On Dec 1st and 2nd MKA Houston North and Houston Cypress jointly organized a camping trip that promoted both brotherhood and tarbiyyat. Each majlis had eight members each who participated in the trip. The Qaideen of both majaalis were also present. The camp consisted of an overnight stay at Waller County (Yogi Bear) Park, volley ball games in the sand, and a wonderful barbecue in the evening. All of the khudaam carpooled together to the camp site. We had arranged for 1 camp site (for the adventitious Khuddam) and 2 cabins. We arrived there at around 3:00pm and situated ourselves quickly. The weekend being a post thanksgiving weekend, we had the entire park to ourselves. The first activity of the day was setting up the tent at the camp site which turned out to be a little more trickier than usual. Everyone joined in the game of "How many Kuhddam does it take to set up a tent?" After various modifications the tent was declared habitable by Qaid Cypress. After some scouting, some Khuddam found out that the water slide in the park was operational and they set off for it. Other khuddam decided to pay a visit to the sandy volleyball court that they saw while driving in. The court was there and so was the volleyball, but we learned that there was no net. Since the remaining khuddam were very keen on playing volleyball; we improvised and requested the park ranger to lend us some caution tape to use as a net. Volley ball itself was a lot of fun because we found out that none of us really knew or remembered how to play it. Hence, some practice was required. In the midst of having no net, honesty and sportsmanship of khuddam was also tested. For that, we are proud to state that not a single argument sprung during the 2 hour game.A Barbecue camp fire was organized for the evening at 7pm, but we quickly realized that someone forgot to bring the buns. In the mean time the Khuddam feasted on kababs and condiments until they came. The process of lighting a camp fire was also an interesting experience because we didn't have any firewood to begin with. Thanks to the resourcefulness of khuddam, twigs, branches, a bag of leaves, and some lighter fluid was acquired; we were then able to set up a pretty decent fire. Ofcourse, tossing firewood right into the bonfire helped too. While enjoying s'mores around the campfire, khuddam engaged in discussions ranging from stories of Khulafa to funny stories from school. We also found a few cats who joined in the campfire discussions and were fed leftover kabas promptly. The talking went late into the night because no one wanted to sleep. We finally went to bed at 2am.
In the morning arrangements were made for breakfast and a few energetic Khuddam also went for a refreshing morning walk. The rest of us devoured donuts, bananas and cereal as we waited. It turned out that it had rained in the night but thankfully the tent had kept its ground. Finally we disassembled the tent, cleaned up all the area around our camp site and headed back home at 11:30 am. Considering the lack of sleep last night, I bet every one of us slept soundly the next night.
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