aikimbeh

I was extremely disappointed with the students' behavior. Although this is a very important exam, the candidates were not serious about it. They have no sense of urgency. They entered the room late, chatting even while the exam was going on or during the exam, sucking sweets or chewing gum. They left the exam room very early. Some candidates may ask how much time was allocated for the paper. No matter what the answer was, they told me they would walk out within 10 minutes. They were about 40% of these types of candidates. They were not bothered with this important exam which, if they do well will give them a head start in life; what more during normal school days? It might be worse.

I wonder if this is all they have achieved after spending 11 or 12 years in school? Most of the answer papers that I had collected were blank.

All this while, the Ministry of Education was only concerned about how many A's the candidates would score. How about this group of students? If they do not change their attitude, they would face problems in future.

The participation of these outings was real good. I brought a bas of students to Sepang and Tanjung Sepat. These places are in the countryside. Our first destination was to the longan fruit orchard. We were welcomed by the owner’s son. He showed us around his orchard explaining the whole process of planting the fruit trees. From the information which was given by him, I came to know that the longan plants take two and half years to produce fruits; it takes 40 days for a flower to grow into a fruit. Normally there are 6 harvesting seasons in a year. There are 2 big seasons which fall in March and August. A healthy longan plant could last for 50 years.

They grow pineapples too as their side income. Each pineapple plant produces a fruit once in their lifetime and it takes 18 months to harvest. Just imagine that to grow vegetables it needs only 40 days. So I do not think that RM2 or RM 4 for a pineapple is too much to pay! I consider it cheap taking the time factor into consideration.

Bats like longan. During the fruit season, the nice smells of longan fruits will attract bats. Even bats from as far as 70KM or more will fly over here to eat the fruits; it would fly back to their origin places in the same night. To prevent fruit s from being eaten by bats, nets are suspended over the fruit trees. Longan plant needs a lot of sunshine. It would produce less fruits or not at all if they do not receive sufficient sunshine.

Our second destination was to the dragon fruit farm. The owner gave us a warm welcome. We were served with dragon fruits. From the information given by the owner. I learned that dragon fruits have flesh available in 3 colours, there are red, white and yellow. This farm only plant red dragon fruit because it is more nutritious even though the plant produces less fruits compared to the white ones. Yellow flesh fruit has no commercial value due to its size. It has the smallest fruit among the three. I have never seen the yellow species yet. The leaves of the dragon fruit trees can be eaten by making salad, juice or soup. I wanted to buy its big leaf for planting but the owner insists on giving me free. The owner is such a nice person. Though he was not paid, he was not selfish for sharing his knowledge.

The following schedule was to the tapioca cracker factory. There was a small road leading to the factory; tapioca plants were planted along the both sides of the road. A few workers were peeling off the tapioca skin with a long knife. Then it is being washed and is cut by machine into very thin slices. Those slices are then put into hot oil to fry. They were then given different flavours, such as chicken, spicy or peppery…

The next destination was to a coffee powder factory which is famous in this area. It has a 40 -year history of making coffee powder. It is run by a small family. They are still using very traditional way to produce coffee powder. Wood was being used to fry the coffee. Therefore it needs manpower to control the fire. It took 4 hours to roast the coffee beans. So each day they could only process twice.

Later, we left for the mushroom farm. They grow all kinds of mushrooms. These mushrooms are quite common; we can easily get them in supermarkets or hypermarkets.

We stopped at a beautiful beach for lunch before leaving for school. These eco-touring was so much fun and yet students gained some knowledge from it. Oh! I was overjoyed that I had forgotten to snap more photos for documentation.

Dragon fruit plants

Longan fruits

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Longan orchard

Roast coffee beans

A few workers were peeling off the tapioca skin with a long knife

mushrooms

I am afraid I may put on weight because so many functions. Usually buffet is served on such occasions. Delicious foods, merriment with friends and colleagues, make me have good appetite.

I had attended a Tai Ji Anniversary Celebration last Monday. The function was held in a restaurant. Although there were only 35 of us, we had reserved the whole restaurant.

This course was held and fully sponsored by the Education Department. This course was held in 15 centers at the same time. Those centers are schools which have computer labs and able to access the internet. The purpose of having this course is to encourage teachers to apply ICT as their teaching resources, teaching aids and as well as teaching activities.

Teachers should always upgrade themselves; they should be able to introduce technology to make the lessons more interesting. Otherwise students do not show any interest or pay attention.
For four days, all meals were provided; breakfast, lunch and tea time. I felt a sense of appreciation for the meals were well prepared and the service was excellent. It is so lucky to be served good food with courteous service.

It was nice to become a student again! The facilitators went on too fast that I did not have time to practice. Sometimes they just have given tutorials without showing any examples. The main weakness of this course was the implementation. They have too many objectives which were not realized because we were not guided step by step. Instead they expected everyone to be already good in power point. The facilitators were busy running here and there to help us. Among the students some were quite good. Those who were poor could seek help from them.

Time passed fast and soon the course was over. We said our goodbyes and went back to schools where a lot of work was waiting for us.

I am wondering how the restaurant owner can make profit. Perhaps he couldn’t survive much longer, because with this cost, I can only have a plate of very basic food, or a bowl of noodle plus a glass of drink.

The restaurant owner must be very generous and kind soul. The workers here all wear red shirts which the word ‘CARE’
“Care for your family
Appreciate everybody
Refrain from killing
Experience true love”

At one of the restaurant corner, there are free Buddhist books and VCDs. Customers who are interested can take one home. The restaurant was also located at the corner that means it has much more space than any other shops which were located in the middle. The tables are spaciously arranged, so there is a lot of space to move about.

How it could survive? I still couldn’t find out the answer. May be some people do business not to earn a profit but to do something good for the society. To encourage people to take less meat, eat more vegetables is also a good thing.