Wan's Ubin Journal 2018 Year-In-Review

Hi All!

Before you even know it, we have come to the final days of 2018. For some of us, we would take this time to quickly scramble through our bucket list of new year's resolutions, while some might just even bring some of those resolutions on to the next year; just like how it had been brought forward since maybe 2010, hehe.

Anyway, for most of us we would take this time to remember what we have done over the past year and here on Wan's Ubin Journal, I would like to dedicate this post to take a look back on the highlights that made 2018 a wonderful year for WUJ!

My First Trip In Years

17 Mar

The day that might have been fated for me. After so many years of not coming back to explore Pulau Ubin, that wish finally came true on March 17th, 2018. We had a mini cohesion within my brigade colleagues, sort of a getaway from the chaos of our office work and life - but little did I know that a desire to find something more was sparked from this very day. You can read up more about it here.

Mom's First Trip in Years

24 Mar

Of course, it felt weird for me to make my return to my mom's birthplace without my mom; even more so that I had to share pictures of what was there with her. I took it upon myself that on the very next week since my first trip back to Ubin, my mom should make hers too. As my mom visited her favourite pastime places like Chek Jawa and Pekan Ubin, it was her visit to Pak Ahmad's house that got me rolling on my Ubin journey. It was then that I wanted to know where my mom grew up and who my grandparents really were, too. Read up more about this, here.

Search for 818K

15 Apr

Weeks of self-research on the Internet almost became meaningless if it were not for the email that I have sent in to NParks, requesting their help to locate my grandparents' kampong house. I was happy to know that Mr Alan from NParks was available the next weekend and my mom and I followed him into the forests of Pulau Ubin in the hopes of finding whatever remained of my grandparents' home. On our last stretch of the journey, we managed to find remnants of a house, but my mom and I were not confident that it was the one we were looking for. We decided to call it a day there as my mom began to feel exhausted trekking around the forests, but as we climbed uphill; at the corner of my eye a fallen tree was being lit intensely with whatever sunlight that managed to penetrate through the forests. I still did not know that it was a sign of what was to come.

Pulau Ubin Symposium @ NLB

18 Apr

Unexpectedly two days after my return from the search, I chanced upon a sketch of a kampong house that I could remember from my childhood days. It was an outline on the house of the late Pak Atan Kassim, Pak Ahmad's brother and it was also one of the most iconic Malay kampong houses on Pulau Ubin. It turned out that there was a symposium being held at the National Library by Assistant Professor Dr Imran Bin Tajudeen from the NUS Department of Architecture. Tickets were already sold out but I did not give up and immediately found my way around to contact Dr Imran via Facebook, after which he was willing to accept me as a guest. I learned a lot from the talks and through the wonderful researches conducted by his students, I knew then that Pulau Ubin had a lot more history that not even my mom and I would have known about. It was also here that my affection for kampong architecture blossomed.

818K Found

21 Apr

The weekend after Mr Alan brought my mom and I down into the forests of Pulau Ubin, I returned this time round with my office colleagues. We dropped by Pak Ahmad's house and I asked him if he knew where I could begin my search; in which without hesitation and warning, he took out his motorcycle and asked me to hop on as he brought me down to the site where the path leading inwards to my grandparents' house once existed. The sight of the fallen tree that was lit up in the forests still etched in my mind perfectly and I insisted that we made our way there. As soon as we walked past an open well, we were stopped by a family of more than twenty wild boars, which sprinted in front and behind us; almost trapping us near that fallen tree. It was only on our return trip after calling it quit that my friend spotted a concrete structure underneath that very fallen tree. I dug through the debris and found a blue piece of wood, similar to that of what was described to me by my mom on the colour of my grandparents' house. After matching the surroundings with the photos that my mom had taken decades ago, it was then that I knew I had found my grandparents' home and a piece of my family's heritage.

Ubin Day 2018

24 Jun

Word about my discovery quickly caught wind and it managed to land into the ears and hearts of the Singapore Heritage Society (SHS). After one meeting with the team in May, they have decided to share my stories with everyone else on Ubin Day 2018, a day where people gathered on Pulau Ubin to showcase their interest, passion and love for the island. The day was received with hundreds of people and some even frequented SHS's booth and read up about my quest and also learned of my grandparents', relatives' and mom's livelihood on the island. It was the impromptu tour upon the request of curious on-lookers that made this day etched in my memory, as I brought them down to see my grandparents' home. Their interests strengthened my belief that there were people out there who were still curious and passionate about our history, and that was when I told myself that I wanted to contribute more to Ubin's history.

Raya @ Ubin

24 Jun

On this day as well, my mom and I were already donning our baju kurung as we also wanted to kill two birds with one stone. It seemed like a very exciting setting as I finally got to experience Raya in a kampong; something that I had been fantasizing of since I was young! After Ubin Day had come to a close, I made my way back to Pak Ahmad's house to join my mom and the neighbours as we celebrated our Hari Raya there in the company of my mom's friends and loved ones.

Our Grandfather Story Feature

17 Jul

Among those who joined me in my tour down to my grandparents' house was Amrit from Our Grandfather Story. She was very intrigued from the stories that I have shared during the tour and especially so about the hows and whys of me going through everything just to find a house that was no longer there. A few weeks after Ubin Day, Amrit and I returned to Pulau Ubin where she filmed me as her case study; something totally new to me as I would be the one filming others back in my poly days, hehe. Weeks after it on July 17th, the video made its premiere on Facebook and it was here that my quest to find my grandparents' home and my wish to preserve the history of Pulau Ubin reached the online world.

Mom's Return Home

22 Jul

In what might be among the most emotional sights I witnessed this year, I brought my mom down to see where she grew up and spent most of her childhood and young adulthood days at. She roamed around the remnants of her parents' home and it was clear as day that she was taking a long trip down memory lane as she stood at various spots around what was left of the house. Out of old habits, my mom went to scavenge for a fallen branch and immediately swept away the leaves and debris from the house; and if more than anything it symbolised how important that house and land around it was to her, and eventually to me. It was also here that she expressed her sorrow to see that her home was no more, but also expressed the desire to have it rebuilt once again so that she could relive her best days of her life again. I had always wanted to see it rebuilt, but from this experience, I knew I wanted to make sure that it does; before it is too late for her. Read more about this amazing emotional experience here.

Creation of WUJ

24 Jul

On July 24th, 2018, Wan's Ubin Journal was created as an avenue for me to share my family's heritage as well as my adventures on Pulau Ubin with the rest of Singapore, and hopefully the world as well.

818K Sign Planting

29 Jul

I knew I wanted to do more than just helping my mom to clear the debris off the remnants of my grandparents' house so I dedicated my time and effort, into creating a sign and planting it on the soil of the former prayer room, with the address of the home painted on it: 818K, Kampong Surau. It was depressing for me to know that on my return trip the week after that my sign had been removed, but I will take it as a reminder that even if the sign was no longer there, it did not change the fact that it was and will forever be the remnants of my grandparents' house. Read more about me creating the sign here and how I handled the loss, here.

WUJ on Facebook

30 Jul

In this day and age, it would be a mistake not to link whatever you're doing to a social media account, so I created a Facebook page for Wan's Ubin Journal on July 30th. It remained the strongest platform in getting my messages across and I'm thankful for that, so don't be left out and like WUJ on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/wansubinjournal

WUJ on Instagram

31 Jul

You can't possibly just have one social media platform, can you? Since I always took a lot of photos, it only deemed natural for me to create a whole new Instagram account for Wan's Ubin Journal. Don't forget to follow WUJ on Instagram, too! https://www.instagram.com/wansubinjournal

Woodlands MAEC Heritage Tour

18 Aug

News about my discovery of 818K still continued spreading around and this time, it landed into the ears of Mr Amrin Amin, MP for Sembawang GRC and also Senior Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health. He was working closely with his team in Woodlands Malay Activities Executive Committee (MAEC) for a heritage tour to be held for residents in his constituency and coincidentally, he had wanted to organise one in Pulau Ubin. As though bound by fate, I worked closely with Mr Amrin and the MAEC team to help reach out to nearly sixty residents on August 18th as I brought them around Kampong Surau to share with them on what life used to be like around the village where my grandparents lived. It was during the final leg of my cycling tour with the group at the surau where I fell from my bicycle and got into the first accident of my life. I literally shed blood, sweat and tears on Ubin on that day itself, and yes you can read about it here.

BERITAmediacorp News Feature

18 Aug

Among those who joined the heritage tour was a news crew from Singapore's only Malay news source, BERITAmediacorp. While others were carrying out the various stations planned out by the organisers from Woodlands MAEC, Mr Amrin, the news team and I headed down to my grandparents' house where I shared with them all that I knew about them; their livelihood and their memories all within that plot of land. After a series of interviews both to the MP and to me, the news segment went on air the same night; with the report being the special report for the day. It was an absolutely thrilling moment to be watching TV for, less the fact that I was in immense pain from the wounds I sustained from the accidents just hours before and a fun fact, just minutes after they interviewed me. Nonetheless, it was a special day for me as a report on my quest was shown across TVs islandwide.

Joined Friends of Ubin Network
31 Aug

Earlier during Ubin Day 2018, among those who attended SHS's booth on my grandparents' house were Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Chan Chun Sing and Second Minister for National Development and Minister for Social and Family Development, Mr Desmond Lee, who also happened to be the Chairman of the Friends of Ubin Network. I was introduced to the network by Mr Desmond briefly after Ubin Day and it was finally on August 31st that I have become an official member of the Friends of Ubin Network (FUN), bringing along with me Wan's Ubin Journal and my family lineage on the island as my key contribution to the group. Being a part of FUN opened me up to new connections and possibilities as I joined others who are equally as passionate for Pulau Ubin as I was. You may find out more about this here.

Uncle's Return Home

23 Sep

Of course, my mom wasn't the only child for she was one of the eleven children of my grandparents. Among them is Pak Ngah, whom my mom mentioned to me that he had never stepped back onto the island ever since he moved out of the island in the 1980s, which meant that he had been away from his home an entire decade longer than my mom. So on September 23rd, his 33 years streak came to an end thanks to my cousins who took their time off in joining my mom and I back on Ubin to reunite their father to his past. You can read up more about this here.

Reopening of Ah Ma Drink Stall

23 Sep

On the day itself too, Ah Ma Drink Stall reopened after going through a major restoration through the effort of Dr Tan Beng Kiang and her students from the NUS Department of Architecture. The new Ah Ma Drink Stall is much larger, flood-proof and wheelchair-accessible, all in the effort to bring new life to the stall. This auspicious event might just mark the beginning of a new era in Pulau Ubin, one where all our kampongs throughout Ubin will be restored back to its former glory, and who knows, old kampong houses may be rebuilt again, too. You may read up more about this here.

The New Paper Feature
15 Oct

I received a phone call in late September from Yufeng, a journalist from The New Paper whom happened to have chanced upon my blog while he was writing up a story on Ubin and its residents. A few weeks later on October 15th, my interview and story about my quest in finding my grandparents' kampong house was published in The New Paper. You may read up about my post on this here, or you may go straight to the news article here.

Jom Balik Kampong Halaman

11 Nov

I have yet to make a write up for this event, but one thing for sure, this was a pretty significant event in the history of the Malay residents of Pulau Ubin. Nearly a dozen former residents and their family members came down to the island to reunite together with their friends, neighbours and loved ones. It was also a very important event as this was Wan's Ubin Journal's first outreach to the Ubin community; one that I would take on a personal level as I organised this historic homecoming as a homage to the Malay community of Pulau Ubin, for what they have contributed to the welfare of my late grandparents when they were still around.

The Straits Times Feature

22 Nov

During the homecoming, Rachel from The Straits Times was present together with her friend to cover the event. She was also keen in setting the whole story around me and it showed the progress that I had gone through; from the day I went to find my grandparents' house to where I was back then, organising an event to pay tribute to the larger Ubin community. Simply said, it was a story of how instead of just finding my grandparents' home, I found an entire community. I still owe you this coverage, so please do stay tuned sometime in the near future.

Pilot of Kampong Clean Up Project

15 Dec

The idea of giving back to the Ubin community had always been on my mind for quite some time and I was always drawn to the idea of creating an outreach programme to help the residents in one way or another sometime in 2019. Nowadays, throughout Pulau Ubin, a majority of the kampong houses are overgrown with weeds and other plants and the residents have reached the age where it had become extremely difficult and challenging to help maintain their homes. On December 15th, Sulaiman joined me in this pilot of the kampong clean up project and we worked together to help maintain his mother's home. A lot of weeds that have grown on the cement and walls of the home had been removed and the house looked almost as good as new.

I will be making the kampong clean up project into a monthly event and I would love you to join me in this effort as we help our elderly residents to make their kampongs house neat and tidy again. If you are interested, please do drop me an email at wansubinjournal@gmail.com and I will let you know when the next one will be!

WUJ on Twitter

18 Dec

Wan's Ubin Journal has expanded its social network circle again, this time on Twitter! So please do follow WUJ here too. https://www.twitter.com/wansubinjournal

--

After looking at some of the highlights WUJ had, it is no wonder why 2018 had been a blast, but of course Wan's Ubin Journal could not have got this far without all of you: my fellow readers, fans and friends.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your sincerest support, encouragement and blessings. In what first started as a quest to find my grandparents' home to now, giving back to the larger Ubin community and God Willing, to the rest of Singapore with the efforts that I put in to preserve the kampongs of Pulau Ubin, home to my mom and her sibilings, my grandparents and the other residents who still and forever will call Ubin their home.

I am proud to be a descendant of Pulau Ubin, and there is nothing in this world that could take that away from me.

Here's to an amazing 2019!

May Pulau Ubin thrive again, with its people in its heart.