MOHAMAD FARIS BIN MANSOR

PPISMP BI 4

SEMESTER 2

Reflection Essay for Lata Belatan Trip 2011

Alhamdulillah, I am so grateful because I finally managed to finish successfully with the Lata Belatan Trip 2011. This two day trip has left me and my friend a very wonderful memory that is very precious to me. Even though this trip is held together with PPISMP TESL 2 and even joined by different students from different races and religious view, there is this harmony atmosphere between us without any obstacle that differentiate us from each other. This trip is actually a part of the coursework for the recreational subject and for my class, PPISMP TESL 4 we are under Mr. Noorlan supervision. We start our trip in 21 st May 2011, when we left from IPG Kampus Kota Bharu at 7 am with two buses. Then, we stopped by at a nearby restaurant for our breakfast before arriving in Gunung Tebu View Resort at around 10 am. When we reached there, Fatah and Nagen we already there to greet us and asked us to take the blanket and the bed sheet and then we were shown to our room which is a dormitory called Belatuk 2. After that, we were asked to gather again in front of the dormitory to start our first activity. First of all, we are asked to stay in our groups and my group name was Tok Janggut and all of the members are from my own class. Th en, we were assigned a task by Nagen, which was to create a motto and a group cheer from each group as creatively as possible and we must put our group name in that cheer. From this activity, it is actually improved the level of collaboration between us because this activity requires us to discuss together and have mutual understanding. This activity also improves our creativity because we need to share our ideas with our friends and contribute some suggestion for the group motto. After 10 minutes, all the groups were asked to present their group cheers and motto on the spot. We had a great time showing our funny group cheers and our inspiration al group motto. Secondly, all the group leaders w ere asked to send a representative for the next game and since no one wanted to be the volunteer, so I have volunteered myself to play the game. Then, Nagen brief us about the activity that we are going to do next. He said this activity requires a good collaboration and honesty between group members because the representative eyes will be closed with a piece of cloth and

MOHAMAD FARIS BIN MANSOR

PPISMP BI 4

SEMESTER 2

the group members has to guide their group representative without touching them to find the plastic that has been tight to a tree around the area. This activity is the race against time and which team manage to get the plastic first, wins the game. From this activity, I have learned that as a part of the group, I should do my role as one of the group members by supporting them even it means me volunteering myself for the activity and it also made me realize that cooperation and understanding between group members are important. After that activity, we were given a two hours rest and we had ou r lunch at around 12.30 pm. Then, we were asked to gather again at 2 pm for our next activity, survival. For this activity, we were introduced with our two guides which were Faris Ikhwan and Ahmad Fuad. They will be our guide for these two days here. Then, Amir from TESL 2 briefed us about this survival activity that we are going to do. He said that we will be given flour, four eggs and a lighter with a situation. The situation was we had to imagine that we just survived from a plane crash and we had to cre ate a shelter for all our group members and also made food from that item that has been given. Then, we were brought to the Lata Belatan forest and we were asked to choose our shelter place. Then we started our survival activity that lasts for 3 hours. This activity was very beneficial for us because as a future teacher, we are going to bring our students for a camping and we might need all these survival skill such as making fire, cooking food and creating a shelter so that we wont face any difficulties during the camping session. This activity also forces us to be more creative to create something new like what we did with the flour and the egg. We made bread with these two items, and it does taste good to me. During the night, we had a barbeque session t ogether with both classes helping each other to handle this party. I like this part of activity the most because I got to know my TESL 2 friends closer and I admit that I really enjoyed to be friend with them. I think this is one of the precious memories t hat I am sure I will never forget. After finished with the barbeque session, we were asked to gear up for our most fearsome activities, night walking. Before we start the activity, we were briefed by Tuan Haji Mat Nor about the safety precautions and then we were lead by Faris Ikhwan into the dark and creepy jungle of Lata Belatan. We were prohibited from using our torchlight because we supposed to go through our fear of darkness in this activity. So we were asked to hold on into a rope and make our way to the end of the

MOHAMAD FARIS BIN MANSOR

PPISMP BI 4

SEMESTER 2

route in the dark. The activity we are a little bit scary at first, but then I managed to adapt myself with the darkness and successfully made my way through the darkness alone. After going through this activity, I have found more self -confidence with myself and my fear for the dark has decreased a lot. I am also feeling more close to the nature and being in the dark jungle doesnt scare me anymore. We end our activity at 3 am in the morning for that day.

The next day, we had a big breakfast because we are going to go for a jungle trekking lead by Mr. Abdullah with the help of Faris Ikhwan and Ahmad Fuad. Mr. Abdullah said that he will lead us to Sungai Cakah Dua which was a thirty minute walking through the jungle. So, we moved as a group th roughout the jungle and during the walking, we stopped for a while to take a little rest because some of us we really tired due to the last night activity. We reached Sungai Cakah Dua and we were asked to collect the rubbish around the area and then we got the chance to take some photos with our banner. Then, come the adventurous part of the activity. This is because we was guided to enter a few obstacle in the jungle until we reached the height of 3832 M in Gunung Tebu which is a half from the real height of Gunung Tebu and we made our way back down for a splash in the river. Throughout this activity, I felt closer to my friends because we helped each other to go through all kind of obstacle and we have to make sure that they are safe. This activity also increased our stamina because the tracks are very tiring and without good stamina, we might end up faint. As a future teacher, we should know the risk for this kind of adventurous activity so that we wont risk our students for unnecessary risks. This activity is a great approach for us as a future teacher. In conclusion, all the activities that we have gone through together have made me a better person and I have learned a lot from this programme. I hope that one day I can joined another programme like this because this programme is proven to be very useful for us as a future teacher because teachers should be flexible and not just teaching students in class. I would to thank all of my lectures for guiding us throughout this programme. Thank you.

MOHAMAD FARIS BIN MANSOR

PPISMP BI 4

SEMESTER 2