National Service, Sabah, and I.

How could you forget to pack sunblock? It's sunblock waaaay!
*smacks head*

My first week in Kem KK DiBawah Bayu was excruciating to put it bluntly. The days were spent doing nothing, waiting and waiting for the administration to distribute our clothes, settle into our respective dorms, getting our tastebuds accustomed to the crappy food, and uncomfortably interacting with other equally-suffering trainees.

My first meal; their idea of a welcoming lunch.

Nearly two weeks later, Character Building or Pembinaan Karakter classes commenced. We were separated into four groups, and you'll be stuck with these people for the duration of the PK classes. My PK class was awesome. Like really really awesome. Did I forget to mention PK classes have two parts? Module 1 and 2. PK classes are fun, if you’re a five year old that is. The activities are somewhat childish to the extend I felt as if I was back in kindergarten all over again. Soon after, the physical activities kicked off.

Five minutes later......

:)

Our daily schedule at NS goes something along these lines:

0430 - Wake-up Call
0530 - Assembly and Physical Training(PT)
0700 - Breakfast
0800 – Pembinaan Karakter (and later) Nationalism classes
1000 – Morning Teabreak
1030 - PK (and later) Nationalism classes resume
1200 - Lunch
1330 - Physical Exercise, i.e., Marching, Kraf Hutan, Navigation, Obstacle Course
1600 – Teatime
1630 – Aktiviti riadah
1730 – Shower/Rest
1930 - Dinner
2030 - Night activities (vary and keeps us guessing, mostly talks and movies)
2200 - Supper
2215 - Rolcall (I find this an ubber waste of sleep time)
2300 - Lights out

(I haven't inserted Malay prayers, you'd be amazed how much time they spend in the surau.)


Basically that's what we do every single day, except on weekends, where we do nothing in the afternoon for Saturdays and Sundays. Yeah, life is a routine. I survived it there withoutbitingsomeonesheadoff.

Take note of the number of meals we have. How can we not gain weight?...

And every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month is Family Day, where your family is allowed to pay you a visit between 0900 until 1700 hours. You have no idea how much I dread Family Days, only because my family is about what..five thousand miles away?

Oh, and PT each morning differs. It varies from aerobics, Tempur Tanpa Senjata (TTS), poco-poco, or, it’s up to the trainers' preferences. On weekends, there's no PT (whoopsforjoy!). Eventually you'll settle down to the routine, and you'll learn to like the activities. And every Thursday and Friday night is Religion Classes, so each respective religion gets its own class taught by an outsider. Did I mention Buddhist classes are conducted purely in CHINESE? Yeah, I transform into a dumb frog every Thursday and Friday night.

And yes, I’ve been suffering cubical blues in that two months duration. You would think that after investing a huge sum of money here, they'd built bigger and better looking toilet cubicles and showers but, no. They have to make them all so narrow that we have to suck in our tummy just to squeeze through the door while cleaning the toilet walls with our backs and giving them a finishing polish with our hair. I'm still wondering how those, on the well, chubbier side actually make their way out and avoid getting stuck in between the door and toilet seat.

Or maybe, they avoid doing their business and wait until where they can finish whatever they have to do in comfort and peace, like me.

I did many many awesome stuffs in NS, I really did. Here are few of them :)


I camwhored with a police airforce helicopter.

Fly fox twice.
Accidentally volunteer to be a group leader.
Tried the sumazau dance.

Lifted a plane. Almost.

Changed race.

And later on, converted into Islam. My malay name is Fauziah. :)

Assist in smuggling Tuaran Mee into camp.

Sit by the longkang and kiwi my boots during midnight.

Boarded a navy ship. Thats as far as I got....

Happy to be eating camp food?

Made great plans.

Drank from a super huge coconut that onlt costed RM1.50!?!
Ate a cup of maggi in five minutes.
Memorized the Sabah Song by heart.

The awesome rickety bumpy bus rides we go thru every week.

Eat like I've never eaten before.

Putin means banana is bahasa Dusun.
Drank lake water.
Survived through weeks of Dizigui classes.

Got my buddy tulan-ed at me. It's not my fault I can juggle damnit.

Sleep in ceramahs.
Superspeed shower in four minutes, only becos there was no one else but me in the toilet.

Watch the sunrise every single weekday morning.

Got High? :D

Grabbing opportunities to sleep during morning teabreak between PK classes .

Not runaway and shriek my lungs out when I meet a lion dancer up close.

First hand experience at the Magunatip dance. Super cool wei.
Named a kerajaan after me.
My KN group named themselves, Szetoo's Smile. I was swelling with pride.

Trip to the Air Force.

See, touch, camwhore, and eventually use the M16.


To blog down my National Service experience would be impossible for I and only I went through it all. You weren’t in my sempit kasut kelas to do the ‘ke belakang pusing’ ten times in a row or run all the way back to the dorms to save our fresh laundry from the mean rain. And you will never get the chance to dance the poco-poco under the scorching sun in the famous spike boots that weight nearly a ton to a crowd of restless parents.

National Service is in general, a waste of time. All day long what we do is waking up early in the morning, masuk baris, star jumps, have freezing cold showers, washing clothes, bathe, eat, sleep, marching, sleep, marching, eat, whine, masuk baris some more, star jumps, get high blood pressure, marching again, eat, hantar dobi, sleep, shower, eat, and fret.... But why do people come back from National Service crying and saying that they miss and enjoyed camp? One word says it all: FAMILY; the friends that are made in camp are precious. We bathe together, we ate together, we slept together (literally), sama-sama pakai baju celoreng to sleep after getting punished, we even washed our undies together la.

I never thought I'd say this but, I miss camp.