am now in an apartment ("al-Muntazah") in Salalah, Oman. Preparing and awaiting our bus for the next phase of land journey (approx 16 hours insyaAllah :')) to Tareem al-Ghanna. Biidznillah..

Bismillah!

And we're almost at The Final 10 Days...

Ihya' over.

JMS LPs and resources (worksheets, slides, etc.) done.

Transfer of teaching materials to my relief teacher almost done (the last few items like iPad and markers to be passed over during my last lesson this Monday before my departure insyaAllah).

Meanwhile, there are pressing matters at home:

- packing for The Trip (biidznillah)

- cleaning up

- and moreeee cleaning up......

Bismillah!

Yaaa Rabb! Just 5 days to go before the arrival of Ramadhan! 

Meanwhile, just returned from Survival Camp 2016 @Murni Camp, Gopeng, Perak early this morning (at around 1 am)...

Followed by some cleaning & course-ing (heh. or rather, JMS-ing) at Masjid An-Nahdhah...

n this will continue for the subsequent THREE days. 

Allah ﷻ yuqawiinaa wa yukhlish niyyaatinaa... :(

that aside, I'm somehow kinda motivated to engrave some takeaways from the camp here whilst the memories are still fresh in ma mind~

Bismillah:

This is my First Survival Camp with Madrasah Aljunied. Been looking forward to it since I was form teacher of a Sec 4 class last year (but somehow last yr due to the small number of female pax, they did not require form teachers to join the camp. Which at that point of time was good as there was another daurah happening at Sg :D)

We were informed that this year, it will going to focus more on outdoor-based activities.

but the experience was something not quite expected.

Firstly, we realised that the hill (which seemed like a mountain. hehe) was steep and slippery. Halfway to the top, I realised that we have just embarked on a vigorous trekking withOUT any warm-ups nor stretching. Needless to say, I'm prepared for sore limbs/joints the next morning :)

Once at the peak of Bukit Batu Putih (240m), we get to enjoy the vast n green scenery (lawaaa la ofc, maasyaAllah), then proceeded to the journey DOWNhill. Even more slippery n challenging, with the extra challenge of 'torn' track shoes (u know, the case of the soles splitting open), n my several attempts to tie them back together, until finally a guide suggested that I wear my socks on the outside instead. Which I did. Haha. Weird, I know. But hey, I survived, alhamdulillah :')

(p/s: even so, the socks only remained till ard 10-15 mins before we arrived at the campsite. they then gave up on me n i had to walk on the gravel for the remaining journey. Alhamdulillah 'ala kulli hal. 

Sore feet n lower limbs aside, this activity helped to build our stamina n to encourage each other to persevere n move on...

Oh, n it was sweet to note how the students helped to ask around for rubber bands for me to 'tie' my shoes together. hehe. n the 'removing' pacat from one of the students' shoes was also a memorable one. heh. n how the trekking involved the need to cross the river twice. which we took as an opportunity to berendam as well. hah.

Just before the Azan for Maghrib was heard, there was blackout at the entire campsite. Night activities (dinner, create group flags) still continued with the occasional 'visits' of 2 cats, some insects (except for mozzies which were hanging around almost all the time) and a tiny frog! (habis2 bdk2 tu pun melompat. Haha)

In the darkness, a student who fractured her leg ard 2-3 months back, stepped into a hole n injured the same leg n had to be brought to the hospital. Lightning can already be heard since an hour or so... Tell tale signs of a downpour..

Around 11pm+, the electricity was back. Alhamdulillah... for we teachers would otherwise be stuck in a room with no ventilation n lots of little unfriendly friends (read: the mozzies).

That night, I was beginning to feel skeptical whether or not I would be able to conquer Caving the next day. Another 12km journey with the already-sore limbs from the previous trekking.

Next day after the unique n creative morning exercise (but I still felt guilty about the kind of music being played though. hmm), the females + Ust Rosli proceeded with the Caving activity whilst the males started off with the River Tubing.

We walked, conquered flights n flights of moist stairs, ducked the stalactites, up to some points when they were just too low, we had to get on our knees n hands n crawl underneath n inside the water to get to the other side. Yes, this was perhaps the 4th cave I've been to, but Gua Tempurung was the first wet cave I encountered. The slide down the slope n down the small hole were also unique n required us to trust each other.. 

**

(continued this post 2 days later...)

mind am now filled with checklists to be done before Ramadhan... at least one big item will be ticked off tmr late afternoon (UbD Pioneers Workshop).

anywayyyy, *summoning whatever enthusiasm left from the camp* right after the Caving (which took between 3.5-4 hours including the adventurous, duck-those-branches-and-leaves, bumpy mass lorry ride for ard 3-4km), we returned to the Murni Campsite, had lunch, n prepared for the much-anticipated programme: River Tubing!!

As Ayah Long pointed it out, alhamdulillah for the overnight downpour for it made the River Tubing activity even smoother as we won't always get stuck at the rocks (tu pun dah berapa byk kali terlanggar batu daa. huhu)..

Seeing some sisters who fell off their tubes n struggling to stay afloat (alhamdulillah for the life jackets!), with some clinging to nearby friends'/students' tubes amidst the strong water currents... 

n the words of the guide ("sini ada ular..") ... 

Alhamdulillah all eventually went very well n we stopped right at the edge of our campsite!! (paham tak? Sbb campsite kita mmg tepi sungai~).

Truly a memory to be cherished <3

...

clapping activities at night, which i believe mainly was to distract students from the physical exhaustion they had to undergo since morning saw students getting very high-spirited. Good energiser activity on the organiser's part :)

Students then braced for the ultimate Night Walk that lasted for about 4 hours (from 10pm till ~2 am)... Followed by Fajr, Wirdul Latif, morning exercise (yesterday's was more engaging to me), breakfast, packing up and obstacle course consisting of 4 stations. Students need to cheer this at every stop:

"Aljunied!!!

Kami hebat,

Anda Hebat,

Pasti Hebat,

From Good to Great, insyaAllah!!"

:')

...

Intended to share some personal reflections on certain activities... but that requires even more time to pen down..

I guess I shall just end this already-lengthy post with some memories in pictures (some of which are taken from ITMAJ's FB pg and courtesy of a student v'teer Syakirah Aimi. Coz I'm not much of a photographer -nor do i kuasa sgt nak keluarkan camera ;))