#ProjekUMBI1617: Saturday (15/4/2017)

Assalamualaikum and good day to all the readers. Ain here to update on the event that had ended a few days ago. So here we go...

Saturday, (15/4/17) - Day 1

Due to excitement, I got up at 5.30 when I was suppose to meet the others at 7.45 am 😅 Anyways, at around 7.30 am, I booked a GrabCar (as I was the only one residing at KK1) and arrived at the Dataran Sains of the Faculty of Science with a few minutes to spare. As I was walking up the Bioinfo Building, Fatin called and told me that they were going to be a bit late and I was somehow glad to hear that because I thought they were already waiting for me and I was already late. I went up to the SD7 and did a final check on the stuffs we were suppose to bring with us.

A few minutes later, Fatin called me again and asked me to send the things downstairs so that they can load them in the car/van. They were running late because of the car that they book was late. So I did as told but there's only so much that I can do at that time. I got the stuffs out of the room and placed them right in front of the staircase just to ease the process of carrying them down. A few minutes after I started, the girls arrived and lent me some helping hands. The job was done faster when everybody pitched in and helped 😊 Everybody, especially the eight of us looked extremely nervous and excited.

Our two lovely female volunteers, Diba and Ezrin (EE)

After that we waited for the van driver to arrive and we also booked a car for our volunteers. The other three volunteers who we only met that morning were Ezrin or EE, Amirul and also Ikram. All three of them were UM students and are from different faculties.

Thank you Luqman and Amirul for holding up the banner for us 😆

At around 8.00 am, we sent Diba, EE, Amirul and Ikram on their way first because the eight of us need to ride the van together with Dr. Arpah. Because the car we book was pretty big, we loaded most of the stuff in there and the rest were loaded in Syafiq and Luqman's car. Around 9.00 am, we departed from UM to PEKEAS. Just as we started our journey, Diba called Fatin to ask regarding our whereabouts. She also told us that children were extremely happy (they were crowded by the children) and couldn't wait to meet the rest of us.

At the beginning of our journey, we drove pass people walking/running for some run (not really sure what the name was). The journey to PEKEAS was rather uneventful. I would usually be asleep during a long journey like this but not this time. Other than the excitement, the seat in the van prevented me from sitting still and thus kept me awake until we arrived at PEKEAS. However, I still had a stupid smile on my face throughout the journey when I remembered what Diba said to Fatin earlier.

And it was true. We arrived at PEKEAS at around 10.00 am and as soon as we got off the van to greet the children, they came running to us to shake hands and help us with our stuffs. I was a bit overwhelmed by their warm welcome which I couldn't help but adore. Before we start any of our activities, we checked out our accommodation and left our personal belongings there. The ladies were assigned to the second floor of an old folks' house (which belongs to PEKEAS also) just opposite of the girls' dormitory while the gents were assigned to sleep with the boys at their dormitory which was a few blocks away.

After we settled our accommodation, we organized the place where we'll do our activities. We put up our banner which was designed at the last minute 😅 and set up the tables as well as preparing the things needed for the activities. Then after calming the children down and got them to sit on the woven plastic mat, Fatin briefed them on what would be happening for these two days. Then it was time to divide them into groups. One thing that I found endearing was that Amirul and Ikram sat amongst the children, like they were already apart of them. And the children, especially the boys, were already looking and acting comfortably around them.

The kids were excited as they already have the facilitator/s of their choice and some of them were quite disappointed when they weren't assign to the same group as them. However, that was only short-lived as they get to know their respective facilitators. I was the facilitator for Group1 aka Champion FC alongside Shijing and Diba. Diba was busy helping Kak Shima and Mak Andak in the kitchen so it was only Shijing and myself.

Our group members were Najmi, Hazriq, Hafis, little Nazmi, Diana, Nabila and Aishah. We were asked to decide on a group name, logo as well as a short cheer for the group. Najmi and Diana were easy to handle as they were already in secondary school. However, Hazriq, Hafis, Nabila and Aishah were a bit difficult as they were still in primary school and therefore their attention span is shorter. At first, they were really distracted and reluctant to share ideas but after a few minutes we managed to persuade them to join the activities. Diana was responsive but very stern towards Aishah and Nabila in a way that looked scary to me but the two girls didn't seem to be bothered by it.

this is Hazriq 😍

this is Nabila 😍

I noticed that Aishah and Nabila were of the same age and there for were good friends a long with Aqish. Both Aishah and Nabila were very affectionate; they would try to hold my hands and say the sweetest things. I knew they were trying to fight for my attention but I tried to be fair and give them the same amount of attention. However, I noticed that Aishah would always glare at Nabila if she tried to hold my hands or anything. I understood their actions, though. Being the second child in my family, I'd always have to earn my parents attention too as I have an older sister and two younger siblings.

Anyways, after the fun activities, it was time for a break and perform our Dzuhur prayers together. The ladies didn't managed to perform the prayer together as we were taking too long to prepare. Because of that, we decided to bring our 'telekung' to the main house for convenience.

Then we had lunch where we were supposed to mingle with the children but we were out of our mind preparing for the activities and decided to just eat together inside. After that, we continued with the activities and while busy handling the kids, the headmaster of the orphanage along with his cohort came to monitor our program. Everybody was on their toes but we tried to keep our cool. When it was time to perform our Asr prayer, we again could not perform the prayer together since the headmaster and his cohort joined us for prayer and the space was limited. We prayed at the second floor instead.

I didn't know what got into me but after I finished my prayers and shook hands with the girls (children of PEKEAS), I was suddenly overwhelmed by emotions and shed tears there and then (even now, as I'm typing this my eyes are watery). Then, I shook hands with Fatin and the both of us broke down into tears. Maybe I'm just a crybaby but the feeling that I felt that time was something I couldn't explain.

Moving on...It was time for 'sukaneka', a slot where the children were very excited about when they were first told about the program's tentative. The games were fun and coupled with exciting music, it was a hundred times more fun. Now a little bit about the music. The music was originally for the fashion show which was scheduled the next day during the closing ceremony. But since they've requested some music to play the games to, and I only have K-pop songs in my phone other than the songs for the fashion show, I used this song.

This song is an instrumental of the song Wings by BTS (one of my fav groups ehemm) from their repackaged album 'You Never Walk Alone'. Honestly, I didn't think that the others would approve of it but as soon as I gave the song to Shamin, she immediately agreed to it which took me by surprise.

The song is very meaningful where it talks about believing in one's self and to work towards our dream regardless of what people may say about it. And after this project, it became one of my most treasured songs because of the memories it'll trigger whenever I listen to it.

Okay so enough of that. After the sukaneka, we let the children rest and clean themselves up before eating and perform the Maghrib prayer. This time around, we managed to pray together and after the prayer, there was a 'tazkirah' prepared by Amirul. He talked about a lot of things and all of it made me question myself on my purpose as a Muslim woman in this world... Of course the children were moving around but they were still under control, I guess. Oh yeah, before we started the prayer, the children especially the little girls were asking us to pray next to them which I find endearing, really. We could only giggle when one of the little girls led us next to pray next to her and then another girl came along and did the same 😂

So the tazkirah went on until just before Isya' and after performing Isya' together, I finally got the chance to shake hands and hug most (if not all) of the girls (que the tears 😭). I'm sorry I couldn't help it okayy. Seeing their smiley faces despite their reality while I have a complete and functional family but still complaining about not having enough made me feel ashamed of myself. These children were much younger than I am, the oldest being 17 (for boys) and 16 (for girls) yet they except everything with a smile and no complaints 😣

After prayer, we got ready for the next activity which was preparing for the fashion show. Through this activity, I could see the children's effort in being creative. All they need was a little push and they were on their way. I felt sorry because I didn't contribute much to my group as I was busy capturing moments through my camera but I'd say I'm proud of them. I could see them opening up to us, slowly but surely.

The activity took us almost an hour and a half and then it was time to sleep. The girls tried to persuade us to sleep together with them but we have a postmortem session with Dr. Arpah to discuss the events of the day and what should happen during the next day. And after the session ended, it was already around 1.00 am. The doors were already locked so we couldn't go back to the girl's dormitory. Besides we have Qiamullail slot where we have to wake up at 4 am.

So yeah, that was the story for the first day of the event. There are a lot of things that I left out because the details were blurry and I didn't want to get too detailed (which I did in some parts). But all in all, it was a fruitful day and what amazes me was how close we've gotten in just one day. The next post will tell you the story of the second day of the event and be warned that there will be a lot of waterworks (ie. tears) coming your way. Here are some pictures of the first day of the event.