October..

Yet again, this last month has been unbelievably busy and SHOCK...I've enjoyed every minute of it. I keep saying this but days seem to fly by, and it feels like yesterday that I posted my last blog! If I had to narrow the month down into to 3 highlights, I’d have to say that the outdoor cooking , Montfort Open house and Halloween celebrations have been the ones that have stuck out.

spot the 'orang putih' !!

Mucking around with one of the boys..

The outdoor cooking weekend was very similar to the camping weekend we’d done earlier on in our time in Malaysia. However, this time, it was just our boys and the fact that it was by the river near the hostel definitely made it all that more memorable. The outdoor cooking started on a Friday afternoon and it was so nice just to chill out and joke around with the boys in the river. The main activities started that evening when we all sat round a fire that Rory and I made. We made sure it was enormous so that it would burn all through the night and the next day; it was over 10 ft high! We played a number of games and introduced the boys to ‘Chinese whisperers’ and as you could expect, given the slight language barrier, some hilarious things came back out once it’d gone round all 60 boys! Much like the camping, we slept under a makeshift tent of bamboo and leaves as the roof. I made the mistake of thinking that it could never get cold in Malaysia and oh I was so so wrong! That night was probably the most horrendous sleep I’d had since I've been here. What made it worse was all the boys next to me were wrapped up nicely and all I had to cover me, was my wet towel! I lay there, eyes open shivering most the night waiting aimlessly for sunrise to come so that as soon as there was enough light to walk back to the hostel I could run straight for a shower! The whole of that Saturday, we organised some games for the boys including a swimming race and British bulldog. The boys seemed to enjoy it and the weather, not for the last time, provided a perfect opportunity to get ridiculously burnt. All in all the camping weekend was a huge success and most of all I think it made me appreciate at how relaxed I've been since I've got here.

Outdoor cooking

The following weekend was Montfort’s Open house, where we (Max, Liam, Rory and I) would be selling our ‘English delights’. We decided to build off the back of the previous volunteer’s success and do like they did: flapjacks , pancakes and our addition of brownies. We spent the entire day before the open house baking, and we managed to make over 100 flapjacks and likewise for the brownies. We baked for pretty much 5 hours straight and to be honest I don’t really know if what we were churning out the end was even edible! The day was a massive success and what was great was that people we coming back for second and third helpings of each. We’d been warned that people would buy what we’d baked purely on the basis on being white but the fact people were coming back for more meant that they actually enjoyed them! This meant that we sold it all in no time at all and raised about £200 quid profit for MYTC. (More than last year’s lot!) Not only was this good but it allowed us plenty of time to get stuck into some of the other stalls that were on offer. The atmosphere was really good, the weather was ridiculously hot and I don’t think I could have asked for a better weekend.

Our Stall at open house

Couple of our boys manning a stall..

Halloween proved to the most fun I've had since I've been here and it was the first time the boys have celebrated it. Therefore, Rory and I had to seriously step up and make it something for the boys to remember. We got in as much of the classics as we could such as: pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, making toffee apples, a scary film and a game where the boys had to eat doughnuts off a string without using their hands. At the start of the night, we gave the boys some flour, face paint and some fake blood and told them that they had 30 minutes to do their worst. We didn't expect much but we were completely amazed at how they looked, and most pleasing of all was that the boys were buzzing for the games that Rory and I had organised for them. We got some really good photos and the boys said that it was a good night; which is the main thing!

Toffee apples

The from 1-4 boys have all just gone home for their end of year holiday break, so there is only 10 form 5 and 6 boys around at the moment. This means that Rory and I have a fairly relaxed run in before we go off travelling in just under 2 weeks because we will only be giving tuition for these 10 boys, who have exams in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to go and explore more of South East Asia and the I expect the 6 weeks I’ll be spending in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will bring out some unforgettable stories..

Pumpkin Carving

                                   

Apple bobbing

Doughnut game..

From 2 class with their 'favourite celebrity' posters