In the final few months leading up to the UPSR examination when I was in Standard 6 in 2000, we had this motivational camp organized by the school aimed at preparing the students mentally (looking back, what much can you do to improve the mental state of 12-year-old kids anyway). I remember that the camp was held for a few days at a rural area somewhere not too far from Klang. The idea of going to the camp was kind of exciting at first, since it was probably the first time that I got the chance to stay away from home on my own for more than two, three days.
They may call it a motivational camp, but to me most of the time it was more like a torture for all of us. The chief facilitator who was assigned to keep his eyes on us for the whole period of the camp in particular was ruthless; it was only moments after we stepped off the bus when he warned that we may not be getting our meals if we do not show good behaviour during the camp. We were 12-year-old kids who naturally looked forward to fun playing times so such reception of course came as a shock for some of us.
Anyway, on the first day we were introduced to the rules and regulations that needed to be adhered to as participants of the camp. One of the most important rules was the use of a ‘money’ system in the camp, whereby pretty much every single meal, facility and other needs did not come free; you would need to pay certain amount of money to get the luxury of having them. The ‘money’ in this sense was of course not the real one, but you get the idea. The best part was the way ‘money’ could be earned; pretty much you would have to offer yourselves as slaves to the facilitators. For instance, helping to clean up their food tray after meal sessions earned you RM30, while polishing their shoes gave you RM50. There were various other chores you could do which I cannot remember much, but the rate of pay would be determined by that particular facilitator you worked with. If my memory serves me right, the winning group of various activities carried out could also gain some amount of money. Now that might sound easy to most of you, but I have not come to the part where we learnt about how much money we had to fork out for each different need. For a start, we were told that the dormitory we lived in would cost us somewhere around RM1000 per night as a group, while each individual meal is about RM10. The next day the chief facilitator would come to us and say the ‘economy’ has risen overnight, and for this reason our dormitory rent was doubled to RM2000 per night. This trend continued to change for worse daily.
The result? You saw timid kids trying to work their way up to make some money, in the process gaining bravery. The 12-year-old minds of us who had no idea or appreciation whatsoever about the value of money in real world before began to realize that life was not too good after all when we are all tied up financially. No one would have dared to get close to the chief facilitator before the concept was introduced, but once it kicked off you would see him being swarmed every moment by the brave ones amongst us, each wondering if there was anything they could do to help him (actually to get money of course). I myself was not too comfortable at the thought of approaching adults who were strangers to me, but out of desperation such action became easy. Along the way confidence was gained, and gone were moments when we prefer hiding in our own shells rather than trying to reach out to the outside world and other individuals. We also learnt that selfish behaviour was not welcome when you had responsibilities to a particular group, such as when paying our dormitory rent whereby each of us had to contribute. Despite the hardships that we had to endure, we soon learnt what the real message meant to be conveyed was; that life in real world is certainly not easy.
For some of us, the lesson was quickly forgotten once the camp ended. But somehow it stuck with me even years afterwards and perhaps it is not too much to say that it helps to define me as a person. Though this might not sound possible, I wish I can get a chance to meet the chief facilitator personally sometime in the future to thank him for the seed he planted in me eight years ago during that memorable motivational camp.
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