so last weekend i went to do some community project at a supposedly rural village. This was what i did:
1. Do health screenings for common health problems in the morning
2. Become a facilitator for some motivation course in the afternoon
3. Watch performances at night
4. Cook for the entire IMU population on sunday morning
5. Go back to civilisation on sunday afternoon
Problems i encountered
1. The need to go to toilet on Saturday morning
The bus had to leave IMOO at 6 am (we were told to be there sharp). I woke up at 4.30am just to make sure my bowels moved and were emptied by then. Problem was, bowels refused to wake up and only moved at 6 am. So poor me had to hold it all in until we reached the place. I only managed at 10 am that morning. For me, one of life's pure tortures is when i can do my business in the morning, cos then it'll be constantly at the back of my mind. its worse when you eat something spicy the night before. :(
2. No cellphone coverage. I know i don't have anyone to call (Boyfriendless and all) but still, it feels good to know you are connected to civilization. The kampung was only 30 mins from town, but no coverage!! How can!!! Even the jungles of Sarawak got cellphone coverage!!!!!!
3. Hot weather.
We were told to wear only black shirts. Which made sense cos we don't wanna stir up trouble wearing white or see through or skimpy bikinis. Heaven forbid us if we cause some villagers to have a stroke or heart attack. But its freakin'hot in Malaysia and my face was full of oil by afternoon. I use 3 oil blotters to clean my face.
4. Motivation course??
Yes, i was a facilitator, and i did get excited by the idea of counselling students about what their future options are like after secondary school. We ended up playing a lot (too many) games though. And i'm not really sure how the older school children felt about that. It was beneficial for the primary school kids though. Maybe they should have had separate programs for the older and younger kids.
5. Culture nite
Being the vain person that i am, i decided to wear this nice pink baju kurung of a friend of mine. This will probably the first and last time i'm gonna wear one, and the thought of looking nice while cam-whoring excited me. Alas, not many people chose to wear something fancy, so i really felt overdressed. Still, i do have good pics of myself :)
6. Cooking for the whole kampung
This was really tiring. I cleaned the chicken, chopped and hacked onions, long beans and had to fill the 'dulang' with food. It doesn't help that some people think that the food we cooked was disgusting, just because it was cooked in the kampung. There were not many people helping, and we were talking about cooking for 300 people. Still, the villagers really made yummy food.
What i loved:
1. My adopted family
THey were super nice. THe makcik who took us in gave us her own bedroom to sleep in. The only thing was there was this really big cockroach like insect which flew around the room. We had to ask the older brother to kill it for us. And they fed us nonstop with yummy kampung food. I have to give credit to the Malays in general, they are really hospitable and friendly people. Their hospitality knows no bounds. Imagine if you were to let people into your house, and not knowing how they feel about the whole thing. Kudos to all of them who volunteered to take us in. And for me, i got a few new recipes about cooking kampung food. YUMMY
2. Cultural nite
i did enjoy myself. WAthcing all the kampung people come, and all the karaoke songs (some good, some bad) and performances by our own students, i think it was a blast. Even some of our lecturers were enjoying themselves, letting loose of all that stress at work. I did a lot of cam-whoring. But by 11pm, i had to go back cos i was too sleepy.
3. Sukaneka
this is like a sports carnival, and all of us, lecturers included, let loose. there were a lot of funny events going on, but the thing is, everyone had fun. i missed the tarik tali event though. i would love to tarik tali, i've been doing it since i was in primary school and its so fun. its bad to lose of course, but the adrenaline is sky high. still, i did learn how to become a better cook that day :)
4. Good experience
We had to have this thing called 'makan dulang'where 4 people share one big tray of rice with assorted foods. its not for everyone though, and i understand. But dont'ever talk about going to experience life in rural africa, rural india or joinning doctors without borders if even the thought of sharing food with others makes u icky. i did feel icky myself, but after preparing the food myself and seeing how they eat (everyone takes a corner of the tray for themselves) its not that dirty. just have to lose that city life a bit. And i think this will be the first and last time that i think i will experience something like this. So, it was a good exposure for me to see how other people live.
PS, i took a lot of pictures, but am too lazy to post it in my blog. PIcs are either on my friendster or facebook. Lots of camwhoring by me and pals. :P
No comments:
Post a Comment