An evening with Buku Jalanan Chow Kit

Sunday 11 June 2017, I visited Buku Jalanan @Chow Kit. I was there with my parents to deliver 70 Sahur (pre-dawn) packs from the RAMADAN BLESSING IN A PACK PROJECT to the children who attend Buku Jalanan Chow Kit (BJCK) and was invited by Cikgu Rahayu the lady in charge of this project to stay and observe what they do every Sunday night with these kids.

Me and Cikgu Rahayu

                                    
A group of 12 volunteers from Taylor's college who come along to teach Maths were busy setting up the area to be ready for the night. First they swept up the Loading Bay area of Alka Ria building. Next they spread out  tarpaulin sheets on the ground. The sheets are given a good clean wipe because the volunteers and the children will be sitting on these sheets for their lessons. 

Setting out the tarpaulin sheets

Tables were set up on the side for the ''buka puasa' meals.The food arrives and they got busy setting them up.

Slowly one by one I notice the kids coming in.They all have exited looks on their faces.They run up to Cikgu Rahayu greeting her. 
When it was almost time to break fast, the children get in an orderly line to take their food. They then sit in neat rows waiting for the call to break fast. My dad mentioned that they are the most well mannered kids he has seen in a long time.

Taylor's volunteers getting ready for dinner

Having a chat with Ms.Hardeep -Project head for Taylor's

Group from Taylor's college.

                                                                                               

Buka puasa

After eating they gather the plates, dispose them and they get ready for their prayers. It was my very first witnessing how the Muslims pray.

After prayers little tables are set up for the children to write on. By this time it was 8.15pm. The only light source they have is from the orange /yellow street lights. 

Before lesson began today they had a small treat by Ms.Marion Diosay and her team doing a puppet show about animals. The children seemed to enjoy it.

I did not stay till the end of the session. I said my goodbyes to Cikgu Rahayu. 

On my way home I did ponder on how lucky I am. I have a comfortable chair and a big study table with my very own table lamp. I am privileged to be able to be homeschooled by my mom and I have a huge collection of books and resources at my disposal. I saw happiness and determination on the faces of the children who had almost nothing but eager to learn English, Maths & drawing once a week by a variety of volunteers. I will definitely come again to Buku Jalanan and volunteer my time teaching maths and maybe I will be able to bring along more pencils, color pencils, coloring or drawing pads and writing books.

Another 70 Sahur (pre-dawn) packs will be delivered to Buku Jalanan Chow Kit on Sunday 18th June 2017. Thank you to all who contributed one way or another to the Ramadan Blessing in a Pack project.

*From theSundaily (13 July 2016)
most of the children and their parents are not homeless, but struggle to make ends meet, let alone provide educational help for their children.There are roughly 74 children from 45 families who attend the weekly sessions. the initiative came about because of the huge number of children living in the area who would usually play by the busy roadside or loiter about after school as they waited for their parents to return home from work.

Book Review by Umar Farook

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - by Umar Farook. 

Spoilers may be included!

This highly anticipated book starts immediately where it left off at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I was extremely shocked to find Harry’s son, Albus Severus Potter (work on the names, Harry!) was put in Slytherin! I'm trying to develop a theory as to why this had happened but anyway the main antagonist is Delphi Diggory, a girl with winged tattoos on her back and is Vol - sorry y'know who’s daughter?!

Ron Weasley still has his humor. He is really funny! My favourite character would probably be Scorpius Malfoy. I know he’s a Slytherin but not all Slytherins are evil. I wouldn't mind too much if I was put in Slytherin  although it is known that most Gryffindors  hate Slytherins.  

But yeah I would rate this book a -platform- 9 and 3/4! ;-)

Book Review by Adam Alimi

Hi there, my name is Adam Alimi. I'm a 13-year old kid who has made a book review about Wee Free Men written by Terry Pratchett (totally not forced by my mother *cough* *cough*).

My review of the Wee Free Men:

Wee Free Men is the tale of a girl named Tiffany Aching who wants to be a witch but finds that it is much more about using your head and not about waving your wand around and casting magic spells.

Wee Free Men is part of a five-book series which stars Tiffany Aching and her acquaintances, the Nac Mac Feegles.

Tiffany Aching is a 9-year old farm girl who is a very quick thinker. She is often very quiet and very observant. One day she meets a clan of pictsies (not to be confused with pixies) who call them-selves, the Wee Free Men. She finds that her world is being invaded by magical creatures from a different world and she decides that it is her job to deal with this. This will be her first step to becoming a real witch.

The Nac Mac Feegles are my second favourite character (being second to RatBag the cat) because they are so rib-crackingly hilarious. The Feegles are small tiny blue men with red messy hair and equally messy beards. When I say, small I mean really, small like 6 inches tall. Don’t get in a fight with them, they will beat you into a pulp without batting an eye. Even though they are very strong, they aren’t exactly the brightest bulbs in the box. For examples in one scene in the book they drank lamp oil thinking it was alcohol. Instead of blaming them-selves for doing that they blamed the person who owned the bottle. This is what the Nac Mac Feegles said about it, “An’ things ha’ come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off ‘f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!”.

This book has a very important lesson that I personally find eye-opening. It tells us that we need to do things that others can’t do and speak for those who don’t have a voice. We need to be the bigger people and not expect rewards for the work we do.

Wee Free Men is a story about being the bigger person. Doing jobs that don’t have thanks, and using your head to think things through. Once you read the first book, you will want to read the whole set until you finish.

PHASE 2-SMILE FOR KIDS IN HOSPITAL

Make a wish and it comes true. It did for me and I am so happy that my wish to collect 100 coloring books for kids in hospital came true on my birthday too.

55 coloring books was delivered to Pusat Perubatan University Kebangsaan Malaysia on April 18 2017. A big big thank you to my homeschooling friends from Clic who made this possible by crowdfunding and selling the SMILE cards.

The rest of the books will be delivered to Selayang Hospital. Watch the space for more updates.

With head nurse KJ Noriza (right)

Book Review by Nur (age 10)

The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief #2)

by Megan Whalen Turner 

Paperback, 362 pages

First Published in 2000 by Greenwillow Books 

Hello I am Nur and today I will be reviewing The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. The Queen of Attolia is the second book in a three book series.

(May contain spoilers. I think. Assume yes. (Read the book! It’s super good!))

I think this book is very well made. The plot is excellent, the characters are amazing, and it’s hilarious.

First, my favourite character is Eugenides, Why? Because I think this character was very intriguing. Eugenides is Eddis’s thief, and he is very good at it. He states that ahem… “I can steal anything! Even with one hand!”.

Personally, there’s this funny part of the book showing that Eugenides is a mischievous, backstabbing, excessive planer, and cheeky to no end. The Thief (aka Eugenides) was feeling rather upset about losing his hand (which happens when the Queen of Attolia catches the Thief). The Magus (an old friend of his, who he meets in The Thief, the first part of this series) comes over and talks to him. His words were “Sitting in here isn’t going to help anything. Maybe you aren’t a Thief anymore, but you could still do something.” The magus patted the thief’s shoulder once but didn’t see how the Thief’s eyes narrowed as he watched him leave.

Then, Eugenides locked himself in his room for a while. He snuck out with a little army. He went to Sounis to “steal” Sounis’s magus. So, what he did was to sneak some of his army onto some ships in Sounis’s harbour and light the barrels of gunpowder in those ships on fire! The he went to the Magus’s room and “stole” the Magus. So, when the Magus woke up from his slumber and saw the thief he immediately asked, “What have you done?”. The thief replied, “Oh nothing yet.”. Then the magus heard an explosion from the harbour and saw the whole harbour on fire. He had no doubt in his mind that that was the thief’s doing. That’s hilarious right!

The only thing that I disliked about this book is that it’s kind of hard to understand. But I don’t think that’s the books fault entirely. This book was recommended for kids much older than me. but I promise you that when you pick up this series of books you will not be able to put them down! I recommend this for kids that are book worms or kids 12 or older. I give this book a 10 out 10 rating. This is Nur signing out. 

Book Review by Dhakshayni Jegatheeswaran

Anne of Green Gables 

by  L.M. Montgomery

First published in 1908

My favorite story book is Anne of Green Gables.I started reading the book just six months ago.And I have read the book twice completely.That's how interesting the book is to me.My favorite character is Anne,because she is a very imaginative girl.

It talks about Anne who was taken to a small town named Avonlea. Marrila Cuthbert and Matthew Cuthbert who were siblings and lived alone in their farm called Green Gables had wanted to adopt a boy to live with them and help with the farm but instead they got a skinny,freckled-faced and red haired girl whose name is Anne Shirley.Anne is a free spirited girl,always got into trouble and had fun in unexpected ways.At first Marilla and her brother did not know what to do with her and even thought of sending her back to the place where she was from,but soon they could not imagine how would life be without her.She made people happy and at the same time made some people angry with her in Avonlea in her younger days.But soon as she grew up,she never made mistakes and whatever wrong doings she used to do when she was younger.Anne made everyone happy at Avonlea and most of all Green Gables was never dull again!

I recommend this story to be read by everyone,thank you.

Book Review by Harresh Jegatheeswaran

Koron, Jaws of Death (Beast Quest: The Pirate King #2)

Author: Adam Blade

Paperback, 121 pages

Published: 2016 by Hachette Children's Group 

Out of all 10 books of Beast Quest stories  I've read, this particular story was the most thrilling among all. My favorite character would be Tom, that is the warrior boy who goes after the Beasts. The best part of the story for me would be when Tom battles with Sanpao, the pirate king and his army.
I would say this story kept me reading on and on because I simply loved the action instilled in it. I have to admit I did not like it when the story ended with a suspense because that meant I have to buy another book. 
And when I rate this book from a scale of 1 - 10, I would give it a 9. 
This book would be suitable for readers 12 years on wards because of its intensity.

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH - (Book Review by Caitlin Smith)

James And The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl is an easy book to read. It has characters from over sized bugs, a peach which is the size of beyond imagination, a boy and of course villains.
This book has the elements of friendship, on how to work and support each other, to go through trying times and of course it has a happy ending.
This book is about a boy, an enormous peach inhabited by giant insects that plunges from the sky and becomes impaled on the Empire State Building.
The main character is James Henry Trotter made an orphan at the age of four when his parents are killed in an unbelievable accident while shopping in London. James goes to live with his aunts-Aunt Sponge,an overweight,short, lazy lady and Aunt Spike a bony , tall,  nasty woman who always has bad intentions. James is verbally and physically abused by his aunts. He is made to work long hours every day chopping wood and cleaning. His room is the basement and there is no bed so he has to sleep on the cold floor. James hardly gets a decent meal, he is not allowed to go to school or have any friends and is not allowed to go out of the yard.

So how does the peach come into the story? One day while James was chopping wood, an old peculiar looking man appears and gives James some magic green crystals.Who is this old man?-a wizard perhaps and the magic crystals are meant to solve James problems, but James the unlucky boy trips,falls flat on his face and spills the the beans into the root of the peach tree that never had a blossom and some were eaten by insects,worms and arachnids and that is how they became over sized,and a peach appeared on the tree and it grows to the size of a house.

Meet  Old  Green Grasshopper,Spider, Lady-bird with nine black spots, Centipede with 42 legs not 100, Earthworm ,Silk-worm and Glow-worm which are not worms but lady fireflies without wings. James and the over sized bugs together roll away in the giant peach,flattening the aunts as they leave and away they go floating on the Atlantic. Here is were the adventure begins,the peach is attacked by sharks, the peach flies (carried by seagulls),  and there is the cloud men,tall wispy angry creatures who control the weather and who attack James and the peach with hailstones, brushes, paints , hammers, frying pans,anything they could get their hands on. In the end the peach lands on the Empire State Building but trouble still follows because the Mayor,the police and the fire department think the biggest bomb in the history of the world was hovering over New York City or was it a flying saucer from outer space or men from Mars.

It is a happy ending for everyone.My favorite character from this book is centipede because of his sense of humor and because after centipede bites through the stem of the peach the adventure begins and when it rolls down the hill it crushes the nasty aunts.

I recommend this book fro ages 5 and above.

My Small Birthday Celebration At PPUM

My birthday was on the 22 March. I had a very low key affair with my family. There was cake for sure.

I had a small celebration a week later at the oncology ward of Pusat Perubatan University Malaya. CARES always has a end of the month birthday celebration for the patients in the ward and I though what better way to celebrate with them. I brought along party packs and some friends from the home schooling group to sing some songs and play games with patients. That day we helped distribute party packs, color pencils which my friends brought along and guppy fish for each kid in the ward. We helped them fill up their own tank and they caught the fish themselves. That made them happy.

I can only hope we did bring some much needed cheer to the patients and their family. I am now officially a volunteer with CARES.

Party packs ready to go.

some of the items for the party packs

things for the aquarium

Tiny wee fishes

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING - (Book Review by Caitlin Smith)

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lingren,a Swedish writer who died in 2002 first wrote this book in 1945. This book was originally written in Swedish and the title was 'Pippi Langstump'. 

Pippi Longstocking is about a ginger haired nine year old girl, the strongest girl in the world who has no mother or father,lives in a Swedish town and shares a tiny little house called Villa Villekulla with a monkey Mr.Nilsson and a horse.This book was recommended to me by my mom's old schoolmate, Ms. Vannitha an avid reader herself. 

This book has 11 stories of Pippi's adventures.The first chapter tells the story of Pippi's mother who died when she was a baby and her father who Pippi says is the cannibal king was blown into the sea. Pippi is a very strong girl and she can lift a whole horse if she wants to. Pippi has neighbors, a boy named Tommy and  his sister Annika who live with their mother and father and she has many exciting adventures with them. 

My favorite chapters are Chapter 3: PIPPI PLAYS TAG WITH SOME POLICEMEN got me laughing out loud especially the part where she leaves them ladder-less atop her roof and chapter 10 : PIPPI ACTS AS A LIFESAVER where Pippi saves two boys inside a burning building. 
Other antics of Pippi that will make you laugh is she challenges the strongest man in the world at the circus and wins, she makes the two burglars dance the schottische when they try to steal her gold coins, she horrifies the grown-ups at a coffee party with her laughable manners.


I find this book cleverly written with words that will make you laugh.I highly recommend this book for 8 to 12 years old.

Phase one of SMILES- for Kids in Hospitals

On Tuesday 7 February 2017, I visited Ms. Norlin Ghazali, the Center Manager for University of Malaya  Cancer Research Institute. I delivered 73 coloring books, 6 boxes of color pencils and 12 mini puzzles for the children in the cancer ward, daycare and the clinics as well as children in other wards. I managed to collect these books with kind contributions from family and friends and the rest I purchased with money received from the sale of my cards and pocket money. Ms.Norlin told me that the books will be distributed to the oncology ward, the daycare, the clinic and also to the other children's ward in University of Malaya Medical Center.

                                         Me with Ms.Norlin Ghazali

Today Wednesday 22 February 2017,I was invited to join the children at the Paediatric Oncology ward at University of Malaya Medical Center for an end of the month party and I was given the honor of distributing the coloring books to the patients personally.There is a little place called CARES founded by Aunty Hoon  and  she along with Dr Vik and some very dedicated volunteers bring cheer and smiles to these children. 

                            Me with CARES volunteers and POKEMON toys

Today they distributed some delicious Chicken Biryani,POKEMON soft toys and the coloring books.I am grateful for the opportunity given and I actually did bring smiles to these children. I had warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction that I achieved my goal. After that,I spent some time playing UNO with some of the children and I even made a friend-a young teenager who has been in hospital since August 2016. 
Before leaving Aunty Hoon asked me if I would consider coming again as a volunteer with CARES to spend time either playing games,making crafts or play my Ukulele and sing songs with the children.                               
Since I was invited to be a volunteer of CARES I gladly accepted and said YES. 

                                                The very dedicated CARES volunteers

With this I now embark on phase 2 of my SMILES project. It is exactly one month to my 9th birthday and my birthday wish is to collect more coloring books (100 books) that will be delivered to the Cancer ward in Hospital Kuala Lumpur and University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center. 

When we share our blessings with others, it is like shining our light on the world instead of hiding our light under a bowl.

BEACH CLEAN-UP AT PORT DICKSON

January 17 2017-we had a beach clean up in conjunction with Beach Clean Up Day. All this came about after my family and I had a little holiday in Port Dickson in October 2016. I was walking along the beach with a small garbage bag picking up the plastic bottles and other rubbish brought in by the tides and suddenly I saw something rather unusual. It was a turtle-a dead turtle washed up on the beach. I was shocked with the find and also sad about its fate. I was very very upset about it that my mom told me if something upsets you find a solution to the problem. So I researched why turtles end up dead and one of the main culprits is RUBBISH in the waters. The rubbish not only destroy the marine life it also has a impact on ours too. Fish, birds, marine mammals, reptiles, and other animals can become entangled in discarded plastics.Plastic is also mistaken for food and is eaten  turtles, and even whales. This can choke them, or make them think they are full with this "food" and starve to death because plastic cannot be digested.
I have never walked on the beach without slippers because there is lots of broken bits from bottles. 

Where do these rubbish on the beach come from? They could be from people who have picnics on the beach. These could be rubbish from our streets that has been washed down into drains and flows into rivers and finally into the ocean and it gets washed up again on the beach.You get the picture?

So I wrote an email to the general manager of THISTLE HOTEL PORT DICKSON as it was in that beach stretch that I found the turtle and all the rubbish. I explained to him my wish to have a beach clean up and gave him my reasons. I was surprised to receive a reply and Mr. Samm -the General Manager agreed to my request and the planning was underway.

I invited my home school friends to join me in the beach clean. Mr.Samm and Ms.Irene Wong invited the Southern Waste Management Sdn Bhd (SWM) and Majlis Perbandaran Port Dickson (MPPD).

Tuesday 17th January arrived. 49 home-school  friends and their parents joined me and staff of Thistle Hotel Staff for our first environment responsibility of the year. There was excitement and we had beautiful morning air blowing in our faces. We started at 9am with some exercise. My favorite part of the exercise was the Chicken Dance. After the exercise we were served coffee, tea, orange juice.We were divided into 6 teams and allocated a section on the beach to clean up. We were given gloves, garbage bags, rakes for the clean up.

The 3 teams with the most rubbish was in for a surprise. 

The whistle blew and off we went to our sections. There were a flurry of activities along the stretch of KM 16. We had half and hour to collect as much rubbish as we could. We collected twigs, leaves, sea weeds, plastic bottles, plactic bags, tikar, styrofoam, straws, cans, bottles and broken bottles. We gathered the bags at the starting point and we had a little talk from the staff of SWM who explained to us how to separate the rubbish.

So we separated the rubbish we collected into organic waste, plastic waste and other waste. The total rubbish collected was 232.5kg

-60kg of plastic waste, 92 kg of organic waste and 80.5 kg of other waste. 

The winning 3 teams received food hampers which we divided among everyone that come, the staff and workers from MPPD who carted away all this rubbish.We even received a certificate of appreciation from the hotel for our effort in the Beach cleanup.

After that we were served and early lunch of mee goreng, nuggets, fries, hot dogs and hamburgers that were cooked on the spot for us. 

To cool off from all that hard work my friends were allowed to use the pool and they were given 3 rooms to change, keep their bags and have showers. 

At 3 pm we were again served evening snack of mee goreng, nuggets, fries hot-dogs and hamburgers and cordial.

Some of my friends stayed till 6 pm before they went home. 

I was very tired after an all day out on the beach and pool but I was happy that my friends and I did do our small bit for the environment.

This is not the end of it. Me and my friends still have a lot of cleaning up to do but in the meantime we will have to 'educate' others on the dangers of rubbish and change the attitude towards littering.We have to reduce the use of plastic and there should be stricter laws to punish litter bugs. So look out for a group of kids who will be armed with garbage bags and gloves cleaning up not only beaches but parks too and we will not be happy if we catch you littering.