Monday, March 26, 2018

BB at heart

I guess one of the best things about studying in UM would be all the volunteering projects we have here. 

In Faculty of Law, I participate actively in Community Outreach Program. Through this program, we will be going to places like KL Krashpad, Kechara, Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih (SBJK), PAKK as well as TSP which situated in Ipoh, Perak. COP members would be going to these places every semester to do fun activities with the kids. Most of the time we would teach the kids regarding the law we have in Malaysia like assaults, battery, bully, but in simpler term of course so they could understand. Meanwhile in college, I joined volunteering projects such as Ekspedisi Nelayan and Baitul Bahiyyah.

It's interesting what you would benefit after volunteering. I mean, the experiences you would get throughout the whole program, it's priceless.
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10/03/2018



I remember my recent trip to Madrasah Darul Tahfiz Sri Al-Ain in Sungai Buloh under my college project, Baitul Bahiyyah. I was placed in Tahap 3 class and were asked to watch after them while they had their exams.

To be frank, I don't really understand the objective of this project at first. All I know is that ajks and volunteers went there every week to teach the kids Mathematics, Science and English so ok kita datang, ajar, mingle with the kids, ask them stuffs, then blah. Until I actually went there myself (and that was my 4th trip... god...) and involve immensely with the kids.



It was during the exam was conducted and all the kids, be it the boys or girls all go,

"Kak macam mana nak buat ni?

"Kak apa maksud ni?"

"Kak macam mana nak kira ni?"

"Kak betul ke jalan kira ni?"

I swear to God, it's annoying  (sorry I'm not kids friendly haha) so I went to Hisham (HOD for Biro Tutorial) and asked him if these kids have already learned all these basic mathematics questions or not? Who taught them? and If they receive a proper and formal education? That's the moment when the truth unravel.

The fact that these kids are refugees aren't bizarre to me. I know that most of them came from Kemboja. BUT I legit have to idea that these kids couldn't get a proper and formal education from a legit sekolah kebangsaan because they don't have identity card??????????????????????? Ya Allah, it truly breaks my heart when one of the students told me this, "saya tak boleh pergi sekolah macam tu sebab saya tak ada mykid". How am I supposed to react to this. :( Then I started going around asking if the kids have identity card and sadly, most of them know very well that they can't have one. :( 

"Macam mana nak buat IC, mak ayah saya pun tak ada. Ayah saya datang sini under permit, mak datang sini guna passport. Ayah kata kalau nak buat IC kena ada orang tolong, tapi tak ada siapa nak tolong."

I asked these kids if they have elder sister/brother and what happened to them now. Yang ada abang cakap abang dah kerja and suprisingly his brother is only 14!!!! Yang ada kakak cakap kakak ada kat Indonesia, kerja juga. When I asked them, what they will do after this, they looked super clueless. Some of them wanted to pursue their study but unfortunately they don't have the privilege to do so. 

"Belajar kat sini jelah kot kak sampai mati."

If that doesn't break your heart... :(

"Saya nak sambung belajar, saya nak masuk universiti nak belajar pasal gadjet."

At this point of time, I really wish I could do something to help them but too bad, I'm powerless. I felt  useless because I couldn't come out with anything to help them but being supportive of what they want to be. Then I was reminded of COP and immediately whatsapp kak Mun (director of COP) of what we could do to help them. And it's sad to know that there's only one option we could do to help them make identity card which is through adoption. That's when I realize, helping them with their study is the least I could do to help these poor kids.

Meeting and talking to the unfortunate kids reminded me of how blessed I actually am. I am privilege enough to be able to pursue my study in prestige university. My parents have provided enough for me to live yet I still don't know how to appreciate.

This would be one of the moments I'll never forget when I was volunteering. I learned that every time we want to join this kind of project, we need to know the objectives of it first. Why we go there in the first place, who are we helping, why we help them etc. That's how you put your heart in doing things so that when you felt tired, you wouldn't complain. In fact, you know that whatever you are doing will be worth it in the end. Volunteering gave me self-satisfaction I couldn't get anywhere else. It's the kids that make my heart warm.

Anyways, sorry for there's no pictures of the kids I could show because they are protected under Child Act. I truly miss them and I can't wait to have for the Mega event under this project - we will be visiting Petrosains with the kids yayy!! I'll be meeting Hussein and Razif (sorry biased, hehe). I'll definitely (inshallah) blog about it! :)

I guess that's all for this post. Till next time!

Lots of Love, Nurzafira Sabrina.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

#dikirfambam

I swear to God there are so many things to write about - my trip to Kelantan for EKAN, Baitul Bahiyyah trip to Madrasah Darul Tahfiz Sri Al-Ain in Sungai Buloh where I met and taught refugees, COP 2 days and 1 night team building and my experience joining Dikir Barat for the first time!!!


In this post, I would be writing about my dikirfambam because guess who haven't moved on??? *coughs, coughs*
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17/03/2018

If you have read my previous post, you'll probably know that this semester I decided to step out of my comfort zone and joined something I never thought I would/could do. 

And one of them is joining dikir barat to represent our college in FESENI.

If you are UM students you probably know that every semester we would have Festival Seni also known as FESENI. It is a competition in which all 12 college in UM would send representatives to compete in certain performances such as Koir, Boria, Pop Band, Tarian Kreatif and more. One of the reasons I decided to participate in dikir barat was because out of all acara, I think dikir was the most interesting one and it doesn't need that much of 'talent' except for a loud voice. So after giving it a thought, I decided to give it a try by attending the interview. But there's no interview pun, at the end of the day everyone who came were selected to be in the team so yay!!

During the supposedly interview night, we had an introduction of how dikir barat works. In dikir we have awok-awok, tukang karut, tok jogho, and 4 people would play the percussion. Tok Jogho and Tukang Karut would lead awok-awok in lagu jogho, karut anjur, karut matang 1 & 2, karut cepat, and karut tani.

Then during semester break we had to come one week early than anyone else for Perkampungan Feseni. During this one week, we basically practice everything such as lagu, bunga and for those who played percussion, they learned how to play 'em because most of us are new and had absolutely 0 knowledge of dikir.

To be honest, I had the thought to withdraw myself from the team cause I think it took too much of my time. Mula-mulalah sebab every night we would have 2 hours of practice tapi rasa macam lack of input. It's probably because we haven't gotten the full lyrics for all the songs so you know, meh. But I'm so glad I have Alia Husna and Syaf (says halo to my dikirfambam) for always supporting me. They are the whole reason why I still want to be a part of the team.

"Nanti kalau awak keluar, awak mesti menyesal" - Alia Husna

Couldn't agree more with Alia. :')

Eventually, after we got the full lyrics for lagu jogho and lagu karut, I started to enjoy dikir so much. It's to the point that  I don't mind spending two hours of my night dikir with all awok-awok at lobby lelaki.

I probably was the most negative awok-awok in the team. I always think it seemed impossible for us to get a placing in the competition and maintain our kejuaraan in FESENI (coz dikir barat KK2 is no joke ok). I feel so for reasons ok. First because 99% of us are new members so hello you can't expect us to be as good as the previous team??????? Second, we have super slow voice that almost everyone who watched us dikir would said, lemaunya korang smh. Third, as we reached towards the day of the competition we were still insecure of our bunga, and we (especially me) were scared of our unfinished karut tani. We heard rumors (from coaches of other kk) about how goood they were already and here we are receiving mostly negative comments for our performances. Subahanallah, macam mana saya tak negatif huhu.

On the last day of our practice, we had a round table. That was the time when we let out everything that we felt throughout this one month plus of practice. God if only you guys were there to hear what everyone had to say, you'll be speechless. It's amazing how dikir affect us all in positive ways. 

"Dari pendiam dah jadi seorang yang berani nak bercakap, useful untuk buat presentation"

"Dulu suara slow, sekarang dah kuat"

...and more!!

We also had one chinese member in the team, and you'll be surprise to know what she said on that very last day, "saya sudah jatuh cinta dengan dikir barat, we are not just a team, we are a family!!" Nawh, Jennifer is such a sweetheart. :3 It might seemed impossible for us to get a placing in the eyes of other people, but we already win with such great bonding. 


Rehearsal twime!


Minutes before we were on stage!! 


Everyone was so excited for make-up sesh!


With Tok Jogho Terbaik, Wafahish and our Tukang Karut, Nabilah!


With dikir perempuan's manager, Syaf.<3 p="">

Here's a few words for you, 
Thank you so much for being the best manager. Thank you for being so so kind, for having faith on us, for making dikir something we love instead of something we were forced to do. You are the whole reason we made it this far. I'm so so glad I work with you. All the stressful time that you had, tears you shed for dikir, it's all worth if, Syaf. Tahniah. :')

AND YES PEEPS!!!!

THEY ANNOUNCED US AS THE 1ST RUNNER UP FOR DIKIR BARAT FESENI 17/18 

ALHAMDULILLAH, HARD WORK PAID OFF!



Sri Bahiyyah and Tingkah Bahiyyah.

Sri Bahiyyah: no. 2

Tingkah Bahiyyah: no. 4

Let's come back stronger guys!!


And a picture with our coach, Encik Asrul!

"Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

Alhamdulillah, all the late night practices, constant reminder to look at the audience and smile, to just shout it out and jangan control ayu, it's all finally worth it. We did it geng.





More pictures my instagram's highlights: dikirfambam.

Last but not least thank you so much to those who came to support us!!

This should be my second time of performing on stage. Good lord, who would've thought I. would. be. doing. this. I mean, PERFORMING ON STAGE ?????? IS THAT FOR REAL???? Alhamdulillah this is truly a great experience for me. There's too much of memories I've made masa berdikir, moving on is going to be super hard!!! :'(

Uhmm... nak lagi? *hints hints* hehe. Inshallah, kalau dapat kolej semester hadapan, we'll rock the lobby again. :')

Anyways, before I end this post, I leave this video for those who want to watch us berdikir lol (PLEASE IGNORE ME HAHAHAHAHAHA IT'S SO EMBARASSING TO SEE MYSELF IN THIS VIDEO BUT DAS OK FOR MEMORIES PURPOSES I RELA POST THIS VIDEO HERE HAHAHAHA :p)



Enjoy~~

Ah I miss them already (and rindu nak memekak lol).

Till then! 

Lots of Love, Nurzafira Sabrina.