Bako Exploration 08'

I have been hearing about Bako all these years and out of sudden many from the Working Adult group went last year while I was away in Cape Town. I've seen many great inspiring pictures taken by Hwei & of coz KK too and this time it's my turn to see the real stuff! We had a total of 42 people joining us; many of them are still studying, except 3 of us and you know who we are. 11 Indonesian students joined us (1 was supposed to come, but he overslept!), 3 Aussies exchanged-students from Melbourne and we were so glad that many of the 1st year Swinburne students joined the trip! 6 cars & 1 van gathered @ the church @ 0630 yesterday morning. Hehe...for the 1st time, we had the opportunity to skip the Sunday Service and since we were early, we could see who came early and late for the worship team practice! Ahaaaaa...

The Journey begins...

At Kampung Bako where the entrance of the park is.

Why is everybody looking up???

Our breakie...

I was so much refreshed by the cool morning air. That made the 30-mins boat ride so much enjoyable. People, especially ladies (not that i'm sexist), please be assured that the boat is safe and DO NOT worry, the boats don't sink that easily, doesn't matter how heavy you are :)

Do you agree that Asians are more concern about the beauty more than the ang moh? Isn't it interesting to see how we Asians love to PROTECT our skin??? This picture is the proof!

I know some of you will definitely tease me being one of them. Well, surprisingly this time round I didn't use much sun block hehehe...

Interestingly, when we arrived, we were welcomed by 2 welcoming teams. Here are the teams;

The homosapiens!

the monkeys!!!

This is no play-play. I've seen monkeys before and that's not a big deal. But these ones, I mean the ones in Bako are no-joke! Gosh, they are indeed very agressive!!!

They even brought along the young ones..

Away from the monkeys, on the way to the Info Center.

We were supposed to trek our 1st trail but ended up at another one called Sapi trail. It was a much shorter one. In the way it was good coz through this short 30 mins walk, we discovered who were the princess, queen and mother queen (if you know what I mean)

This is NOT an Indonesian flag nor Polish flag. It's the mark to lead us to the right trail. And we still got it wrong..

Who do you think this is? The princess, queen or mother queen?

Well, not bad huh. A wrong trail led us to this view!

I managed to capture the green snake. It was just right at the back of the Info Center. I also met a few tourists from Hong Kong. One of them spoke Cantonese and found out that I understood the language. They didn't know most Malaysian Chinese know the language though. After coming down from Sapi, we decided to have early lunch at the canteen. We saw the wild boar and again, some monkeys; this time they were on the tree!

She looks really annoying!

This one was looking for food!

The canteen is rather spacious I must say. It can contain at least 60 ppl and above; not a bad gathering place hey!

So off we went afater having our lunch to the 2nd trail; Paku. We were told that there was a beach there. Hoping to see something more interesting besides the walking and looking at few animals. Paku trail only took us abt 45 mins and yes, there was a beach indeed. Somehow it has quite a nice little pocket space with much shades from the huge rocks. The Captain, Mr Johnson managed to gather all of us into 4 groups. They were named after 4 types of fruits; the Banana, Apple, Wwater Melon & Orange. Each group had design a war-cryand believe me it was quite hillarious! After that we had a soccer competition with a beach ball, NOT a soccer ball. That made the job so much harder and yes, it was an eye opening to see our girls playing soccer!!! This is No Joke!!

Watermelon Group!

Orange Group!

Banana Group!

Apple Group!

Not bad huh, one of the Aussie students, Hally learnt new way of getting people into groups. It's called 'O Peng' in Foochow. After a few rounds of O Peng, we finally had a deal of who's against who for the soccer game. See, I told ya, girls can kick!

Jangan bully aku ya!

Aku jugak!

Lina li ka kang na qiu ahhh!

Eh sian nor Ah Yieng, kan no miang kan oh!

The sun was quite friendly to the Aussies, but definitely not to us. Few while waiting had an innovative idea how to protect their feet. Few were hiding in the shades, while the rest were in the water.

This is a counterfeit mermaid! The real one was there too... (see picture below)

(Don't slaugther me, Melvin!)

Sun-bathing is a good idea!

We are really blessed to be given a free complimentary boat ride to see the rocks! After practising my Foochow-nego skill, we managed to get for extra RM1. Is this the famous rock??? I saw it everytime people show how Bako looks like!

On our way back to Kampung Bako, it was about 3pm then, the sun was really hot. Rita gave me a good idea how to cover yourself. I improvised it and make it my own. Wahlah...talking our M-Country; S.A, wow...do I look like one of the Arabian? Hehe...

After a 2nd thought, I thought maybe it's a better idea to just cover myself fully :@)

Zhu Ong in broad daylight!

Bako, till we see u again...

More pictures can be viewed here: http://idlab07.multiply.com/photos/album/198

Celebration of Learning!

Ok, time for an update of the Celebration of Learning last Saturday. Overally it was really great; very happening. Many parents set up stalls to sell their food! There was quite a wide range of food from Koreaa, local Malaysian, Italian, etc. Even Hilton came with big coffee machines selling their beverages; smell was really good though. I was selling my cards too!!! Hehehe..the sales wasn't that bad. I managed to get my students to help me to sell, more than half of them! In return, they will have the opportunity to try my Italian :@)

Surprisingly the students were quite good in persuading aunties to buy cards hey!

Cards anyone? Each card is only RM3.50. Any orders? Contact me yea :) My other students wanted to try the face paint for the 1st time. Mmmm... what do u think? Hehehe... these 2 boys were basically playing with one another's face... it was quite fun, not knowing what to expect. We should try that some time hey!

Food; the main attraction of the day??? I believe so! Not only that, we got clowns too?! One of them is kinda scary huh?!

Kids having fun with batik work!

This is the Art Exhibition space. After today, the whole place will turn back into staff room again... boring...
*yawn*

Few of the artwork, mostly by the international kids.

This is funny; the FAT version of Mona Lisa.

Carving by 4 different person, including the teacher himself, bought by our Principal.

Obscene? It's art!

These are done by my kids, from the primary levels.

Sushi anyone? Claywork by Form 1 kid.

The real cats on that day! Meow...

Few of my Lodgian kids came for a visit too. Gee..they have grown SO much!

To view more pictures of the Open Day, just go to: http://idlab07.multiply.com/photos/album/196/Celebration_of_LearningTPS?replies_read=10

Celebration of Learning (Preparation)

Gosh...many of us have been working really hard since 2-3 weeks ago all for the TPS once a year Open day called 'Celebration of Learning' this Saturday. What's my job? Well, to train a group of choir in the performance & also to take care of the 'Cats Exhibition', a fund raising for the SSPCA initiated by Ms Anne Marrie, our Kindy & Primary coordinator.

Due to the POOR sound system, I have NO choice but selected few kids to sing... ahem... you're right, the ever-green African 'Siyahamba' song. I have also added one more African freedom song called 'Freedom is Coming'. The medley really sounds great! I couldn't get more than 3 guys singing, therefore, the bass part is eliminated; sadly. I've got 5 sopranos, 5 altos and 3 tenors forming a semicirle so that their voices can be captured by the mic in their semicircles. Well, this is not the 'correct' ways of arranging the choir, but what the heck; it sounds above my expectation!

Okay, enough story about the choir. Wondering what the Cats Exhibition is? Well, it's not really a 'real-real' cat thingy. Ms Anne Marie got this idea of getting kids to draw cats and put them in the exhibition in conjunction with the Open Day. People are welcomed to give freely to the SSPCA since it's a non profit organization and they really need lotsa finance to run the activities. So I got my primary kids to draw nothing but Kuching for the past few weeks. Ewww..cats in, cats out daily for the past 21 days??? The kids wanted to vomit and so do I. After looking at all the drawings, gee... I just can't deny the beauty of the young kids' naivete; nothing else but the truth kinda thing. Their perception of cats, etc speaks more than we adult who always in our human nature try so hard to explain and defend ourselves.

Since the exhibition is going to be held in a small meeting room, my idea is simple; that is to make a back-lane view for these cats to be. I have to motivate myself you know, doing things that I enjoy and yet is beneficial to the project. I finally got my international music kids to prepare 3 backdrops; 2 brick walls & 1 Broadway Musical Cats. Oh man, I was really excited yesterday when I had the opportunity to finally put these walls up. Ho ho ho...purely my delight to see the New York-subway-look was 90% completed today! Yhooooo... I'm So contented. My students who saw part of it commented that they didn't expect it to be that good... for a few seconds, I felt proud. Real proud; yes of the students, myself & as a team :)

Just few hours ago, we also managed to try out the new face paint that I bought (blessing from French teacher, Ms Sandrine who hapilly sponsored the paint). We are going to have 2-3 cat women. I gotta train these ladies how to draw in more people and most importantly, get them give cheerfully financially!

Guys, if you are free this Saturday, just pop in the school. This is the only time we show case students' work especially in the area of Art & Music. Classes are open from 8:30-9:30am where you can see how teachers do their teaching that time and right after that the Art & Cats Exhibition will start till abt 11.00am. The whole event will end with student performance in the hall, and it should officially end at about 12 mid-day. Hehe, my African songs will be the last item. I'm looking forward next week, where Term 3 will close the week after next. That means I'll have my 1 week break... do not envy me, I deserve it :@)

Before the cats & the Cats Musical backdrop has just being out up!

I'd to cover the bright white light with orangy kite paper & of coz with cute paws - wahlah, it works perfectly!!!

Does it look 'dirty' & 'messsy' enough to you??? You know me, I just love it to be DIRTY & MESSY!

Adrian, another Art teacher who is always the man-behind the scene; works SO HARD for the art exhibition...

Some of the students artwork. Interesting huh???

Ms Dalia & few kids were helping...

Trial; cat woman

More pictures coming after this Saturday :)

3D Textured Painting!

I have been really busy, working hard for the past few weeks preparing for the Celebration of Learning this Saturday. This is one of the school most important events where we will show case students' best work from artwork to music, drama, etc. You are all invited. Program starts from 9:30am till mid day.

This is my 1st time getting the kids to experiment the 3D textured painting. The steps are simple. Just use tissue paper & diluted PVA glue. When it is dry, the surface gives great coarse texture and when you paint it, it looks great! I just love those dirty, unorganized kind of effect :@)

This one is called 'The Rainbow'

Can you guess what's that dark thingy on the left bottom?

I can't help but make one for myself! Why not you try too?!