Giving Something Back: Niah

I went to Kampung Padang, Niah for a program organized by Rakan Muda (joined as part of my internal mark for one of the LAN unit) from 23rd to 25th May. I didn't really give much thought about it as I was busy with other things on campus, until the day me and other 4o Curtin students arrived there...

It was 1 1/2 hour bus drive from Oil Town, and as expected it was well far away from the bustling civilization. We were joined by another 30 students from Giat MARA, Kuala Baram and all 70 of us were assigned to our designated foster family.

It was quite a o_O for me, since I have been away from 'the simple life' for at least 2 years already. The serenity and slow paced life in the village was welcomed as it took my mind off all the stress and worries of the hectic university life. Virtually no line (MAXIS anyways) and no internet, I was disconnected from the worries of the world on the spot.

So basically we were there to get closer with the village folks and help them improve the village as much as we can. I was immediately assigned as a group leader and were in charge of replacing the village's signboard (other group were in charge of other work e.g. painting the village hall, cleaning the drain etc).

It was bloody hot and man-handling a disparate group of students was nothing unusual for me. We just pulled the old sign cemented into the ground out, plant the new sign in its place and cement the whole thing down. We were done by 11am (started around 8am), but then we had to return to work as we were not supposed to pull out the old signboard as it was government property (hence considered as vandalism). So we replanted the sign next to the new one, and finished by noon. Fuh.

Then later at night we helped out for a big feast on Sunday morning, and on that night it was me and a few other dudes' first time hands on experience skinning chickens.

On Sunday morning, me, Gerain & Eleena helped teach the other Curtin students the 'Jungle Song' dance a.k.a. tandak hutan (direct translation lol). A quick 20 minute and we were ready, and performed during the closing ceremony feast. After that, it was departure time, and me and my other 'brothers' bid farewell to our foster family.

I was all cool during the farewell, until half way through saying goodbye to the village folks a crying uncle hugged me; then I just went all emotional as well T.T It was a nice experience, and felt great giving something back to the community :)

Curtin Camp Sem 1 2008

We had another Curtin Camp this sem, but instead of targeting single school participants we decided to make it a collabo between SoB, SoE, SoS, and SoPre-U. It was a 3 day camp on campus from 16th to 18th May (Fri - Sat). A good number turned out, sadly not many survived until the final day. I was busy attending the campsite and camp fire, and I stank of sulfur and camp fire ashes, but it was fun nonetheless. So anyways without blabbing away, I'll let the pictures to do all the talking.

(Sorry, I only had 1/2 second and full third day pics :/ for Day 1 or more, try Facebooking those pictures. You can start with Joanne's album, but if you want more grab your pendrive and steal it from our hard drives.)

Due to the crappy uploading speed in Senadin, I'll only post few non-typical pics for your LOLing pleasure. The following are typical and mostly not-your-typical camp pictures (Click to enlarge):

Somehow everyone seemed to have a fetish for raffia strings...

And the best camper award goes to:

Kah Wai -___-|||

Storm Season: Dude Where's Our Friend?

It has been a couple of nasty stormy nights with winds up to 50kph (or higher) ripping through the eastern coastal cities and towns in Sabah and Sarawak. It all started sometime on Friday (9th May) evening with sudden strong winds wrecking chaos and havoc in Oil Town.

Oddly, it only occurs around 5-7pm, and lasts less than 30 minutes but the damage is uber. Cruising through the area to see the damage with buddies (the wind subsided, but it was still raining, lightly), we counted 20++ big BIG trees were uprooted (we cruised from Senadin to Permyjaya, then to Pujut to Lutong then back to Senadin). A dozen of signboards were gone and some unfortunate drivers and riders were involved in accidents.

Snapshot from The New Straits Times Online (Read full article)

As of 14th May, Shell Sabah issued another storm warning after a storm hit Sabah and Bruneian coast around 5.30pm. Fortunately Oil Town received the 'tail' of the storm, and the effect was minor. Today, 15th, it was just a bit gusty (still strong though) and hopefully Typhoon Rammasun (the typhoon causing all these freak strong winds) will pass by Borneo soon.

Anyways here's a little boring story that happened during the stormy week.


So The Fool was coming back from Labuan after a trip from KK on the weekend, and the h3666 residents have to go to the airport to greet and bring him back home to Senadin. A stormy 30 minutes drive, so we decided to go grab something to eat at e-Mart.

After stuffing ourselves we drove The Fool's car (yeah he asked h3666ers to keep it safe) to the airport. At the airport, it was strangely quiet, either because there's not much night flight to Miri or because of the storm.

Since The Fool's flight will be arriving at 7.45pm we waited patiently, only to find out the flight from Labuan was delayed. So we waited for for the flight's next estimated arrival at 8.35pm.
At 8.35 there's no sign of The Fool. We received a call from him, and I was expecting the expected; he missed the flight. Bakasaru... all those times we wasted wading through the storm for this... we love you too Fool...

Happens Everytime: Smart but Turned Down

Snapshot was taken from The Star.com (Read full article)

Nothing surprising here. Happens every year to almost all students in Boleh Land. The difference is that the number of such unfortunate students are on the rise (logic la, the number of people increase, hence the number of students increase as well, do the maths).

I'm not gonna continue discussing about this topic because I'm biased in this issue (want to put in some anti-government sentiments and show how racially biased they are, but gonna keep it to myself). It's just for you to ponder about for the next 5 minutes. For the victims of such oppression, just be patient and wait it out, things will sort out by themselves.

This is Boleh Land! Equality to all!