The school day began with playing a new (to me) version of group Rock, Paper, Scissors with several Chinese boys who don’t speak much in class. Their laughter was contagious. In this game, everyone starts with one hand. When only two options are present (ex. everyone plays rock and paper), the losers stack their hands in the middle and then use their second hand. When everyone, except one person, has both hands in the stack, the hand on the bottom of the stack is removed and challenges the initial winner. The new loser places his/her hand on top. The game continues like this – one v one – until one person has both hands out. They are dubbed the ultimate winner. Can you just imagine the laughter and joking that occurred when I had to put my hand on top of a male student’s hand? Such silly students.
Special Moment #2
Next, I had English with Form 2B. Their regular teacher had a teacher’s program today, so she was not in class. 2B is a pretty good class anyway, so it was no problem for me to take them alone. We wrote “Letters to Leslie,” a lesson I’m doing with many of my classes. Since I leave in a couple weeks, I want the students’ feedback on the activities and programs we have done this year. As they were being good students, I also played music for them from my laptop and we all sang along to some of their favorite songs. I usually only stay for one class period, but because their English class on Friday is three periods and their teacher was absent, I ended up staying for all three periods. And we all enjoyed it.
During the second period, the relief teacher came with an assignment for them to complete. It was pretty good timing since most of the students had just finished their letters. Of course, they were not thrilled that we now had work to do. It was a worksheet about one of the poems they read earlier this year and one that is bound to be on their final exam. I tried to get them to work on it alone first, and some students did, but then we ended up doing it together. But overall, they were really good today and made me quite happy.
Special Moment #3
During the lower form break, I joined a group of Indian students. I joked around using a mixture of English and Bahasa Malaysia. We laughed and laughed. I tried to get them to dance with me, but they were all malu (shy). However, one student did teach me a few Tamil dance steps, to the amusement of everyone watching. I don’t even remember what we talked about, but it was a grand time.
Special Moment #4
After the break, I tried to do a bit of preparation, but ended up talking to a few of the male teachers instead. What great guys. Always joking, laughing, and having a great time. I’m getting to know them better now through futsal and our nearly daily discussions in the teacher’s room. One says he wants to come to America, but was baffled when I told him how much a flight ticket is. I told him to start saving.
Special Moment #5
My final class of the day, 4B, we also wrote “Letters to Leslie,” but first we spent several minutes laughing and joking at me being silly and speaking BM. With music playing and me singing and sometimes dancing, the students started writing their letters. I told them that I wouldn’t read their letters until I leave Labis and that got them excited to write. One student, however, wanted me to read part of his:
“It may take only a minute to like teacher someone like you, only an hour to have a best friend like you and only a day to love teacher someone like you but it will take a lifetime to forget you. Teacher Leslie!!!”
All smiles. Quite touched.
Special Moment #6
Later in the afternoon, all of the English teachers met in Segamat at the restaurant Secret Recipe to have a farewell dinner for me. Oh my goodness, the cheesecake is so good! Hasnul, one of the English teachers, and I went early to go walking in One Segamat, the new mall. I wanted to buy a gift for my friend who is about to have a baby (if she hasn’t already had him!). This excursion led to me discovering more delicious food options at the mall. Double whammy.
Special Moment #7
Lastly, the day finished with three hours of amazingness. During my 4B class, I asked the students if they wanted to jalan-jalan (go walking/hang out) tonight. A time and location was set. I agreed to bring Ultimate Frisbees and I asked a student to bring his guitar. When I returned home after school, I posted a status on my Teacher Facebook account to tell more students to come. Based on the amount of activity that post received, I knew that students would come; I just didn’t know how many.
There is a group of Form 6 students who play Ultimate pretty regularly after school. They came and brought more friends. Then some Form 4 students came, and then other students who saw my Facebook status. In the end, we had over 30 students there and not all of them were from my school! So many people that we had to play two separate games.
Not everyone played Ultimate at the same time. Since one of the students brought his guitar, several students played and sang while others played Ultimate. When I took a break from Ultimate, I taught a few students the chords to Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”! And then I taught another student a few gymnastics moves. More Ultimate, more gymnastics, more laughing and running. Glorious night. We ended the night by combining fields and playing one big game all together.
Since we were playing at the dataran (town square), Ultimate received lots of exposure. The night market was finishing up when we started, the nightly Tai Chi group was exercising, a few people were jogging, and others were playing on the playground and sitting with their friends and family enjoying the night. Many people stopped to watch us. This is what I’d like the call the beginning of a mass ultimate takeover.
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This is a long four-day weekend. Tuesday is Hari Raya Korban, an annual Islamic celebration commemorating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Unfortunately, this means many cows will be slaughtered on Tuesday. I was going to travel for Saturday and Sunday and then return to Labis to celebrate the holiday with my student and her family, but the bus tickets were already sold out. Now, though, I am grateful that the tickets were sold out. This weekend is going to be fabulous and packed with great things, just like today.
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