Young Writers Camp 2007

I'm so sorry, I don't have any pictures (or at least any decent ones). For that, I point you to Alicia's, Emily's and Sarah's (warning: Vanity! Hehe) blogs.

Thus, I've got to use some extra words here to compensate for the lack of pictures. Right.

As Ethan put it, this was indeed a trip with more familiar than unfamiliar faces (actually, there were more unfamiliar faces, but the feeling was that of familiarity). The bus came right sharp on (Malaysian) time, and everyone filed in.

So, everyone settled into their cliques right from the start. And me, despite my loathement (if I were to coin such a word, hehe) of cliques, fell into the JPS club who took seats right at the back.

Journey was longer than I imagined. I thought Bukit Tinggi was five minutes away from Genting (which was itself, 45 minutes away from KL, silly me) but it turned out to be longer than I thought.

Anyway, we arrived there and had to trek up a hill, then all the way down. A humorous moment: Jian Eu & co., in their haste to be the first, went up the wrong way at the fork. And me and Ethan, after finding out the right way, were the first to arrrive there. Hehe. As they say, the last shall be the first.

And so we were there. I rushed up to pick a bunk closest to the fan, as per my friend's advice to sleep on the bunk. It was the wisest choice- as I certainly wouldn't want to have a centipede sleeping with me!

The sessions began. We had a star line up of facilitators, from Alvin and Tricia to David and Kim Guat (the author of the Luke & Acts bible knowledge books, I found out to my surprise!). We also had Colin Kirton, from the Footstool Players. There were a few others, and I'm so sorry but I couldn't remember their names. Still, all of them were an inspiration, and the fact that we had such a high facilitator to camper ratio turned out to be extremely helpful.

Oh, and on a slightly sad note, I ruptured my eardrum after jumping from the very, very tempting 8 feet high diving platform there. A few stories about their experiences with it were written about it as well. Let's just say, I fell the wrong way into the swimming pool. Don't worry, it will heal.

David Tan handled a few "Writing to know..." sessions, which were somewhat enlightening, Tricia took us through the blogging sessions and Roshan Thiren (another speaker) brought out the activists in us.

In fact that was the most surprising part of the camp. Everyone became champions, in one short night, of freedom of speech, religion and other issues, such as education and er, sexual education. Okay, I generalize, but the vast majority suddenly became...vocal.

As I remarked to David later, if UMNO politicians were here, they would've cringed at most of what we have said.

"Haha...our nefarious scheme has worked out." he replied.

Oh yeah. The guest writers forums. Sivin Kit, and er...Wong Siew Li (if I'm not mistaken) as well as KJ John. Sivin is from Bangsar Lutheran Church, Siew Li editor of Kairos Magazine and KJ John columnist of Malaysiakini. Heavyweights, if I may so myself.

It was interesting to say the least. I asked Uncle John (as he was called by Tricia) whether he thinks Malaysia can truly be changed. He named a few people...Gandhi, Mandela, Theresa. Yes, people need to stand up. It wasn't easy, no it wasn't. Prayer, perhaps?

After that, I had an interesting discussion with Pastor Sivin. Asked him a few things, and it was really nice to hear from him. I liked how he spoke of us having our "theological journeys". Curious, because I have thought of myself as embarking on a "journey" quite often.

I had another conversation with Darren, this time on Calvinism. Colin Kirton joined in to, and it was quite frustrating, because I didn't have a Bible with me (I wanted to go back to the text). So we ended up having more of a philosophical discussion, which I'm not very good at. Hehe. It was enlightening, and Darren is a brilliant guy (and a year younger than me, at that). And it's good to know people take theology seriously as well.

Oh, did I mention Roshan moved us on to start our on projects to change the world Malaysia? Yes, my group (the Red Writing Hoods) chose to start a blog for youths to write their views (any views about any aspect) of Malaysia. We're looking for those interested to join in. Don't worry, we have a very flexible definition of "youth", but we are looking primarily for contributors whose age has a 1 in front of them. Hehehe...

And another curious incident happened. We were all asked to submit any idea to create change to be pasted onto the wall. As a joke, I submitted an idea for the S.A.D. help group (Sex, Alcohol, Drugs). People took it seriously. Okay, seriously in an unserious kind of way. See an account of the genesis of S.A.D. here.

How could I forget the campsite itself? Gracehill Lodge was a quaint, quiet place, close to nature and far from life. Many say they were inspired by the place, and I'm not surprised. The toilets could've been better though. ;P

And then there was the whole point of the camp, the Writer's Slam, where our writings got critiqued. No, actually, our writings got commented upon by people who would make the most optimistic person sound like a doom sayer, and who could find the faintest prick of a silver lining in a gargantuan fluff of pitch black clouds.

Hehe. Well, maybe I'm too harsh here. But most of the stories were very good. Some people are just way better than me. Oh well. =)

(As for my story, you can check it out here.)

Oh yes, Alvin helmed the Lectio Divina sessions. I found it disappointing though, as he did not instruct us properly how to go about with it. Reflect and let God speak to you is very ambiguous, to say the least. It's not that I have qualms here, but exercises in "What does God say to you?" and "Which particular passage of scripture speaks to you?", while they have their places at times, can sometimes descend into (improper) subjectivism if not clarified properly.

Were there other downsides? Well, Ethan and Jian Eu brought up the fact that the sessions involved more "telling" than "showing" (referencing Colin's session that the goal of a play is to show rather than tell). I think that telling has its place, however, and while some sessions may have been boring, at least they provoked us to some thought. At least, I hope they did.

So this is my two cents on the camp. May have sounded like a school essay, which Ethan has a particular fondness for. If so, then forgive me for my foible here, but great writing always I manage not.

Bye!