Chapter 4: Day Two

Okay… We survived the first day in Liman Kati pretty well. None of us got bitten by stray dogs to say the least. None gone missing. All came back with all sorts of stories, even just for the first night. Awesome! I would say everyone woke up still with the burning desire to make a change and do our best. I guess everyone did more or less get closer to their respective foster family members. Some families had probably brought their new addition to a good dinner on the first night to start the week or perhaps out of courtesy. Of course there are many of us just stayed home eating home-cooked food and fostering better ties with families. For me I had rice with vege, chicken dish and a bowl of soup. Apparently there’s always soup for dinner because my two new siblings wouldn’t want to eat without soup. I slept near 12am on the first day and woke up 7am on Thursday (12/7/07). Today is mini science exhibition in the morning, followed by colouring competition in the evening and a talk on family by Mr. Tang (the funny man) at night.

Mini science exhibition was held in the very same primary school in a classroom next to our command center. Some education props were already set up the night before in that room and we gathered in the morning in our command center to start our service for day two. When we were ready, the kids were brought down groups by groups and facilitators involved took turns to do the explanations.

Some interesting facts. Again of course it’s good to know Chinese. I’ve probably missed out some interesting facts just because I can’t read =(

More exhibits laid in the room

Even more….Education department had done a very good job. Looked very interesting even for a 22-year old like me

Here’s Hooi Yee je je explaining some interesting facts. “Ahem..pay attention pleaseeeee!” Some kids really looked like Shaolin disciples. Can you spot one?

This is how the showroom looked like. Kids and teachers joined in too. Heck, I even bet the teachers actually enjoyed what we’ve came out with

One station at a time. The cute Chee Huey je je doing explanation

Chee Huey and Lee Teng shaking up some explosive concoction. I think is to explain that the reaction of soda powder and vinegar can produce pressure enough to pop the bottle. Perhaps this might make them interested in becoming a chemical engineer.. hehehe..

View from another angle. The kids were pretty excited to see the white foam oozing out

See, this is a volcano (more like an anthill to me). If you remember, in chapter 2 I said I would explain how it works. But I won’t so I’ll pass this Jun Jia. Wait do you notice the boy smilling widely? I tagged him rabbit because he’s cute like a rabbit with his pronounce front teeth. I try to remember kids’ name but they are all in Chinese so I’ve no choice but to give them nicknames

Live in action!

Jun Jia said if you pour some soda powder and add some coke in it, you’ll get a live volcano. Ok I might have interpreted his explanation in Chinese wrongly but anyhow that was how they created the volcanic scene. Jun Jia of course expertly told them everything that is to know about volcano in the right way. What’s going on outside BTW? Hmmm….

Suet Yeng did the volcano experiment for the next group. But I pity her, because the dude across the table (see where she is looking?) is a GANGSTER! It was like a scene in Hong Kong mafia movie where, when you and your friends were enjoying steamboat by the street in Tsim Tsa Tsui, a gangster dude with his cohorts come and tou luin (make a mess with you). In this case, this dude also famously known as Mr. G to us, together with his cohorts (see the left and right to him? – at least is multiracial here to show M’sia boleh spirit) disturbed Suet Yeng’s presentation. I imagined the duel was like this:

Suet Yeng: Now, I’m going to pour the carbonated drink into the valcano to simulate a live volcano.

Mr. G: Oi!! Give me the Pepsi!

Suet Yeng: If I give it to you, I can’t show other students how a volcano behaves, can I?

calefe (extra casts): Hear hear….(applause to Suet Yeng)

Mr. G: I don’t care! Give me the Pepsi. I want to drink! I’m thirsty now! Besides you are wasting food. Do you know how many people do not have access to clean water?????

calefe (extra casts): Hear hear….(applause to Mr. G)

Suet Yeng: Ok I will give it to you….after I mix with the soda powder. Do you know that it tastes better after mixing soda powder? Think if you have a soda drink it tastes good. What do you think it tastes like when it contains 100x soda powder? Sure explosive!! I’m sure you’ll like it. Okay?

calefe (extra casts): Hear hear….(applause to Suet Yeng). She has a point there!

Mr. G: Hmmm…I guess so… Ok bring it on!

Now people this is how a university student uses her knowledge to get her out of a tight situation with a rowdy bastard. Don’t it just makes you wanna be like Suet Yeng? Go ahead kids, enroll yourself in a university or college, then you can be as smart as Suet Yeng je je. I bet Mr. G got his explosion in the toilet, or perhaps halfway there. Anyway let’s have a closer look at who this Mr. G is.

This is Mr. G. You know every gangster boss will have a bigger boss behind. Just like in this picture. Even the teacher was afraid when the two teamed up

Get back to education. Jia Lin was showing the wonder of UV light. I guess to the kids, it was like superman’s eyes instead of getting to understand light wavelength

Getting some electric and electronics knowledge

yea some kids needed better view. Boon How explaining how electrons work and the wonder of current! – of course in a much simpler sense -

Quiz time! Which ones are conductor and which ones insulator?

Tada! Whoa….lampu menyalala cikgu Teck Guan!

One last look at the science exhibition

Told you the science fair was interesting! Even big kids were enjoying. Do you see the boy with the mouth curved down? I’ll tell you why he kept his face like that in a while.

I took a break to speak in Cantonese to these people. It was draining my energy to speak in Mandarin! Geez. Anyway, most of my morning were spent tracing the mural painting on the wall. The wall is at the front of the school. Too bad I don’t have any pictures for this process.

Right, this was what was happening outside! Registration for the arts competition later this evening (or was it for sports competition this Saturday?) I forgot, Damn…=P Anyhow, whatever activities we have planned received very good response from these kids. Great!

So this boy here looked like that because he just had his front teeth removed. He wouldn’t want to open his mouth.

This was our command/operation center aka lepak place. We had most of our lunch there.

In the afternoon we had arts competition. In conjunction with the upcoming National Independence Day in August back then, hence the theme was that.

The drawings were provided. They just had to bring they colouring materials and work their magic!

Some were really good! I could never colour that well

Enthusiastic! Keep it up boys and girls! You guys rock! Winners will be announced much later though.

We tried our best to get to know each and every kids. They all are wonderful and have their own stories and ambitions.

This is my foster bro! He gets bullied sometimes. And one of the bullies are none other than….

Mr. G! Well, I’m not saying he’s a bad boy. I guess that’s what we all went through when we were at their age. Probably he has bad influences (see picture – this is another proof but lets give the big kid the benefit of the doubt)

We all went back after the evening sessions, spent some time with our families. And at night after dinner, we had the ‘Family’ talk. The talk started about 8pm if I remember correctly. Those who attended the talk include rural folks, mainly children. However children were noisy and were running about disturbing the talk. At about 8.30pm the side attractions such cartoon shows, dancing and board games were ready and facilitators ushered almost all the children upstairs to the side attractions. Speech area was then very much improved without the children. Although half the seats were unoccupied, it can be seen that the people enjoyed the talk. Still some children were uninterested in any of the side attractions. They become more restless towards the end of the night. Luckily facilitators managed to control them and released them when the talk ended at about 10.00pm.

The scene during the talk

These kids were so energetic. We had to ‘quarantine’ them while waiting for upstairs to get ready

Talk minus the kids. The kids were upstairs watching cartoon – Oggy and the Cockroaches. Board games like dam, chess and snake and ladders were there too

Some necessary things that we had to do

There were also kids involved in dancing! We managed to get some kids to participate in the closing act. You will see it in later chapters. We got them practicing early. So kids remember, plan ahead, don’t do last minute work and right practice makes perfect

Here are some random photos.

There’s a Chinese temple there. And there are a lot of bushes here and there too. This is kampung

Rubber trees if you haven’t seen one

Ok this is it! Third time these two have appeared together. Hypothesis confirmed!

Please understand that no kids were harmed during our service. We made sure that whatever we did, safety is always stressed. This was an isolated case. Actually Look is a good guy. Don’t be mistaken. This particular kid was camera shy…maybe

It was another successful day. The kids (and teachers) were cooperative. I hope they’ve learned a thing or two from the science exhibitions and appreciate our effort in making the props and organizing activities. Again at night we all spent time with our families. Some discussed homework; some played games; some watched TV together; some went yum cha; some simply just had a walk nearby before going to bed. Today was a tiring day – like all the days that followed after this but it was all worth it. BTW, it was durian season that time, so we had bountiful feast on durians also during our days in Liman Kati. Tell more about it next time. Tomorrow is another new day, new challenge, new things to learn – not only for the kids but for us too.

Coming up next:- Chapter 5: Day Three