Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Smk Kai Chung Alumni Association


Smk Kai Chung Alumni Association is newly formed. I am a LAU PENG YEW, an old friend.

Yellow bells, Alamanda
and Hibiscus.
They are some of my favourite things.

Kai Chung School were my best years,
The students were respectful.
The colleagues friendly.

I did have short teaching periods
At Kuching High and SMK Binatang Govt High.
But they were nothing like Kai Chung.

That was why I flew miles and miles in 2012,
Across the ocean and sea.
chalking up carbon footprints to be at their reunion.

The song and dance ,
"There is a welcome here for you,
in Kai Chung School."
Rings in my ear.

The garden centre man in Singapore tells me this is Yellow Bell, I have never seen it before. They look like tiny Alamandas. They can be seen in many of the gardens of landed properties in Singapore. This was taken at Koven, the Scotland of this garden city. My sister G lives here.
 Alamandas and Hibiscus are the flowers I associate Kai Chung school with. I was the house teacher of two sports houses when I was teaching as a 19 and 20 year old. I think of Lynn Wong aka Ah Leng, she remembers fondly that I was leading her cheer very enthusiastically,

Apparently, the next year in 1975, I was in charge of the Hibiscus house. Though I had forgotten. There were photos to proof it that I was in the winning house, and I was a very active cheer leader.

This is a special Hibiscus. It has another layer dangling like a lantern. The one below too is a multi layered. Not the Bunya Raya, the National flower of Malaysia which is one layer.








Sports day in Kai Chung was a big thing. The male teachers and some students (I think male students) went to the swamp and cut loads of palm fronds. How they carted them back, I need to ask the students when I see them. The girls stay at the allocated part of their filed, and weaved walls, and soon they erected a grass shelter. If you think the contestants of "Survivor" did a great thing, the kids in Kai Chung did a far greater job. It was all organic, hence my meme Save the World. There was a prize for the best shelter which ws rectangle, not rounded like a Samoan Fale.

Here I was with Miss Chieng, my best buddy and colleague. Since I left the school for Canada, I had seen her only one.








Using palm leaves to build the fale, http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/





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