Community Project

Spent the past weekend at Kampung Parit Sulong, Batu Pahat as part of our final semester Community Project. We were to conquer a religious school and turn it into a health screening base for the village folks - for free! And yet only 100 odd people turned up. Well maybe next time we'll have to invade each and every kampung houses, just to be holistic.

Sekolah Agama Seri Maimon @ Parit Sulong

The project consisted of stations that measure blood sugar, blood cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index, visual test, dental check-up, prostate and breast examination, and Pap smear. For the kids, there were de-worming pills too. There were also health talks on dengue, breast and cervical cancer, etc. I was in charge of the health exhibition on diabetes mellitus.

Clowning around, getting my blood pressure checked before the health screening starts

My job was rather simple, those who were found to have deranged blood sugar levels would be sent to the exhibition site so that I would repeat myself again and again on "banyakkan exercise tiga sampai lima kali seminggu, 20 hingga 30 minit setiap kali, dan kurangkan gula, garam, lemak, banyakkan makanan berserat tinggi seperti sayur-sayuran dan buah-buahan, supaya gula dalam darah terkawal dan tidak mendapat kesan-kesan buruk seperti angin ahmar, serangan sakit jantung, rosak buah pinggang, buta, kaki kena potong... ... ..."

This is how the station I'm in-charge with looks like...

After the screening program, there was this Projek Keluarga Angkat (Foster Family Project) whereby we were put into groups of threes and assigned to a house to spend the night with total strangers. IMU wants us to taste the kampung life...

My keluarga angkat

We were then brought to our rumah angkat (which is huge), dump our stuffs into our bedrooms and headed out to the school hall again for the Indoor Games with the villagers.

Three-legged race

After the games, we went back to our foster family. Had a nice cold shower, and clowned around the house, checking out every nook and corner while waiting for our bapak and emak angkat to finish their prayers.

My bed for the night... having it all by myself! Hahahaha...

Me and my ibu angkat

Us on the dining table with ikan masak asam pedas, prawns with curry and garlic, and veggies.

Me and the gossip queen, Missy Shahira.

Then there was the Malam Budaya after dinner. Will try to get some photos and post them up here soon. The next day was gotong-royong day. We were assigned to groups responsible to paint the balai raya, plant 100 banana trees, and cleaning up the school hall.

Tanam pokok pisang.

Cleaning up school hall.

Scraping and painting the balai raya.

Lastly, it was the closing ceremony. I was assigned to hand over a souvenir in the form of a framed photo of the three of us with our foster family on stage.


And here are some group photos...