Pardon the digression. I shall now blog on my best camp experience yet! hehe! I don't even know how to begin! I find it so difficult to describe it in words, and I rarely find myself lost for words. Yeah sure, I admit it was rather intimidating at the very beginning before I met the campers. All thoughts of inferiority flooded my puny mind and uncertainty just overwhelmed. I was worried whether the campers would like me, whether I'd be able to perform well whilst at the camp, and whether I was worthy of this golden opportunity.
But the moment I was ushered by the IYC committee just cleared my doubts. Their friendly smiles just warm your heart and seem to reach out to assure you that this is one camp you'd never feel left out from. And I didn't, despite being one of the ugliest looking campers! (I'd have expected people to only pay attention to the physically attractive ones, but oh well, I guess I was lucky!)
It was devastating first to be made country leader-I just didn't like the 10.30p.m. meetings when we should have instead be socialising at Open Cafe, but thank goodness it was only one night! Workshops were mind-boggling and at the same time eye-opening. For one thing, I never knew Gloucester existed-and mortifying enough, I'll be heading to the UK. Never knew it was a fishing industry, and never knew their society suffered from urbanisation threats. Until we had the workshop requiring us to debate this over-Urbanisation vs. Cultural Heritage. Apparently a 'glocal' issue. Mind you, our theme was Glocal Solidarity, Glocal Action.
We also had workshops requiring us to speak regarding local taboos, completely disregarding the boundaries of press freedom/ freedom of speech in our respective countries. I personally enjoyed this-and sharing issues over at Malaysia with others around the world, and also exchanging pieces of information with them are invaluable experiences. Through these workshops, we noticed the similarities in the problems we faced. This subsequently led to a better comprehension of a pivotal word throughout the entire camp-glocal. It dawned on me that local problems should not be solved in isolation as they aren't standing alone to begin with. Broaden our perspectives and view these issues from a global panorama-and if possible, solve it in a globally and locally favourable manner. It's pretty much the cliche phrase; think globally, act locally. If you ask me, that's perhaps one thing Dr M has been successful in doing. Despite all the cronyism, nepotism etc you name it, he has probably done it, and also inspite of the fact that he is discreetly the fifth richest man in Malaysia just by being a politician, his 'Look East' policies actually did Malaysia some good. Malaysia's PPF probably expanded-and I dare say there was both economic growth and development, though problems of income inequality pervaded. His reign is comparable to that of maybe..hmm..South Korea's Park Chung-hee. They are seriously similar in more ways than one..*chokes*
So, after a long day of workcamps-here came the even more stressful moment! The cultural performance in which I wasn't prepared for at all! However, it turned out to be a stroll along the park. The audience was very sporting and ran up onto stage almost immediately when I requested for 5 volunteers to learn the 'poco-poco'. I personally enjoyed the performance, and I hope the audience did as well :) It was rather spontaneous that I had to explain regarding poco-poco and communicate with the crowd, but experiences from college eased the process. So, yes, I thought it turned out great! Eleh, masuk bakul angkat sendiri pulak :P All credit should however go to Kim Lee for teaching me the dance! hehe! The poco-poco was so famous that the guys even danced it on 'clubbing' night during open cafe!
We were made to teach the 'poco-poco' as part of the morning exercise programme the following day. The turn out was rather impressive :) I was pleasantly flabbergasted. Am still waiting for more pics to be uploaded though. Hardly snapped any pics myself, and I'm beginning to regret that.
Am pretty much done with the first 2 days. Shall take a break now..whilst hoping for more campers to upload or send over the pictures. I miss the camp dearly. I miss the campers dearly. I hate it when we do not appreciate things enough when we have them, and begin missing them when they've been taken away from us. Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder.
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