Summer Begins

It's been a complete whirlwind with deciding to go, packing and leaving for a camping trip within a few hours of finishing my last exam on Friday. I've spent the past few days with a bunch of amazing people in Walesby Forest, and have returned battered, bruised, burnt (by both the sun and the oven) and exhausted and have yet to catch my breath, but, I've also come back with some fantastic memories and friends that will remain with me for a very long time inshallah. 

DAY 1

After dumping our stuff in the lodge and looking around with awe at the sheer number of bunkbeds and the amount of luggage that some people had brought with them, we started off with orienteering in the forest, blindfolded, but thankfully guided along with a rope, and had to pass through a number of obstacles and slapping trees. We then decided to do it backwards and Safoora and myself were  the only ones brave enough to try it running, from which I still have rope burns as a momento of the experience. And by the way, tightrope walking isn't as easy as it looks, especially when your helping hand lets go off you on your very first attempt!

On our way to finding the lake after we finished early from our introductory event, we managed to get lost and increased a 1 mile journey to about 5 miles! But we climbed trees, grass-whistled and water-fought on the way, enjoying the scenic beauty of the forest and distant sheep as we ambled along through the fields and sand. Although I have no idea what the sand was doing there in the middle of the forest..

Ofcourse food and witticisms are always part of the general jokes on any trip but interspersed between that were educational acitivities. Our halaqah was very refreshing with a talk delivered by a lovely sister named Umm Rumaissa, and was in fact about  her original name-holder. In addition to various case scenarios that we discussed, the baby that came as a bonus with the circle was absolutely adorable mashallah and kept us entertained for a lengthy period of time.

To conclude the day we had group bonding sessions and Bilal Hassam's activity in which we learned about the Johari Window opened our eyes to the importance of self awareness and our interactions with others.

DAY 2

Water bombs. What a way to wake someone from their sleep! However, my threat of throwing a solid punch seemed to deter the perpetrator more than enough to spare me from such a refreshing 'good morning' ;)

Alas, it seems as though I wasn't to be spared from the water, even with the torrential downpour having come to an end as waking time approached, for canoeing brought about its own drenched jokes. Lessons learnt from canooing: 

1. Some people just aren't made for steering around a lake. However, if you want to get an up close and personal look at the branches on the sides of the lake, well, thats another matter altogether.

2. If you are in a two-man canoe and one of you jumps off in a heroic attempt to help those who have managed to capcize, you're going to end up turning your own canoe over too.

3. Some people enjoy recapcizing others.

4. You can fall into the lake and not manage to spoil your eyeliner :D

5. It's difficult to swim with trainers on.

6. Revenge is even sweeter when God does it for you ;)

With todays circle cancelled, we had time to actually clean up the lovely scent the lake water left on our clothes, not to mention we were able to warm up a bit before catching pneumonia, which would have been a problem if we were shivering when we had to go and hold our guns..

Rifle shooting was something I had been eagerly anticipating ever since I knew it was on the list of acitivities to undertake, and it was definitely worth the wait. Some people seemed to have an absolute knack for it, and were hitting bulls-eye on their first attempt! I didn't know whether to be impressed or frightened. For me, practice really did make it 'perfect' (well, not perfect per se..), but with me delicately pleading with the guy to give me around 15 shots each time instead of the normal 5, I managed to improve my aim, and am currently finding a place to put up my holed piece of card on my wall :) Ofcourse my brother told me that it looks like I didn't inherit the same genes as he did, as he used to be a professional competitor and used to be one of the top ten marksmen in the country mashallah. I know he was secretly impressed by my attempts though :D

With target practice completed, now was the time to move onto bigger objects and so human catapaults were an obvious follow-up activity. Ever put a rubber band around a pronged twig and used it to boing stones at people? Well, two people each holding one end of a scarf works just as well. Being the first to test-run our contraption, I set the precedent for flying across the field, barely  managing to keep my feet on the ground and stay upright at the same time. This alongside leap frogging and racing was what we managed to get up to as we had to wait about before being allowed back into the lodge.

Back in the lodge we made preparations for our camp fire. Wow is Febreeze useful, especially once you've sat around smoking wood and cardboard and the smell refuses to leave your clothes, although its aroma proved to be somewhat intoxicating. The poor dying fire to which we fed everything we could find, even an apple core and a banana, although the latter was for eating, provided a nice end to the day outdoors as we sat and talked and 'sang', and scared people with torches and my face. Sigh. Standard.

DAY 3

Most of the day was spent cleaning out the lodge, absorbing in the atmosphere for the last time and snatching in conversations with people whenever we could. The barbeque with the talk from a guest speaker at the end was the highlight of the last hours of camp, and it was with a sense of completeness that we finally left in the awaiting coach.

After managing to catch my coach back to London with less than thirty seconds to spare, I finally was able to sit down and reflect upon this shotgun trip, and I'm sure those reflections will be shared at some point, in my more abstract writing style as it's something I'm more comfortable with :)

All in all, I'm thankful for having had such an enjoyable opportunity and as always, I hope it will work to better me somehow inshallah. Ah yes, and I've learned that fire escapes are indeed handy. Not to escape a fire from (or a burnt toast started fire alarm), but to climb in through when you've forgotten the keys or need to avoid the downstairs section of the building :)

Now with my aunt over for a couple of days and then plans to go to Nottingham again for a few days, although with family this time, I get the feeling that this is going to be a busy summer, inshallah..