Eats and Treats

From the last two posts, we can only picture the performance part for the children and the games for the parents. But there is more in the carnival! The essential part of the carnival is of course, the foods and entertainments!
(p/s: hyperlinks to the previous posts are available!)

Yes, there are many food prepared in the carnival! All the stalls are managed by the parents or invited by the management to sell some foods such as hot dog bun, doughnuts, fishball and sausages and many more! Of course some refreshing beverages like limau asam boi and coconut milk shake is also available there!

There are also some booth set up by Yayasan Chow Kit and also from Pasukan Bomba dan Penyelamat. An exhibition is set up by them, showing the photos and also some information about fire and accidents, and what is more interesting is, there is a bomba truck available for visit! Parents and children had this chance to see what is inside the truck, which is a fascinating experience because, you won't know how many things are fit inside to handle emergency situations in the truck!
Also, Yayasan Chow Kit also set up a booth, some merchandise is sold and also donation are available there.

A group photo of the committees with YCK staff!

In another corner of the carnival is a place where little kids are fascinated with. A ball crawl and a moonbounce slide is set up especially for them! A ball crawl is a structure filled with air and inside is filled with thousand of balls for children' enjoyment! The slide is also a favourite, where the children slide down the bouncy slide. There are also a few volunteers having their duty there to ensure the children' safety.

The children are having fun with the volunteers too!

Face painting is also available during carnival! Some children can choose to paint on their face or their hand. The person-on-duty are very busy because of the long queue! This was the children' favourite before all the games set up on the other booths such as pop the balloon, or "fear factor" game.

This post pretty summarizes how the carnival is going throughout the day. The happy face indicates the success of the carnival! Good job and a hand of applause to the committee, the parents who are willing to set up a booth for just a little income, and also the volunteers!

Signing off :)

Reminiscing childhood memories

Read the previous post if you haven't! Click here

While the magic show for the children is happening, the parents queued up to sign up for the games we designed for them. Almost every apparatus and materials needed for the games are recyclable and reusable, encouraged by the person-in-charge of YCK.

The team is busy preparing for the games before the session starts! And also.. some discussion because of some issues that we are not prepared. Luckily we can find a solution to the problem! Bravo!

The parents are divided into 5 groups and they will play a series of games with the same team. Each game will have a winner and so, may the odds be ever in your favour!

On your mark, get set, GO!

Game #1 The Damaged

The game started like this: All the teams are gathered at one side of the game area in rows. The first member of the team is given a cup and they are required to fill the cup with water in the pail provided, then run to the other side of the game area and fill a plastic bottle up with the water. Sounds easy? The twist is, all the cups are purposely damaged, with holes at the bottom of the cup!

We are surprised to see the parents are as energetic as their children!


Game #2 Dodge!

After a short break, the parents are told to form a big circle. The first team are required to stand in the circle. Then, a ball is given to the players and they are required to "attack" the players in the circle with the ball. Once the player is hit, then the player is out of the game. The game continues until the last person is defeated, and then is the next group's turn to be "attacked". Time is taken for each team and the winner will be the team who stands the longest!

Unfortunately, there is a casualty for this game, one of the parents accidentally sprained her leg when she tried to avoid the ball. Luckily there are first aid on the run!


Game #3 Follow the Music
Due to the hot day, the parents are given ample time to rest and to accompany their children to walk around the carnival during their break time. Yet when the whistle is blown, the parents rush back on the spot to continue the game marathon!

For this game, we got help from the technical team of the carnival to play some music! Yes, you guessed it right, we played the musical chair!

The rules of the game are pretty much self explanatory, the players are required to sit on the chair in the circle when the music stops, those who fails to do so will not proceed to the next round. Some twist we might add will be, when the music is playing, we will play around with the speaker, to turn to volume softer, or those music that has some quick stops in the music. Sounds evil, isn't it?

Game #4 Want Some Splash?
Undeniable that the weather is very hot! Nonetheless that all of us are having activities under the hot sun! This game is designed that the balloons are filled with water, the same team are required to pass the water balloon by throwing it to the partner, standing with some distance in between them. The balloon are not supposed to break during their catch, or miss the balloon and it break on the ground. Of course, the longest team standing wins.

At first we are worried that the parents might not participate in this game because it might wet themselves, but they are willing to play it, some of them even took of their shoes to avoid them from soaking wet and the game proceed smoothly!

This marks the end of the parents' play time! Looking at them playing makes us wanting to go back to our childhood, where there are less thing to be worried, and problems are usually not a problem. Growing up is painful, but it is a necessity of our life. This always remind me of a story of a girl diagnosed with neuroblastoma. After five years of battling with the disease, Talia Castellano, a Youtube star, a beauty guru, and also a cancer warrior, passed away on July 16, 2013. However, her optimism always inspires us. During her interview in the Ellen show, this quote hits me,

"What do you want me to do? Be depressed? A little fishy told me to 'Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!'"

--Talia 

Thank you Talia, for inspiring us, for sharing the positive energy and the strength to the world.

Back to the carnival, after a lucky draw session, the carnival proceeds with children' performance! The performances is getting excited with taekwondo show and also capoeira!

As mentioned before in the blog, YCK hires a Taekwondo teacher for the children to learn some martial arts, which act as a protection to the children, especially in the busy country like this. Their training and also hard work are presented in front of their parents, hoping them to be rest assured with them and not to be over protective.

Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines the elements of dance, acrobatics and music. It can be played anywhere, but it is usually done in a roda. The roda is not the wheel, but a circle formed by capoeiristas and capoeira musical instruments, where every participant sings the typical songs and claps their hand following the music.

This game is modified with the children sitting in the circle and sing a typical song and clap their hand, and two children came in the circle at a time to perform some moves. This session is gets even exciting when some teenagers joined the game and sings some more interesting songs!

After the two sessions, another lucky draw is held. Then, for the last session, the final singing competition! The children had audition back in the activity centre, and some of the best singers are chosen to perform their favourite songs on the stage!

One of the participants, dedicate the song to his mother, showered with love and passion, shed his tears in front of the stage. However, he managed to finish the song and expressed how he missed his mother in spite that his parents are busy with work. Praise him for his courage and his love towards his family :)

Finally, the closing ceremony! It started with giving out the gifts to the parents and also some awards to the children.

The surprising thing is that at the end of the ceremony, there is a award giving ceremony to the volunteers! We received a certificate, a small cereal box, and also a handmade gift from the children, which is irreplaceable and very heart warming.

You don't have to open your wallet to show your love. It is not the expense of the gift that really matters. It's the thought and time spent on the gift that counts. Thank you children, thank you YCK, thank you for letting us learn some lifetime lessons.

To be continued (click here) :)

Signing off :)

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

25 April 2015

Today is the day! The day where the children have the chances to perform in front of their parents and many other audiences, the day where the teachers and the sponsors waiting for, it is the Yayasan Chow Kit(YCK) Mini Carnival 2015! Early in the morning, all the volunteers and teachers arrived at Kelab Sultan Sulaiman. We reach the place via public transport, which is affordable, where we take T632 Rapid KL(RM0.80 for Touch n' Go user) to LRT University, then we took LRT to KL Sentral, and took monorail to Medan Tuanku. Lastly, there are only about 10 minutes walk from the monorail station to the clubhouse.

A sneak peak of the place! We helped them to move the things to the field, such as the hamper that they prepared, the chairs, and also some equipment they prepared. Then, we are given nasi lemak and tea or coffee of our choice as breakfast.

We waited and welcomed the guests to arrive. Most of them are parents and their children from YCK, but other parents with kids are most welcomed to the carnival and enjoy the performances! After the prayers, emcee invited Dr. Hartini for a short speech. She is glad that she had a group of hardworking and well committed committees to make this carnival a success, and also praise the children for their hard work, practising occasionally just to make their performance go smooth, and it was a big thing for the children.

The moment where everyone is waiting for, the mini concert! It started with groups of kids performing songs with simple movements. Their movements and their smiles are so adorable that put a big smile on the audiences' face. 

This picture above is special for us because they are performing the song Gemuruh by Faizal Tahir, which is also a song during the orientation week held on September last year for 2014/2015 enrollment. It was a nostalgic memories for us. We feel like we are the children, performing the song with all the other students from different residential colleges in Dewan Tunku Canselor(DTC), after all the lesson and practices with the facilitators.

The performance is followed by hip hop dance by the boys, we are really surprised that all the movements are learned and created by themselves!

 And after that is also a dance from the girls group, performing the song All About The Bass by Meghan Trainor. Fun fact: The song is actually getting compliments from the listeners, telling us that we should be proud of our own body no matter what size we are, we should be confident on ourselves and should not be affected by what the society comments. :)

Also there are a drama titled Cinderella, performed by some teenagers and some children are involved too! It gave a twist to the story, where Cinderella is a guy! and the princess wants to find her charming prince! At the end, it was a happy ending for them, where the prince Cinderella and the princess live happily ever after :)

 Mini concert continues to wow the audiences with the solo guitar performance by a child. Don't look at the expression of the child in the photo, he actually enjoy the performance a lot!

From their performances, we already realized and understand their hard work, just to perform well during their slot. We are also realized that all the children in YCK are given a chance to perform, we learned that every one should be given an opportunity. Grand or not, everyone has a talent. Many people misunderstand and don't fully realize the real essence of talent. But the truth is, when we express our talents, we create joy and fulfillment in yourselves and for others. Just like the teenager and the children spread their happiness to all the audience.

During the games for the parents, there is a show by a clown for the children, the children sit around the clown on the stage and the clown, who named himself Rara, performed a lot of tricks to the children, he even find some children to volunteer to ask them to follow his magic trick, the children laughed a lot, although Rara made some mistakes that accidentally revealed his magic tricks, he just laugh it off and the children are happy too.

To be continued, click Part 2 and Part 3 to find out more!

Signing off :)

Practice creates the master

24 April 2015
As usual, we e-mailed the person-in-charged, Mr. Siva, few days before to get his approval for us to have our volunteer job at Pusat Aktiviti Kanak Kanak(PAKK). One problem that we encountered that day when we arrived, is that the teacher on duty is not informed that we are coming. Fortunately they allowed us to enter, but before that, we had a small session, with just us, the team, to revise the games and activities we will be having with the kids.

The children are very excited to see us! We separated them into groups of 6 or 7, then each and everyone of us is assigned to a group, a quick ice breaking session is held, then we discussed about the "mini performance" we are going to have after the small discussion. Many of the children volunteered themselves to perform, some wants to sing, some wants to dance, and also a short drama too!

Meanwhile, there are some of us helped them to carry things needed for the event tomorrow, such as the gifts prepared to the winners, and many more.

The hampers prepared! A million thanks to the committee for wrapping them so beautifully!

A part of the things we moved to the place!
Also, they also requested 2 of the guys to follow their van to Kelab Sultan Sulaiman, the venue where the carnival is held, so move all the stuffs to a temporary storeroom. We are glad that we can help :)

In the children' activity centre, the children are ready for their mini performance before their big event, the carnival, on the next day. We hope to build up the children' confidence so that they do not get too nervous when they get on the stage tomorrow.

They love to sing and dance! Some of them are quite nervous but once we gave them support, they managed to finish their performance successfully, a big applause to them!

While some of the children went upstairs to rehearse their performance during carnival, we played the games we created and proposed last night, including the game Boom Boom Chiaki Chiaki, which is the passing of "bullets" and also the game Karipap, where they will clap their hands and thighs according to the beat.

Towards the end of the day, the small groups are combined into one big group to play the game, the game became more excited and fun with such a big group! As a surprise to them, there are a small gifts for each and everyone them. Although there are many of them, they did not forget to queue up to receive their gifts and express their gratitude by giving blessings to us.

Also, not forgetting about Arra, one of our members birthday! Happy birthday to you :)

Good luck and all the best for the mini carnival tomorrow!

Signing off :)

Live in the silt but not imbrued

9th April 2015

The secretary, Syazwani e-mailed the person in charge of Rumah Yayasan Chow Kit to gain approval for us to visit the place again two days before and she gave us a good news! This time, there will be a teacher to guide us, along with the children.

This time, we are not having activities in the activity centre, located in second floor, but in the third floor, where there are 2 classes provided with tables and chairs, and also a multi-functional room, having many facilities such as the computer, video projector. Due to the size of the place and also some financial problems, the room also functions as an office for the teachers.

When we reach the destination, the teachers are checking the attendance of the children, and also giving some briefing about a carnival that will be held soon, about the activities and also some performances. Then, the children are guided to third floor, and they are gathered in a classroom. Meanwhile, the teacher in charged of the day, Ms Basu briefed us about the activities planned for the day, and distributed us some works to do.

In the classroom, Ms Basu and the children revised on the nursery rhymes, where they will be exposed to at least twice a week. Ms Basu uses a creative way to teach them, where they will add on some hand gestures to help them memorize and learn the vocabulary.

Some nursery rhymes are revised, such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, 1 2 Buckle My Shoe, and also Baa Baa Black Sheep. Then, the children are divided into small groups and we act as facilitators to help them revise. Then, a small competition is held and the team that get most points are rewarded.

Then, a new nursery rhyme is introduced, I'm a Little Teapot.

I'm a little teapot

Short and stout

Here is my handle

Here is my spout

When I get all steamed up

Hear me shout

Tip me up

And pour me out

Also, some simple movements are introduced. Ms Basu also attempted to explain some vocabulary in the nursery rhyme. The children are then return to their own group to revise the song.

After a short break, group by group, they are guided to sit in a comfortable place and they are given an exercise each, which is a word search game. We guided them on how to find the words by finding letter by letter, then joining them together. We are glad to see that the children are helping each other willingly. Sharing is caring.

After that, they are given story books to read according to their level. Most of them had interest in reading, however in such big group, we could not get their full attention, which is a pity.

Then, they are guided back to the second floor to have a light meal, including a cup of tea and also sandwich. After a long day learning English, they had a short break but we can't help watching them still laughing and chatting all day round.

During the children' short break, we had a short session with Ms Basu. She told us a lot of stories about the area Chow Kit, where there are a plenty of foreign workers found, and also poor, homeless peoples begging in the street. She said it is a pity seeing them and also upset about many activities that are illegal and unhealthy, which will pollute the society, especially the kids.

This foundation house is built in this area, for the benefits of the children in this area. The children are sent to this place by their parents while they went for work, so that the children are not exposed to the society outside. Also there are many activities held in this foundation house, such as Taekwondo classes, cooking and sewing classes, dance classes and many more. The children get to develop some skills and also bring up their interest and talents.

The management of this foundation house are very pleased to see that the children are growing up happily with their peers, learning about many experiences that are not cultivated in school, and also teaching them the right attitudes. Also, they are blessed with some financial aids from some company, and also many volunteers that approaches this place to teach the children.

Although she had only started working here since July last year as a part timer, she also had learn a lot from the children, from the scope of teaching to the way to communicate, she is also very happy about getting this part time job, apart from being a lecturer, as a English tutor in a college university.

After this session, we had learn a lot. Despite on catching up the syllabus in the university, we should emphasize more on what is going on in the society, and how to fix the problem. As a university student and a future degree holder, there are more to learn apart from our courses.

We are very glad to see the happy faces of the children when they come upstairs. They are each given a piece of paper printed with some designs. They uses the colour pencils provided by the foundation house or brought by themselves to fill in the spaces provided.

Expected, at the same time, they colour and chit chat, commenting on their colouring and also singing some songs.

Due to inadequate time given and also their lack of concentration on colouring, most of them did not manage to finish it. However, we are impressed with some of their artworks.

By the end of the session, some of the children stayed back to clean the place while others went back to the activity centre in second floor. We then said goodbye to the children and leave the place. See you next time, Yayasan Chow Kit!

Signing off :)

Work hard, play harder

3 April 2015
It is the day! Before the day comes, we had a short briefing at Foyer D of 12th residential college about the activities that we will conduct and the work allocation for those attending. Unfortunately some of us couldn't attend to the first activity because of co-curricular activities that will be held soon and also the preparation for the events.

We gathered at LRT University and head to the destination, Rumah Yayasan Chow Kit together. We had a short discussion with the person in charge on what to do and what not to do, and also more plannings after this activity.

Then we meet the children on the activity center, First, we had a ice breaking session, which is conducted by a few facilitators, which is us, by dividing them into a few groups. We introduced ourselves and let the children to speak up themselves, introducing their name, age, ambition and more. We truly hope that this will boost up their confidence, which is a very important soft skill.

We also played some mini games to let their interaction and friendship to get better. We played games like "da da gus", which one of the kid point to a random friend in the group and he will escape from the friend he pointed before he sat down to his original place. We are glad that the children had a lot of fun.

About half an hour later, we proceed to another activity, which is to teach them aerobic dance "Gummy Bear", which all of us had learned during the orientation week of university.

We had them stand in a big circle and the facilitators will stand in the middle so the children can follow the steps. Of course, we simplified the choreography so that the children will not miss out any steps.

The next activity which is origami lesson, where we teach them on how to fold a cat. We prepared some coloured paper for them and the steps are easy enough for them to follow up. They are also divided into groups randomly and the facilitators teach them step by step.

After that, they are given some time to "decorate" their product. Stationery such as permanent marker, pen, pencil, highlighter are given to them. We are impressed that many of them have the talent to draw and colour.

Now, time for a group photo!

The last game of the day is the musical chair. Due to the size of the activity center and also the amount of the kids, they are not able to play in a group. Thus, we divide them into 2 groups and they play separately, then we had a small activity for those who loses, which is dancing the Gummy Bear with the facilitators. The kids are so excited that some of them who didn't lose the game, join them too!

Before we leave, they prepared a birthday cake for a child and we sang a birthday song together with the children, then divide them into groups for them to have their portion of cake. We are glad that they are happy and still energetic at the end of the day.

Post-mortem will be held soon by us soon so improve the flow of the activities and also our perspective on this activity.

Signing off with a "selfie" of us and some of the kids :)