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