slowly lifted spirits

At the hall, I didn’t see any excited or overjoyed faces and so my soul dropped even lower. ‘What do you have here, eh? Bring it on. I’m not scared. I bet you can never make me like anything here.’ After a simple briefing, we went to our respective rooms. I was quite surprised to see how the rooms were constructed and placed. The boys were given four rooms to share and so were the girls. Our rooms were the only ones at that corner where the view to the other rooms was blocked by zinc walls. The rooms were cosy for me because there were six double-decker beds with three being lined up alongside one wall and three on the other. It was stuffy but cute and I was delighted. Oh, how we pushed ourselves amongst each other to get to our beds or to fetch our things. It was hot and sticky in the morning and the evening, when we usually only had the activities done. I was late into the room so I was unable to book one of the upper beds. I wanted one so badly because I would always want the high-located fans to blow into me all the time. I don’t want to swelter and soak my shirts smelly. I sulked silently.

When it was time for our showers..WOW!!! It was truly amazing! As a start, I was glad that they had enough bathrooms and toilets for us to share. What was the real pleasure was the water... I gasped the moment it touched me cold and pleasantly on the head. I lifted up my head to see nothing but cool green woods beyond the bathroom low wall. Yes, this is also like camp I went for my National Service. But that other woods was scary that high zinc walls were being constructed around the place so that people can’t see it clear enough to get nightmares for the night.

The night turned so unexpectedly icy that I thanked God for giving me no place nicer to sleep in except that lower bed I managed to get. I was so exhausted that I could feel my muscle cells snapping one by one in all places. When the days turned frozen, the aches killed me. I limped around like a 100-year old great-great grandma dragging herself all over the place in an outfit too heavy and too difficult to walk in. I recalled the first time I had this kind of pain. It was during the most dreadful camp I ever had. I was worn out that night looking for an empty room for me and my sister to spend the cold night. We finally rested when we found vacancy in the teachers’ room. The next morning, we woke up early for the aerobic exercise. I took my bath before that. When I poured the freezing water onto my body, a lightning of pain went racing up my spine to my neck which was so excruciating that I mind went blank for a while. Later, the pain deteriorated. I couldn’t move all my four limbs or my main body with ease. Every single twitch of movement was agonizing.

God helped me a lot. When the camp was getting more and more exciting, the pain in my legs eased and I move freely once again. The pain was gone for a short while at the exact right time, when the explorace was held. I don’t know what to do if I can’t walk, leave alone to run. After the camp, the ache came back but it went away gradually. Timing has always been right and exact and that’s why I always know God is behind everything.