Vlead Picnic

First day at school, I have joined the Vlead club. It is a club where members are taught like scouts. The word ‘lead’ in Vlead means ‘leader’, and the ‘V’ stands for Vietnam.

So of course, when our club organized a picnic, I went. And this picnic was a trip to the Hung Temple, lasting a whole day.

Beginning of the day

In fact, I am the only student in the class and one of the only three 7th-grade students participating in the club’s extracurricular activities. Moreover, I know both of the other two friends – who are in the next grade. Although I am not close to one of them, the other – Linh, is my close friend. One of the reasons why I was so excited to go out was also because Linh was joining!

So, that morning, I arrived at my class earlier than usual. It wasn’t because I was afraid of being late, but because I was worried that I wouldn’t get to see this mischievous bunch throughout the day, so I came early to spend a little time with them, as I also adored my class immensely!

Then my friend also came, and we sat and chatted with each other for a few sentences. But I had to sadly ‘say goodbye’ to them and go to the next class to call Linh to come along.

When I arrived at the meeting place, I discovered one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. The bad news was that Linh and I were in different groups, so we couldn’t sit together. The good news was that in my group, all the members were people I already knew, and everyone was very adorable.

After a long time gathering, being reminded of the schedule, assigning tasks, the group leader,… We also got on the bus to head to Hung Temple – the place where the activity would take place. Although I was the smallest member and couldn’t be the group leader, my heart was still boundlessly joyful because I was about to go on a real ‘camping’ trip.

The time on the bus was quite long because this place was quite far from my school, to the point that I could sleep for two naps and still, when I opened my eyes, I saw the road rushing past in front of me. I estimate that the duration on the bus was a little over an hour, because even though I wasn’t allowed to use my phone, I still had a wristwatch to check the time.

Main activities

It was only when getting off the bus that the scene in my eyes reluctantly changed into the magnificent Hung Temple area, surrounded by forests with vast green canopies. Next, we went to an area of tall trees, with the ground quite clear, suitable for setting up tents. Although prepared in advance, this was still the first time I actually set up a tent right in the middle of the forest, with the ground full of branches and uneven, which made it a bit difficult for me. Saying ‘setting up a tent’ is like that, but mostly I just helped with light tasks like opening the tent, tying knots on the rope, fastening ropes to stakes,… while the job of driving stakes into the ground belonged to the older members and our team leader, because I was still the youngest in my group.

So, after setting up the tent, we took a little time to rest because it was going to get even more exhausting. And since we were the first group to finish, we were also the first to be ‘questioned.’ But these were just ordinary questions, just to check if the group leader had ‘allocated resources’ properly!
When it was time to wait for the other groups to finish, we were led to an empty plot of land near the entrance to the temple. After that, we students were asked to take a test on our ability to apply rope-tying methods to make a storage cabinet. But since I was the youngest (and it was also my first camping trip), my group leader simply had me gather materials (some ropes for tying and bamboo and wooden sticks) and help the others.

Luckily, besides me, most of the members in the group had experience. So, the final product was done without spending much time. After finishing, I volunteered to take the group’s handmade shelf back, immediately store it in the tent, while the others returned to the area to carry out the first aid test. On the way from that area back to the tent, I kept thinking about my friends in class so much! I told myself that this afternoon I must hurry back to class and tell them about my whole day! Then, after putting away the things, I still had to rush over to where the group was—at that time everyone was making a first aid stretcher out of two ropes (like the hammock ropes commonly used in the Mekong Delta) and two bamboo sticks. Seeing that, of course I hurried in to help. I thought it was just tying the ropes, but it turned out someone had to lie down to test it. When the instructor said that, I glanced at all the group members, and it seemed like no one trusted their own product!

Although I thought those ropes wouldn’t break, because they were hammock ropes, and hammock ropes are usually very, very strong! But perhaps a part of me was like them, so I remained silent.
Then one of the girls suddenly thought of using rock-paper-scissors to find the “patient,” and fortunately, it wasn’t me. Our task was to carry the stretcher through obstacles to reach the finish line. But during the carrying process, it seemed not only I but the whole group found it funny (probably because the person lying on the stretcher was the only boy in the group, and he was too ‘sissy’), causing a few people to shake, myself included.

We were very lucky to reach the finish line, and before we could even laugh, the supervising teacher asked us to move to another spot to continue the bandaging test.
It’s just that… I’m only in 7th grade! Usually, 7th graders haven’t learned this yet, so there was no need to do this assignment, but because the students participating were all 8th grade and above, my school just shoved this content in as well. And I had NEVER known of its

So I also tried to tell the teacher, ‘I’m only in 7th grade, sir,’ but all I got in return was a smile and his words, ‘Never mind, just give it a try.’ But I haven’t dared to take the test yet because I don’t know how, right? Well, since it’s already happened, I reluctantly drew a lot to see what type of bandaging I would have to do. Luckily, I drew ‘bandage number 8,’ one of the simplest bandaging types. My group had 7 people, so we were divided into 3 groups: one group of 3, and two groups of 2. I ended up in the two-person group with that ‘patient’ from earlier, what a coincidence! Our task was to bandage each other, and since I was inexperienced, I let him bandage me first. He also drew bandage type number 8, just like me. But somehow, I let him bandage my dominant hand—doesn’t that mean locking up my strongest skill! And it couldn’t recover either.

Anywat, because it was too late, so I just let it be. When it was my turn to bandage him, I just did whatever I could remember, no skill at all. So when it came to grading, my score was really low, only got a 7.
But luckily, my team leader turned to encourage me, saying, ‘Don’t worry, you only need to pass the exam, so that score is fine.’
Therefore, I just let it go, but this kind of “don’t worry” was still better than the ‘Don’t worry, just try and see’ from my teacher earlier.

And while waiting for a few other members in the group to finish their tasks, I turned to talk to Linh; I haven’t chatted with my best friend since this morning, which made me really bored!
Sitting on the steps of the Hung Temple, I happily told my friend about my class, this exam session, and even about the end-of-year events! My friend also shared with me all sorts of stories about your class and our old classmates.
After that, we had to temporarily pause our conversation to line up and head back to the shared camping area with the group.
Then it was lunchtime, and it was actually my first time in my life eating in a tent we set up ourselves right in the middle of a forest.
I felt quite excited. There was only one drawback: our campsite had both fire ants and mosquitoes (I just got bitten by a mosquito this morning!), so I didn’t dare to eat completely inside the tent and instead climbed a tree to eat (I don’t know, I followed my seniors).

But we were also making a campfire while eating, by pouring water into a plastic bag and hanging that bag on the shelf we had made earlier this morning, combined with the scorching hot weather that day, it also helped our group easily complete the task.

Clean up

After that, we have to leave, so my coach teacher asked us to clean our camping area. I was assigned the task of cleaning up and folding the tent along with two other people. Meanwhile, everyone else had to complete another task, which was decoding the cipher and finding the treasure.
My job was quite easy; besides assembling and disassembling, there wasn’t much else.
After taking everything apart, I handed over the ropes, tent, and bamboo sticks to the organizers and then went back to line up with the group.
After that, we took the bus back to school. (On the bus, I didn’t sit by the window, so I had to try sleeping while sitting, which made my neck sore!)
And when I got back to school, the first thing I did, of course, was go back to class and tell them about that whole day because I missed them so much!