Beach Cleanup, Lanterns, Mooncakes and Colouring

Clean Up the World 2010 and the Mooncake Festival were celebrated in an evening of fun-filled activities for the kids of Kampung Mangkok on the 24th of September 2010. We were assisted by 7 student volunteers from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Mr Wee Seng Whatt from MNS Terengganu, Meg Perry, our Fulbright U.S. Student Researcher and Su, Meg’s landlady. Azimi and Daniel from HOPE paid us a surprise visit and joined in the fun.

We started with the beach clean up at 5:30 pm that involved 25 kids and 14 adults. In 45 minutes, 1.5 km of beach was scoured and 8 large bags were filled with beach debris. In order not to create more plastic waste, old mailbags donated by a courier agent were used. These bags are being recycled in our frequently held beach clean ups.

After the clean up, everyone was treated to drinks and “halal” mooncakes. I believe it was the first time the kids had ever tasted mooncakes. We then told the kids to go home, bathe, have dinner then come again at 8.30 pm to play with lanterns and work on colouring books brought by Mr. Wee.

You should have seen the way the kids descended upon us after we returned from dinner at a friend’s place.  Everyone chose their own lanterns and there was barely enough to go round.  I was kept busy fixing candles and lighting them. The buzz of “auntie, auntie, auntie”  made my head spin. But I was really happy to see the joy in the kids as they held their lanterns.

When all the candles were used up, we distributed the colouring books. It was a good thing we had enough books, crayons and colour pencils to go round.

While the kids were kept occupied, the adults enjoyed the evening sipping chinese tea, chatting and tasting some turtle-shaped mooncakes I had bought in my recent trip back to Penang. Malek and his wife Mek Som joined us and saw for themselves how the kids love being with us at TCC.

Pelf and I would like to express our sincere thanks to:

1. Wee Seng Whatt
2. Chark Ling Wei
3. Gan Yew Sun
4. Lim Peng Chia
5. Vicki Chew Yii Ching
6. Yee Woei Shyan
7. Goh Hui Xin
8. Chong Chin Kian (CK)
9. Daniel Quilter
10. Azimi Azmin
11. Meg Perry
12. Su
13. See Meng Geok (for the mooncakes)
14. Angeline Ho (for the traditional lanterns)

The pictures below were taken by Chan and Mr Wee.