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16 June 2008, with all our stuffs packed in our
respective oversized luggage bag, we were all set to experience something that
none of us city guys had ever tried before. After a 15 minute drive from our
campus to Kg.Hilir. We parked our cars and we were given an unexpected
welcoming parade by the villagers accompanied by the sound of ‘kompangs’.
We were introduced to our foster parents. It was
truly an exciting experience to meet someone whom you considered a stranger and
calling him or her your mom and dad for the first time. The survey immediately
started after the introduction. The hospitality of the villagers was superb. We
were fed profusely by our foster parents as well as the villagers whose houses
we visited for the survey.
On the 3rd day, we had focus group discussions
on specific topics such as breast cancer awareness, child immunization and hypertension. In the afternoon, we did a
random blood sugar testing on selected villagers and briefed them about the
importance of diet. At the end of the day, we had a motivation campaign for the
children in the village, stressing to them the importance of education.
The 4th day was all fun where the
villagers came out to the field and joined us for the telematch. Everyone was
so into the game and the best of all was tug-of-war but sadly we lost, they
were just too strong. ‘Tarik Upih’ was another traditional game we played where
we had to pull our partner who sat on the dried coconut to a certain distant; it
was indeed fast and furious, kampung style. We also played football, netball,
paper dressing competition and the famous coconut scraping contest. The game
ended with a price giving ceremony, everyone’s was a winner, especially the
kids who received plenty of sweets.
The 4th night was a a memorable night for
all of us, all clad in Malay traditional costumes, Baju Melayu for guys and
Baju Kurung for the ladies, we stormed the stage and gave our best performance
to entertain the villagers. The villagers did their part as well in
entertaining us by performing sketches and also Nasyhid. Food was served to the
entire village that night what was interesting was that even villagers from the
nearby villages were part of the crowd.
Time
passed so fast and it is time for us to bid goodbye to the villagers on the 5th
day. We had our last breakfast in our respective home and packed up our stuffs,
Gathered at the community hall, we had our group photos with the villagers and
then we were paraded out again. It was a touching sight to behold when most of
them cried including our classmates. After all the tears and hugs, we headed
home with a heavy heart. |
