In revival of self confidence

Let's say this is a program for me myself as well.

When Kamaruz and I met face to face for the very first time after n-th time of Jakarta-Malaysia long distance phone conversations, what he gave me was a feeling of thrilled. And right away, I forgot all my hesitation and I was already in the program.

'The program' was way much more meaningful than I could expect. It was, for the very first time, a program to call upon the youth of Malaysian Indian-Muslim to come under one roof, come as one family.

It was a program to revive the self-confidence of this minor community, and it was also an opportunity for me, to revive my self-confidence towards photography.

Thanks Kamaruz and Sherry for accepting the whole experimental idea of 'Apple shot', and thanks to the lovely participants. I felt sorry, somehow, when they had to interact with GREEN APPLES while not knowing WHAT'S ABOUT THE GREEN APPLES..

So what's about the green apples? Let me reveal one confession here: those "It's Fresh, It's Young, It's Natural, It's Cool" stuff -- yeah I made it up. The truth is, I STILL DON'T KNOW.

..but why do we need reasons for something worth for fun and simply .. erm.. simple?

ini kami..

The overwhelming response to my last post 'ITU KAMU' simply indicates one thing: We're not alone.

Fariz and I know well enough that 'volunteerism' is a word with TOO great and TOO big meaning lies behind for some of our friends, that was why until few hours before the motivational programme in Sek. Rendah Permatang Pelandok started, we only have Fariz, Sherry and I -- three amateur facilitators, planning for the worst-case-scenario, boosting our self-confidence and physical readiness, to handle almost 50 kids in the primary school.

I grabbed Dani in at 1 a.m. after few minutes of discussion through Yahoo Messenger. That was really her last minute decision as right after she decided to join this 'daredevils' troop, she got only 3 hours to get her good sleep before we set off from UTP heading to the unknown Chenderong Balai.

Whatever it was, at that moment, Fariz and I realized that we had a better worst-case-scenario: 4 vs 50 now.

I met Sherry for the very first time, not in our own office building but in this lovely little school hidden in the middle of paddy field and palm oil. Together with Sherry were Faza, Farah and Rini. Then another 3 chaps joining us: Bob, Amir and Juleo. And Sherry's hubby, Kamarul, who played the role of a 'logistic manager' before the classroom session, jumped into the fun pool of facilitators. ..

--- 11 vs 50. All of a sudden, the sky was bright.

..and among these 11 facilitators, I only knew Dani and Fariz. I knew Sherry as 'The Sherry' in the emails, I knew Kamarul as 'the husband of Sherry', I recognized Faza as 'the quiet one with chinese face', I couldn't remember the name of Rini, I thought Farah with a spec on and without a spec on were two different ladies, I saw Bob, Amir and Juleo as one unit so that I could save my time remembering their names...

... and I was sure that they did the same thing to me too -- but that did not matter much. All of us had some kind of unspoken agreement: we are here for the kids.

Everybody played their parts in the programme. What we did not expect was, the kids became a bridge for 11 of us to know each other well. Surely one and a half day of time was not enough to build up good relationship among a bunch of strangers, but in this case, it was the passion that matters, not time.

..and now, I know Sherry as a capable but humble young lady; Kamarul is fun and a born motivater; I was surprised by Faza's 'non-quietness' but after knowing her actual age I hence not surprised by her restless energy; I finally found out the explanation of why seems-to-be-shy Rini could easily pulled kids' attention with her soft tone; and Farah is ACTUALLY Teacher Ruby's daughter; Bob, Amir and Juleo were the three stooges that have 300% of enthusiasm in volunteering, and have 600% of sense of humor.

... ...

Let me rephrase or review my stupid assumption about VOLUNTEERISM. I said volunteerism is TOO big for some of our friends in my opening paragraph, now I kinda disagree, cuz I met a bunch of new friends who really see volunteerism is a way of reaching out, and learning, and making new friends, and having fun -- no big thingy at all And the sky became even brighter and brighter when some of my friends were blaming me for not asking them to join along! So glad to hear that they actually have the same passion too!

ps.. Upon request, for the very first time, a picture montage of ITU KAMU is linked below. Enjoyed.

itu kamu..

I was truly overwhelmed.

I saw angels each time I viewed these faces through Nick'a 's viewfinder;

I felt directly emotional-connected with them as they tried to pose in their very own way or tried to hide from the lens of my Nick'a, but still smiled shyly;

I was so cautious and careful to not disturb them when they were gazing at something or sunk in thought, when I tried to silently capture the moment of tranquility or the little aura of a little thinker;

I found out how my world will be brightened-up when I zoomed to a big cheerful smile or a funny frown; and I realized that a release could be so brimful to see a puzzled face finally turned into enlightened smile;

I was blown-away by the creativity and the intelligence that came along the simplicity of their way of thinking. There were always big surprises that triggered from their little shinning brains.

... ... ... ...

I don't think I've written enough or expressed well enough my feeling towards the kids who called me AbangSpider, whom I spent my last weekend with, in the UPSR Motivational Programme in Sek. Rendah Permatang Pelandok, Chenderong Balai, Teluk Intan last weekend.

Many many thanks to Fariz and Sherry for the precious opportunity. One thing I've never thought of before entering this lovely deeply-hidden primary school, was I actually, eventually, got motivated by these kids. :>

These kids are simply precious and wonderful. Fariz and I used to think of putting KakYam's "Terlalu Istimewa" as the theme song for the pictures presentation video-clip during the final day of the programme but we eventually chose Estraged's "Itu Kamu", because we were so agreed that the wordings applied so well to these kids...:

"Kau

terindah
masih ada
yang tercantik
itu kamu."