Saturday, November 24, 2012

Down-To-Earth by TECHIES JAN'12


The “Down To Earth” project trip to Kg. Lana Bulu, Jitra, Kedah was carried out on 17th November 2012 by Foundation in Technology students of batch January 2012. As the Ceremony & Protocol (C&P) department, our job was to make sure that the flow of event runs smoothly.
            The program started with a Solat Hajat session starting at 11.30 pm on the 16th of December, the night before the trip to pray for security and success of the event. Then, the project manager, Zulfaqar, gave a bit of reflection and reminder for to be the very best of our conduct. Moving on, the Head of C&P department, Rethauddin briefed us on the flow of event for the day. The attendance is then taken.

Departure for Kedah

            At 1.30 am, we helped the logistic department to keep our supply of souvenirs, donations and raw materials among other things on the bus and urge our course mates to be on their respective buses by 2.00 am before checking attendance in correspondence to bus. Each student had been allocated their bus group and they were to stay with the group throughout the program to avoid inconveniences. By 2.30 am, we departed for Kedah and arrived at R&R Gurun, Kedah at 5.00 am for breakfast and Subuh Prayer. By 6.30 am, we departed for Kg. Lana Bulu and arrived at Kg. Lana Bulu Masjid at 8.00 am.
            Before we start our gotong-royong, we were given another briefing by the Project Manager on task allocation prepared by the C&P department, and by 8.30 am we began spreading out to our respective posts.


Community Services

           Inside The Masjid

            The group that is assigned to do cleaning works inside the Masjid was further divided into sub-groups for certain tasks. The tasks include dust wiping, removing spider webs, vacuuming the carpets, arranging religious and educational books as well as Qurans on its shelves, folding and arranging the telekung(s) neatly, cleaning the fans and ceilings, wiping the windows and glass doors and sweeping and mopping the corridor floors.

           Outside The Masjid

            Outside the Masjid, more groups are assigned to clean the drains, the ablution area and the toilet. Others clean the compound by sweeping the dry leaves. At the cemetery, more cleaning works are done. Weeds are pulled, dried leaves are swept aside and trash were collected.

            Feast Preparation

            For this project, we prepared a feast for the villagers as part of our charity work. The menu includes beef curry, fried chicken, rice, watermelon and orange juice. The job was assigned to the Food & Beverages department. The tents, tables and chairs are set up for the convenience of the villagers.

           Opening Ceremony

            At 11.30am, we began the opening ceremony by carrying out tahlil, lead by the Imam of Masjid Kg. Lana Bulu, as the villagers arrive for the feast. Then, we had the feast with the villagers.

           Closing Ceremony

            At 1.30 pm, all students and villagers gathered inside the mosque for Dzuhur prayer in ‘Jemaah’. Afterwards at 2.15 pm, we had a closing ceremony. Two of our CNP members were assigned to be the master of ceremony. First and foremost, the master of ceremony invited our project manager to discourse our appreciation towards the villagers. Then, the floor was given to the Village Chief to give a concise speech and then followed by the Imam. Then we proceeded to the distributions of our donation to the selected villagers. After that, our project manager was once again invited to deliver our gift of appreciation to the mosque. Surprisingly, we also received a gift of gratitude from the mosque. Next, we had a photo session with the mosque committee.

           Wrap Up

            At 3.00 pm, we started to wrap up by dismantling the tents which was carried out by the boys while the others either boys or girls stored the chairs and tables in the storage. Another group of students went to clean the dishes. Around 3.30 pm, after making sure that everything was spick and span, the students were instructed to board their respective buses. Again, we took the students attendance to ensure that no one was left behind. After that, we quickly depart for Tasik Darul Aman for the second phase of our DTE program.
  
Activities at Tasik Darul Aman

            We arrived at Tasik Darul Aman at 4.30 pm and immediately proceed with photo session by department and course. Then we moved on to our next activity which was games that our CNP department planned in advance for that late afternoon. Originally, we prepared two games for the students but because of the time constraints, we only managed to carry out one game. We called it draw in line and guess. We from the CNP department divided the students into six groups consisting of ten individuals per group. Six facilitators from the CNP department were assigned to the six groups respectively. The game was carried out for four rounds and the group that rightly guessed the questions by the end of the line most would be the winner. Within the remaining spare time, we spread bookmarks which were prepared by the media department to the public.

The Final Wrap Up

            After we have finished the game session and bookmarks distribution, we had a sharing session with our Islamic Studies lecturer, Ustaz Ahmad Rushdi bin Haroon. And at 6.30 pm, we departed for R&R Gurun and stopped there for awhile for Maghrib and Isyak prayer and not to mention dinner. Finally, we departed for UTP and at long last arrived at UTP at 12.00 am. 

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