Nabila

The first two-three days...

When I first arrived at the place that we would stay at for a week, Tampoi Research Station, I was shocked. Why?

• The hostel was barely a hostel. There was no wall for the hostel. And nothing separates the boys' and girls' part, except for the wall in the middle of the 'hostel'. See the picture below.
• If you think the hostel condition was the worst, you're wrong. Because there were only three bathrooms and three toilets. Which means, yes, we share them with the boys. It was uncomfortable. Imagine showering while listening to the boys singing to the shower at the bathroom next to yours. So weird.

We were exactly in the middle of the jungle. If there were monkeys lingering around, we would totally see them. And they would totally see us. According to some other participants, the first night, there were monkeys lingering near to the hostel. They didn't see it, because it was so dark. There was no light at all since the place uses a generator for electricity. They could only listen to the sound of the monkeys, which I didn't hear at all. Fun fact: there was no phone line there, but they do have WiFi (such a bliss).

The first night, I slept uncomfortably because I still hadn't get used to the place.

Oh, I skipped the part where we (the participants) getting to know each other.

The participants were...

• SMK Mat Salleh's participants: Bridget (Tet), Melissa, Eng, Adrian (Oyo), Danial.
• SMK Ranau's participants: Jabran, Ajik
• SMK Sook's participants: Gloria, Michelle and Rayner
• SM Goshen's participants: Jun, Elder and Baxter
• SMK Beluran...'s participants: Idham and Zul.
• Other schools' participants: Hani (Danial's sister), Wafi, Azzah, my brother, and I (the six of us are cousins)

• Birdwatching. Every morning, after Subuh, all of us would go out from the research station and walk around the jungle, watch for a variety of birds and classify the genes. We couldn't see a thing, because all the birds are up high. Even if we did see, it was only a part of the body. The other half was unseeable.
• Fishing. Not using the fishing rod, but using our hands. It was a disaster for me, since I don't like touching alive fishes. But I enjoy it nonetheless.
• Jungle trekking. There is a waterfall in Imbak and it is a long waterfall. But before we were allowed to visit the waterfall, we needed to jungle trekking first. When we were jungle trekking, we discovered Big Belian Tree, blablabla Hollow Tree and a lot more.
• We were supposed to have night walking. But we didn't, because it was raining so heavily and it would be too dangerous.

Therefore, we practised for the closing ceremony. All of us did sketches and did well. The closing ceremony was so fun, enjoyable and somehow sad. It was a bittersweet event. The participants were starting to grow in me and I was sad that we only spent a little time together. 

And... you know what? Since this program, I love outdoors activities even more. I appreciate and love nature even more. They didn't organize the program for nothing. It was to raise awareness among us, the young generations, about how our small actions can affect the nature perilously. They organized it in the best way so that it would be both beneficial and enjoyable for the participants.

Sometimes, the turn-outs of something aren't the way you expected it to be. I didn't think that the program would be kept as my core memory, but it did.

Love,
Pyps. xoxo