Masuk Kampung Again!!
One of the things that I love about my new school is the outreach programme. Two weeks ago, our school left the confines of the classroom and reach out to the students who resides at Kg. Kawakahan, Maatol, Kabuan, Mantani, Sasagahan and Mototou.
Our first outreach programme was held at Kampung Binakaan, you can see my post on that here. For this second outreach programme, we gathered at Kg.Maatol's Mini Dewan where to my pleasant surprise, we were greeted and welcomed like VIPs by the students and parents from the six villages.
Macam VIPs kan kami kena sambut. Awal pagi lagi ni dorang berbaris di tepi jalan.
Upon arriving at Kg. Maatol, I went camera-crazy. Click here, click there...the village is so picturesque. Although the road is bumpy and red (mind you, it's all red soil along the way), most of us forget about the bumpy ride as we see the smiling and warm faces of the people there. We see that the villagers had made a lot of effort just to have us there.
The villagers greeted us with smiles, handshakes and gong-beating. I feel like we're going to a wedding or a keramaian instead of an outreach programme. hehe..
The uncle teaching some of the male teachers (by the way, they're all from West Malaysia and this is their first time holding a gong). Here's my colleague, Mouk.
The uncle is a good gong teacher ;-) Look at them, at first clueless, now they're beating to the beat of their own gong! haha..
I also took the opportunity to play the gong. Not bad kan, uncle? Thanks for teaching me and my friends. By the way, the uncle who taught us to play is also the Ketua Kampung of one of the village (I just can't point out which village).
The kind villagers also served us food that day. Simple food like sup tarap and ayam kicap :-) Food become extra delicious when shared.
For your information, Kg. Maatol has no telephone reception and no electricity. Our humble programme was powered by a generator. But Kg. Maatol has a precious treasure, according to my student Andy Collaree. He said, their kampung has the cleanest water in the area.
I love the flower. This is Kiambang...I'm not sure about the English word though. I have never seen this flower except in the textbook.
A close up of Kiambang.
The place looks good for a photo shoot too, right?
My camera ran out of battery a couple of hours later. That's why there are not a lot of pictures for this post. One of my students told me that they are happy we came to their kampung. Reminiscing how we were seen as heroes to the people of this six villages, to me, they are the real heroes. Despite poverty and lack of infrastructures that I always take for granted, the parents gave everything they got to give their children an education.
I look forward to the next outreach programme!!
