Experience as a one-time Elementary Boyscout Commander

Last March 25-26, I got to experience being a one-time boyscout commander. Called by Auntie Sal, I had to be in  the MVIF elementary school by 3pm. I've been training them commands and have been giving them activities for the past few fridays already... And so the big day of their overnight camping came..

"ATTENTION!!!".. As I always commanded them. Those boy scouts were very boisterous! They always got distracted during formations.

For all those Fridays of  training them, I can say that being a boyscout commander was tiring. You always have to shout when you give commands. I guess if it weren't for my parent's frequent voice control trainings, I wouldn't have been able to do this tiring commanding-under-the-late-noon-sun activity. But then Alhamdulillah, everything was worth it.

We started training with the commands at about 4:00 pm. And to their surprise and excitement, I cut their 1 hour training and let them start their fires for cooking at about 4:46 pm. Then and there, they started trotting around gathering stones, bricks, and wood for their teams' fire.

But of course, their gathering of firewood is not without them playing...

They got done cooking their rice after about an hour. It was because of the fires dying out due to insufficient firewood. Nevertheless, the rice tasted reeeally good.. hehe

When Maghrib time came, the teachers assigned the patrol leaders to guard the fish being grilled while I gathered the others for some Surah recitation and story sharing afterwards. Then we let them have a boodle fight. Some of them felt kind of icky saying their saliva might mix.. After that was the bonfire activity.

Lights out was at 11:30 pm. We got them all sleeping before 12 midnight, except the first year high school students the teachers asked to stay to guard their little elementary brothers. They occupied themselves catching and killing lizards till they could no longer find any... Those silly kids. I, on the other hand started scattering some flags for the scouter's' activity the next. At past 12 midnight, I was roaming around the 8000 square meters school grounds. I just didn't know why I couldn't sleep! I finally got some rest at 2:30 in the morning... waking up time was at 4 am.

The next day came... After Subuh prayer, some stretchings, then breakfast, I let them do the activity of locating the flags I scattered around the night before with a map. An activity they were really anticipating. 

After all the activities were done, we called them for their final formation then let them set home... 

Tiring, I should say. But Alhamdulillah, everything was worth it. And the first thing I did when I arrived home was of course... SLEEP! I only slept for about 2 hours in the camp and I already forgot how long I've slept when I arrived home...

Wassalam...

A Wonderful Thursday

March 18, 2010...
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It was 4:30 am in the morning when Zakiran, our little brother suddenly comes in our room and touches my right foot with his cold hands...


"Salamu 'Alaykum, Kakah Haleema, Kakah Ajran, wake up naa..." he whispers.


As we got up, I remembered that I had taken my Sahur earlier...
And so everything goes...


I heard the morning call of prayer which I haven't heard for a while. The voices of the muezzins from all the mosques in this village merged into another voice in the soft morning air...


How nice it was to wake up early in the morning but then, I slept again.


I woke up again at 10 am from the noises Ajran and Zakiran were making while playing in Aj's bed.
I was about to ask her why didn't she wake me up when I remembered one of house rules. 

"Don't wake up a fasting person from his/her sleep."

Alhamdulillah all of us were able to do everything we needed to do for the day. 

By Maghrib time, the 5 of us were left at home with our Iftars layed out in the dining table. Amah and Auntie Salha had left earlier for their classes...


We made sure that everyone was ready for iftar before we ate.


With bread, tea, dates, and chicken curry... We were SOLVED!!

The Making of The King Puppet

My mother told me and Ajran, "Girls, help your Kakah Imran prepare the things assigned to him for his school project, okay?"

Kakah Imran was going to have a puppet show along with his groupmates, and he was assigned to make grasses and a king puppet. We were only supposed to make the grasses for him. But Ajran was doing something urgent... And I kind of got more interested on making the king than the grasses.

I've made about 2 grasses already, when Kakah Imran made a mistake on making the head of the king. o_0
I, on the other hand was trying to make a peasant. When I found out about it, I quickly changed what I was working on into a king.

I was about to hand it to him already when I held my hand back... He was doing another assignment.. COLLEGE LIFE!!

With my paint and pastels, I colored the head, made some holes for the eyes and a mouth... Then inserted 2 wooden brown beads for the eyes...

I didn't bother to color the inner parts of the body anymore, "I'll be dressing him up anyways" was what was on my mind then.

Who would've thought that something as ugly as this:

 

Would look like this:

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised myself. We all just need to extend our imagination.

I put approximately 8 layers of clothes on that.. And the sign in the middle goes like this:

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                                                           \    /

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                                                           /    \

                                                         /        \

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Wassalam,
Haleema