GuLaU pRoJeCt : A oNcE-iN-LiFe ExPeRiEnCE

i'm just back from kedah yesterday... the journey was extremely long and exhausting (yeah, it's still exhausting even though i was just sitting in the bus)... we departed at 7.30 am from gulau and arrived home at 10.00 pm... can u imagine how tired i was? for those who don't have any idea what gulau project is, let me explain... it is basically a community service programme sponsored by SIME DARBY and jointly organised by KMB and KMS... our task was to hold an english camp for standard five students of SK Gulau who will be sitting for UPSR next year... Gulau was actually a very rural area, and there's no maxis coverage at all... so goodbye outside world for 5 days...

posing with the souvenir from our sponsor, SIME DARBY

btw, this is actually a journal that i've written throughout the program... enjoy reading it..

Thursday, 11 Dec 2008

we had a final meeting in KMS... supposedly, each of us had to present our respective actvities for the kids... but looking again at us who still had lot to do, the whole day was filled with preparations... my group which was supposed to carry out treasure hunt, has done most of the things earlier, and only a few works left... so i kept going to the other groups, looking at what they're doing, what did they have for props etc, being a "busy-body" for a while... at evening, the KMS students brought us to seremban CP, which was just walking distance from their college... i'm still envious with them though... just bcoz they can go out anytime they wanted... but thinking again about the isolated remote location of KMB, if we're given that sort of privilege, where are we going? labohan dagang? olak lempit? surely nobody would EVER want to go there...

after a money-wasting shopping at CP, Ms Loh called me,

"Lutfi. could you please tell the other boys that we're not going to meet tonight. that means, no presentation. i know you are all tired. but you still need to go to the conference room at 8 to pack and clean up everything"

yaahhooo!!! thnx Ms Loh for being so understanding. so what else should I do? sleep early lah!

Friday, 12 Dec 2008

we leave KMS at 8.00 am sharp... well, this was my first tyme in life to be so punctual... we're not late even a minute... the bus was seriously full with our stuffs, especially the polystyrene thingy from ann's group... i was mesmerised with the striking attractive view at perak... the mountains, the caves, the limestone hills... arrrgh!! i wanna go out from the bus!!

it's time for lunch... Mr. Azlan gave us two choices... whether to stop at tapah, which we would arrive at another 5 minutes or Sg. Perak, which meant we had to wait for another an hour... looking at the time, it's still early though to have a lunch... so let's stop at sg. perak! it's raining quite heavily in perak...

we arrived in Gulau at 4.00 pm... the fantastic scenery really caught my attention... in my mind, I had two things to check... first, the drains... yes! it was dry... i bet it's not raining here in gulau so we can carry out our activities smoothly... second, i need to check the map prepared by my group for treasure hunt... i asked Ms Rudy about her opinion, and she said, "yeah.. i think we're quite accurate about the map"....

erk... asal smer berkerumun kat aku nih? nak mintak autograf ke?

i've been fall in love with the lake... it made the surrounding to look calm and magnificent... suddenly I checked my hp, damn! it's written, SOS CALLS ONLY... warrgh! so guys... sorry for not replying your messages....

with isyam, alau n dawa...

the place where we sleep (dalam hut dowh)

we were thinking that this might be the only time that we had to have a tour around gulau... wherever we go, there will be eyes staring at our bus... i bet this might be the first air-conditioned bus to get onto the road... we stopped at a pasar malam, and En. Azlan described it as a culture tour... why? dunno... well, it's always difficult to understand what TOK teachers are saying... mayb it's tyme for us to get used to the accent and slang... well, who cares if i dont understand kedah accent?

facilitator yang x de keje...

Saturday, 13 Dec 2008

i met the kids in my group... they've been divided according to their levels of english by the colour of their nametags... i got one excellent, two mediocre, two galus (gagal + lulus) and two gagal students... and one of them seemed to have enourmous difficulties in writing... not only in english though, he's also bad in spelling malay words... there was a boy in my group named naim who was very active and curious to know things in english... it was so poignant to know about their parents... most of them are rubber tappers, pemotong rumput and some parents didn't work at all...

it's me teaching azrul how to use the words that and this...

from the very first activity, i can figure out that their command of english was so bad... they didn't know the meanings of simple words like girl, and some didn't even know how to pronounce it... later we were asked to create a cheer... i think the kids in my group are good bcoz they can come out with their own ideas... brilliant! and the dolphins are always the best... wanna hear them cheer?

it's my group, LOBSTER!! we're the winner for the song "you are my sunshine"

at evening, we had an aerobic exercise... the first song was ok... but when it came to the second, it got even more lively... well, who wouldn't be active with "womanizer" song! hopefully they had no idea what womanizer means... lol

the kids looking to their future

minutes before kampong boy performance...

hantu2 alaf baru

we had a meeting at night with our advisors to get some feedback from us... some of the kids still had the mentality that kampong people like them wouldn't be good in english, and they would never be someone important in the future... they really need motivation and that kind of mentality should have vanished from their mind... these days, i kept telling them that they were capable of being an excellent student, and in the real life, the had the potential...

otai gulau?

yes! finally irma managed to catch the balloon...

Sunday, 14 Dec 2008

we woke up a bit late... hell yeah, it was soo cold inside the hut... the girls would always be very happy to live in the owner's house... girls power, man has to sacrifice...


later we taught them how to use the words this, that, these and those... they seemed to understand very well what has been taught... there was a girl in my group who kept telling me, "that is a grill"... erk.. grill? grill apa lak nih? x de kena mengena pon ngn apa yang aku tanya!! "norsiah, what do you mean by grill?" she answered, "alaa... perempuan"... owh, u mean girl... it took a very long time till she could pronounce it properly...

our five-sentence essay

it was quite funny to hear stories from isyam and syafiq about intersection between our slangs... isyam once asked a kid in his group,

"what is spoon in malay?"
"camca!!!"
"wrong!! eh, kejap2.... camca tu apa?"
"camca tu sudu laa bang!!"


Monday, 15 Dec 2008

finally, it's time for my own activity, treasure hunt... i bet the kids must enjoy running here and there... answering questions, being blindfolded etc... again, alhamdulillah the map was correct... if it was not, me didn't know either what to do...

the kids playing sentence structure... faster2..

farewell to the kids... some of them even cried... then it brought the tone of misery among us... but not me of course... hehe~ coz i knew when the kids are gone, we're gonna have a boat ride... yaahooo!! i was not in the first trip btw, so i just followed Ms Loh and Ms Rudy to the vineyard nearby... frankly speaking, i never knew that we could plant grapes even not in cold weather...
after the boat trip, i jumped into the lake, which i would prefer to describe it as snorkelling... and that day, it was proven that i didn't know how to swim coz i couldn't move at all... once i jumped into the lake and pretend to be like a professional diver, i hastily asked isyam to hold my hand to help me moving... huh, really, i think i need to attend swimming class after this...

can you see the grapes? kalo x nampak x lama laa tuh...

dawa, isyam n Ms Rudy... pointing at the grapes

the super greedy lutfi who wants to eat all of them at once

abg JPA3... please don't block my face bleyh x? warrghh!!

having fun in the lake

im sooo wet...

our last dinner.... barbecue tuu,,,

Tuesday, 16 Dec 2008

we'd been here for 5 days, and it's time to say goodbye to gulau... to be honest, i don't think i would ever come here again... coz it's too rural... but the scenery, especially the superb views of the lake would always be in my heart... yeah, it's true i'm so damn tired... but it all had just simply gone when looking at the kids and the change that we've brought to them... previously, they were so shy to speak in english... but after the camp, they seemed to be more extrovert and brave enough to try anything....

with syafiq... goodbye mountain...

farewell...