MONDAY, 12TH SEPTEMBER 2005
1ST DAY OF CAMP

We arrived at the Loughborough University, U.K. to represent Malaysia for the Young Leaders International Camp which commenced from 12th September 2005 to 15th September 2005. We arrived on time for the registration and accommodation were allocated to us at Butler Court and Towers respectively.

Our first day of Camp started off with the Opening Ceremony which was held at the New Sports Hall. There were about 300 Young Leaders from around the world present at this Camp. The scene at the Hall was interesting as it was fully packed with all kinds of races from around the world. The welcoming speeches were delivered by Ms Sue Campbell and Mr Gibson. Some interesting presentations were previewed and accompanied by a number of songs. After the presentation, the team leaders introduced themselves and stated that all Young Leaders could refer to them for any support and guidance we need along the way. We were grouped together in teams and the first session on “Hello, Getting to Know You” started. Our team consisted of young leaders from countries such as South Africa, Sri Lanka, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland and England. It was noted that each country has their link schools with them as well. The team leaders were surprised that Malaysian team seemed to be very close with the Young Leaders from our link school that is Ashton-On-Mersey (AoM). We had group interviews and “Diary Time” with the team leaders.

A tour around the Campus was also organized and noted that the building is attractive and complete with outstanding sports facilities. The Multi Sports Activity which was held at the New Sports Hall/Victory Hall was the last activity of the day. There were few games being organized such as the Long Jump, Basketball, Jenga (Blocks), Relay etc. Our team participated a maximum of five games and though we did not win in most of the games, we enjoyed ourselves and have lots of fun.

TUESDAY, 13TH SEPTEMBER 2005
2ND DAY OF CAMP

All Young Leaders were eager to start the morning briefing and everyone seemed to be in high spirit. The hall was fully crowded and all began to sing the “We Will Rock You’ cheer. A slide presentation were shown and the phrase Together We Dream, Together We’re A Team” really inspired us. After the briefing, we were segregated under animals’ names and started the next workshop session. The first session was “Where To And Where From?” and we were requested to introduce ourselves. After the introduction, we proceed to another session on “Where Are We Now And What Are We Going To Be In 2012?” We were also asked to draw ourselves with words that describe us “ Before and After the involvement in Dreams + Teams”.

We had another session on “The Global Language of Dreams + Teams”. We grouped together with our link school and Young Leaders from the same country. Each team was given a bottle of plasticine to create a model that would represent sports in our own country. We created a “Ring” that symbolize Unity and a “Dove” that symbolize Peace respectively. Other Young Leaders created a Thai boxing model, a Cricket model, a Rugby model and many more. After completion, we were required to tell the meaning of the models we created. This ended our morning session.

The afternoon session was the Team Challenge (Essential Adventure). This challenge was on “How to build a simple machine that could transport a marble for 10 meters as slow as possible and would trigger a catapult that would be able to eject an egg for a long distance”. A duration of four hours were given to complete this machine and all teams were cracking their heads to build it. Our team, consisted of Young Leaders from AoM, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Malaysia, took extra time to complete the machine but managed to launch it successfully after several adjustments and modifications. We had our “Diary Time” with the team leaders at the end of this session.

The night event was the International Quiz and Talent Show which was held at the Students Union’s Hall. The programme started with an introduction of a website which is “intitiutive.com”. It was noted that all teenagers can communicate with each other from all around the world in this website. Next on the programme was the Quiz which consisted of forty questions with four rounds and each round has ten questions. The Quiz touched on questions such as sports, music, identifying pictures of people and flags. Unfortunately our team did not win the Quiz. The Talent Show was the last activity for the night. Our team performed the “rap dance” and a song. Overall all the teams performed very well. This ended our event for the night. We were very tired but left the hall in high spirits as we enjoyed ourselves very much.

WEDNESDAY, 14TH SEPTEMBER 2005 3rd DAY OF CAMP

We started off of by singing the “We Will Rock You” cheer before the regular morning briefing and presentation which really inspired us especially on the phrase “Dare to be Remarkable”. We were told the meaning that “If we get an idea to solve a problem or to achieve something we must always think how, why and is this the best way in order to solve or achieve it.”
The next session was on “Exploring and Creating The Vision for Dreams + Teams”. We noted down the phrases used during the presentation as follows:

“Vision without action is just daydreaming
Action without vision only passes the time
… But when vision and action came together,
you can change the world..”

We were divided into three groups consisting of Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka and asked to group together with our link schools. We were asked to make some opinions and views for the 2012 visions and to make them a reality. We have a joint session with our own teachers to finalize our visions. We were required to create a “market place” where we sell and present our Visions. Teachers were not involved. The ‘Market Place’ is part of the Exploring and Creating the Dream. It was an interesting sight where all Young Leaders selling something as if in a real market. Our vision statement which was “Youth Leading Youth as a way of Projecting Unity Into Our World”. We had a Diary Time with the team leaders before we were dismissed for the night event.

We had the “Themed Party” held at the Students Union where the place appeared to be like a bar or rather a pub and it was full with a majority of the young leaders attired in their traditional costume. Our attire was the Kadazan costume and a number of the young leaders complimented on our costume. All the English Young Leaders and Team Leaders do not have any traditional costume but only wore their football and cricket jersey. All of us had fun dancing wildly to the music. We really enjoyed ourselves and had lots of fun.

15TH SEPTEMBER 2005
LAST DAY OF CAMP

The days passed by very quickly and our time spent with friends around the world was coming to an end. We packed our bags and vacated our rooms.
Our final programme before we depart from Loughborough University was the final joint D + T Vision 2012 which was held at Team Leader’s room and we were divided into Olympic Games Team. We were under the “Cycling Team” consisting of the Young Leaders from AoM and Malaysia. We were asked to present our visions which we have already sorted out earlier and were well prepared though a little nervous to present in front of the panel of three(3) judges. Also present were some teachers and team leaders. Our own teachers were also there to support us and we had all the confidence and assurance that we could do the best. We need not practice much on our presentation, as we had to present it spontaneously. When at last our turn came to do the presentation, we introduced ourselves. Then, we showed them pictures and articles from newspapers on the proud moments during our involvement in Dreams + Teams and finally briefed the judges on our visions. We took about fifteen (15) minutes to brief on our presentations. We were still feeling jittery though glad that it was all over and done.
The Panel of Judges held their meeting after judging all if the presentations to determine which team did the best presentation. Our team leader told us that we were one of the “Best Presentation” and they congratulated us after we had our lunch. We were so happy and proud to hear the good news.
The Camp finally came to an end. The Closing Ceremony was held at the New Sports Hall and we were asked to present in front of all the participants of the camp with three(3) other countries which consisted of Poland, Nigeria, & South Africa. After the closing ceremony, we bid farewell and hope to see each other again in the near future.
We departed from Loughborough University, feeling sad to leave our new friends behind but looking forward to coming home to Sabah. We traveled down to Heathrow Airport, London by taxi to catch our flight back home…

Prepared by,

Mortigou Richmond and Siti Amirah Ibrahim