PLKN : The Day Walk and The Night Walk

As usual, after lunch and Zuhur, we would hasten into lines, in our combat suit ready for the next agenda.

That day, the agenda would be day walk. So we climb the highest hill up to helipad with our flag.

Up there, u can see the Penang bridge on a clear day. Anyway, we would walk in our company, boys and girls apart. This time, no trainer would escort us and they would only stand at some places.

The instruction is to walk in line, all the time minding who's in front and who's at the back so that nobody would go missing, beacuse our day walk is not a walk by the lake, instead it's a walk in the jungle and like I said, tropical jungle is very different from European's woods. And we are supposed to plan the journey according to what we were taught in coordination class. So, we set off with a compass and a given bearing. The main instruction is very clear ~ follow the bearing.

The rough sketch of our day walk. There was an exquisite scene of autumn like colours on the hill next to helipad hill.

And down we went from the helipad, helping each other at some tough spots and admiring the plants along the way.

The walk was a scenic one since the trees were the shades of autumn and at one point we were walking under bamboo shades (not the big scary type of bamboo of course).

And then, we were crossing a small stream and facing this slippery slope. And according to the bearing, we have to get through the slope. Thing is, it's not a really that big of a deal to take over that slippery slope if only one or two people is/are going to go through. But after 7 people or so, it would be dangerous for the next person to climb up that slope and how many girls do we have in our company? Well, if I'm not mistaken, there were about 40 of us.

And then, the trainer came to the rescue.

"U were not supposed to cross any stream or climb any contour"

U must have lost your way.

And say what? We didn't lost our way. In fact, the girls at the front were doing a perfect job, only that the trainer that let us off from helipad mixed up our bearing with other group's bearing.

Luckily we are trained with physical activity for quite some time alredy and finishing the walk in a longer distance than planned didn't cost us that much. We reached some settlement and settled for warm tea and bread. I don't know about the other, but after living on top of a hill with 500 people for quite some time, sitting on a coconut trunk or on the edge of a drain in the middle of a kampung setting was really appreciable. And those people, both fellow trainees and trainers were so sporting that I enjoy it even more.

We got into lines again, counted our number and set off for camp, this time passing the path that we travelled on our maiden journey to camp. There was a temple that grows dragonfruit and we passed a house with a roasted pig laying on the table outside, maybe was used for some some of ceremony or celebration. We took our shower, gather our laundry for pick up and darted down again to dining hall for dinner. And as we were having our hearty dinner, we heard that Delta girls also lost their way and they are not back yet. They walked all the way to Kulim town. You should make a phew sound at this point.

A town may sound nice judging to the fact that you could sneaked into the shop to buy some refreshments and whatsnot. But let me tell you, to get there from helipad is quite a feat. Town is very far from camp and even with those training we already had, they are not sufficient for such a long journey.

Anyway, not long after, we had night walk. And the scene before the walk was very funny.

Our starting point is the surau. And as always, Alpha is the first to go. Hand firmly clasping the amulet, prayers heard here and there, another hand clasping friend's ~ sufficient to say, if any spirit would appear that evening, we would all be in mental facilities before we graduated from camp.

And ahoy, off we go, this time with a trainer. I don't really remember if we each have our torchlight with us. Walking in the dark, it's a very stimulating thing to do. Walking in a big group of scared girls like us, the bonding vibrate more than ever. If in a day walk you can see the beauty along the journey, night walk brings you to feel your journey since all you see is darkness. You learn to appreciate with your hearing and sixth sense.

First leg, we walk in a jungle, trodding on the leaves in the midst of noisy crickets' sound.

Then we walked out into an open space, the stars above us. I didn't have the time to divulge in what's above me since there's sound of running footsteps and then, a sound of someone legs gave off. Rufa ran to catch up (or was it beacuse of another reason) and fall on the ground with a screeching sound

Anyway, it seems that the place is a meet up place since the other girls and boys were there too.

We were instructed to sit down and cover our eyes. We shushed around, asking who's that, who's this to find out which company is there too. You know what? It has been almost 5 years and I really don't remember much about this part. But we then set off again, now across a small river.

Yes, u heard me right. We crossed a small river in the dark. In fact it's the kind of river with big bamboos growing on both its banks and the river itself, albeit just shin deep, was loaded with trash. And the smell, enough to make you temporarily forget about your fear of gory beings. And even the combat boots didn't protect your feet. Yuckish!

Well, I'd rather do this than sitting in the hall and watching the ever so boring character building video that we were made to watch most evenings. I haven't done anything more boring than that believe me. And everybody arrived at the foot of our accommodation hill, sweaty and tired and yearning for bed uphill. Sitting on the tar, sweating in your stained combat suit among other friends under the starry nightsky singing songs, it was such a pleasure and I'm glad I had the chance to do another night walk when in peparation programme.

PLKN is nothing like school and it has everything that I enjoy doing, all at the right intensity, and plethora of friends. The only regrettable thing is that it's just a 3 months long program. Thank you Allah, for choosing me to be elected.

The Brothers

Our last Eid with late Tok Ndak. Al-Fatihah

I only have 2 brothers.

A statement that I always repeated to my mother whenever she tells me that I love my brothers too much.(read : spoiling them)

Because they are the only siblings that I have, and I treasure them much.

I am fully myself when I am with them, means to say, we have to bear with each other shortcomings.

U don't bicker about light off except with your siblings, and nobody else would dare to make a sleeping me a shield. And nobody else would throw the pillow, missed the target and hit me instead, who is sleeping soundly, full on the face.

Maybe it's the fact that we are just the three, that despite bickering whole day long, at night, when one is sleeping soundly, the other one would sit near, examining the sleeping face, stroking my hair/rubbing his head, tickling the eyelashes or nostrils and steal a couple of pecks.

For me, seeing my siblings sleep is a bless. I am not home everyday, but when I am home, it reminds me, this young man sleeping in front of me, is my brother, and I know I love him and I hope I will continue to treasure, the both of them.

We have been through so much together.

For few years, we celebrated Eid together, just the three of us after solah, since our parents had to work.

We took the bus together to Batu Feringghi and back.

There's one Eid when we were going to Jelutong and the bus as usual took yonks to come.

Nazir was babbling and me and Nazri could just smile and second him. And he eventually had had it enough and stormed back home, only for us to find him later sitting comfortably in Mak Chaq's living room, having arrived much, much earlier with abah.

The cheeky face of Nazir when he seems like he's going to finish the cookies before Eid would dawn on us or the straight face of Nazri, when he just did the exact thing.

I adore my siblings, very much.

How couldn't you?

Each time you spoon in something into the mouth, comes the sound "aum".

Sometime, when you are so much into the kerabu, then you look up to the faces, looking on you with that tender loving face, kind of telling you "I like seeing my sister eat, makes me full myself "

Oh, and the time when Nazir acompany me to finish sucking out those spicy balitongs and those times when Nazri and I would pick something up for us 3 to eat.

You know what, it's the sense of feeling responsible of each other and wanting to protect each other.

That's why I am so defensive when my cousin told me that my new brother is as black as crow. I and Nazri had been waiting for Nazir to come and we don't care about his dark shade.

That's why Nazri always nag Nazir about solah and that's why sometimes I find myself sandwiched between them 2 in the bus.

I had quite a long summer last year, just that Nazri was not home that frequent.

Me and Nazir decided that we have to have him home on weekends no matter what.

The cajoling paid off and Nazri was home every weekend.

Talking Nazir into tidying his boxes has no effect.

So we would camp together and sorted things out, while singing to the tune Wonderpet.

For everything that I put down to donate to the bin, Nazir would scavenge them back.

The 10 cent cards, the topup cards, well, almost everything.

Aje want to keep this, Aje want to keep that.

U kakak, u want to throw everything out.

You know what?

Last summer, as usual, I came home to many new items in my closet but I found out, that I'm missing two boxes of bags and books.

I didn't recovered the bags.

But it's ok, it's ok.

I love growing up with you 2, my brothers.

I pray to Allah may kakak panda, abang kondi and aje tonggek would stick together until death meet us.

I know I am only borrowing them and for the time being, I'll continue to treasue and help my two brothers and I'll miss them like I do now.

Nazri, tu me manques et Nazir, tu me manques aussi.

I Entered A Contest.

Your support would be very lovely. =)

P/s : I entered just for fun.