It took me a long time to compile this post, for, I had to emcompass all that I've endured and enjoyed throughout the past 3 months in a single post. As so, I specially gave myself more time to settle my thoughts down and reassemble the pieces of crumbs in my mind.
Well, here goes,
My Kem, Kem Lagenda Gunung Ledang, for its namesakes, was located at the so-very ulu foothill of Gunung Ledang, Melacca. If it took half an hour by car to see any signs of civilisation from my kem, you can sorta understand why we didnt even try to panjat pagar and run away.. we just understood that we might accidentally get ourselves killed in the progress, by getting trampled over by herds of buffalos that often walk past or fall into the rapid running river that divided us from the closest town. O.o
A topographic map of my kem.Oh well,
Internally, the kem was ran by trainers and its kem commandant. Ahem, yes, all Malays, and yet they promoted interracial integration. Food for thought.
My batch, ie Kumpulan 3 Siri 4 Tahun 2007, was recognised as one of the more "complexed" batches. Third batches of every year were made out of trainees who have stopped schooling, ie the society-working teenagers. This may seem nothing to the average reader.. but when their daily topics consist of selling pirated DVDs, loanshark interests rates, secret society fights, in addition to tattoos, cursewords, knifescars etc.. aha you get the picture.
And what am I doing here?
To the Malaysian Government, I've dropped out at secondary school! (I went to Singapore to furthur studies)
Sweat.
My Band of Friends in Kem, waiting for the 9pm night gathering at the canteen. In this kem, I've learnt a lot from them.. from the process of making and marketing DVDs to the process of alternative "debt factoring, to even understand the history of the many underground gangs that exist in Johor and Melacca. One of my friend is a loanshark in KL, who has started his trade at the age of 16. Another is chef who cooked at hawker centres at the age of 15. Many are construction workers and smeltering workers. My best friend in kem was a temple-helper meddling in the "tiao-tong industry".
Aha. Tiao tong as in allowing spirits to rise from hell and possess his body so that its relatives can meet "it".
Cool rite? =D
In the kem, an average weekday would consist of assembling at 630am for non-muslims and 530am for muslims. But often, when the f*cking 530am morning call comes, its the non-muslims who wake up while the Muslims continue sleeping. Damned.
The typical timetable would be like this:
0630 Flag-rising and morning exercise
0730 Breakfast (Meal 1)
0830 Class 1
1030 Morning Tea (Meal 2)
1100 Class 2
1230 Lunch (Meal 3) (+Aftnn Nap for me)
1430 Class 3
1630 Afternoon Tea (Meal 4)
1700 Jasmani(Sports)
1830 Dinner (Meal 5) (+Lepak time for me)
2100 Gathering
2230 Supper (Meal 6)
2300 Lights Out
So, as you can see, 6 meals a day with much time to nap and sleep.. its no wonder when many of my friends say
"Eh Chunhowe! wah u fatted already ah? Enjoying life lah?"
Enjoy my foot. Ya, and let me enjoy yours too lah.
"do.. that's the guy's bunks."I often lament my kem's lack of time-management. Really ah, one of the things I truthfully understand, is the way our fellow Malay Malaysians (no offence la) do things, *most of them* tend to do things happily their way and in the process of doing so, accidentally give heart attacks and "pek cheking" the other non-Malays. If you're not affected, 2 reasons:
1, you're already used to it and oblivious;
2, you're a Malay.
Initially before I entered NS, I thought they would brainwash me into loving our beloved motherland and hugging every other race in my path; but now, apparently, my racist ego is inflating.
But on the bright side, I got to enhance my understand of other races. For example, Malays tend to be easily contented and they are not shy to speak up, whereas the Chinese are very "paiseh" about what they want, while they privately think quite highly of themselves and kinda snobbish. Balanced la~
Ok la I better stop before the ISA decides to jail me up indefinitely.
Our canteen-cum-assembly hall.
6 meals a day, and you wonder what we eat. Breakfast would normally be fried rice, porridge or fried mee or meesiam, along with white bread for those who prefer. Normal meals would consist of rice with a vege, meat (maybe fish or chicken) and most of the time, sausage in chilli sauce. No pork no lard no mutton. Cis. Teabreak, on the other hand, would be like Malay kuihs or popiahs.
The canteen from the inside, with many anxious parents waiting to fetch their child home on the last day.
