictures, running around, playing cake also got, blasting the music loudly, eating, curi makanan pun ader...hehe.. It was very nice... everyone was like outta control lol... of course la.. When you have been under the rules all this while in camp and you’re been given a night to have fun of course you’ll do it what you want to do. Have fun first; consequences will deal with it later. Haha... ;p
When it was nearing the last day of NS, we had to kawad every day because we have a closing ceremony. The Datuk was coming so we had to do our best. During practice, if our performance was unsatisfactory, we would need to keep doing it over and over again. We kene denda some more for being late..Kept pusing and pusing...wth...well, after all practice makes perfect right...lol... at the same time we would need to prepare for our performance on the last night. Each company has to do their own performance: Alpha-Chinese, Bravo-Malay, Charlie-All three & Delta-Indian. There were also additional performances if you want to. I was involved in two performances and I was seriously tired. Kawad when we have to and dance practice for the whole day when there was time plus i didn’t had enough sleep some more. All this adds up to my breakdown on the last day...wth...but thanks to someone... I felt better...hahaha... =)
The last night was called Malam Perpisahan Tawa & Air Mata. We even had a theme for our last night which was malam 90-an. There was a band singing songs in the 90’s. After all the performances were done, we went up stage by companies to say shake hands with our teachers as for the last time. we hugged them and said thanks to them. Actually i didn’t cry but when i saw my friends crying i too started crying and other people were crying also. So sad man, some mores they put our lagu De Bana oh...lagi la sedeh...after all companies were done the band started to play their songs and we had like an open dance floor...So we danced beramai-ramai! Hehe... Then there was an after party in the dorm also. Some did not even sleep. I slept at 4a.m for God’s sake.. I don’t know what was i doing till so late arh? Huuu...How I missed that night so much!!!!
I can't seem to get enough of NS Life...I MISS IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!! If i had to choose i couldn’t, I would say that all of the activities are great!!! No matter how boring or enjoyable or sad or exhausted that activity had made me feel. It is still a great experience. The reason why some people who just completed their training would dislike it is because they do not involve themselves 100% in the activities carried out. However when you really listen and involve yourself in discussions and all those stuff, you will really enjoy yourself. Seriously i learnt a lot from NS. It was an experience that one cannot give it the outside world. I heard that NS has been cancelled due to H1N1 but if it this program is going to be continued in the future, i encourage those who got selected for NS to just go for it!! There is a proverb that goes, “As you make your bed so must you lie on it”. Don’t give excuses to get away with it because in the end you must accept the consequences of your act.
The Experience you gain, the different people you meet, the Skills you learn, the stories of people from different background..you can find it all in this whole three months in NS which is why it makes it more hard to forget because all the trainees go through the same path & experience which already makes us practically like a family already. Whenever i see or hear something to do with NS, i will have a tingly feeling and all the memories start to pour out. Knowing that i had faced every challenges thrown at me;knowing that i did not give up half way through the training; i feel so damn proud!!! Now i can proudly say that i was a NS Trainee and i can share my stories with others.
Cover of the Certificate..yeah..it comes with a file too..
My Certificate! ^^
Wirawati Khoo Hsieh June (G24) ^.^V
Program Latihan Khidmat Negara (PLKN); K2/S6/2009; 19 March-08 June 2009 - One of The Greatest Accomplishment in my life!
