Jupiter Camper Diary: 29th July

Classes then followed and today was slightly special. Our own mentor, Muntazir Bha was teaching us and he taught us about the sad reality of Asraaf. This class definitely made us all think about the amount of Asraaf whether it’s time, money or food. Shuayb Bha was the other mentor who taught today, and his topic was public speaking. He taught us to move our arms, to gesticulate, change our pitch and tone, and don’t move around too much. He also told a few people to think of a one minute speech, they may need it for later.

Ali Akber Hussain uncle was the third teacher and his topic was on the wide topic of communication, about how we need to listen to each other and not hear each other. The Sheikh was in the charge of the final lesson and his topic was on the Qur’an. We learned what it is, what its contents is, how it was revealed and how to improve our relationship with the Qur’an.

Planet Time was on the timetable after classes finish, and our mentors had decided to take us for a chill out Planet Time. They took us to a square formation of logs near to the lakeside and we discussed why we wanted to go to the camp. Namaaz time was at 13:00 and out of our planet, Aliraza was chosen to recite Ziyaraat. Lunch was next on the timetable and it was an incredible lunch! BIRIYAANI!! And it was incredibly tasty! On top of that, someone from the camp requested that the kitchen send out the “orange sauce.” This sauce must have been made in a volcano because it was amazingly hot! Although Ali Akber Hussain uncle finished that sauce like it was no more spicy than honey!

Qur’an Khaane saw the end of the Namaaz Assessments, and sports was after that. Sports was very important for today as it was the long-awaited Volleyball Tournament. The planets were first introduced to start using their brain strategically in an indoor session of Connect Four. With our strategy brains working full steam ahead, we went to the beach volleyball courts and our first opponents were Neptune. Each planet had two teams, and the results were very close. Neptune won a game and we won the other, but Neptune had scored more points. A quick interim session of football and we were back on the courts to face Saturn. Unfortunately we lost both games, but we made a good show of ourselves. Wash-up and Dinner were after sports, and for dinner we had chicken corn soup, garlic bread and vegetable pilau.

PDT was after dinner were we had a special activity planned. With only two sheets of cardboard, three rolls of newspaper and ten elastic bands, we had to make a structure that would balance one of our notebooks. Points were awarded for the highest structure, and for the structure that could hold a book for ten seconds. Of course, Jupiter used our superior engineering skills and we won the competition.

Sweden 2009