Our Kampongs, Our Pride: WUJ's 1st Kampong Clean-Up
Hi all!
On January 26th, 2019, WUJ embarked on its first ever community outreach project for the Ubin residents. Over 20 wonderful volunteers from all walks of life, race and faith came down to join me for this project on Saturday morning. Our youngest volunteer was 15 and our youngest-at-heart was 51, with a huge majority of them being youths who are around the same age as me and that was pretty awesome!
For this event, we also had interns from Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) joining us as it would also be a great opportunity for them to learn about the heritage of the island especially from the residents that we were helping out that day.
One of the requests came from Ivy, the daughter of Ah Ma from Ah Ma Drink Stall to help out in cleaning her home in time for Chinese New Year. Her family is known for making Ubin one whole island through the prawn farms built by her father. You may find out more about Ivy's family's heritage and contribution to Ubin's development on the Heritage Wall in the newly restored Ah Ma Drink Stall. You may choose to find out more about the reopening of the stall here.
Another request came from Cik Kamariah, the owner of the more-than-100-years-old kampong house in Kampong Sungei Durian, right behind Pak Ahmad's house. Her house is currently undergoing major restoration works as termites have continued to affect the structural integrity of her historic home, forcing the family to replace the walls and ceilings at their own expenses.
Registration began at 0845hrs and surely enough, the first few volunteers who came were the SHS interns. There was one particular intern that struck me when I saw that she and I had a few mutual friends on Facebook. When we met, I found out that she really was from the same primary school as me - same years too! Although Wei Qin and I never really came from the same class throughout our six years in Junyuan Primary, it was pretty clear that we definitely might have seen one another in school during recess or other free time in school. So yeah, small world!
A super-mini primary school reunion after 11 years haha!
While we waited for the final few volunteers to come, I also took the time to get to know the others who came. Some of them came from the other end of Singapore from as far as Pioneer and I really had to salute him for making his way down to Ubin to join me in this event. Some of them were still serving their National Service while some were already furthering their studies in university. It was a pretty cool experience getting to know everyone, just to show the diversity and tenacity of our youths.
Photo courtesy of Jerome
It was 0915hrs and all of us finally headed downstairs to board the bumboats. We were a pretty big group so we had to take two different ones to get to Ubin. We regrouped at the jetty and that was where I began to give an official briefing along with a quick self-intro of who I am and what I do. Our first place to head to was Cik Kamariah's house so all of us walked along Pekan Ubin.
Passing through the busy bicycle rental stalls. Photo courtesy of Jerome.
The Panggung Wayang Cina or Chinese Opera Stage. Find out what my mom recalls of the place during her childhood here! Photo courtesy of Jerome.
I also took the time to share with the group on the history of the place, highlighting the Panggung Wayang Cina and how it played a key role in providing entertainment for the Ubin residents back in the 1950s till 80s. Walking along Jalan Ubin, I took the time to share with the rest some of the funny stories that my mom went through on her trips back from work back home which included the site where she would always be chased by the geese owned by this particular Chinese resident. We also passed the Former Village headman's home and explained to them how their family played a pivotal role in ensuring Pulau Ubin remained safe from crime and other unlawful activities.
Admiring the beauty of nature and our kampongs along Jalan Ubin. Photo courtesy of Anila
I offer my knowledge behind the history of the former headman's home and family. Photo courtesy of Anila.
After about 15 - 20 minutes, we finally arrived to her home where Cik Kamariah was surprised to witness the crowd. Nonetheless, she was very friendly and hospitable and welcomed everyone in to show the place around. At the time, she was also tending to the officials from NParks who came down to the house to monitor the termite condition. Cik Kamariah continued to share her heritage stories with the team while I waited for the cleaning equipment from NParks to arrive. She shared with everyone and the SHS interns were really attentive, taking down notes as well! Among some of the things that she mentioned was that the house had seen through six different generations of the family, and that the house originally was two storeys high, with the first floor high enough to park a small car underneath!
Wood you look at this house? Photo courtesy of Sarah
The SHS interns really digging into the history of Cik Kamariah's home. Photo courtesy of Jerome.
As soon as the brooms and plastic bags came, I divided the team into two and brought the other half down to Ah Ma Drink Stall with me to help Ivy out. As we waved farewell to the first team, Cik Kamariah began to seek help from the team to help move the bulky items out for disposal. I called Cik Azman down to fetch us in his van and he too took the time to share with everyone his stories and heritage about Ubin. As we went down Jalan Batu Ubin, he shared the history behind the name of the street which came from the Pekan Quarry that the road was built around at. He also mentioned that the Malays would usually call the area "Ketuk Batu" which is directly translated to "Hit Rocks" - named after the act of manual action of hitting rocks there to mine the granite which would eventually be used for the construction of HDB flats in Queenstown and Redhill in the 1960s to 80s.
As soon as we arrived to Ah Ma Drink Stall, we were greeted with a mob of Ivy's dogs who were very excited to welcome us with her! Azman also joked about how scared he really was of dogs despite growing up in the presence of these Ubin dogs for more than 54 years. Ah Ma was also there at the stall to receive us and she was jovial and waved hi to all of us. Ivy then invited us uphill to her home opposite the drink stall and we got started on our work right away.
Be gone, leaves.
Our first objective was in clearing the dead leaves that scattered everywhere around her yard and garden. The most cool thing I got to see was how even with just 9 of us, we were able to compile the leaves quickly; in fact we were quite fast that a massive cloud of dust and dirt filled the air for quite a while from all the raking and sweeping, hehe. Ivy later on brought along some nice cold drinks from her stall for us to re-hydrate in the sun. While the others were busy cleaning up the front, I went on to the back where Ivy specially requested me to help out with. She told me that the rambutan tree on the hill by the kitchen would have a massive amount of dead leaves that would often allow mosquitoes to breed in.
Saying goodbye to mosquitoes. Thick layers of leaf litter were removed from this hill.
She wasn't kidding on the leaf litter and there were also a lot of leaves and dead rambutans on the zinc roof, too. It took me quite a while to clear the leaves but it was all worth it. I think all of our volunteers actually felt a certain sense of satisfaction raking the leaves and exposing the bare earth underneath. Here's some more pics of the team in action!
After nearly an hour and a half, we had successfully finished clearing the entire area of Ivy's house and yard and it was really sparkling clean haha! We managed to bag up at least a dozen plastic bags filled with leaf litter and placed them at the front of her house for the NEA contractors to come. I called Ivy up for a quick group photo and she thanked everyone for all of their hardwork. By 1245hrs, we headed back to Cik Kamariah's house to join the others.
Talk about spring cleaning for Chinese New Year, huh? Just look at that leaf-free front yard!
While waiting for the van, we also took a quick pic with Ivy and Ah Ma at her drink stall!
Bless Cik Kamariah's heart for she actually prepared some lunch for the volunteers to enjoy. I am very grateful for her kindness. After they had taken a nice bite, we resumed some of our final cleaning within her house before we posed for a quick group picture! Here's also the pictures taken from Cik Kamariah's side!
Removing the dust and dirt from antiques!
Photo courtesy of Cik Kamariah
Photo courtesy of Cik Kamariah
Photo courtesy of Cik Kamariah
Is that your Frog Prince sitting on a tempayan, Anila? Photo courtesy of Sarah
Also joining us were Cik Rubiah Ibrahim (Cik Yuk) and husband and Cik Habsah Sulong, all of whom were former residents of Ubin who came down to Ubin to lend their support in our kampong clean-up! Photo courtesy of Cik Aida Hamid.
The overall amount of pre-loved items to be disposed is fuyoohhh.
After all is done, the bulky refuse were then moved nearer towards the main road for the NEA contractors to collect as well. After bidding farewell to Cik Kamariah, Sulaiman who had joined our group also offered to bring the team over to see his house and everyone responded with a resounding yes! They came in and really got to enjoy being in yet another kampong house. This bunch of people really are a lucky group to be able to enter that many kampong homes, especially for those who had never been to Ubin. Of course, nothing is complete without another quick group photo with the owners of the house, too.
Thank you Sulaiman and family for inviting us into your awesome home!
We then also bade farewell to Sulaiman's family before we headed back to the jetty to part ways. Before we did, I took the moment to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all of the hard work that they have done, and reminded them that they had made a big difference for the residents that day. If more than anything, they have joined and became a part of my Ubin journey and helped me in my efforts to revive our Ubin kampong community and heritage.
So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the names of our heroes and heroines of WUJ's 1st Kampong Clean-Up! Thank you for being awesome!
★★★
Alfonse Chiu
Anila D/O Sivasadan
Chia Jie Lin
Cik Aidah Hamid
Cik Bujang Suraton
Cik Habsah Sulong
Cik Johari Sulong
Cik Rubiah Ibrahim
Cik Sutinah Suraton
Daniel Prem Zechariah
Dinna Hamma
Gerald Sim
Goh Wei Qin
Goh Wei Qin
Hon Kar Yee
Jacob Meyers
Jerome
Keiran Ong
Kim Hansol
Om Ee Joo
Sarah
Sulaiman
Sung Chung Da
Yeo Kia Yee
Zhou Mengyuan
★★★
Apologies if some of your names have been missed out, but you know who you are and you are important to us nonetheless!
I was honestly very nervous as to how this whole day was going to be, considering that it was my first-ever attempt in organising such a community outreach event, but praise be to God, for everything turned out fine and everyone had lots of fun on Ubin and walked away with cool stories from our Ubin folks about our kampongs and our heritage. Will I be doing another one next month? Yup!
You may find out more on WUJ's Facebook event page here:
Or skip straight to registration right here! (and yes, it's FREE!):
Our Kampongs. Our Pride. Together, let's help our Ubin residents in maintaining the beauty of their homes.
May Pulau Ubin thrive again, with its people in its heart.
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Have any enquiries? Send an email to wansubinjournal@gmail.com
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