Kuantan– Pos Pantos, Kuala Lipis – Bangi –Terengganu – Gunung Liang

Date : 11th May 2009, Monday
Venue : Berisi Cafe, Medan MARA
Time : 8.41 a.m (Kedai tak bukak lagi, so to kill the time, nak update blog)

The heavenly holidays actually begins on the 19th of April 2009, which is 2 days before Community Service & Health Screening for Aborigines (COHSAS) at Pos Pantos, Kuala Lipis, Pahang. That 2 days, we spent by shopping and preparing for the program. We shopped at Eng Hong till we almost dropped, (of course when you have like almost 5 trolleys FULL at the cashier!). Applying some of the practical done during our first year, we also had done some packaging of tablets and creams and syrups to be distributed to the aborigines as well as clothes for donation.

Our journey to Pos Pantos was fun and full of laughter. On the way to Pos Pantos, we dropped by at Hafiz Yunos’s house for lunch and a taste of kek lapis Sarawak. It was mouth watering and we even bought the cake for ourselves. Thanks Hafiz! Before we continue our journey, we were shocked by a minor accident where the bus was doing a 3 point turn, and hit the road and damage the lower front of the bus. But, with the help of ‘orang kampung’, the bus finally managed to get back to the main road.

We spent 3 days at Pos Pantos doing lots of activities. We COOKED for the villagers for the 3 whole days! It was a good thing for both sides because, the chefs (those who can cooked confidently and skilfully) can teach people who is less skillfull like me and at the same time, everyone ‘kenyang perut!’ I shall say, since the first COHSAS, the best place to ‘lepak’ is near the stove!

(Oopps, have to get moving, need to go to Princecourt)

Time : 11.00 a.m.
Venue : Day Care Center for Endoscopy and Uroscopy
Status : nak jalan2, tapi ngantuk, sakit kaki and sakit belakang, dan nak kena

bawak laptop pulak....so sambung blog

Besides, we also had done some health screening, visit to the school, fard ain class, games, karaoke ;p , movies, and cool demonstration! We distributed the over the counter (OTC) medicines to the aborigines and I was in charge for counselling. That’s when I realised how shallow my knowledge is! Takutnye~ But everything went on smoothly, and the aborigines were witty, sporting and can be sarcastically funny too. Some of them have good sense of humour. The kids were the best, most sporting and they have graceful harmonious voice! They love to sing Matahari and we were amazed. That’s when we came out with the idea to have a karaoke session! The kids also had done performance during the opening ceremony.

Well, we also had demonstration by the aborigines on how to make crafts using ‘daun pinang’. It was easy, and we had all the fun taking pictures with the leaf crown and belt! It was cool. In fact, there was also demonstration on how to cook rice using bamboo. It’s a big diameter bamboo, and on the inside, they put rice wrapped in ‘daun lirih’. There were few ‘bungkus’ of rice in ‘daun lirih’ in the bamboo. Then, they’ll be cooked on fire. The end product looks like ‘nasi timbel’ Indonesia. Sedap jugak.

The evening games was hilarious as we can see the kids seems excited, determined and full of trick to win the ‘baling belon’, ‘cari gula dalam tepung’ and few other games. The women also were all energetic to play ‘boling kelapa’, ‘asingkan rempah’ and few other games. We also have fun playing sumpit belon and watch the men play takraw in sarong.haha

That’s the brief I can tell about COHSAS. There were other activities for da’wah purposes and many more interesting stories. We had so much fun thanks to the crazy committees, wonderful superseniors and my girlfriends who came along to give support.


Just for us to think about :-

The government and society is giving so much help to the aborigines. They even assign an ‘ustaz’ for each village (as i was told lah..). Their rough income is around RM 200-300/month and they seldom eat meat and chicken. But, most of them are heavy smoker, and one of the houses even has a complete television set. Hmmm...

p/s : i'll upload the pictures later, they are not with me (need to have dg cam

fast! ;p)