WUJ Kampong Clean-Up Mar '19

Hi All!

This post will be sharing on the experiences we had on WUJ's 3rd Kampong Clean-Up held last Saturday on March 30th, 2019. Enjoy!

It was a very wet day in Singapore, probably the first few mornings of 2019 where lightning were flashing in the wee hours and rain pouring everywhere else in the country. I was a tad bit concerned of course, fearing if the inclement weather would persist and cause a huge hindrance to our cleanup project for the day. But praises be to God, it was not meant to be.

In fact, as I scanned through the weather app, believe it or not, only Pulau Ubin remained free from any rain that very day and we were able to conduct our cleanup dry and peacefully, hehe.

I was very touched and humbled to see many familiar faces this time round, most of whom were part of our inaugural cleanup last January. They even brought their friends along too and everyone got to make new ones on that day as well.

Among those who joined us on that day was a very special person - a former Ubin resident! Cik Rohana Karim or more locally known as Ana, brought her friend down as well to show support for our cleanup efforts. Cik Rohana brought along the Chinese Ubin book which was previously launched in last year's Ubin Day and wanted to share with me - or more or less, gifted it to me, but I already had one with me, too. Although, I did take the opportunity on our bumboat ride to Pulau Ubin to share with our new peeps about the stories, memories and compilation of Ubin's heritage which could be found in the book.

Photo courtesy of EJ

We arrived on Pulau Ubin to be greeted with dry grounds - reassuring me again that rain did not fall on Ubin that morning. As usual, we headed down to the Malay kampong on foot while I share heartfelt stories of what residents used to do at certain locations along the way.

We passed by the Former Headman's house and were lucky enough to see Ah Ma Siew chilling at the front. She waved a very friendly hello to us and welcomed us in. I didn't have Pam with me to help me translate but luckily those who joined us that day helped to do the translation. Among one of the most engaging conversations that took place was when Cik Rohana and Ah Ma Siew were re-acquainted when she shared all their childhood memories together at Lim Chye Joo's Provision Shop. Lim Chye Joo, who was the former headman of Ubin, was also Ah Ma Siew's father-in-law! A new thing that I learned too!

Cik Rohana's friend, Cik Nemaya (most right), joins us in a portrait of Ubin descendants. Photo courtesy of Kim Bilous

We soon arrived to Pak Ahmad's house where we wanted to finally wrap up our assistance to his house as we were not able to complete most of it during last month's cleanup. We were pleasantly surprised to see a massive crowd of students and teachers flooding Pak Ahmad's drink stall and I knew for sure that it was most likely a primary school organising some sort of Malay Cultural Learning Journey there, just like the one I stumbled across this same timing last year. And oddly enough, my primary school teacher was here again!

Wefie with my primary school teacher, who is also an Ubin descendant! Read more about it in my post, "So My Primary School Teacher Was My Mom's Ubin Neighbour"

It was a very busy day at the stall, which I was very happy to see as there was life in this sleepy part of the village again - especially to see many young children immersing themselves in a kampong environment and learning more about the Malay culture. As the kids were learning more about traditional Malay cooking and engaging themselves in batik painting, Pak Ahmad brought us to his backyard and requested help in weeding.

By the way, I'm not sure if I have shared this with you guys but Pak Ahmad owns 3 different houses, all within the compounds of his own yard! What I originally thought were just sheds that have withstood the test of time (walls were not present), I recently learned from Pak Ahmad that these were once houses that he had built and gave to other Ubin residents to reside in the past. As the residents have since moved out of Ubin, Pak Ahmad later transformed them into sheds which he also currently lends it to other Ubin residents as an additional storage area for them to use.

Anyway, our task was to remove the weeds, unwanted canvases, litter and netting from his backyard. This ground space was far bigger than the one we had last month, but thankfully enough we have more manpower to support us this time around, too. Pak Ahmad brought out the shovels and showed all of us how to weed away, and mind you these weeds are tall and hardy. And without much hesitation, our kampong cleanup began.

It was such a nice environment to be working on as it was very cooling and cloudy, yet not windy enough to hinder us from doing a good job in raking the leaf litter away from the yard. Not only that, add in good times shared by all members of the cleanup crew through jokes and laughter, what seemed like a laborious task was so much fun for all of us!

In fact, even members and organisers from the Malay Cultural Learning Journey from the school joined in as well! The spontaneous desire to join in the cleanup was really a genuine sign of how a kampong spirit really is and it made me feel all warm inside to witness it.

And just like that, WUJ's 3rd kampong clean-up has come to an end. We managed to help provide not only safe passage for Pak Ahmad in his backyard but also a new area for him to do his gardening. Pak Ahmad also rushed to tell me to please thank the people who helped to clean up his area from the bottom of his heart when I was about to dismiss the team from there.

I hope you too can join me and Pak Ahmad in thanking the heroes and heroines who joined us in Wan's Ubin Journal's 3rd Kampong Clean-Up.

★★★

Abdul Hadi

Aqil

Cik Aida Hamid

Cik Nemaya Ali

Cik Rohana Karim

Cik Roslinah Musa

EJ

Gerald

Hon Peow

Izzat

Jen

Justin

Kim Bilous

Sarah

Sulaiman

★★★

The next cleanup is scheduled to take place on April 27th, 2019! I hope to see you there!

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

More pictures from this month's clean-up are available at the link below!
https://www.facebook.com/pg/wansubinjournal/photos/?tab=album&album_id=385262132026457

Read up on our previous kampong clean-ups here!
https://wansubinjournal.blogspot.com/p/kampong-clean-up.html

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