MUSA's Annual Sisters Camp 2010

Yesterday the ladies of the Muslim Students Association (MUSA) held their biggest event of the year.

The Annual Sisters Camp!

As the Ameera (female president) of MUSA I was given the responsibility of organising the camp with my committee members. My life has been so topsy turvy and busy during the last 1 month because I've had to juggle lectures, assignments and camp preparation. If it weren't for my hard working and dedicated committee members I'm pretty sure I would've had a nervous breakdown.

The Sisters Camp is a major event with at least 50 participants but this year over 70 people signed up. The camp's theme was 'Chasing Jannah'. Although we do get funded for the camp, we don't get any money before it is held so we pretty much had to fundraise our way through it. I decided that a food or bake sale after Friday prayers at the mosque would be the best way to do it because everybody knows the best place to sell food is where a bunch of hungry men will be present =) So that's been keeping us pretty busy as well. We managed to raise enough money to have a pretty decent camp, I must say.

I was up until 3.30 am on Saturday night to make sure we got it all sorted out. Why so late, you ask? Because that was pretty much my normal bedtime last week due to tests and assignments but also because I was nervous about how the day will go! I was meant to wake up at 5.30 a.m. but I must've ignored my alarm because when Lamya woke me up it was 6.20 am and I was all, "Oh sh**!!!!". We had to be at the mosque by 7 a.m. as the bus was scheduled to pick everyone up at 7.30 am. Obviously I arrived late because my friend Nourah and I had to load all the food and other camp stuff into the van we hired. Despite how tired we all felt from the preparation I can honestly say we were very, very excited. Did I tell you Berwick Camp is surrounded by forests and mountains? I was absolutely mesmerised by the scenery the first time I went there to check out the area. It is by far the best camp site I've ever been to.

Anyway, in the end we arrived at Berwick Camp on time but the actual camp started late because breakfast took a while to prepare and everyone was settling down. We organised a range of activities - ice breaker, kayaking, confidence course (initially I thought it was some sort of a seminar, silly me!), screening of Bilal Dannoun's lecture "Jannah: The Ultimate Retirement Package", Islamic pop quiz and a children's Mother's Day art competition, just to name a few. We actually planned more activities for everyone but ran out of time and had to cut short to the afternoon tea and prize giving session just before leaving the camp site. I can't believe 8 hours felt so short to me... time just flew by! But I will never forget how good the food was (although I barely had time to eat)....

We had a simple breakfast with cereal and toast but for lunch we served briyani rice, BBQ chicken and sausages for lunch and then during afternoon tea there was pizza, kunafeh, basboosa and pisang babujah (banana springrolls courtesy of the Bruneian students).

Today I woke up with really sore arms and legs! I was so exhausted and I couldn't even find energy to leave the house but all in all, I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Many people personally told me how much fun they had so I'm glad all our hard work paid off. Oh and I should probably add that it was such a beautiful and warm sunny Sunday, so that was the cherry on top of our ice cream! I managed to take some photos but not as much as I had hoped to, unfortunately. I was running around like a mad girl yesterday and I swear I had less than 30 minutes to actually walk around Berwick Camp and snap photos. Here are a few courtesy of yours truly and Lamya.

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This, my readers, is what they call a confidence course here in New Zealand

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Mother's Day card competition for the kids

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A tired but happy 'Ameera'


So if you've been wondering what has kept me so busy lately, this is your answer! Although I had a great time I'm so glad the camp is over and done with. My life is back to normal again...

P.S. A belated Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful yummy mummies reading this! Hope you had a lovely one!

Comments

Anonymous said…
ok, less than 30 minutes and you came up with these beauties? looks straight out of a postcard to me shahirah! amazing scenery mashaA..I'm so wishing I was there too! sigh. if only nz is 2hrs away and reachable by car LOL
yana hashim said…
nice job sister.. i wish im in Dunedin now.. will definitely join the camp..

p.s. nice top=)thanx dear
Mona Zenhom said…
Gorgeous photos. It looks like it was a lot of fun.
looks like you guys had an amazing time! The scenery is breathtaking!
ModestJustice said…
It looked like so much fun! And the campsite is so beautiful :D
Great job! ^_^
I especially love your hijab and top!
ashieBee said…
the scenery is breathtaking! new zealand is sooo pretty. i shall put that on my want-to-visit list! it's getting longer and longer; if only the pocket is getting bigger and fatter too :P

takecare! **hugs**
Shahirah Elaiza said…
Aimie: NZ is beautiful to start with so it wasn't hard to capture nice shots =) You might have to start considering paying NZ a visit... maybe once little Z is slightly bigger and easier to travel with lol.

Yana: Thank you for the nice top! =D

Mona Z: It was a lot of fun... more so for the participants than the Ameera who was running around, making sure everything was going well hehe.

Rene: Yup we did! It was great to get away from the city and enjoy the true nature of NZ.

Modest Justice: Thanks hun, you would've had fun if you were there =) And about the outfit, I just picked whatever hijab I could find that wasn't crumpled cos I was running late lol. But I wore purple cos that was the theme the committee members picked.

ashieBee: The scenery is so cantik kan? But there are other places in NZ that has even more beautiful scenery. You must visit one day, ok? InshaAllah =)