Kampung Baru Tiram Setia

Back again we were in Kampung Baru Tiram Setia, Tanjong Karang, Kuala Selangor.

A few new food stalls have been set up behind JKKK (our camp venue), one selling nice 雪花冰, one cooking tasty food.

Kids and kampung people are still the same, riding bicycles and motorbikes everywhere, every time.

We had 48 kids this time, most of them old kids who came for the last camp and there were also some new faces.

The kids' behavior is a lot better this time. The girl who was used to be so rude was no longer 'that' rude, she listened and learnt. The boy, little bumble bee, who could not sit for a second in the class can now sit more than a second, still not paying attention but paid a little, at least.

Parents' were more participative this time, judging from the number of parents attending our opening and closing ceremony.

My group won the best group this time, the kids were so happy, so did i.

The hardest kid in my group, 伟嘉, who did not care much on what was going on throughout the camp and liked to disturb others, was in tears when we were going to leave the kampung, to another teacher who were so closed to him, we cried too. I did not expect him to.

Pray that God will bless the kids. What they learnt during the camp will be planted deep into their heart and will not be moved by the temptations and bad influences that they are doing to encounter. Pray that they will continue being a good child in the family and good student in school. Pray that they will be loved enough, so that their heart will be softened.

Pray also God will bless the families there, especially the adults--parents and grandparents to take care and teach their children well, not having gender bias and too engrossed in their own business.

Pray for Siew Ching who travels from Subang to the Kampung every Saturday to teach English there. Pray for the revival in the kampung by bringing more Christian teachers in.

Thank you Lord for everything, especially throughout the organizing period and the camp--from the fund needed, people, transport, all were settled beautifully in the end. We can't thank you enough =D


(on the road)

(me teaching)

(us performing during the opening ceremony)

(lanterns!)

(Group photo in front of JKKK)

(me and my group)

(cutie bumble bee)


(last morning breakfast with the kids)

(our host family)

February the First

And it turns to February before I know it and my January planner will be retiring from its service. January is a fruitful month. I had plans and some of them were fulfilled. Some were new and unexpected and I guess I handled them ok.

Joined our college badminton team with initial purposes to lose weight and have fun. Found it harsh and not as simple as I thought when I joined the training. Went tension especially when I couldn’t meet the standard and tried to accept it with an open heart and tried my best to keep up. Was disappointed each and every time when I lose. Overall I won one game with Lydia and the victory feeling was beyond explanation. In the end we didn’t make it into top three when we’ve a great chance. Mistakes were made and how nice if time could be rewind. For sure me is going to train and play more in the future and if there’s a chance I’m going to try out next year in a better shape.

Nuclear weapon-Transforming Human Spirit exhibition is held in Museum Seni Asia for two weeks and I’m helping yue min and her friends as an exhibition guide. At first I doubted my decision and I was concerned by SGM but I stayed after finding out the point of the exhibition is about the theme itself, not about SGM. Being an exhibition guide i just need to memorize or get familiar with the display panels and talk to people when they come. Visitors are few so it was delighting to see people coming and talk to them about the panels. So far I’m lucky of not being asked hard questions unlike Chris and other friends. Another four days will the exhibition go, hope more people will come and see for themselves what is peace and the threats of nuclear weapons especially for us Malaysians who live well here.

Attended Pastor Lee’s Critical Thinking course for the past three days and I really got something out of it. I thought it was plainly seminars until I saw the assignment paper in the course requirement. Ok I need to be serious about it. This course was definitely better than the one that I took in the faculty. Pastor Lee’s teaching is what I always imagine a university lecturer would be when I was in secondary school. And now have to think how to write the assignment paper.

So these three days went to pasar seni for the course and am a bit fed up with the place already, food, people. Now only I found Petaling Street an ‘ang moh’ street when it turns dark. It’s as if we locals are minorities when walking on the streets. I mean street, exclude those hawker and workers. Aiks…

Today is happily a holiday although there’s a great deal of assignments waiting for me. Am going to go into battle after I wake up later. Ciao. Night.

Jan 16

Jan 16 ~ 16th day in 2010
20 days from my last post
3rd week of lecture

Suddenly felt motivated to blog.

So,
Blog lo.

This semester is no less hectic. Assignments poured in since the very first week. Every lecturer has his/her own expectation on us (exclude those lazy ones), and expect something out of us.

(Most important thing is what you/I want out of yourself/myself.)

I think i'm getting better in managing time by fitting in little but time consuming errands into my day-dreaming time. Seeing KC endlessly doing her activity anytime, anywhere, has more or less taught me how to fit things better.

This is very not me. Although a (suppose to be successful) person need to be good in multitasking and time managing, but it seriously affect my rest hours.

Because day-dreaming is very important for me. A few friends said i have an old woman body which is mainly due to lack of sleep. I sleep approximately 5 hours a day, normal. So i don't understand what's wrong with me.

I suppose i don have enough day-dreaming time, or nap time, or i simply need to sleep more than anybody.

Therefore i'm not a superwoman type and i should cease myself from TRYING to become one.

Everyday, lying on the bed becomes a luxury.

Time? No.

And i need to be very bold once in a while to leave things behind and relax a bit outside the stuffy room, or push away all the stuffs and just sleep (this i haven't tried).

Which i think i'm doing pretty well in it, but i guess it's not enough.

Should think of a solution....

A few events i like to highlight here. At least these have made up my dull, boring routine.

15 episodes of Heroes during NEW YEAR weekend.

I miss the good old time when i could watch series like there's nothing else to do. I was really delighted.

Avatar on Dec 30 and Sherlock Holmes on Jan 1

Two most wanted-to-watch movies this month. Satisfied. Like the visual sense in Avatar, and the setting and background in Sherlock Holmes. Subarashii~

Visitation of Taman Megah Handicapped and Homeless Children home Jan 3

We visited it for proficiency project. This is a meaningful visit to me and Wang Shan, and i guess also with Jessie and Yuan. It's not exciting or new but rather it's saddening. Children who know nothing are being taken cared of by a number of selfless volunteers. Once i a while if i don't think about it i thought i was the most unfortunate person in the world. Now, who are?

PKV CM's Family Planning Retreat Jan 8 - Jan 10

We went to EL Sanctuary, Melaka. It's a super duper nice place. I escaped the routine in campus and had fun there. The food provided there is (un-describe-able). The spagetti on the first night was better than any spagetti i've eaten in KL (needless to say 1000X better than what i cooked). We successfully planned out whole-year programme, reminded ourselves with our duty in campus, and enjoyed ourselves very much.


(With li jye and the dogs cutie who accompanied us to the woods and looked out for peculiar animals for us human visitors)

Billie's birthday celebration Jan 15

Pizza Hut, my second time in KL. I went there for the first time last semester for Marilynn's bday, this time Billie's. Enjoyed the salad. Then had my (and Billie's) first Red Box. I finally know why IngChan said K-ing is addicting. So sorry la, last time kept rejecting your offer, IngChan. We had a great time, everyone sang her lung out. Then, went home reluctantly.

Edu Fac HaiNan Chicken Rice

Nowadays i have my lunch mostly at the faculty. Luckily there's this new stall, i heard it's from twelve college, that sells chinese taste. HaiNan Chicken Rice is my favourite (so far). Thanks to it, i don't need to eat the crappy oily with leftover-vege food every afternoon. Although now i'm starting to get fed up with it (ate 3 times last week, once this week), but it's still nice la. However i guess i'll not stand it for another couple of times gua.

Random good food

Guess i'm somehow like tomato said, looking to food for pleasure? Random food do enlighten me. The banana i bought at carefour makes me feel contended, the cheese cake tomato brought add some flavours to my sense of taste.

~.~.~.~

Too much of 'I' up there.

~.~.~.~

Pastor Tong said young people nowadays always thing of "My Ideal" but seldom thing of "The Ideal Me".

My Ideal = I want this/that and (who cares what happen).
Ideal Me = What do i have to do to achieve a better me.

This made me think.

And it all comes back to God after all that i've done. How am i going to honour Him in things i do? Some are so dedicated and faithful they do and try to throw away those unlawful in God's eyes. And i'm not doing good enough.

Not yet, i always tell myself.

Time is passing freakingly fast. The DAY will come, without anybody knowing it. When He knocks on my door, am I prepared to open it?

I always HOPE i am.

Do I?

December!

Time passes fast. It’s now the final month of the year (in a blink of an eye), before I know it, I’m at home again looking at my dear warmy room and sitting down quietly thinking of what I’ve done throughout the year. It’s as though I didn’t do anything before this until I looked at the pictures taken. Terengganu Melaka trip, CC trip, Perak trip, all kinds of outings, Port Dickson camp, Connexion friends, stupid photos of Teslians, Kuala Selangor camp, etc, (forget about the first semester..) all trigger the memories in my mind.

Now what fill my mind are the faces, laughters and screamings of Tanjong Karang children. When I go out, I’ll compare the children I had fun with at Tanjong Karang with the kids I see eating pizza hut or carrying a big expensive toy car. When I saw nice mountain bikes in KL I thought of the old lousy bikes the kids ride on at TK, they even teach you how to ride it properly, in afraid that you’ll fall since the bike’s not in a good shape. Others say it’s the effects of five days living among the children, so far everyone’s thinking about them, cute and naughty. Give me a week, and I’ll think about something else then.

I struggled to fight the urge to come back home after exam and went to Kuala Selangor children camp. Right after psychology exam (killer paper?), I went to a two-day-training for the camp (after looking at my coursemates fleeing to Mid Valley right after exam). Training means start all your unfinished or un-started work. For me it’s un-started work, so I made up the complete camp account and 5-day English teaching syllabus for 2 levels over the night. @.@ Luckily Xin Hui was around so I could use her laptop, my beloved laptop was long dead sadly.

On Sunday we reached there after one-half hours car ride from PJ, the place’s nicer than I thought. I think I prefer the TK than Pasir Penampang, the former’s a “kelapa sawit” village and the latter’s “fish” village. We cleaned two halls that we’re going to use, one hall’s old and raggy and we’re chasing away the spiders off their habitat by sweeping away the mass of spider webs. The other hall’s new and cleaner and we’re also chasing away another type of animal, mice (one of the kids’ t-shirt writes “mouses” =P). There’re 15 of us and 11 stayed in host families’ house. My host family has an old couple and their grandsons, they’re very nice and the kids are cute and they joined the camp too. Like ‘em very much.

(the newer mice-inhibited hall, the main centre of our children camp)

(the coffee shop we went three times, famous for mian fen gao...)

Over the five days started from Monday, we had the camp from nine to five. There’re English teaching, singing and games, craft, story telling and talent night practice. I was in charged with level 1 class which has kids from primary 1 to primary 3. The kids were noisy (X infinity). People said I was steady to survive in such noisy class. I thought they’re just my little brother (X 28). The boys behind never stopped talking, the girls in front never stopped kepo-ing.

“Teacher, look at XXX.”
“Teacher, why XXX”
“Teacher, this that XXX”
“Teacher, blablabla…”
“Yes”
“Ya”
“I know”
“It’s none of your business, do your own work…”

Then five days of teaching passes.

Two of the afternoon we had crafts and story telling. Wei Yin’s in charged of crafts session and haha it’s so cute looking at her shouting at the kids.

“Shut up and look at me!”
“Do after I tell you what to do!!!”

I’m very impressed with the creativity of the kids. Most of them are good drawer. They are so playful and talkative but many of them when it came to drawing and designing, they’re pro (I can’t draw better).

I gave my first karaoke to the village on Monday night when there was a karaoke session. We were told to start off the karaoke session since the villagers were too shy to sign up to sing. So li jye and me sang, it was hilarious I didn’t know what expression to give on stage. After that others ask “why you sing so “small voice’ de?”

“Got meh?” Gee….

The station games on Tuesday draws the kids crazy, but I think the group leader suffers more, (which was me and other 5 comrades), one kid is three of the adults, they ran like hell, and I was lagging behind, chasing my group, shouting at them especially the kid group leader to look after her group, apparently she never listen so I kept shouting and running for two and a half hours. Thank God my group was ok until the end, nobody was hurt and we got number 3! ^ ^

Went to watch Firefly on Thursday night, it was like a bunch of flicking light bulb hanging around the trees. Only that they were not light bulbs. It's pretty although some said it's not worth paying rm15 for it.

Talent show and the closing ceremony on Friday night was awesome. It paid off seeing all the kids working for number 1 on stage, singing and dancing to the songs. My group did “kuai le tian tang” and I was shocked at first when they almost learnt the entire song and dance movements on the first day. “What am I going to teach for the rest 4 days?”, I thought. So we brushed up the movements, the kids were very creative as they came out with all kinds of ideas as the dance movements, two kids became rock guitarist in the middle of the song playing air guitar, the kids requested to draw suns as props. I was glad to have such a nice group, (I see some other groups were not as cooperative), my group was quite obedient, I used less shouting compared to other group leaders =D They’re like angels performing on stage. The gladness at that time was beyond description. In the end we got number 3, we were overjoyed.


(we walked to the centre from our host family every morning, it's only 5 minutes walk. the crowd get bigger and bigger from day to day, with more and more kids joining us.)

The closing ceremony ended with a number of kids and some of the teachers crying, hoping the camp wouldn’t end. I really miss the kids and the village. There’re less cars, less noise, less pollution, more bikes and more smiles. You can ride bicycle like in the middle of the (small) road and no need to be scared of passing cars (basically the villagers don’t use cars unless they go out from the village). The once-in-a-week pasar petang was only one-tenth of SS2 pasar malam. There’re small prawns in almost every dishes. Barley drinks there’s only 60 cents. The most expensive noodle sold was rm3.50. When I went back to PJ, at once I detest the busy rustle place, hoping I was still in the peaceful village with cute kids and nice people. Sigh~


(One of the kids in my group, jian hao, who kept calling us after we left the village.)

(a few of my group members)

(level 1 kids artwork)

(level 2 kids artwork)

(village main gate)

(sekinchan paddy field, beautiful)

(Darius became out waiter. On the last day we went to sekinchan to look at the paddy field and had seafood breakfast. The seafood was really cheap man, eight dishes, with two dishes of vegetables and six dishes of fresh seafood only cost rm167.50, fed 11 hungry people.)

From the first day we went there with the villagers look suspiciously on us until the last day when we were asked "when's your next time coming back?", thank the Lord for His guidance and providence. ^ ^

Raining November

It's November. A month of exams and peparations to go HOME. Yes i'm looking forward to it. =)

Thanks to the study (raining) week that i was able to relax and did things following my own pace. The previous 14 weeks were too hectic for me i wonder why did i put myself in such situation. But i think i'll do it again in the next semester so i think i'll complain when the next semester ends.

Revision went well i managed to read 2 reader' digest that were abandoned for quite a while. I'm glad i'm getting used to the language now compared to when i read it a few years ago. Back then my english proficiency was crap and i never thought of doing english course. Thanks to form six that i realized my strenght is not in science and decided not to take science courses in the university.

Watched two movies, cloudy with a chance of meatball and inglorious basterds, like them both. While watching meatball i felt a little bit of 'geli' looking at the food falling down unendingly from the sky. Inglorious basterds however is a very nice movie. I love the conversations, you never know the sword hiding behind each conversation and each movement. However it's quite cruel la, no wonder it's 18PL.

Finally i got to attend Rev Dr Stephen Tong's bible expository seminar every monday right when study week started. I've made up my mind, no more monday pasar malam, monday badminton or monday activity, i'm going to the seminar no matter what, in the future. It's really an eye opening seminar, i can hardly imagine a man of the age 69 flying to at least 5 places a week to give seminars, teaching the word of God and hoping people repent and receive the good news. His hardwork and determination as the servant of God is very impressing, making me looking down on my own self, who's lukewarm and take things too easily. Seeing him reaching kuala lumpur in the evening by plane every monday and going to hong kong on tuesday, and many other places in the region, gives me no reason to skip the seminars.

Poetry nearly gave me a heart attack. I guess i didn't do very well. If only i have more time reading and analyzing the poem. but i guess that's of no use, sometimes when the ideas don't come, they don't come. Haiz. After that went to AliCafe for lunch and deliver my books back to Sibu, costed me RM9.5 for delivery via sea.

Then visited the exhibition of nuclear bombing in japan at museum seni asia. The exhibition is small but every photo makes you stop, look, and think. There is videos talking about the experiences and happenings during the time. It's really meaningful and serves well for remembrance. Highly recommended. If you are in kl and haven't visited it, do go for it. It ends on November 14.

Study break=)

Haha study break finally comes. It’s been hectic for the past few weeks, endless assignments and meetings. Study break now looks more like a holiday to me, finally I have time for myself, although there’s still one pending assignment, which I haven’t even started yet, due Monday, phew.

Oct 12
CC Tanglung. Finally the event was held after a big delay. This year we did it in college, with as usual, games, lantern, mooncake, and cake. Though the attendance was not very encouraging but I guess we did ok. Ok. Ya, just ok.

Oct 13
My laptop fainted for the second time, ate too much virus, exactly during the peak time of assignment and work. It’s terrible. Thanks to Kalson who spent time on it.

Oct 16
Connexion beach camp. Went to port Dickson Methodist centre and it’s easy and nice. Malaysians were only 10% from the participants and ya, it’s nice knowing people from everywhere. That was the first camp that I felt so relaxing, probably because we had so much free time. But it’s nice, not rushing, gave me some time to do some thinking. Worship, games, beach, and the most significant event of all, baptism of three girls Jessica Helen and david’s daughter (oops forgot her name). Really happy for them that they confirmed their faith. And I remember very well the smiling Korean guy, who really always smiles… Thanks to billie who ajak me there.

Worship - billie, solomon, wilson

During one of the breakffast

VOLLEY ball

Relay games

relay games teammates - Christian, the smiling korean guy and Hazim from sudan...

campfire, my favourite. seriously the fire was huge, i think i was half cooked. We were barbequing marshmellows... and put it in biscuit with chotolate and makan... they called it S'mores...

um-teslians-me billie marilynn park

Oct 22
Writing test. It’s been a long time since the last exam, and that was one exam which I felt comfortable after it ended. Maybe because I had all the main points memorized, although there were some I forgot, I think I did fine. Then we went out for movie, amy, june, park, jared (rare), mel and me. Watched surrogates. At first bruce willis was so clean (his face), I felt weird since he’s always dirty… fight la, whatever la that made him dirty. Only then I knew it’s his surrogate which looked flawless. Later he turned dirty too though, as usual. After the movie park, jared and me took taxi back. Before that we helped an old lady in a wheelchair and her maid to their taxi. Then later I found out my groceries from Jusco also went into their taxi together with their groceries. Careless me.

Lunch at kyung joo korean restaurant before the movie, the food was...so so...

Oct 23
Finished the last class, reading. Went jaya one with roommates to collect da vinci exhibition tickets. Yay finally got the ticket thanks to Daniel. Now must find a time to go watch the exhibition liao. By the way I think jaya one is quite complicated. I thought there’s only one block apparently it’s not.

Lunch at secret recipe after collecting the ticket...yea i ate 'em all XD

our first successful roommate day =)

Now watching Prison Break putting behind Otto’s assignment which I dunno where to start with. Prison break-Michael is so darn cool, so clever… too bad he has tumor…

ConneXion

ConneXion student conference in First Baptist. an event which amazingly i managed to put everything behind and focused in it.

There were four sessions, first on Friday night and three others on Saturday afternoon and evening and night.:P

The first session went with Marilyn, SeJung, SiRui and of course, Billie. There was ...pre-worship music?... then later praise and worship by Dan Carson and his team, it was awesome. He did it for three sessions, it created such a comfortable atmosphere that got me think of nothing but sing. I dozed off a lil bit during the sermon, my fault, was too tired. Jason, a student pastor preached about 'What does Jesus mean to you?' He did raised a question, which left us thinking...thinking...

The second session went with SeJung. Billie joined the pre-worship music. Then there's Dan Carson's p&w, then Jason's second sermon, on 'the authentic trasfomation'. It was short but concrete, then we moved on to the third session at two thirty, the breakout session. There were two slots where we could chose from 7 topics. Later there was Q&A session by Jason. He answered a number of questions which most of us were interested in. I wished we had more time on that. The sessions were good, i was reminded again of my role as a Christ believer, yes.

Then it was dinner. We went to Amcorp Mall with Candis. I ordered a nasi goreng kampung, and it was the first time i wasted food, i mean, really wasting. I ate like, two 'mouth' of it and i could't eat it anymore. It was probably the most spicy nasi goreng i've had in a year here in kl. I was feeling guilty and yet so helpless that my tongue was ruined.

After dinner we had the last session at seven thiry, damansara connexion did the pre-worship and it was nice. Then we had the second Q&A session with Rodney, the church pastor and three other 'elders/student leaders?'. Then the p&w worship with Dan Carson, the third and last time for the conference, man he can sing any songs~ Six times and a half of 'George Washinton Bridge' can be made a song. And he sang one song with a speed that (i dun really get what he sang~). Later it was Jason's preaching again. Two quotes that i would like to share with you, by Jason:

"Everyone wants to be a part of GREATNESS."
"Stand up for God, even if you have to stand ALONE."

The second quote means a lot to me, a great challenge, that needs a lot of sacrification. Then he did a calling for us students to respond to HIM, the one who is there from the beginning to the end.

Then we dismissed.

Then i started to feel a sense of missing.

Ok we should not depend too much on feeling since it won't last. And it's time to start wrapping the messes that i created in my life, for the past few weeks, and live for Christ. It'll be a start and never an end.

Discipline, Faith, and most of all, LOVE.

Thanks to Billie who ajak us to the conference and Kevin, Candis and not forgetting, Martin who drove us to and back from the Church. =D


The first night with SeJung, SiRui, Marilynn and the photographer, Billie.

Jason, the main speaker from the States, he brought along 20(if i'm not mistaken) young people with him, all of them nice and friendly.

Steven (from North Carolina and has a pair of very beautiful eyes, the first guy i talked to in church that at first i was so...Shy i guess...) and Alice (from erm, which part in Sabah already?, speaks Cantonese fluently and it's nothing like what KL people speaks, it's very Hong Kong-nized, and her English is like, very Chinese, i mean China, that makes me thought she came from China~, a very nice God-loving girl :P).

With Billie and Candis before leaving for (home).

Duty

A video that IngChan introduced to me, which i'd like to share with you. It's very touching.

Song = Still by Hillsongs

久违了

这一个多星期来发生了不少事。

有甘，有苦，有辛，有酸。

先说MKC，前后都让七宿华人们流了不少汗水及泪水。

MKC逼近，大家拼了命似的练习，筹备。戏剧，舞蹈，醒狮，华乐，乐团，扯铃，相声，以及二十四节令鼓，只要一有时间（就算没有时间），大家也会聚集在一起排练。各个小组连夜的赶工，间中虽有些许的不愉快，但想必都已化解。作业，考试，被搁在一旁，作息时间减少，可说是精神嘉许，也可说是轻重不分，就看各人心境而定。

MKC前有马来及印度同胞的MKM及MKI。各个都显出了文化的精华。MKI一完毕，大家即开工清台，布置。 分工合作的情景，让人觉得温馨。这(对于我来说)可是前所未见。

当天，大家做最后的准备，练习。晚上，节目依计划进行，虽天公不作美，我们被迫换场地，但节目仍旧得以继续，可喜可贺。这都归功于筹委们设想周到，准备了个B计划。节目一完结，大家喜悦万分，那感觉甚是难以形容。当中有人不支晕倒，意外受伤，愿神祝福，医治。

从这活动中，看到了许多有心人的付出，努力，管他是一年生，或是学长学姐，那不窃不舍的精神实是让人敬佩。 从此也看到了大家合作的精神，满足了这MKC的其中一个宗旨。

这是我的第一次，帮忙筹备，上台充数，参与鼓队，自认没有百分百的付出，但让我获益良多。这次的活动，让我铭记在心。

MKC过后，我的生活作息明显被打乱。作业，考试都被搁置，没啥准备，还真是不知所措。都怪自己没安排好时间，后果只好自己承当，希望不会影响到别人。

这个周末，我必要将时间找回来，补偿失去的东西。（看到同学朋友们个个都打包回家，真是羡慕。。。）

希望大家都有充分的休息，回来时继续加油！^ ^