السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!!
This is not going to be an experience sharing about paintball, because well, nothing much can be said. It was fun overall of course! But this is a review of the event itself organized by Muslim Hands, a charity here in UK.
Disclaimer:
The organizer had given me a reply and we've sort out any misunderstanding. This'll be the edited version of the review.
Through this paintball event they were able to raise £870 for orphans worldwide. That was their main objective behind this event - to fundraise for Orphans. The £30 registration fee paid by each of the participants went directly towards their orphan fund and InshaAllah will support nearly 3 orphans for a whole year! Kudos to them.
I found out about this event from another event held by Muslim Hands: a talk with Yasmin Mogahed. I was so intrigued and eager to join when I first saw the flyer and registered immediately.
If you see this flyer, what would you think? Waa...£30 for 12-14 games! That's a bargain isn't it.
I opened the website to get further information and to register.
So the details said the event will start at 8.30am, gave the address of the place and all that.
They have highlights of the event, basically mentioning what have already stated in the flyer.
There's FAQs that mention what the registration fee will get you: free entry, body gear, paintballs (no number) and 12-14 games, and lunch.
They also mention you can buy extra paintballs for a certain price.
Right...done with all the details, let's move on to the review.
1. No mentioning of how to get there
At first, I was fine with this because you can just google. We don't have a car, so of course we will go by public transportation. It's simple enough when you google it, take a train to Upminster, then a bus to Corbets Tey, then walk for about 14 minutes. Little did we know, the walk bit, there's No footpath along the way. the roads were narrow and the cars were fast. It is very dangerous for anyone, especially girls to walk there. My thoughts on this, the organizer didn't know the place well themselves. My friend and I were lucky as when we were on our way, there were a big group of guys going to the same place. So a larger group is more noticeable by the oncoming traffic. My advice to the organizer: Please make sure the condition to go to the event place is safe and make sure to mention the best mode of transport. If this were mentioned earlier, we could have taken a cab.
3. Disappointed by a false hope
In the flyer and web that I've shown earlier, it mentioned from the registration fee, you'll get a certain things. What it failed to mention, that participants will only get 100 balls!!! This is for the whole game. If this was mentioned earlier, I would've prepared extra money to buy more paintballs, or might even considered not to join because to me this is pricey (I can find a better deal elsewhere). I felt lied to and cheated. 100 balls can only last you for 1 game, not for the whole day.
Furthermore, there weren't 12-14 games as promised by the organizers. When the marshalls explained, there were only 6 games, that'll last until late afternoon. This was not mentioned as well. I know that the organizer might not be familiar, but to me, when you are organizing something, you should get all the information and you should be the one who knows more. When we were there, the organizers know the same or might be less than the rest of us.
So because I've paid £30 and I felt it'll be a waste to just play one game, My friends and I bought some more balls for £10, so total we paid £40 that lasted for 4 games. A number of us went back after the first game because they don't want to spend anymore money.
I mentioned this to someone (not the committee in charge) and she said ever so confidently that it is mentioned in the web and flyers. Can you see them there now???!! They even said that I should've asked for more information. My thoughts on this is: If you expect your participants to ask, then clearly you are not providing enough information on your web and flyers.
The organizers told me that they themselves were not informed regarding this. All information on the flyer were received from the centre's website.
4. Bad time management
When we were there, there were no effort made by the organizer to round up everyone and give a little briefing. They were given paintballs, but they didn't hand them out properly. We needed to find them (going back and forth) to find them and get the balls. Some of the girls even took extra and made it not enough for others. Really honest there. I know who you are.
Even when others have settled in their gears and the marshalls have called many times, the organizers kept waiting around for god knows what. So a lot of us decided to just go in without them. We get to play the first game without them and it was fun.
After the game, we went out the war zone to the safe zone for a break. But everytime the marshalls round up and called, only a few turned up. So why don't the organizers play their role here? Don't just sit around and be like one of the participants. You should take charge!
They did apologize on this. The organizer had already did as much as she could to gather everyone on time. She also told me that she was the only one in charge on the day of the event, so it was difficult for one person to handle. I hope in the future they can get more volunteers to help out. I can be one of them if I have the chance.
5. Just plain bad blood
As I said, I have fun overall, because my main purpose is to have fun and make new friends. But for some, I guess their reason is to be hateful and annoying. I don't really mind if someone were shot and they didn't go to the dead zone. We want to have fun. But some of us kept pointing fingers and saying this team is cheating. That just ruined the atmosphere for all of us because not all of us in that team cheated. Where's your akhlaq sister. Even the marshall felt uneasy of this behavior. Even she mentioned you don't need to be so competitive because everyone is there to have fun.
So what's the big deal who won and who lost? The organizer should stress this (especially those with bad blood is their friends). The first game, I was in a different team because there weren't a lot of people in that team (because most of them were the organizers). We won the first game, but after we got out to the safe zone, we changed teams again and most of us (whose in the winning team before) changed to the losing team.
As I said, I don't mind. The marshalls saw this transition and put the points in our new team because most of us changed teams. But these bad blood people (who either didn't even play or were in the losing team before) asked the marshalls to change the points. Really? Did you get a present in the end? Choi! They kept mentioning to purify our intention. Good. I like it. But why don't you do as you preach as well? It's embarassing to see muslim girls who are well covered to have such bad hearts. It shows to all. Everyone can sense it and it's not a beautiful sight to see.
In the end, the girls mentioned did apologize and that's what counts. So for the next event, I hope this thing don't happen again. Yes, the main purpose is to help orphans, but we need to preserve the ukhuwah between us too.
Lastly, I hope the organizers can make muhasabah from this and not just simply cross it as a well organized event, because it wasn't. I love going to events held by Muslim hands and this was the only bad one I had so far. So I hope you do improve on this.
I really appreciate the way they responded to my comments. It just takes all the anger away. I will definitely keep supporting their work and event and pray much success to them.
Until next time..
