THE NATIONAL UNITY ASSEMBLY & INTERGRATION FOR STUDENT LEADERS AND INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONS 2009 (RIMUP) *DAY ONE*

Our trip stopped at SMKA Johore Baharu. We stayed there for the night... and we weren't alone... contingents from a few other states also stopped there for the night. Perlis, Perak and Sarawak... and a few others... I only noticed them on the next morning. We continued our journey... We reached this place... our assembly place...

the commander gave a briefing about the event... and took a photograph of the Terengganu contingents.

Later, we were divided into separate groups. I joined Group I. And the event begins...

 Group I was sent to The New York Hotel.

I guess that's where I'll be sleeping for the nights. The Ice Breaking session went well, I can't find any photos of it though. Damn! I should have brought my phone along to take some pictures... anyway, I made friends easily within the first day...

SOM CAI

NES SANDRA RECCA

NORINTAN SHAKIRA

NURUL AFIFAH (whoa, she is a moody one.)

H'NG JAAN JENG

ANG HAN CIN

TAN XUE HUI

NUR FATIN AZRIN

WONG AH JHONG

TABEAH GLORIA SIEBERT

JAN-MIKE SCHIFFERS

NORHANISAH

Just a few names to remember them by...

Later on that night, everyone gathered at a place called the Persada Johore.
There was a presentation on unity and the Independence Day.
I knew that this will be the beginning of a very fun program....

THE NATIONAL UNITY ASSEMBLY & INTERGRATION FOR STUDENT LEADERS AND INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONS 2009 (RIMUP) *PROLOGUE*

August: I was quite surprised when I was summoned out of my classroom by Ustaz Mat Lazim, our senior assistant of students' affairs... (nervous much!!) I had quite a fight with the Silat Club the day before... I thought I was going to be punished.

“Muhammad, would you like to participate in an event held by the Ministry of Education?” he asked. “Huh?” goes my reply, dumbstruck.

“It's a some kind of assembly intended for unity...” he replied.

Unity. A wonderful word, I thought... sounds fun. I'll give it a try.

“I'll go,” I said, giving him my personal informations to be filled in the entry form.

“Thanks,” the teacher said. “You're like one of the school's best students this year, you'll probably make a great leader in the coming years”. And then he left for his office.

“What's up?” my classmates asked. “I dunno...” I replied dully. still dumbstruck.

The coming days went on without any news about the program I'll be attending.

I played tennis as usual in the evenings, attend preparation classes at night and only thought about the program at bedtime; wondering when the event will take place.

Around two weeks later, Ustazah Roslina barged into my classroom calling for me.

“Muhammad!!! Take this checklist and get ready for the program. You'll be leaving at around 10 o'clock in the morning on the 16^th” she said.

After a few rumbling around in school and my dormitory, I needed only one last thing. A signature for my permission form. Mr Shafie didn't want to sign it as he joked around about the H1N1 pandemic in Malaysia. I couldn't change his mind at first, but later on that day, I met him and he gave me the permission form – signed.

“The participation is an order from the ministry now that Ustaz Mat Lazim sent your name for it...” he explained and strode off.

August 16^th... I waited for my school bus driver to fetch me from school and drop me off at the gathering place. I waited...and waited... and finally he came.

I hopped off the the van as soon as we arrived, thanked him, and sat down on a bench...

something wasn't quite right...

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

My school uniforms!!! I left them at school!!! I chased after the driver until he came to a stop at a T-junction. It was indeed a good thing that I involve myself in stamina building activities... I had to sprint for like, what? 3 minutes non-stop...

After all was under control, I came back just in time to get on the ride to the event location, Johore...