All in the family ( Pt 6 ) – Take a BREAK

It is time to have a BREAK.

_________________________ 

In last Sunday’s NST Wan Hulaimi, in his article, ‘All that babble and blah about esteem’ said, “… it has been demonstrated time and again that telling students that they can hone their skills towards greater achievements is better than praising them for scoring all As. ….’

That interesting piece of writing bears no reference to the UPSR results. But it adds up to that pride of achievement.

 ___________________________________ 

After continuous record-BREAKING years of being the champion in UPSR examination, Terengganu, according to a local daily, is doing a ‘post-mortem’ on the reasons for the failure to maintain that distinction, the high esteem. From the small samples of pupils attending Almanar tuition classes over the last nineteen years I always wonder how on earth the state could have been proud of its achievement over the years. I have not been able to reconcile the reality with the esteem.  It is about time to have a BREAK forcing a much needed post-mortem.

______________________________       

So it is good to have a BREAK, even in a record-BREAKING dream of self esteem.

__________________________________

One of Pakcik’s grandchildren failed to get all A’s in the recent UPSR examination. I am glad it is not seen as a tragedy in the family breaking the chain of excellence set by her two elder brothers. Isn’t it good to have a BREAK so that we all do not get carried away believing the world is always at our feet?

While two of Pakcik’s grandchildren are right now struggling with their SPM examination two other grandchildren are enjoying themselves because they themselves have just sat for their PMR examination. Never mind what fate has in store for them. As for now they are having a good BREAK with us, armed with their guitars, serenading their grandma from the top of the tree house.

Standing on a tree house

Serenading a grandma

In this part of the world these two city boys have a chance to perform the neck-BREAKING task of picking young coconuts. It is easy when they see a local shinning up a tall coconut palm; or a trained monkey running all the way up to the top. Doing it yourself even on a small tree proved not all that simple without a bit of cheating. 

 

No, I can't make it

Let's do a bit of cheating

I can do it too

 ___________________________________

It is  November now, the middle of our special snow-free winter season when monsoon rain ought to be pelting down day and night. But even the monsoon has its BREAK too. We are having sunshine for a change and the steady sea breeze helps children fly their kites on the beach.

It looks tempting from the house

  

Nice breeze for flying kites

But the sea is still dangerously rough. Tnree  weeks ago a boy who was about to sit for his SPM examination was drowned in the sea not far from here. The strong under-current had drawn him into the deep water beyond. It is a sad story.

Watch that wave

It is fascinating to sit on the soft sand and watch the formation of waves and how they gather speed and strength only to BREAK with huge splashes, unrolling and laying sheets after sheets of beautiful white foams along the vast stretches of sandy beach.

I can sit all day

Only this deep we are allowed 

Roll on to me !

Crawl like a crab coming from the sea

To be sure that all play and no work does not make Jack a dull boy, these two long-and-bushy haired kids  are given small doses of English, Maths, Physics and Chemistry in preparation for their early Form 4 days in January. That is on the assumption that they would be allowed to continue studying at Victoria Institution. For a start they have been warned that they would not be allowed to see their PMR results if they turn up with untrimmed hair as they are today.

Let's play the guitar

And forget the PMR

   

And will these two young boys have all A’s in their PMR? Their parents did not achieve all A’s before them and their grandparents did not even have such an examination to sit during their time. So what is the fuss? For all the lack of ‘esteem’ we, as a family, have survived better than we deserve. Alhamdulillah.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan  

End of the Tunnel ( Pt 20 ) – You can’t win them all

 Note:

This should have been posted early this month.

______________________________________  

Unusually early for visitors, two ex-Almanar pupils turned up at our home, both wearing sad faces.

“ Pakcik, berita tak baik. Nor Haliza meninggal, (Bad news Pakcik. Nor Haliza has passed away.)” The two girls burst out almost simultaneously, letting off bottled up emotion, and eyes beginning to brim with tears.

Happy days by the sea

Nor Haliza’s father pensioned from the army about twenty years ago. I am fortunate to have Pak Hashim’s three children attending classes at Almanar. The eldest of three, Azmi has just qualified as a dentist after three years in Indonesia, and is now waiting to be posted, hopefully at KT general hospital. The third, Azrol, is a medical student at a local university.

On her way home from work, this charming 25-year-old lass was knocked down in a road accident involving two motor-cycles, leaving her in a coma and she never regained consciousness; just a couple of months after sitting for her final degree examination and barely a month from her convocation.

According two her two friends, the deceased had  recently been telling them that she would be applying for a job far away from home and would not be looking after her dear mother. Who could have thought that she was looking forwards to her appoinment with the Ultimate Planner?

_____________________________________ 

Parents - mission accomplished

Sadly, we have lost our only daughter

 

A dentist (R) and a medical student(L)

We have lost our only sister - but life goes on

This is a story Pakcik was hoping to write one day, that of a successful end-of-the-tunnel series. I was confident to see three winners in this family. Little did I realise that I would be sending my second ex-Almanar pupil on her final journey. ( My first was End of the Tunnel Pt 17 – click here )

I could hardly hold my tears when I saw the vehicle leaving her home on her final journey after a small group of us said our prayers in the home she was talking of leaving. I used to have a dream that in that small house there would live an aged army pensioner and wife, and three offspring, a dentist, a scientist and a medical doctor. No, it is not destined to be.

Alas, we can't win them all.

I have said goodbye to two of my loved ones. May Allah have mercy on them. And my condolences to their families.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Let’s Twist Again – Not Chubby Checker’s

This is nothing to do with that song, Let’s Twist Again, made famous by  Chubby Checker in 1960’s, over which Pakcik’s age group went crazy doing the ‘twist’,  or doing the ‘rock’ to Bill Haley’s Rock Round The Clock. No, this is something more serious.

This morning Makcik and Pakcik decided to accompany a husband-and-wife couple to town.  They are our close friends, known to Pakcik from my school days in 1950’s.This morning the wife was going for her second appointment with an acupuncture practitioner. She was suffering from weak knees. For that matter, who at our age does not have some weak spots somewhere? Her husband, still very active in tennis, has knee problems too.  Makcik has her complaints and I have mine no less. But we all pretend to be young and strong like a hundred-year oak tree with all the knots and twists.  

Accordingly, while the wife was being treated by a Chinese lady Makcik decided that she too should also have a go, and she did. While the ladies were having their needles in one room my friend and Pakcik sat talking to the lady’s husband, also a practitioner. Knowing our interest in his medical practice he  began to tell us about his grandfather who came to Malaya from China bringing with him the special skill that was handed to his father and later to him and wife. That does not end there. One son is practicing at a hospital. Another son and a daughter are now undergoing the course in China. ( What are we doing with our children, forcing into them biology, chemistry and all to become doctors? )  By then I was sufficiently conned into admitting that I had been having slight pains in my shoulder joints whenever I tried to TWIST my upper arms to reach for something behind my back.

 

Before I knew it I was already unbuttoning my shirt. Needles after needles were planted on my shoulder, knees and feet. I thought there must be about a dozen of them, and I must be beginning to look like a balding hedgehog.  But I would not dare to look directly at them. There was no real pain which I had been anticipating. Instead it was gentle wriggling of the needles here and there – at the nerve nodes, according to him. Hardly five minutes later the good ‘doctor’  asked me to  do the ‘TWIST’  with my upper arms to feel the lessening pain. I am not sure whether it was auto-suggestion or fear that made me admit that the pain had indeed lessened. After a bit more of wriggling and twisting of the needles he began to pull them out and threw the used needles into a waste paper basket. Well, I thought, there was no fear of being infected with that dreaded whatever. My friend, who was watching the act throughout confirmed the use of new needles on me.

Finally my good wife was poorer by sixty ringgits and I was by forty – one hundred in all for two. I think my friend is going to be the next to do the TWIST.

And now, as I am writing this, I recall the time I had

an attack of Bell’s Palsy three years ago ( posting of

21^st Nov 2009 - click here ). In that posting I noted

down that Awang Goneng had suggested acupuncture after doing a well researched thesis on Bell’s palsy. On hindsight if I had followed that advice the duration of my embarrassing ‘half smile’ suffering could have been a few days shorter.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Do we have a winner?

We were in the grounds of our local mosque awaiting for the Friday prayers when a familiar gentleman wearing a broad smile gave me a tap on my shoulder. Obviously he was bursting to give me a good news.

“Amirah menang hadiah karangan. ( Amirah won a prize in an essay competition)”

Amirah was an Almanar pupil for three years from her Form One until she scored all A’s in her PMR examiination and gained admission into a boarding school in Kuala Terengganu. 

I am not at all familiar with the various competitions for school children. This particular one, organised by SM Sains Alam Shah, Kuala Lumpur, is called 
  

ASiS INTERNATIONAL ESSAY AND POETRY WRITING COMPETITION -2012

As shown below Amirah came out third in the essay competition, the top two went to pupils in Kenya and India.

1^st  -  Faith Pepela – Alliance Girls’ High School, Kikuyu, Kenya.

2^nd  -  Roshni Khatri – St Marks Senior Secondary Public School, New Delhi, India

3^rd   -  Nor Amirah Ab Manaf – SM Sains Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia

These top three received cash and Distinguished Award Certificates for their essays.

    ________________________________ 

With a special smile Amirah called with her younger sister to tell us the news

 ________________________________________________ 

 

Over a lunch in their house yesterday, Amirah’s parents were all too ready to throw credits at Almanar for threir daughter's achievement.  When things have not been easy these two years at Almanar and out of frustration I often feel like throwing in the towel, an  occasional success, the like of Amirah’s, is real tonic. And now, wishing her all the best, I have reasons to look forwards to 2012 SPM examination results. I think we have not heard the last of her yet.

Congratulations to you, Nor Amirah. You have given me reasons to carry on.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Too old to learn ( Pt 2 )

Early this month Pakcik was prompted to express the means of communication I prefer, f/b vis-a vis e-mail and blog. Knowing that I do not like f/b a few friends dared Pakcik to accept them as f/b ‘friends’. It is all in good spirit. We are still friends even if they cannot stand the very smell of budu!

All the while things have been hotting up in the papers. All sectors have finally admitted that we are not at ‘taraf antara bangsa’ ( world-class) after all as far as the current English education in Malaysia is concerned – even Bahasa Melayu for that matter. I am sorry having to maintain Bahasa Melayu, not Bahasa Malaysia, for whatever reasons it is English language, not restyled and renamed as United Kingdom language.

It tickled me to read the headline in NST last Monday – Mind your language

  

Then on the following day, also in New Sunday Times, I read the call to ‘Arrest language decline’.

Our DPM was reported to have said that “ …. It is important for teachers to remind students to always use the standard form of the language in class. There is a need to differentiate between the use of formal and informal languages…”

Someone then said that “teachers must play a role in tackling the problem...”

      

It is unanimous that we all have to arrest the language decline, Malay as wel as English.

Years ago Pakcik wrote in a Malay paper how Dewan Bahasa ‘telah merojakkan bahasa Melayu’. To me Dewan Bahasa (DBP) have butchered the Malay language with uncalled for inclusion of unnecessary English words, and for promoting 'bahasa baku' at the expense of Jawi and words with Arabic roots. 

And in April 24^th, Pakcik wrote in Rencana, “Pertahankan nilai baik dalam siaran TV” in which I criticised the indecent behaviour of artists and the improper language used by masters of ceremony. 

And I have strived to the best of my ability to teach manners and proper language – caring little for ‘format exam’ (I wonder what language this is - as my Almanar pupils often tell me what their teachers emphasise on in class). Within my own limitations, I want my Almanar children to be as good as possible in the subjects I help them. And I will continue to do it my way, the way I was taught 60 (sixty) years ago.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan  

QURBAN - an efficient way

STOP PRESS

It is time for Qurban. Many in big towns may not have a convenient means of participating in it. Muslim Aid Malaysia specialises in this and any one can take part with only RM 380 per head/portion. It is a very reasonable, convenient and effective way of reaching the needy recipients. I would recommend this. For details please visit the blog,  CatfromSydney  (click  http://catinsydney.blogspot.com/) who is very nuch involved in this worthy cause.


Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

End of the tunnel ( Pt 19 ) – I've got a job now

This entry should have been posted much earlier because it relates to an event during the last Hari Raya celebration. Hari Raya is the time we have a number of ex-Almanar pupils calling on us, alone, in groups and with spouses. In many ways they are members of our enlarged family.

   

This time we had just about seventy of them. Last year’s figure was above eighty. Understandably many are now working people who have to be on duty and some are married and have to be away celebrating Hari Raya with families of their spouses.

They aren't kids anymore!

As customary on such occasions, Makcik had ready some gift envelops for small children brought along to visit us. There was an instant when Pakcik and Makcik were escorting two of ex-Almanar visitors – now young adults -  out of the house. Out of a sudden and surreptitiously each of them tried to slip small green envelops into our hands. Both of us were absolutely stunned with disbelief. Almost instinctively we tried not to accept the gift.

Do I deserve one?

“Saya dah kerja, Pakcik, ( I’ve already got a job , Pakcik)” asserted one of them to me. And the second girl uttered the same to Makcik. Seeing how resolute they were we relented – receiving cash gift from our ex-pupils. As much as we understand what such a gift stands for, we are determined that this must never be a trend. 

We are happy for their families. Our pleasure is to see that they have a good start in life and able to assist their parents and siblings.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Aren’t we all worried?

It is exam time. Last week 481,424 children were reported to have started sitting for their PMR examination. And in a fortnight’s time about 400,000 will sit for SPM examination.  We hear all the noises made by parents, particularly those who are at this game for the first time. Children, who are right now in the middle of PMR exam, sat for their UPSR exam three years ago, and will face their SPM exam in two years’ time. It is exam after exam, a worry after another.

What comes to my mind is how many of these children give their families worrying time. These are the fortunate ones, being loved and cared for. Little is said about those whose performance is no skin off anyone’s nose.

Every where in our country are homes for the orphans and children of the less privileged families.  Those who have been following this blog have read about one home oficially open last year. It is just one kilometer away and is on the same stretch of coastal road. From the very start Almanar has been involved in one way or another with a small number of its inmates. And less than a month ago, Pakcik was handed a new group of 20 Form One children. This group is supposed to consist of the better children selected from a larger group.  In two years’ time this group will be facing their PMR exam. What can Almanar do to help these children on top of what they are taught in school?

Now let us have a look at their last year's UPSR exam results after six years in primary schools in various parts of the state.  The following list shows the performance of these twenty children, ten boys (number with ‘b’) and ten girls (number with ‘g’).

     Results for 20 children in their UPSR exam sat in 2011

         

     

       Kef : Kefahaman ;  Pen : Penulisan

     No       Eng     Maths    Sc      BM       BM

   (Kef )      (Pen)    Total score

    _____________________________________________ 

1  g        A          C         B         A          A        3A 1B  1C

2  g        C          A         B         A          A        3A  1B  1C

3  b        B          B         B         A          A        2A  3B

4  g        C          B         B         A          A        2A  2B  1C

5  b        B          C         A         A          B        2A  2B  1C

6  g        C          C         B         A          A       2A  1B  2C

7  g        C          B         B         B          A       1A   3B  1C

      8  g        B          C         C        B          A       1A   2B  2C

9  g        C          D         C        B           A        1A  1B  2C  1D

10 g       C          B         B         B           C              3B  2C

11 b       C          C         B         B           B              3B  2C

12 b       C          C         B         B           B              3B  2C

13 b       C          C         C         C           B              1B  4C

14  b      C          C         D         C           C                     4C  1D

15 b       C         C          D         C           C                     4C  1D

16 g       D         C          D          C           C                     3C  2D

17 b       D         C          C          D           E                     2C  2D  1E

18 b       D         D          E          C           C                    1C   2D  1E

19 g       C         E          D          C           D                    2C   2D  1E

      20 b       D         C         E           E           E                    1C   1D  3E

     

________________________________________________________       

Watch the performance of the last seven children, five boys and two girls. It is C’s and D’s, even E’s as well. I shudder at the thought of those not selected for Almanar’s help. The above list shows one girl being good enough to score A-grade in English.

When I see this kind of performance what comes to mind is how lucky our children are.

Who really cares for the future of the above children?  We get jittery when an exam time comes. Those children grow up without creating jitters to any body. 

______________________________ 

On the first day of their attendance at Almanar Pakcik discovered SIX children with eye-sight problems. At the end of their second day at Almanar Pakcik drove four of them to an optometrist. Another two were not well that day and will get their glasses in due course. Now watch how the first four smile outside the optometrist with glasses on for the first time ever.

Now we can see you

This done, the greatest challenge is whether this group can be motivated to study? Should I be worried over their academic future because they are not of my flesh and blood?

______________________________ 

p/s :

While we were waiting for the glasses to be ready at the optometrist one of the girls popped out this question; “Pakcik dah lupa saya? (Have you forgotten me Pakcik?)

I was pleasantly surprised to be told by this girl that two moths before her UPSR examination last year she joined a group of about twenty children selected six months earlier for extra tuition in English and Maths. The primary school had requested Pakcik’s help for a weekly class there. I obliged the school, doing the twenty-minute drive there every Wednesday afternoon. Late as it was to join the group, this girl managed to score an A-grade in English in her UPSR. Now I remember this girl. Not among the top UPSR scorers then but she is the one on top of the list above. Her father is an invalid and life is hard for her family. My gut feeling tells me that this girl is a spark, a bright spot in that group. She may, hopefully, ignite the rest.

_____________________________________________      

As we fear our own children not getting all A’s, spare a thought for these poor children

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Kera dihutan disusukan …

This morning I had a group of fifteen Form 3 pupils from the orphanage. They only started coming to Almanar about six months ago after being picked from various parts of the state. They are poor in every way, family, education and even the will to learn and above all threy are very playful. They are practically ‘no-hopers’ as far as their tomorrow’s PMR examination is concerned. And I keep trying to make them understand that all is not lost if only they can keep their mind tuned to succeed in two years’ time, their SPM examination. I promise them that I will do everything I can to help. And I know they will get somewhere if only I can change their learning attitude, a big if indeed.

And it is so often I quietly draw a sigh as I face these children. Today, in particular, I remember that I have two grandchildren in KL who will be sitting for the same PMR exam starting tomorrow, and another two for their SPM examination next month. It saddens me to be reminded of the Malay proverb, kera dihutan disusukan anak sendiri mati kelaparan (wild monkeys are being milked whilst own babies die of starvation.)  I have done very little for them. But I draw comfort from the fact that they are urban children who have been raised within my own family. They are not neglected kids.

Makcik is in KL hoping to lend support to our loved ones. And here I am alone with a prayer in my heart  that HE will help ours as much as I have tried to help others’.

____________________________________
To:
Dear Abdul Aziz, Azim, Arif and Sulaiman. With love and prayers from Ki

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Too old to learn

Certain changes taking place around me are leaving me further and further behind. There is an obvious mass migration to face-book. A few, not just one or two, have suggested, recommended and even tried to persuade Pakcik to progress along with the masses. In defence, let this stubborn old man respond and say in simple words what I feel about all these.

A few years ago my children realised that it was time for their father to lay off the old typewriter in exchange for a laptop, not the massive desktop with all the messy wiring and connections. Seeing how easy it was to write, delete, copy and make all the changes to lines, paragraph and pages I was sold on the idea. So the old father took a giant step, not unlike Neil Armstrong’s 'One Small Step for Man’ on the moon. Then I was shown how to blog. That thrilled me to no end. Nevertheless I must confess I still have problems with anything beyond a simple posting. The recent lost of Almanar blog from the screen sent me into frenzy. Alhamdulillah my heart could take it and it did not take that long for my daughter had it restored.  

Seeing my giant step in IT my children started to coerce me to go Face-book. They made me open an f/b account. As if that was not enough a second account was opened for Almanar blog on f/b. No I have not got used to liking these f/b accounts. However, when I get requests from people to become my “friends” I simply agree. And now I am sure to have close to 200 so-called ‘friends’ on f/b. I suspect they are mainly my ex Almanar pupils, many of whom carry odd names. But I always warn them that I do not look at my f/b. I do not even know how to open and move around that strange language.

Believe me, I am not ashamed to say how tough it was for the old grey matter to absorb the rudimentary steps in blogging. But I made it somehow, and still a no, no to f/b.

Finally, about a year ago my children presented me an i-pad. As the icing on the cake I was asked to select the recital of the whole Quran I liked best. The idea of lazily lying down to listen to a choice Quranic recital by a favourite Qari sounded very exciting. Alas, I still have problems! For instance, I do not know how to stop and move a few lines forwards or backwards.  So the i-pad has been lying idle except when the grand children are around showing their grandfather what an i-pad can do, moving fingers deftly on the screen, taking own photographs, not forgetting music and games.    

 

In short, any one who tries to engage me on f/b will be sadly disappointed. I have grown an intense dislike for it. Here, I will say the reason in a few words.

 “ …. klu ak sekeh mg klu xmri …hehehe”

What the hell is this???? It comes from my f/b.  It sounds like someone giving me four-letter words! Same to you, hehehehehe, with knobs on!

If I am given something in writing I want to see a complete sentence with subject, predicate, finite verb and all. Disciplined life  of over 70 (repeat- over seventy) years is not likely to give way that easily to a change - full stop. Out of necessity I accept shortened expressions on sms, reminiscence of sending telegrams in the 1950’s.

_________________________________

On Sunday 30^th September I was pleased to read in NST the

usual column by Wan a Hulaimi (aka Awang Goneng of the bestseller A Map of Trengganu). This time his subject was ‘A writer chooses words as a painter would colour’.  I enjoy reading about something I believe in. I am not saying “great minds ……”

In summary, dear readers, you see above how Pakcik could spin a simple message in so many words. The title said it all -  Too old to learn. In other words, or another lango , doh tuer gwana nok belajorr.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

BLOG WITHDRAWN ?? - Help needed

Pakcik was alerted by two visitors that , for reasons beyond my comprehension, Almanar blog had been 'withdrawn' for some time this morning. Luckily someone has kindly helped to reinstate it.  I am worried why this should have happened. What would I do if it is totally irrecoverable?  Can I make a duplicate of Almanar blog as a back-up in case of such an incidence? Will someone, PLEASE, advise me, by email if prefered  - almanar@pd.jaring.my



Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.