IN THE MORNING
Got up this morning - Saturday 0640am and oh my gosh, I am gonna be late!!! Shouted at my son; Samuel to wake up and rush to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and clean up. Samuel’s still sleeping in bed and I was wondering whether to dig him out of bed or let him sleep in – after all, this whole week, we have been waking up really early, like 0615am to prepare to go to school. He had said the night before that he wanted to join me in Youth Park – goodie bonding time! Samuel wake up now or I will leave without you. “Okay Daddy, just let me stretched for a little while,” he grumbled while trying to peel himself off the bed. Annoyingly I told him he has to move or else – no badminton – his latest craze. Somehow, he managed to get up and we got downstairs, gulped down our milk with Nestum and drove to Youth Park. Thankfully we reached on time – 0725hrs.
AT THE PARK
Hmmm no sign of any recognizable face as I stepped out from my car. Samuel asked; “will there be any children coming too or only adults?” and I replied that there will be plenty of kids coming and he will have a good time. Since no one is here yet, we might as well play badminton first, was my reply and I could see that he was happy with that. Off we went to the field and started our badminton game – really bad as we were picking up the shuttle more than hitting it. But never mind, it was a fun thingy to do as there was not much wind to take the shuttlecock off course. So there we were, whacking shuttlecocks on the big field while I was on the lookout for IG Youths. After about 10 minutes of senseless swinging of rackets, I spotted E Joo, woo hoo, 1 person, surely more will follow as Nicholas Tan called me the night before to confirm his attendance. At least we will have 4 people, I said to myself.
E Joo joined us on the field and showed off her badminton prowess – and we continue to whack the poor shuttlecock – 3 of us now. Looking around, I don’t see anyone else and where is Nick? I thought he said he was coming. Suddenly my phone rang, it was Ps Wai Fong, good, is she coming? Nope just to check and see if everything is alright. Well, things can’t be too bad – as there are only 2 other person to look after!!
“Okay, almost 0800am now, if no one else is here, we will hike to number 5 in 5 minutes,” I lamented to E Joo. She nodded while trying to hit a shuttlecock to Samuel. Waited for a while, 5 minutes gone and off we go. Dropped off our things in E Joo’s new clean car and Mountain No. 5 here we come – IG Youth or no IG Youth.
On the way up, we walked and we talked, we walked and we talked, we walked and we can’t talk anymore and it was getting more steep and I was sweating buckets. I can only say it for myself as I noticed that E Joo hardly break a sweat! Maybe it was too easy for her or maybe she don’t have sweat glands, I thought. Thankfully Samuel was slow and struggling and that gave me a wee bit opportunity to rest.
Going up the hill, we were enjoying the coolness of the morning and breathing in fresh air, couple with jealous thoughts of your guys sleeping in bed, warm as toast!! Finally after about 35 minutes of scrambling among the trails we reached our first target – No. 3. We walked around a bit and admire the view from here and continue to target No. 5. This time we were more focused and managed to convince Samuel that No. 5 is not far off – he was stopping every 2 minutes, mind you. From Youth Park carpark to No. 3 is actually quite easy. From No. 3 on to No. 5 are all steps going up and quite hard. I finally see some redness in E Joo’s face and a bit of sweat around her back. Good, she is human after all, I said to myself. With gusto we attacked the trail from No. 3 to No. 5 and shouting to Samuel every other 5 steps that “WE ARE ALMOST THERE”. But somehow ALMOST does not seemed to be appearing! And to add salt to the wound, an aged man about 65 years old over took us with a smirk on his face. I could almost read his mind!!!
Finally after another 20 minutes of courageous hiking, we reached “sacred” Mountain No. 5. There were about 20 or so other people hanging around and talking. There were 3 kettles of water for us to drink – Free Of Charge as our reward for reaching there. The view here is fantastic and there was cooling breeze blowing all the time. We sat down and took some photos. Samuel made it with his head and body all sweaty and wet, I am so proud of him. As he did it all by himself this time. After about 10 minutes rest, we decided it is time to go back down.
Going down was easy and no sweat….Samuel was leading the way. And I had the opportunity to ask E Joo what type of sports she played when she was in school. Her reply was - K A R A T E. And it seems that she is pretty good at it, although she can’t chop down trees with her hands, I am sure she can break bones. Oops, guys she is one lady you don’t want to mess around with as she might break your bones!
It took us only about 15 minutes to get back to the car park with Samuel & E Joo in front, scampering down the trail like mountain goats. I was left behind to talk to myself.
Woo hoo, guess who was at the bottom to greet us??? Mr Nicholas Tan. It seemed that he could not wake up on time. So there you have it – 4 Ignite Youths turned up on the inaugural Penang First Ignite Youth Games at Youth Park. Hope to see more of you the next time round. Please look up the web site for updates. If you have any suggestions, please do tell me.
God bless you all.
In his service,
Bro. Wei Koon
The uncle in the picture above was telling me how delicious the food was.
I was happy to see that Ignite Youth are able to bring happiness and joy to the residents. The songs we sang and the drama performed by our youths put a smile on their faces.
Before leaving, we gave each of them an angpow.
Not forgetting, everyone went round to shake their hands and wished them "Blessed Chinese New Year".
