It's All About The Experience
Archive for May, 2008
Charity: Rural Service: Chapter 8
May 31st
Chapter 8: Day Six
Until now, we had done service for the folks, for the bigger kids and so for today morning, we did one for the smaller kids. We paid a visit to the kindergarten which is also attached to the primary school. That little classroom is very well decorated and warm.
We invited ourselves in. The little kids all look very cute, so small and innocent. They were shy at first and so we wasted no time and went mixing around trying to bring out the little kid in us. The teacher at that time gladly let us spend sometime with them
We gave them the very same pictures as the ones to the primary kids to colour. Slowly, we warmed up and they accepted us as their friends
Not long after that, we did this.
I think this little girl is soooo adorable (Suet Yeng is also cute…). And she can colour well too. She was absolutely delighted to receive a prize for her effort. A little appreciation goes a long way to build up self-esteem of these kids. Fantastic!
We just played with the kindergarten kids for a while before we proceeded to prepare for the sports day that ran for the whole evening.
Today I have a lot of clips to share. Have a look at the clips below before continuing the story. I find them funny.
Sometimes we got so tired, we’d sleep anywhere
The primary kids had earlier registered for the sports day event. They formed their own groups and signed up for whichever games they were applicable for. May the best team wins!!!
Nope, not for water balloon fight…
But for this! Doink doink doink. Very simple game. I think you can pretty much make out how it was played
There’s one clip for this game but it’s over the limit. I lazy to split!! If you got it uploaded somewhere, please tell me
Liman Kati has a very nice sheltered basketball court. These kids grew up playing basketball there and as a result they are pretty good at it, boys and girls alike.
They even can play well wearing just slippers. I remember, my brother Bo Ann sulked because he was not allowed to play by his own team members. Being a big brother, I had no choice but to take action. So I discussed with the referees so that everyone shall have the chance to play. Fuh…
Dodgeball. Can get rough at times. This time, Bo Ann cried because he did not get a chance to play. He squatted in the middle of the badminton court, feeling rejected and Shu Ping, being a good sister came and complaint to me. So again, I had no choice but to take action. At last he got a chance to play and I was relieved. Fuh…Towards the end, some of us joined in and played just for the fun of it. I must admit, it was kind of exciting whacking opponents with the inflated beach ball. It reminds me of a comedy movie “Dodgeball” that I watched few years back
Typical pingpong game. jia you jia you
Transfer water through straws
Aunties doing line-dancing. Don’t play play. They were quite good. I’ll show you more pictures in Chapter 9
Oh? What are these? Guess which one is mine…
At the end of the day, we’d had already finished our wall painting – one day ahead of schedule. Sports day was just for fun but each team really went all out to win. Kampung kids have got the fighting spirit. If I remember correctly, that evening, they had a mini pasar malam (night market). I bought some fried stuff and drinks for my bro and sis since they liked it so much and was always saying this hou hou sek that hou hou sek. I didn’t mind at all. Those were the least I could do and I was glad to buy them something in return for their hospitality. During dinner, Shu Ping would always scoop large amount of rice for me since she knew I eat a lot. haha.. then she would set them on the table, and also bring in the fork and the spoon and switch on the fan getting ready for everyone to sit down.
So it was nearing the end of our service. Only 1 and a half more days to go. We all of course had in mind what to get as a thank you note to our foster family. I wrote a letter and requested the ever helpful Pei Chie to translate it to Chinese. I also bought some colouring materials and nice little note books for the kids. During this time, I suppose we all felt more or less reluctant to leave because of the nice people that we’ve connected with so well. The villagers treated us so warmly and never once they made us felt like strangers. The kids, needless to say, were just marvellous. Naughty or not, they all had a place in our hearts. We wish we could make much more impact but that was all that we could do in one week’s time. Anyhow, one more day to go. That last few days, we tried to spend as much time as possible with our respective family particularly our own foster brothers and sisters.
Coming up next:- Chapter 9: Day Seven
Charity: Rural Service: Chapter 7
May 29th
Chapter 7: Day Five
Sunday was indeed family day. It was very welcoming to have a rest day after a tiring day the day before. Today, we had a relatively relaxing morning. We had allocated a session for health campaign that involved a health talk, and free check-ups for the rural folks. Unfortunately many did not turn up. I heard that it was a taboo for people who gamble to step into the school compound (gambling is a common culture in Liman Kati). One told me that school is a place for studies and so shall be respected. Another said that school in Cantonese is pronounced as “shue koon” and the word “shue” means lose! Yea.. the latter makes more sense to me. So, that morning superstitious had our health programme dampened as only a handful came. Nevertheless, the talk went on, followed by health check done by qualified medical officers.
Talk given in the hallteen by a doctor
These are some of the brochures and posters that Look and I salvaged from a government building (I forgot the name) near Greentown Mall, Ipoh during our preparation period back then
blood pressure check and blood test
I don’t know whether they felt like kids or not being ‘measured’ like that
This medicine is supposed to kill worms in the stomach. I myself took a few boxes yet I’m still so thin!
Oh no..this is the session I should not have missed..Haih..why you guys didn’t tell me??
I was in front of the school compound working on the wall painting with other friends. For some time during that gloomy morning, it rained but that did not stop us from being Picassos. It was fun painting and chatting at the same time under the cool weather.
I’ll let you see how our masterpiece turn out in the last few chapters
That morning was still breezy after the rain stopped and it made me feel like singing Natasha’s “Unwritten” and dance under the rain with someone. So I hauled this innocent Pikachu on my back and spun around so fast till her eyes became permanently elongated!
She got so disfigured, she wouldn’t want to remove her Pikachu hood!
aaaaa…!!! I want to do plastic surgery d…..
After the morning session ended, we spent the rest of our Sunday with family. I remember Grandma Chew and the kids brought me to Kuala Kangsar for ‘jalan jalan ‘. On the way back, I feel asleep on the bus and had to be woken up by the kids when we reached home. I guess I was really tired.
But at night it was fun and party. The villagers had generously pooled their hard earned money to organized us a bbq party, held in Melvin’s house. We thanked them by partying to the max! And of course the kids joined us too.
BBQers. I remember once we had a durian feast in Ian’s house but I guess nobody took pictures because of our durian infested fingers
When I said generous, I mean it. Look at that holy shit crab!
Celebrated Xi Yi’s birthday too
Below are some random exclusive pictures.
I think Ian drew this
Unless you were there, I bet you have never seen Pei Chie riding a motor before – sans the helmet! It would be weird if you wore a helmet while riding a motor in the village. Everyone would look at you as if you are from the outerspace. So to blend with the ‘crowd’ you’ve got to learn their way too
Some kids were just so adorable you start to get jealous of them. hahaha…PC I want pou pou also
Coming up next:- Chapter 8: Day Six
Experience Okinawa
May 28th
When we were in the primary school days, writing an 80-words essay was kind of intimidating. 80 words was a lot to me. Now I couldn’t imagine how anyone could write with such limited length of words. I find it hard to keep to the limit as I’m used to writing long posts. My recent assignment was to write 6 articles, each about 250 words. Having written long articles and pages and pages of long reports (thanks to UTP), I find it somehow challenging against the dateline. These 6 articles are about places of interest in Okinawa with hints of history to make the story more interesting. However, I must admit I’m a hypocrite as I have not contributed much of original contents in it. I merely summarized whatever information I could find on the Internet as I could not possibly relate any personal experience (or even the slightest facts about Okinawa) that was non existence. Perhaps the next time I should just accept assignment that does not require much facts and allows me to generate my own opinons, thoughts and ideas. Though I’m getting paid, I think I’ve gained much more from this assignment. It really had me reading about the stuff that I wouldn’t imagine reading in many light years to come. This time, I have blended in some images that I’ve stolen from other sites to accompany my articles so that you can better appreciate them. It will be great for you to read if you are visiting Okinawa for the first time and having said that, I would definitely want to go to the Kerama Islands if I have the chance!
