What I've been up to …

Nafis (my no.4 child) is now sitting for his SPM examinations. It’s now raining heavily in Kota Bharu (where Nafis is), and many roads out of Kota Bharu are closed due to flooding (as of today’s  evening news).

Exactly 30 years ago, I was in his situation. 30 years ago I was in the final weeks of my Form 5, and was sitting for my MCE (Malaysian Certificate of Education) exams, which is equivalent to his SPM. I was in the last batch of the so called English medium, where we studied the Maths (Modern Maths & Additional Maths) and Sciences (Biology, Physics & Chemistry) in English, whilst the other subjects were taught in Bahasa.

Strangely, in 1979, it was also raining heavily, as we were going through our weeks of examinations. I remember, just a couple of days before the exams ended, there was a huge land slide in Kuala Bala – something like a hill collapsed and a clinic was submerged under mud! I remember I went to town (Kota Bharu) to buy a bag to pack my stuff. It was sunny in Kota Bharu. Over the radio, we heard about the land slide, and the following day Kota Bharu was flooded!

On the morning we sat for our final paper (Additional Mathematics) , it was raining heavily. We were in the school hall. The moment we stepped out of the hall, our feet were submerged in water up to our ankles! As if the tough exam paper (I did find it tough) was not enough, when we went into the Dining Hall, we were only served with HALF piece of a miserable dried fish (ikan kering) and a little sardine (canned) each! It was the last day, so the storeroom didn’t have much dry food. I think they finished the eggs for breakfast. Unfortunately, on that day, the area around my school (Pengkalan Chepa) was no longer accessible except by heavy vehicle, so our perishables didn’t arrive, hence the lunch with canned and dried fish!

Our planned farewell party/meal in the classroom was so quiet and uneventful at all. It was attended by hardly half of the class, as most of my friends were fetched by their parents much earlier. I remember instead of fried noodles that we planned to have, we only had some dry crackers that my friends and I managed to buy at a small local grocery shop. It was surely a very sad moment. There was no cake, no jelly, no fruit as we intially planned . I think we had some ground nuts..

Now, with the heavy rain in Kota Bharu, I hope Nafis doesn’t have to experience what I did exactly 30 years ago…

Here is a shot of my school more than 30 years ago:

Note part of the roof of the dining hall (front left, behind the tree) which was grey. Now the roof is red! The wall-less middle block is our (then) newly constructed canteen.

And now (taken in 2007):

The canteen is now fully walled, and air-conditioned too! Note the same block behind the bare canteen? Now there is another building between that block (Block A) and the Dining Hall (red roof). The later has part of the Main Hall on the right hand side.

Another shot taken in 2007:

Both the dining hall (red roof) and the canteen have grown bigger (wider)!

It was so yellow/orange during my days:

Can you see the canteen again, behind the Main Hall (red/orange roof). There used to be a volleyball court next to the hall, but now there are covered car parks instead (see the earleir pic).

But very green now:

Footnote: Yeah, Nafis is my only child who managed to study at my alma-mater

To Nafis, if you happen to read this blog entry, Mama would like to wish you all the best in the examinations. I know, you will not let any of us down!

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