For those of you who don't know, paintballing is a war in which the guns are loaded with little balls of paint which burst when they hit you. Although it sounds like these cannot really hurt much, it is quite the opposite. Although they are obviously not as painful as real bullets, they still cause horrible stabs of pain for a while after impact, and leave horrible bruises. The war lasts a day, and there are a series of battles in it. These are different for different sites.

The day started for the warriors who were raring to get going at 9 o'clock when they filled in the right forms, got their gear together and on, got briefed on their mission and then got split into teams. All of the youth of Al-Mahdi were in the blue team along with the Smith family. We were against the yellow team who were from various other different families. We all had to wear khaki style overalls and helmets. Our first mission did not start until 10.30, so we all grabber a mug of cocoa, and sipped it whilst discussing tactics.

Our first mission was to get the enemy flag from their camp to ours, and their mission was the same. Whoever ended up with 2 flags in their camp won. we each had bases. Generally the rules of the game were that if you got hit, you were out. However, since many of us were new to the game, we could be revived for the first ten minutes by asking the marshals, who made sure the battle did not get too out of hand, to rub the paint off. After that, we immediately died when hit.

At 10.30, we all collected our guns and then we were ready to get going. Our team was split into 2 teams. One had to defend and the other concentrated on obtaining the enemies flag. As the defending team waited anxiously for the opposition team to attack, the team of commandos crept around the side of the woods to the enemies base camp. After 20 minutes of drastic fighting, the outcome was a draw. We played this same game again after warming ourselves up with a hot cup of cocoa. This time the outcome wasn't as promising. After 10 minutes, all the defenders started to get shot. The enemy managed to sneak in after shooting most of the defenders. They managed to sneak back as well by taking over the flag whenever one of the was shot. The other team had won that fight leaving us 3 points down.

The next game was called medic. One team defended and the other attacked. The attackers had a base but there target was to get across the bridge which was being heavily guarded by the defenders. If they succeed, they get 2 points. When the first 10 minutes was up, they could cross the river anywhere. After the first 10 minutes, the target changes. It is now to get the flag from the defenders base to a base not far away. The medic is an advantage towards the attacking team as he can just wipe of paint if they are hit. We successfully managed to not only kill their medic but also protect the flag earning us 3 points and them 2 for getting a man over the bridge. However, this was quickly changed when we did not manage to get a man over and they still managed to protect the flag. Still, in my opinion, that was the best game.

The final game was when the defending team had to protect a mine in a base, and the attacking team had to set the mine off. Sounds easier than it is. the twist in the tale is that defenders must shoot through windows in the base as they cannot leave. In this way, the enemy can shoot us thorough the windows as they are quite large. There was a large clear perimeter to the base, leaving any enemy trying to get close exposed. However, they still somehow manages to sneak in and set of that mine. Unfortunately we didn't, meaning the final results was a loss for us. However, it was a great day and not only gave us a great socializing opportunity, but also gave us the chance to enjoy a great day out, and for some of us, the first experience of paintballing. it also taught us team work and we even prayed their at lunch time, giving us a great opportunity for some tabligh!