During my mid semester break, I went for a community service in Langkawi. Langkawi, wow, sounds fun. Well, it was fun, but not the tourist-kind of fun though. This community service only ran by students from my faculty, which is Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, in short, FSKB (Fakulti Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu). we went to this Kampung Nyior Chabang, at Mukim Bohor, Langkawi. We departed on 3/9/06, 10pm, from my hostel (we call our hostel as college) - Kolej Tun Syed Nasir, in short, KTSN, which situated in KL.
4/9/06 Monday
We reached Kuala Kedah around 6am if not mistaken, and then we took the ferry after we loaded every luggages and stuff onto it, to cross the sea to reach Pulau Langkawi. Although I was not sure whether I have motion sickness or not, I swallowed 2 motion sickness pills 30 min before I took the ferry. I think it's the medicine that made me so sleepy that throughout the trip crossing the coast, I was asleep and unwilling to get up when we had reached.
After about an hour, we reached Pulau Langkawi and unloaded our stuff from the ferry. A terrifying incident happened to me... I lost my luggage!! With my brain still in the sleepy mode, I had to accept the fact that although I helped up with the loading and unloading thingy, emm, selflessly, I’m the only one lost my luggage out of 120 people, great... then after searching over and over again at the jetty, we received news from other committee members saying that, well, somebody has helped me to bring my luggage to the bus already, ha, wow, phew! But till now I still don’t know who that person was though.
The bus took us to our village, where we gathered at the mosque first. Before reaching there, we stopped by a shop producing and selling minyak gamat. What’s that in English? I don’t know. It’s a kind of herb though.
Here’s the wok boiling the minyak gamat behind the shop. We could see the steam evaporating from the liquid surface, but we can dip our fingers in it, it doesn’t boil our fingers. Amazing? Not all liquid boil at temperature of 100˚C ok.
We started our opening ceremony at the mosque compound shortly after we reached there. Each of some 60 families had been assigned 2 students from UKM as their foster children. My friend, Maher, and I, were assigned to a six-siblings family led by Ahmad Long. But our father didn’t turn up for the ceremony; he’s at the paddy fields. So we met with our mother first. I was very glad that my foster sister brought a car there so we could have a comfortable ride home. After all the bus and ferry trips, it’s understandable why I was so sick with my once-lost luggage. Besides, our home was quite a distant from the mosque.
Before departing back home, we could experience the intimacy among the villagers. They greeted everyone they met like old friends
Reached home, finally… our brothers were with their friend in the living room. We didn’t go and say hello. I think it’s the Malay’s culture that boys and gals who were strangers don’t really talk or even bother about each other if not necessary. My brothers didn’t even look at us when we entered the house. Later we sat at living room to chat with mum, and Maher, who always has good manner, didn’t look uncomfortable didn’t greet my brothers. However, to me, well...they are a part of the family too, really feel awkward didn’t greet them, seeing I was entering their house, and they are my elder siblings. I was “trained” so.
Bathed, tidy up our stuff in our room. Oh, haven’t told u guys how surprised we were when Maher and I entered our room! Every inch of the floor’s covered with carpet, and our bed looked so elegant that you’d carefully and gently put your butt on it to avoid messing the comforter. Yea, it’s the comforter with beautiful Malay culture’s design that makes the different. Overall, the room is cozy and I felt so lucky. Things here were better than I expected.
Coming days, busy with activities. My activities were not really that much, but not for Maher, she had damn lot of activities, almost every slot she’s in. So, I just put my nose in every activities of hers when I was free. They needed extra people to help up too, why not? Hee hee! This also saved the hassle for my sister to fetch us to the mosque compound for our activities. We went together and came home together in spite of different schedule. If not because of my busybody nature, I wouldn’t really enjoy my OPKIM this much. Through these activities, one would get to know the villagers better, meeting all level of people there, from baby, toddlers, primary school kids, secondary school teenagers who start to have dreams about their future carrier and field to strive in, then the adults, and grandmas and grandpas.
We had cutest babies contest, teh tarik competition, game slot specially for primary school kids, net ball competition for women, which my sister’s good at ( UKM students against villagers ), tug-of-war and football for men ( also UKM students against the villagers ), which...UKM students lost in all 3 sports competition if I’m not mistaken, what happened?? ha~ then colouring contest for kindergarten kids, pertandingan gubahan, what we call that in English? Something to do with creativity and altering something into something, ha~ the theme is on Malays wedding. My elder sister and I were in a team, Maher and our younger sister were in another team. My team won the 4th place! But I did nothing much to our “ product”, it’s my sister’s idea to pin sweets all over the pineapple. It’s simple and easy, but the end product really made u “wow”, as well as others’ creativities. Here’s the pineapple:
The other creative products:
Maher (on the right) and Siti’s work.
I really like this one, very sweet, but forgotten which prize they won.
Pumpkin. Actually inside there’s not the real pumpkin if not mistaken, that’s why we call it gubahan .
Hand bag, using cloth to fold it.
Fruits, obviously.
This one also very nice, maybe because of the soft material thingy.
Other than the activities mentioned above which were held were talks, exhibitions, and clinical. For me, as a Biomedical Science student, we provided free blood test (only blood grouping, glucose, cholesterol and red blood cells levels), and blood pressure check-ups. For other courses, like Nutrition and Dietetic department, they checked their body weight, BMI, body fat levels, and give consultations on healthy eating habit. Pharmacy students also provided consultations on supplement and healthier life style; Optometry students checked their eye sight and other eyes-related diseases. Physiotherapist and Occupational Therapist also had their special way to serve the community there, which I admit, more interesting, because you got to play the “toys” and actually they were looking at how smooth were your actions, whether you have any problems with your joints that you never realize, and your hand and eye coordination and so on. They even taught the villagers ways or steps to handle heavy boxes to avoid back ache.Here are some of the pictures taken during OPKIM:
That’s me, with Amirul. He’s only a kindergarten kid but his cute face was in every gal’s hand phones, since the first day we were there! I think he’s aware that he’s cute too, ha, he’s good at posting for pictures – the peace sign was his, not mine, see? So cute...
A field near our place where we had our volley ball match.
Here we have a pair of twin babies, Daniel and Danish. Forgotten who’s who though. For them, I think their faces were in every gals’ handphone too, but I’m even sure they were in everyone’s arms too, ha~ they are everyone’s heart throb, we’d do anything to make them smile or laugh! But they cried a lot too, especially Daniel I think, they will suddenly show the symptom of “unstable emotions”. , which meant : u better hand me back to my mum!! We liked to kiss them on the cheeks because babies always smell good, because they drink milk I guess. Better start drinking milk now, hee 
Here’s one of the twin, with their mother, trying to grab my phone.
This is Yazid, the one doing the blood pressure test on my younger brother, Annuar. Kids are too young to measure their blood pressure though. But never mind, Annuar’s pretty healthy, he’s very active, in spite of the fact that he’s a “special” kid. He’s special, in the sense that, he has only a foot, running around with the aid of an extra wooden foot. His fingers were joined together when he’s born. He went through surgery to split them. Now his fingers don’t really grow nicely, but can grab the rubber seeds faster and firmer than I was when playing congkat. Believe me, he’s good in it, not just gals play it, ok? He’s so familiar with the game that by looking at the lump of seeds, he knows exactly how much there were and which hole to start with. He even taught me tactics to beat him! Ha~ how on earth can we not love kids like him? He thinks fast, moves fast too, likes to run around, ride his bike around village often, polite and obedient. My family is indeed blessed with obedient children. My mum says she doesn’t have loads problems raising the 6 of them up.
We celebrated Maher’s birthday together! My sisters were so sweet that they went out secretly to buy a birthday cake for her. It was only the second day Maher and I were there and we only stay there for a few days, but they put the effort to celebrate her special day. Even I myself am touched. Starting from the left, my eldest sister, kak Amy (now working), kak chik, means youngest elder sister I think, then Annuar was half hiding at kak chik’s back, he’s shy in front of camera, not like Amirul, then Maher, next to her was siti, our youngest sister, sitting her SPM this November, and lastly, our mum! I wasn’t in the picture because I was the one taking this picture, with my hand phone; this explains why the pictures posted here are not very clear and have lower quality. Just bear with me la.
This is our kitchen. Notice there’s a little square thing on the floor near the stove? It’s a stool they sit on when cooking. Bet you cannot imagine a house with this kitchen will have this beautiful room:
I took this picture on the day we depart back UKM, after packing all our stuff. That’s why it’s neat, or else...ha ha~
One of our meals with my family. They insist on eating together if possible. There was once, our activity ended quite late, and there’s only 1 bathroom. We didn’t know they actually waited for everyone to finish their bath so that we could have dinner together! That was way past their usual dinner time already… although these dishes were not prepared by my biological mum, but they tasted like home food though, which I never know someone other than my mother would know the secret recipe, hee hee! That’s family..
My family members:
My mum and I.
Maher and Annuar.
From left, eldest sister Kak Aini, then second eldest sister Kak Cik, Annuar, birthday girl Maher, youngest sister Siti, and finally mum.
Adorable Kak Cik and Siti.
From left, behind row: Brother, Siti, mum, Kak Cik. Front from left: Annuar and I.
Dad, watching TV.
Look at this herd of geese. When you look at they walk, you’d feel like they have very fat and heavy body but very short legs! Dunno why I find it quite amusing, and every time I looked at them, I always ask God from where He gets the idea to create such cute animal with this special walking method, ha~ I was actually chasing behind these geese to take this picture, they can run with their short legs! And you’d stare at their butt, swaying site by site. These geese also quite noisy some times. This happen when human are gathering around too.
This kid is a standard six student, just finished his UPSR, we call him ah long, because he’s the elder brother in his family, and people here also call him this way. He likes to sing and he really sings well! He’s a bright kid, quite mature compare to kids at his age, especially kids in KL, who put great attention on latest model of hand phones or some other materialistic stuff. He has good manner as well, respectful, and innocent J they’d laugh at the comics in leaflets and would show it to you and explain to you why it is funny, “ look at the dog! It’s also pressing its nose beside the smokers. Look at its eyes! Bulging out like it’s going to fall out...” this leaflet was from the clinical site, on smoking, to increase awareness on the bad effect of smoking.
This is Maher, we were at dataran lang, one of the tourism hot spot in langkawi island. We only have time to visit it at night, our schedule were packed with activities, remember? Even our brother now also voice out his complaint about our hectic schedule, saying no time for us to go around langkawi or do some shopping, ha, as if he’s the one busy with the activities, but very sweet. It’s normal that when people from other places come to your place and you will have the strong feeling to show them around this fabulous place you call it your home, the place you grow up, and the island where tourists never stop visiting, in spite the motion sickness one might have. Dataran lang is an ideal place to go when you were tensed, you can have the breeze gently blow on your face and brush through your hair. There is a gigantic eagle, but they didn’t on the lights there that night when we visited, so unable to take picture if it.
Here’s the colouring competition, held in the kinderganten there. The kids were concentrating on their pictures.
That’s me among the kids, with Syukri standing at the back of right hand site in stripes shirt. Erm..dunno that black shirt guy on the left though, he was posting for his camera I guess. Those kids like to take pictures, dunno why, they were very excited when we said we want to take group pictures, they’d ran up to the front of the camera to make sure they were in the picture and had all those peace signs and funny posture, ha! This picture was taken after Maher, who’s holding the camera, warned them to calm down and don’t go any nearer the camera or she wouldn’t take the picture
Look at the kids! Especially the one on the left, with head scarf, she looks so innocent! Kids are kids, and notice Amirul in red shirt among the boys in behind? But some of these kids also quite tough to handle too, ha~ but the teachers are good at handling them. when the class’s too noisy and the kids weren’t seem like paying any attention on what the headmaster was talking in front, the teacher would say “ everyone, raise you right hands! Raise them high in the air.”. And amazingly every kid follows her instruction instantly. Then “show me the number ‘one’ now, how does number one look like? “so the kids followed, and we were still stunned by the way the teacher can put the situation under her control so easily. “alright, now put that finger on your lips, on your lips, dear.” Hee, so guess what? It’s the action you do when you mean “ shh..” brilliant, brilliant..
Here’s one of the mak cik near our house, she makes and sells Malay delicacies. She did all this by herself! But I’ve forgotten the name of this kuih, ha, so sorry.
We also had gotong royong with the villagers. We never know we’d “discover” a drain when we clean up the compound of this surau. It was stuck and covered with mud and rubbish, and a few trees actually grow up there, breaking the semen drain!
Here’s Maher, and Khai, our friend. We were at the paddy field. I swear we didn’t mean to steal some time to go there and took some pictures of this breath-taking scenery… Maher and I were planning to go home, and Khai and her friend turned up to fetch us home on their motor bike (no, their family’s bike ) but the problem was...ha~ do I want to admit it here?? Ok, we were bad with directions, in fact, we have no sense of direction at all, seeing the fact that we’ve been there for quite some days and everyday to and fro the mosque compound from our home, using the same route…and now we say we cannot recognize the route...it’s so embarrassing! But never mind, we just laughed it off, hee!Some other pictures from the paddy field:
Buffalos bathing in...river?? Ok, river. It took me some gut to take a picture this close. I dislike zooming with my phone camera, because the picture will be blurred.
Look at the paddy field and the sky above..
That’s why God didn’t create human arms long enough to actually let us hug the mother nature, or everybody will be hugging this sight, and how are we going to do this without slapping others on their faces with such long arms?Here are some pictures of the village, the views:
The road which’s taken…
Chicken prints.
Yup, these are some pictures taken during my OPKIM 2006 in Langkawi Island. On 9/9/06, we took the ferry cross the coast to the main land. Some pictures taken on ferry:
This is the view taken when I was facing the breeze. Took bad pictures can’t tell the feeling of mine when I was on the ferry, on the deck some moreThen we reached the jetty at main land. Loading and unloading stuff, and finally, headed KL with bus!! This is all about my community service in Langkawi during the second year of my uni life. After reading this must leave comment ya!
