week 2 of community medicine : day 1 -the arrival-

the day started off by giving a briefing (by me and nithi as project managers, thava and bryant as batch rep, and yiu maeng as mapper) to the class regarding the rough schedule for the whole week, the crystallization (pinjam perkataan prof. Narayan yang aku rasa nak cekik) of the map of kampung hilir and the tagging that was done, a whole lot of clarifications and notifications, and the "icing" on top of the morning shitcake was the appearance of ARK: he wanted to know what were we still doing in the class at 0830 hours when we should already be in the village to start the survey. hello, we have spoken to the penghulu about what time they want us to be there and we also have made our prior plans, therefore to make things work, we should stick to them, right? well, according to ARK, the seniors have done it differently by going there first thing in the morn, start the survey even before the villagers had their breakfast (0800 hours), and then only the welcoming ceremony (at about 1000 hours) commenced. what kind of arrangement is that? why so farking rude one? would YOU like it if someone barges in your house before you could even think, asks you tonnes of question that you don't feel like answering, and then expects you to welcome that person later?? for the least part, it is really RUDE. for the most part: it is really STUPID.

so, regardless of the bizarre idea, we stuck to our plans. we reached kampung hilir at about 0945hours. the kampung ppl were already there, queing up to welcome us. padahal, we janji pukul 1000 hours. see how efficient they are.

the rempits of batch 9: to ensure that every nook and cranny of the village is accessible.they also act as transporters for those that can't take 2 steps to even walk because of their laziness.

we parked our pooled cars at the field area. our feelings were mixed: anxiety, fear, excited, and all that jazz. well, at least mine was.

although to some, it may be not much, but to me, i think it is the effort that the kampung ppl took to welcome us to their land. i really applaud their togetherness although as i was told, they came from different hard core political beliefs. they sucked it all in and made sure that the guests (that's us) feel all warm inside and not see the differences or tension that might exist between them.

preschoolers joining in to welcome us.

we were treated like VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIPs

a flunked speech by bryant (batch co-rep). teruk gila BM dia. we were practically laughing. well, i don't blame him, he came unprepared, not knowing that he was supposed to give a speech.

pegawai penerangan daerah merbok : TUAN IDRIS. he personally invited me over to have lunch with him but i had to politely decline because we had to start our survey ASAP as ARK thought that we wasted so much time for the welcoming ceremony (what can we do? say NO to the kampung ppl is it?), he even reprimanded the penghulu on this matter. tuan idris and the penghulu also personally appointed me as the medium between batch 9 and the village ppl as it is easier for them to speak to me. how nice is that? he calls me "ain" (--")

i dodged from eating this. although many of them asked why wasn't i having their jamuan. i said, i did already.... (tipu sunat. takut gemuk)

anita and yi jiun

abah and mak (my foster parents who happened to be the penghulu and his wife), took another 2 students in to stay with them. initially, it was only saras (i picked her to be my roomie because i was given a choice by the penghulu to take my own pick) and i. but he took another 2 as traditionally, he takes in 4 anak angkat from this kind of prgramme.

while surveying, i stumbled upon this baby who looks so much like my half-sister. i had to snap his picture and i even showed amani's picture to his family. they also agreed that these 2 look alike. jodoh perhaps? hehehehe

our survey started at 1300 hours. for my group (gp 8), we were almost done with our survey on the first day itself despite having to tolerate the scorching sun, the doubt by ARK, the slow responses from the kampung ppl. we pulled thru and made the survey to mach 5 speed when i exchanged job with momo. he was the interviewer and i was the measurer. i could see how they struggled in communicating, so i decided to take over. sekejap aja, berapa buah rumah kita dah cover.

it was a very taxing first day and i was hating it already. but i kept my feelings aside and decided to give the place some chances to win me over.

petang tu, mak brought us to sit under a tree beside her bendang. it was nice to take in some air after a tiring hot day. we were still in the introductory phase therefore, we were still shy with each other. but we were warming up, which is a good start.

lepaking underneath pokok sena kott?? the view and the feeling was indescribable.