Terence's @rchive

I think I was the last to wake up at around 7AM. Went straight to take bath and have breakfast.

Jimmy and John loaded all the goodies bags into the back of Jimmy’s Fortuner. (Or was it by Jimmy’s maids??? Can’t remember)

We set off around 8AM, it will take us 1 and half hour to reach Pukak, just nice for our appointment with the kids at 9:30AM. Our journey was a smooth one except for some buffalo shit land mines. Jimmy sped through 1 huge pile of buffalo shit and it splash up onto the windscreen.

We were right on track to Pukak until we reach a sign indicating go straight ahead to Pukak, but the straight took us off the path to Pukak. We went up hills and passed several narrow landslide damaged roads until we could see the sea from the hill top. The road is actually going downhill already, then we realize we were way off from the way to Pukak. Sheila made a call and found out that we are suppose to turn and go over the bridge after the sign indicating Pukak go straight. Misleading!

Since already here, we stopped and got down the car to enjoy the scenery and take some pictures. Melissa went to pinjam toilet at the nearby village house.

We arrived at Kg. Pukak, Good Shepherd Rural Training Centre around 10AM. We weren’t very late, not many kids are at the centre yet.

The land was gifted by En. Madais Marsilang and the community of Kg. Pukak to the Good Shepherd Sisters to set up the training centre. The centre was completed on 1 December 2007.

The sound of the river flowing, the cool breeze blowing and the buffalos grazing on the green grass…. The scene makes me feel relaxed and happy.

There are rooms to let at the centre. It would be quite cool to stay here for the night. Listening to the flowing river while falling asleep would be very nice. We were supposed to stay here for the night but didn’t in the end.

These kids went straight to the books shelves to get a book to read. So hardworking!

They have to register themselves when they arrive at the centre.

We joined in the reading session while waiting for the other kids to arrive.

When most of the kids arrive, we did their morning exercise routine. They played some songs and we followed the instructions according to the song, like run and jump around in circles.

We are Kakak Mel, Kakak Sheila, Kakak Kelley, Abang John, Abang Jimmy and Abang Terence to the kids. We all wear a sitcker with our name on it and so do the kids.

Mel led the kids to play the Superhero game. There are Cicakman, Superman, Spiderman, Batman and what’s the last one already…. Should be kungfu man i think….. My memory is failing…..

We sang several songs and the kids seems to know the songs as well. Its my 1st time hearing most of the songs though….

We then split the kids to 4 groups with Me, Kelley, Jimmy and Sheila as their leader. Each group sat down together and introduced themselves by saying out their name, age and what is their hobby to the group leader.  Each group have to discuss and come up with a group name. The names are “My Team” (Terence), Cheetah (Jimmy), Smart Kids (Sheila) and Mega Stars (Kelley). Then we taught the kids how to fold paper boats. It’s been a long time since I fold a paper boat. I taught them how to make boats with roof on it. Some kids manage to fold it themselves and I had to help the younger kids to fold for them.

We brought the kids out to the river side to let them release their boats into the river. They all lined up patiently waiting for their turn to release their boats.

We then head back to the centre and played the poison parcel game. Whoever that got the poison parcel when the music stops will need to perform a punishment. The punishments were Run like an ape, sing song, make animal noise and etc…. At the last layer of the parcel is a box of chocolate which the lucky winner shared with everyone. So caring and loving. We also played the big wind blow game before we had lunch.

The centre prepared lunch for the kids and us. Lunch consist of Chicken cooked with soy sauce, vegetable and rice. The food is simple but tasted good. I had 2 rounds because I had early breakfast and the cold rainy weather made me even hungrier. The kids washed their own plates and cups after they finished their food. I don’t even do that at home :p

After lunch, there was a brief chaos in the centre after I taught the boys how to make paper aeroplane. The planes were flying everywhere and got stuck on the ceiling fans. While the boys are playing, the girls read books from the book shelves.

We had to buy some time to prepare the quiz for the kids so Melissa lead the kids to sing more songs. We ask kids to group together and they immediately stop what they are doing and gathered in front of us. Really love their obedient and cooperative character.

The quiz game has questions ranging from maths, general knowledge, language and grammar. Each team will send a representative to answer a question. If a team representative answers wrongly or pass the 5 seconds limit answering time, other team will be able to compete to answer the question by raising their hands the fastest.  The Cheetah won the quiz competition. Although there were questionable judges (mel, kelley, sheila) and some dodgy judging going on, but I think The Cheetah still deserve to win the competition.

There are many funny moments to remember during the quiz that I want to remember:

1. 1st question, “My Team” suppose to answer, I forgot who is the one answering the question but he/she is around 7-8 years old. So, Mel gave a question “suitable” for his/her age. The question was 4+5=???. The kids were laughing that it was too easy. Then 2nd question was a standard 3 question, 2 X 2 = ???…… WHAT??? MEL, TOO EASY LAR!!

2. Then when Kelley was judge….. A Math Question, 22+8×5=??? (Not the exact question but similar format). When she asked the question, she counted 5,4,3,2,1 in less than 5 seconds. The poor kid from “My Team” got pressured by the counting and cannot come up with the answer in time. The Smart Kids got to answer the question instead and no counting of time…. Then when the poor kid from “My Team” finally came up with the answer by shouting it out, Kelley responded: “Aiyar, sudah habis laarrrr…”. The poor kid was like “huh???”. (Anyone remember who was the kid?)

3. There were some favouritism towards the Smart Kids by the judges (Mel, Sheila and Kelley) as well. Each question that a team failed to answer, the opportunity was given to Smart Kids. Mega Stars was like “Saya! Saya! Me! Me!” but was overlooked. They immediately look at the Smart Kids area only. The other teams should lodge a complaint with MACC.

4. Kelley and Jimmy were suppose to ask a question to translate a word from Bahasa to English. They wanted to choose the word “ladder” from the book but both cannot come up with the Bahasa word for it so they choose another word to ask. Jimmy then came and ask me later what is Ladder in Bahasa. It is “Tangga” lar…. haha, I’m sure the kids would know how to answer that.

5. I contributed 1 question on the general knowledge category. The question was how many legs does an insect has? When Kelley read out the question, she read: “How many insects does a leg has?” LOL….!!!

6. Sheila then came up with some insane Math questions that even I find it hard to answer it in 30 seconds not to say in 5. The question was like 23 + 8 X 7 ÷ 3=???. All the kids were stunned and couldn’t answer except Lily from The Cheetah. She’s a Math Genius even Kelley’s quick 5 seconds countdown cannot beat her. She answered all the questions that Sheila came up instantly while I was still thinking the answer for the 1st 1. She took her team above Smart Kids and won the competition.

We then gave out the goodies bag to the kids. They were very happy to recieved it and they went through the contents immediately.

Our last activity was to fold balloons dogs and swords for them. Mel did most of the folding but Jimmy, Kelley, Sheila and I helped  with a few as well.

The low quality balloons kept bursting. Each burst balloon triggered screams from all the kids. It goes like “POP!!!”, “AARR!!!”, “POP!!!!!”, “AAAAARRR”, “POP!!!!”, “AAAARRR!!!”.

I was really impressed with John, the kid on the bottom right with white t-shirt and green shorts. He looks mischievous but actually he is quite obedient and loving. He gave his friend his balloon sword when his friends balloon burst.

When we wanted to take group photo of the kids with their balloons, we noticed the kids from The Cheetah don’t have their balloons in hand. The poor kids from The Cheetah had to keep their balloons inside the goodies bag while others was playing with their balloons because of instructions by Abang Jimmy. (Jimmy I pity your kids next time).

Its around 3PM the and its time to say goodbye. The centre’s guardians told the kids to say goodbye to each of us. So they shouted, “Goodbye Kakak Mel, Goodbye Kakak Kelley, Goodbye Kakak Sheila, Goodbye Abang Jimmy, Goodbye Abang Terence and Goodbye Abang John”. Mel then folded some sophisticated flower balloons to be given to the lady guardians at the centre.

Another funny moment to remember. While Mel was trying very hard to fold the balloon (which kept popping) into flower shape, Dodie went to her and asked for one as well to be given to Kakak Kelley. Then Sheila went like: “WHAT???!!!” and Mel: “APA???!!!”. Dodie repeated: “Saya nak bagi Kakak Kelley”. Sheila then say: “Tak perlu lar. Kakak Kelley tak suka bunga”. Dodie was like “har….” with the dissapointed face. Kelley was sitting further away looking tired and blur not knowing what was going on. Mel on the other hand was working so hard folding and trying not to burst the balloons and no kids want to give her flower so Dodie got himself into a quite sticky situation there. ROTF LOL!!!

The guardians at the centre saw us off when we were leaving. I left the place with a tired body but happy mind knowing that the the kids are in good hands of the Good Shephard Sisters and they are a bunch of smart and obedient kids. I hope they will have a good future ahead of them and hopefully I will be able to come back to visit them again.

This post is too long… The night activities will write in the next post…

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For readers that are not LTPians, AGE, stands for Annual Gathering Event for LTPians. It started from AGE1, a simple gathering somewhere (I dunno where because I wasn’t a LTPian then) several years ago. AGE2, camping trip at Ulu Yam(I just became a LTPian but didn’t attend). AGE3, La Flamme AGE ball dinner at Sheraton Imperial KL(I joined but didn’t attend because of work). AGE4, trip to Port Dickson and I attended all AGE ever since. AGE5, trip to Cameron Highlands and we did a commnity project there at the same time (I will blog about AGE5 later when I have time or I run of topics to write).

AGE6 this time is suppose to be across the seas. Initially planned to be oversea, out of Malaysia but end up being in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu(KK). Well at least its still over the sea. Our community project this time is to visit and play with the rural kids in Kampung Pukak, around an hour and half from KK.

Sheila, Melissa, Kelley, John and I gathered @ LCCT to catch our flight to KK. Upon arrival, Jimmy picked us up with his spacious Toyota Fortuner and drove us straight to his house. We were very impressed by Jimmy’s 3 storey bungalow house as he brought us for a tour around his house. His room has an attached toilet with jacuzzi bigger than a standard hotel tub. His parents room still under reno but their toilet has covered shower area with lots of water sprinkler outlets. One just need to stand inside to get sprayed everywhere without even turning. (I wonder is there sprinkler on the floor to spray upwards….. to clean hard to reach areas…).

Then the 6 of us drove out to the Giant nearby to buy plastic bags for use as the kid’s goodies bag.

Back at Jimmy’s house, I started the fire for barbeque and we ate and chatted until 10PM. Then suddently realize we haven’t pack the goodies bags yet, so we quickly clean up and went up 3rd floor and started packing.

(Pics that starts with a J are taken by John)

After we packed the goodies bag, we all sat at the balcony to plan and practice the activities that we are going to do in Pukak the next day.

Each bag contains talcum powder, soap, shampoo, towel, color pencils, coloring book, chocolate milk (which taste REALLY good), toothpaste and toothbrush.

It was quite stressful squeezing and twisting the balloons into shape but we pulled through our fear barrier. See below…

All set and ready for tomorrow’s fun day with the kids in Kampung Pukak. We slept around 1AM+.

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