Events

20th March 2010. Saturday. My crib. 🙂

Justin Lee was going to leave for the Ireland! This came across as a shocking news to everyone at the RYM, but it’s been planned for a long time.

So we in turned planned up something for him: a farewell party over at my place. 🙂

I rented the BBQ pits for the entire day and thankfully I managed to secure the place; sometimes booking in advance won’t help and moreover Saturdays are very popular as other churches and organizations also rent the place.

THE ORIGINAL PLAN: Kevin Avinash was to call Justin out for a casual game of pool at Casa Tropicana, and lead him to the BBQ pit where we would throw him the surprise!

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED: In a terrible mishap, Kevin SMS’ed everyone involved in throwing the surprise party… including Justin himself. 🙁 Dum dumz.

LOL

Even I didn’t buy into the cheesy setup – it was only less than 2 weeks ago Justin approached me to see if I could rent the place for Fun Nite.

And Casa Tropicana is a very, very unlikely place to play pool even though the new place just opened up. (and that is at the first floor, I must add… which means you don’t need any key or access card to get there)

We should be glad that in spite of the surprise being blown prematurely Justin still obliged to play along, haha! 🙂

What he didn’t count on was yet another surprise we had in store for him: we dunked him into the pool.

Boy Band WIN

Since Justin also knows Eugene San and Daniel Khoo, called my Ex-DJian friends over too.

L-R: Eugene, Daniel, Justin, me

Posaaaah!

The only reason this pic has some ‘boy band’ quality is thanks to Eugene’s dreadlock hair. 😛

Getting Dunked Into The Pool

Almost every other people – myself included – got dunked into the pool. 🙂 Was a bit afraid the security guards would chase us away or the neighbors would complain to the Management. I’ve stayed here for almost a year already and no one THAT happening ever came to use the pool THAT way. Not after 10PM. 😛 Hee hee!

Me and Debbie Debz Debz! Known her from Sunday School since we were 15! Barely changed. Good or bad thing, you decide!

At My Crib

Later we cleaned up the place and since the lights were mostly off at the pool area, we moved up to my place. I never had so many people in my house before! This is twice the size of the crowd that came to my place for housewarming last year.

Then the kids picked up my Darth Vader replica light saber. Never failed to impress the newcomers to my lair. 😉

Turn to the dark side!

Ooowf! Castration!

Have fun in Ireland Justin! I’m sure many of us will miss you, and hope to see you again when you return a few years from now!

Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010
Time: 8:30am – 12:30pm
Location: Ara Damansara

This is one of those moments I wished I could be in two places at the same time!

27th December 2009. I attended the Ex-DJians 2003 gathering at Marche, The Curve.

It turned out well. It’s been… what? 6 years since we left high school? 🙂 Although I was probably the only one who left SMKDJ prematurely… that’s a story you can read in my ABOUT page. 🙂

Amazed how many have changed and how some remained the same, even after all those years! One of them mentioned that we could have repeated high school all over again, so that’s how long it had been!

Okay picture time. 🙂

Wished I stayed longer – was having so much fun catching with a lot of old friends and ex-classmates. Then, had to run off to the masquerade / Xmas party by RYM & St. Ignatius Church in Aman Suria’s community hall.

So I left around 1.5 hours later for the next function. Missed out the games unfortunately, but the food remained intact! Yes I know, I’m greedy. 😛

Another 70+ pax here too. OK More pics, more pics…

Thanks for making it a wonderful year and awesome meeting old friends again, and making new ones. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🙂

Location: Kuantan, Pahang
Date: 11 & 12 December 2009

Call it coincidence. Call it chance. It was 6 years since I last saw my Sunday School friends.

Debbie Lai, Justin Lee, Christopher Khaw, the Charles twins…

If not for attending my ex-Sunday School teacher’s wedding I wouldn’t have met them.

And I definitely wouldn’t have been on this road trip to the rural areas of Kuantan, Pahang.

The RYM (Revolution Youth Ministry) organized a 2-day trip to the Orang Asli settlements to spend time with them, preach the word of God, sang songs, and also bring gifts and supplies for the Christmas holidays season.

It’s been a long time since I was last active with the church, so why not? When Debbie invited me, I jumped at it right away. Besides, up until then I have been rather ignorant of the Orang Asli (Aborigine Malay).

I do know they are around and I’ve read about them in history books, but that’s just it.

The Trip to the Settlements

Friday morning came. Met up with the group for the excursion. Mostly new faces to me, so I got acquainted with the youth. (gotta admit I felt rather ‘old’ and ‘senior’!)

We convoyed in 4 cars and drove to the St. Thomas church in Kuantan, which took about 3 hours to get there. We were to spend our night there.

The RYM met up with Father Danny and one of his Sunday School students, Dominique.

Then we drove for another 2 hours to reach the Orang Asli settlements Batu 3 and Batu 8.

Upon reaching the settlements, it felt like I went back in time. The children would shy away even though I’m sure they get visitors like us every now and then. Probably ashamed of their humble home.

However the ice quickly broke with hand shakes and smiles. The church contributed supplies like rice, cooking oil, food, etc. to each of the settlements. Also, a mass service in Bahasa Malaysia was held in each settlement.

After the mass service was concluded, the RYM spent time with the children, bearing gifts and goodies.

Of course, not to forget snapping pictures of those lightened up smiles. 🙂

Orang Asli: My Initial Impression

Don’t laugh though; when I heard we were going to visit the Orang Asli I actually thought we were going to be seeing this:

Or something like that.

As you can see from the photos now, the Orang Asli appears totally different from what I thought at first. 🙂

Orang Asli Exposed

After lunch, a few of the RYM members and I listened to one of the nuns at the St. Thomas church about her experience with the Orang Asli.

Even though the Orang Asli are said to be the first people to walk the lands of the Peninsular Malaysia centuries ago, to this day the Orang Asli are denied of many basic rights, and are often seen as the lower rung of the society.

In the 17th to early 20th century, it was common for Malays to raid the Orang Asli settlements and enslave the people. The Orang Asli were considered ‘sub humans’ or ‘savages’. Reminds me of the show Pocahontas when John Smith and his crew of English men met the Red Indians for the first time.

While this is obsolete in practice, the negative impression and label on the Orang Asli by the modern society is far from being worn off.

The needs of the Orang Asli often fall into the blind spot of the local government. The children are teased in school for being and looking ‘different’, so as a result most children drop out after primary school. The lucky ones finish high school.

The Sister went on to tell of a case when a team of land developers were excavating a forest, affecting the Orang Asli nearby. The Orang Asli tried to appeal to the court to stop the developers from ‘disturbing’ the land, claiming that they see visions and dreams of their un-rest ancestors.

Today is the 21st century, but the lifestyle of the Orang Asli hardly changed, if any at all, for decades. And their belief system is no different from their forefathers from centuries ago.

However I was pleasantly surprised to find the Orang Asli faring considerably well when I met them for the first time with the RYM group.

By ‘considerably well’, they have their essentials covered. I was told we visited the ‘higher class’ settlements; the deeply impoverished ones are deep into the woods and we didn’t have the means to reach out to them.

Although Catholic Christians by religion, the aborigine malays speak only Bahasa Malaysia (BM). Father Danny told us many more tales of the Orang Asli.

All in All…

This 2-day experience reminded me to be grateful for every blessing I have. I came to realize many things I took for granted in life – my essentials coming to the top of my mind right now.

And to think that there are many other people in the world living without them!

We had a great experience bringing some joy to the kids and families at the settlements, and I sincerely hope and pray they fare better through generations. 🙂