Saturday, August 27, 2005
Foreign food?
Last weekend was an absolutely brilliant time for me. It was the 2nd week of the English Premier League - and I missed ALL THE GAMES AGAIN!!!!! But...
We had a camp for some teens from the interiors of the state of Pahang, the biggest state in West Malaysia.
Altho these teens were Malaysians, they were almost foreign to us!
Who are they? Let’s just say that these teens are under-privileged kids – most, if not all live in wooden and bamboo houses with no electricity and no running water. They speak a different language from us and their lifestyle could not be as different as chalk is from cheese when compared with ours!
But having said that, we have learnt that they are not that different from us after all! They are normal teens – just like how some of us used to be (or still are) although for sum of us, it has been a long, long time ago…
Anyways, here are the reasons why it was brilliant for me:-
1. I had a great time getting to know the teens and hanging out wif them! They were a really nice bunch of people to be wif!
2. We had a crazy time playing games on the first day – ended up wif most of us either drenched wet or covered in flour – or in some cases like me, drenched wet AND covered wif flour!!!!
3. I had the privilege to work wif some of the most dedicated, gifted and crazy bunch of youth workers!!! A good example would be when at the end of the camp, all of us sat together, chilling out, totally exhausted, just wanting to go home and bathe – then we were told that we had to clean up the church building and mop the floors of the basement and all the rooms upstairs!!!! All of us got up and went about doing it – all cheerfully and laughing away!
4. I had the chance to catch up wif quite a number of me mates over tea time wif excellent “vadai” and “goreng pisang”, and supper of hokkien fried noodles!
5. Had a good time jamming – during the sessions and even the unofficial jam sessions! Been a while since I played the bass!
6. Experiencing God helping us out! For example, the trip to the Zoo was only confirmed at the VERY LAST SECOND!!!! When we had to decide immediately whether or not to go and we received news there and then that we could get the student discount!
7. Seeing the lives of the teens touched by God. There were 14 responses at the end of the camp!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!!
8. The outings were loads of fun! We went to the Selangor Pewter factory (which despite initial doubts, turned out to be quite informative and interesting for all!) and to the National Zoo!
9. I played futsal again that weekend!!! Since I was without shoes, I played goalie and managed to keep a clean sheet!!! *beams wif pride* But must admit it had to do more wif the excellent covering by m team players! Oh, I broke a toe nail when I made a *ahem* brilliant save!
10. We had great food!! :-P The BBQ on the last nite was excellent!!! We kept on saying how sad it was that the Jews and the Muslims dun eat pork (no disrespect meant)! The food for the other meals were equally brilliant!
To me, it was truly a touching moment for most of us when we had to say goodbye in tears. It was especially hard for me as I prolly won’t get to see them again anytime soon as I’ll be going away to the UK.
Anyways, to you guys who worked wif me during the camp, thanks so much again for the wonderful time! Been really good serving wif you all, one hand, one heart!
Too lazy to post up pics onto me blogs. But I’ve posted them onto me album online so if you wanna view them, click here.
We had a camp for some teens from the interiors of the state of Pahang, the biggest state in West Malaysia.
Altho these teens were Malaysians, they were almost foreign to us!
Who are they? Let’s just say that these teens are under-privileged kids – most, if not all live in wooden and bamboo houses with no electricity and no running water. They speak a different language from us and their lifestyle could not be as different as chalk is from cheese when compared with ours!
But having said that, we have learnt that they are not that different from us after all! They are normal teens – just like how some of us used to be (or still are) although for sum of us, it has been a long, long time ago…
Anyways, here are the reasons why it was brilliant for me:-
1. I had a great time getting to know the teens and hanging out wif them! They were a really nice bunch of people to be wif!
2. We had a crazy time playing games on the first day – ended up wif most of us either drenched wet or covered in flour – or in some cases like me, drenched wet AND covered wif flour!!!!
3. I had the privilege to work wif some of the most dedicated, gifted and crazy bunch of youth workers!!! A good example would be when at the end of the camp, all of us sat together, chilling out, totally exhausted, just wanting to go home and bathe – then we were told that we had to clean up the church building and mop the floors of the basement and all the rooms upstairs!!!! All of us got up and went about doing it – all cheerfully and laughing away!
4. I had the chance to catch up wif quite a number of me mates over tea time wif excellent “vadai” and “goreng pisang”, and supper of hokkien fried noodles!
5. Had a good time jamming – during the sessions and even the unofficial jam sessions! Been a while since I played the bass!
6. Experiencing God helping us out! For example, the trip to the Zoo was only confirmed at the VERY LAST SECOND!!!! When we had to decide immediately whether or not to go and we received news there and then that we could get the student discount!
7. Seeing the lives of the teens touched by God. There were 14 responses at the end of the camp!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!!
8. The outings were loads of fun! We went to the Selangor Pewter factory (which despite initial doubts, turned out to be quite informative and interesting for all!) and to the National Zoo!
9. I played futsal again that weekend!!! Since I was without shoes, I played goalie and managed to keep a clean sheet!!! *beams wif pride* But must admit it had to do more wif the excellent covering by m team players! Oh, I broke a toe nail when I made a *ahem* brilliant save!
10. We had great food!! :-P The BBQ on the last nite was excellent!!! We kept on saying how sad it was that the Jews and the Muslims dun eat pork (no disrespect meant)! The food for the other meals were equally brilliant!
To me, it was truly a touching moment for most of us when we had to say goodbye in tears. It was especially hard for me as I prolly won’t get to see them again anytime soon as I’ll be going away to the UK.
Anyways, to you guys who worked wif me during the camp, thanks so much again for the wonderful time! Been really good serving wif you all, one hand, one heart!
Too lazy to post up pics onto me blogs. But I’ve posted them onto me album online so if you wanna view them, click here.
// posted by imissw @ 1:16:00 am 
