Sinai Expedition 2012

Sinai Expedition 2012

(credited to Nasirah Nasruddin)

(credited to Nasirah Nasruddin)

(credited to nas)

(credited to nas)

(look how happy they are!)

nice view right?

mosque-besides the mosque, there also a church

Ustaz Ammar was giving tazkirah

(credited to nasirah- ALL PICTURES were taken by her)

             SINAI EXPEDITION 2012

                I sweated through itch thick of my winter coat and got panicked. No, this couldn’t be good, I thought. Where exactly did I put my mineral water? It was only a small bottle that dived inside my backpack. I emptied the first pocket inside the bag, then again, examined inside the bag and see if anything concealed it. I gave a huge long sigh and almost cried for help. Both my lower limbs started to shake and giggled exaggeratedly as the expedition is about to start within a minute. I moved out through the crowd and went out to the near shop if there is any bottle of mineral water sold there. Ustaz asked me for what reasons I came down to the shop, as the amazing journey is about to begin and I answered thoroughly. He quickly escorted me to buy a bottle of mineral water after my helpful explanation. I gave him two ginayh and quickly made my way up to the crowd.

                Nasirah called up my name and I found her somewhere in the middle of the crowd. “Ave the bottle?”I nodded without hesitating and quickly grabbed my torchlight and lighted it up. I exhaled out the long exhaustion and prepared myself for the long journey. I bear in mind that this will be the most tiring activity ever because within this 20 years of living I never mount any mountain, hike any hill and perhaps marathon for hours! 21 February 2012 I may begin a whole new chapter or maybe begin my own records. This expedition took about five hours to mount the top of Sinai’s mountain and about two or three hours to arrive back to bus. It was a killing and most passionate mission to deal with. I wanted to mount you-SINAI! Here I come!

                DARKNESS-that was all I could say for the starting. I couldn’t see anything and felt nothing except emptiness and coldness that sipped through my clothes and bite the bones making the whole body shaking and shivering for heat. I had my walking stick, no; I should call him, the magic walking stick together with my torchlight that led the way. Along the starting, I saw only rocks, sands, and to be more shocking, there were lots of camel’s feces. Actually, I wondered at first, what is that thing? It was somehow ovals in shape, sometimes I found it crashed, and some moment it was fresh and dark in color. Whether it was the feces of camels or feces of some animals, nothing can stop my way; it was only death that can stop me from being on the top of the mountain! I was really eager to be on the apex of the Sinai’s mountain as I imagined myself flying Malaysia’s flag and hailed out, “Allahuakbar” for three times and cried as I see the amazing view of what Allah had created.

                I torched the way and begun tired. Not to forget how loud my friends breathe that broke the silences. It was only one hour after we had started, and we had only passed the first check point! There were 11 check points more to go. I injected some motivation to myself.

“Today I will remove my limitations and barriers by realizing that although others can stop me temporarily, I am the only one who can stop me permanently!”

“At some point in life, we would say life is tough, though you never know until you say ‘you can do this’ to yourself and found that you are tougher than you are thought. And bear in mind, you are the winner among the winner!”

“Patience and silence are two powerful energies. Patience makes you mentally strong and silence makes you emotionally strong.”

“your dream are priceless. Start acting like it in everything you do! Tell yourself that you can live your dreams every day. Remember, be the person that you can be proud of!”

“Allah didn’t see how we score that something, He valued you by seeing whether you are effortless or endeavor”

                          

                     I blinked twice. I felt something in my eyes and asked for a pause and rested at the side of the rocks while giving way to the others to continue the expedition. She gave me a bit of chocolate and we take some sipped of juice to risen back the energies. I felt tired and I wanted to sleep. It was already three in the morning and I lost counts for the check points. I saw some Korean group hiking up after us and behind them there were my friends and Ustaz Muaz. “Ustaz, what check point is this?” Ustaz replied loudly, “it’s the fifth check point!! Come let’s go!! We need to be on top of the mountain before the sun rise. Come let’s go!! Up we go!!” he boosted up my motivation and I was glad to meet my other friend’s motivations that we need to settle this mission. I got up from the rocks and together off again for the journey.

                

                Suddenly, Nasirah’s torchlight was dimming off. Without being asked by her, I led the way as the torchlight I bought a day before the expedition in Carrefour had given me a good mood to set up my mind that everything will be alright and fine. The white light that glow the path was actually caused by the LED that can save up for more than hours. I thank God that I made a good decision to buy it rather than buying a cheaper one that only shine yellow light with small range of light and almost dimmed fast. Just after the incident, I heard someone from the back, “someone in front, help, there’s someone vomiting here!” I couldn’t see anything except some shadows of moving two or three people several steps before me. I lighted the way, and heard few girls trying to help her friend that was sick. Luckily Ustaz arrived at the place and helped out. I started to think…

                When we were sick, who do we most needed more? When we need some revision books, who we comfortably would ask to? When we have the hardest times, who did came to us first? The most important thing that I always wanted to remember that, a friend was the one that came up helping us through our hard times. But how do you really appreciate your friends that much? You talked back? You curse her/him? You make jokes about her weakness? Sometimes, we didn’t realized how bad we had treated them. We forget and yes, we can forgive. Forgive our self for being such a jerk to them. And thank them, hug them and together ride the journey with the help of Allah. InsyaAllah, we can feel the sweetness and removed all the bitterness about life.

                I made mistakes in my steps and felt down. “nawar are u ok?”…“nawar did u injured yourself?”... “nawar can u stand up?”… (everything was ok except when I got back home, I found two bruises on my left leg)

                My name is Nawar and I am afraid of heights!

                We started to hike almost the top, and I finally discovered that I could not walk more up the hill just because of the trauma. I hated heights and I always hate them. My legs cramped and every time I tried to stand still, I started to fall again. I could not do this anymore. It was a whole burden to me. ‘Why am I acting like this? This isn’t me.’ One by one my friends passed through me and yet there will always someone helping me out. They knew of my problems and started to hold my hand together and led the way up to the mountain. I was shivering! I could not look down. It almost sun rise and the sun shone the mount. It was so high up that I was hiking up the hill. Couldn’t believe that I was trying to mount on the second or the first highest mountain in Egypt with 2600m height! Ustaz said, there were so many thoughts that say the Sinai’s Mountain was the second or first highest mountain in Egypt. He could not give the correct fact and yet I was on it!

                All of my friends made their way before sun rise, but I failed together with my other two friends. We prayed over the edges of the sloping rocks and prayed to god that ‘please, I really want to be there… help me Ya Allah!’

                “It was never too late to try. It was not the end of the world. It will be you on top there if you keep on the spirit. Go nawar!”

                Ustaz was there when the last three of us could not get up and hike more because of individual’s issues. I told ustaz that I really wanted to go up as we almost there. He tied her shawl over his right hand and asked me to grab it at the end. Together with careful steps, he guided me up. I watched over my steps and didn’t have a chance to glimpse down because I know I would freak out more. Even though I didn’t hike up myself, with my own ability, even though I need someone to led the way, even though I almost cried and gave up, even though I was one of the last three participant that came late, I was proud OF MYSELF that I made through!!!!! I was finally on the top of Sinai’s mountain with looking proud of myself that I was able to be on top of it. I burst out tears of joy and again prayed to God for the lovely journey.

                I always believe that behind those big walls, behind this revolution, behind these obstacles, there will be something good waiting for me maybe rainbows that colors and light up my day and life. Just always make some believes to yourself! Always believe…