the carnival

“We must be there (Felda Bukit Tembaga) at 0700hours”, Thava answered my question when I asked him what was our rendezvous time for Thursday’s activity. Now, be clear that FBT is situated 20km away from our homestay in Taman Sri Emas, Kuala Nerang. This means that we must start our journey at least at 0630hours. Imagine what time we had to get up to get ready as there are only 2 bathrooms in our house that has to be used by 11 people!

Anyway, we did make it on time to FBT. The problem was, they were not! We waited there until about 0900 hours, when only then the cars from PKD Kuala Nerang started to show up. They unloaded their equipments and materials that were to be used for the health carnival in FBT that day.

At about 1000 hours, we started the health carnival with an aerobic exercise session that was headed by the ladies of FBT. Surprisingly, they had more stamina than most of us and the moves that they used during the exercise made me feel that I had two left feet! The ladies of FBT that also joined us for the aerobics session let us steal the show by making us stand in the front row. We had a lot of fun during the session and wished that we had much more of that.

After the session, some of us went back to the homestay to freshen up, while some of us stayed in FBT to be freshened with snacks like currypuffs and local kuehs, and warm tea, served by the people of FBT. We also helped them in unloading the carrier vans and moving the furniture to accommodate the health carnival that were to take place in an hour.

The carnival started off rather slow. But as soon as the day turns to noon, more and more people started flooding in. There were stalls that sells locally produce health remedies, they were booths from PKD Kuala Nerang that concentrates on health promotion and health screening, and they were also other booths from private companies that offers free eye checks and many more. Apart from the health related promotion booths, there were also cooking competitions that were held inside the hall. The ladies of FBT conquered this event, hands down. The fried rice that were creatively prepared looked and smelled very delicious indeed. The mixture of fruit juices were also on display to be judged by anyone who was willing to taste.

In the parking lot, we could see the exhibition mobile of Pokok Sena Prison and also a fire truck from the Kuala Nerang Fire Department. The prison exhibition mobile was there to educate people on how the life of a prisoner would be and the equipments that are used to pass a sentence to the criminal. We saw some used canes and hanging rope. We were also shown the video on how the caning takes place. After seeing the video, we were sure to not do anything that will land us in a prison! The fire department was there mainly to educate youths on the job opportunities that they offer. They do also answer any queries that we had on firefighting techniques.

Towards lunch time, we could see more people coming to the carnival, mainly school-going children. They were excited with the carnival as much as we are, which was a sight to see. They moved from one booth to another to gather knowledge and of course the free posters that were given away. They enjoyed themselves during the Q & A session that was done by the AADK (Agensi Anti Dadah Kerajaan).

After we were served lunch, we spent most of the time idling. This was because there weren’t any villagers that were around at the carnival. We were waiting for our briefing session with the UPK (Unit Promosi Kesihatan) of PKD Kuala Nerang. After much waiting, the HOD of the UPK sector finally arrived. He briefed us on the responsibilities and programs that is under UPK and answered the many questions that we had for him.

All in all, it was a tiring day for us as we did not get enough rest and the sun was unforgivingly hot. But the most important thing was that we enjoyed the carnival and found it very interesting. After the briefing session with the representative from UPK, we were allowed to go back, which by the way, was what we needed most at that point of time, to get some much needed rest.