Centennial RYLA Report Part 3
Contributed by Rtr Harnniann
The Morning Physical Workout
You know what was the most challenging thing in RYLA? Yes, to wake up at 6.00 am in the morning. Well, I didn’t wake up exactly at 6.00am but I was not late for the physical workout. The first physical workout was fun. Our instructor was Puan Nini. We did some light aerobic then we had breakfast. The first physical workout was attended by most of the participants with the exceptional few still sound asleep waiting for the morning sun.
Well, the second day physical workout was of a different tune. Only half turned up. I am sorry, President. I woke up at 6.50am. I thought I was very late. But when I rushed to the foyer, wow, our instructor was sitting on the staircase waiting for the participants to slowly drag their fatigue-beaten bodies down the stairs (I was sure only physical body as their mind and soul were still in the bedroom). This time only half the participants turned up. The physical workout managed to continue despite the odds but the fun factor was short-lived.
If that sounds bad enough, wait till you see the third and final morning workout. Ha! President, I know there is no excuse for this but I have to admit that I woke up at 9.15am. When I woke up, I sensed no urgency at all because all (yes ALL!!) my roommates were sleeping with two actually snoring. I took my time cleaning up myself, again without any sense of urgency. When I walked to the dining hall, there was no breakfast left. That did bother not me as I still have a lot of food in my goodies bag. So, I walked slowly to the auditorium. I saw a few participants still chatting at the foyer.
When I reached the main entrance of the auditorium, one organizing committee (a Rotaractor) ushered me into the auditorium and said the speaker was waiting. It was 9.50am now. You guess how many were in the auditorium? We have almost 100 participants in RYLA and not even 10% were in the auditorium. It was a very embarrassing scene for the organizing committees, especially the Chairman. The speaker was not sure whether to start his talk or wait for others.
Later I was told that only 5 members attended the morning physical workout. I felt guilty. Our instructor Puan Nini had to wake up 4.30am to drive all the way from Ampang to Kajang and here, we participants chose to ignore her and buried our heads under the pillows (yeah I had two pillows).
Ha! This is the real story of RYLA which I am certainly sure that you won’t read it from the newspapers or any club’s bulletin. I am being very candid here.
Our Presentation
Basically every night after dinner, we did not have much to do. Remember I told you that we were divided into 4 groups? The Red team called themselves RedBull; the Green called Green Goblin; the Orange called Trinity United. Of course my team was the Bananas and our motto was “Banana Rules!!”.
After dinner we have to get into groups and discuss about our presentation. Ok, what was the presentation all about? Each team was given 20 minutes to perform a play which will send positive message to the youth. So given my drama background, many ideas started popping up in my mind (ooh, I forget to mention that I was the President of the Drama Club in Hin Hua High School. Ok, ok can’t I blow my own trumpet for awhile?)
I took charge of the presentation and I suggested we had a brainstorming session to come out with more ideas. After 15 minutes we finally have our original story: in a dark gloomy night, a Santa Clause (who actually was Colonel Sanders) suffered identity crisis. He walked along Jalan Petaling and a VCD seller approached him to offer him some porn VCD, he declined. Then a transsexual approached him and asked him whether he wanted “it”. Again he declined. Suddenly the Santa Clause pulled out one big banana and said, “Young man, you can resist anything!” (that’s actually the message we wanted to send out).
After some discussion we thought that the story was really bad and uninteresting. So, we came out with this idea:-
First scene:-
Tang tang tang tang! Banana Network 8.09pm news. Two newscasters reporting news. The first news was crime: there’s a Green Goblin in town destroying banana plantations!
Green Goblin came out shouting, “ha!! Kill all bananas!!! Hahaha!!!”
A passer-by called Peter Parker for help. Spiderman came to rescue. When spiderman reached the scene, spiderman said to Green Goblin, “What?! Don’t you have something better to do then destroying bananas? You bodoh lah!” and spiderman swung away.
Green Goblin started crying and said to himself, “oooh….. Green Goblin so bodoh!!!”
Second scene:-
Back to the newscaster, now it’s time for sport, reporting live on Formula One.
Two pit stop crews waiting at the pit stop for the car to come in. One team was Banana team and the other was RedBull team.
Ok, now come the Banana team car dashing into the pit stop lane and then sped out from the pit stop with full throttle after just 6 seconds stop. Wow! Impressive!
Then, there come the RedBull car (I was the RedBull driver). It was so slow!! It took a few minutes for the crew to change the tyres and pump petrol. What a stark contrast!
Third scene:-
Again it was sports news, reporting live on the Champion League between Banana FC vs Trinity United.
The players of Banana FC were smartly dressed, look good and burly. Hey hey, the Trinity United players were all acting like retarded players. After kicking off, the Banana players were in total control of the game. The poor Trinity United players couldn’t even find the ball!! So, Banana FC trashed Trinity United 15-0.
Yeah, we played joke on all the other teams and we did have fun. In all our scenes above, we projected the Banana Superiority and depicted others as inferior or even retarded. So, as expected, after our performance we were booed by everyone. Some participants took it personally and shouted at us. “What about fair play and respect?” “Other than making fun out of us, what are the messages you want to send to us?!!” Those were some of the remarks thrown at us when we walked down the stage. I knew some even went to the extent that they complained to the Rotarians. The atmosphere was quite tense and hostile then. But we, the Bananas stood united. All the effects on audiences were purposely and intentionally inflicted. We offered no apology.
I learnt something very valuable. If we can all stand united and deeply believe that what we do is right, we can achieve anything under any form of adversity. I am very proud to be in Banana team as my team had shown tremendous unity throughout and we really had fun even though we were hated by everyone. I honestly think that other people hated us because they envied us. We were the ones making most noise during lecture; we were the ones shouting our cheers when our team members performed while other teams sat quietly.
(to be continued)
You know what was the most challenging thing in RYLA? Yes, to wake up at 6.00 am in the morning. Well, I didn’t wake up exactly at 6.00am but I was not late for the physical workout. The first physical workout was fun. Our instructor was Puan Nini. We did some light aerobic then we had breakfast. The first physical workout was attended by most of the participants with the exceptional few still sound asleep waiting for the morning sun.
Well, the second day physical workout was of a different tune. Only half turned up. I am sorry, President. I woke up at 6.50am. I thought I was very late. But when I rushed to the foyer, wow, our instructor was sitting on the staircase waiting for the participants to slowly drag their fatigue-beaten bodies down the stairs (I was sure only physical body as their mind and soul were still in the bedroom). This time only half the participants turned up. The physical workout managed to continue despite the odds but the fun factor was short-lived.
If that sounds bad enough, wait till you see the third and final morning workout. Ha! President, I know there is no excuse for this but I have to admit that I woke up at 9.15am. When I woke up, I sensed no urgency at all because all (yes ALL!!) my roommates were sleeping with two actually snoring. I took my time cleaning up myself, again without any sense of urgency. When I walked to the dining hall, there was no breakfast left. That did bother not me as I still have a lot of food in my goodies bag. So, I walked slowly to the auditorium. I saw a few participants still chatting at the foyer.
When I reached the main entrance of the auditorium, one organizing committee (a Rotaractor) ushered me into the auditorium and said the speaker was waiting. It was 9.50am now. You guess how many were in the auditorium? We have almost 100 participants in RYLA and not even 10% were in the auditorium. It was a very embarrassing scene for the organizing committees, especially the Chairman. The speaker was not sure whether to start his talk or wait for others.
Later I was told that only 5 members attended the morning physical workout. I felt guilty. Our instructor Puan Nini had to wake up 4.30am to drive all the way from Ampang to Kajang and here, we participants chose to ignore her and buried our heads under the pillows (yeah I had two pillows).
Ha! This is the real story of RYLA which I am certainly sure that you won’t read it from the newspapers or any club’s bulletin. I am being very candid here.
Our Presentation
Basically every night after dinner, we did not have much to do. Remember I told you that we were divided into 4 groups? The Red team called themselves RedBull; the Green called Green Goblin; the Orange called Trinity United. Of course my team was the Bananas and our motto was “Banana Rules!!”.
After dinner we have to get into groups and discuss about our presentation. Ok, what was the presentation all about? Each team was given 20 minutes to perform a play which will send positive message to the youth. So given my drama background, many ideas started popping up in my mind (ooh, I forget to mention that I was the President of the Drama Club in Hin Hua High School. Ok, ok can’t I blow my own trumpet for awhile?)
I took charge of the presentation and I suggested we had a brainstorming session to come out with more ideas. After 15 minutes we finally have our original story: in a dark gloomy night, a Santa Clause (who actually was Colonel Sanders) suffered identity crisis. He walked along Jalan Petaling and a VCD seller approached him to offer him some porn VCD, he declined. Then a transsexual approached him and asked him whether he wanted “it”. Again he declined. Suddenly the Santa Clause pulled out one big banana and said, “Young man, you can resist anything!” (that’s actually the message we wanted to send out).
After some discussion we thought that the story was really bad and uninteresting. So, we came out with this idea:-
First scene:-
Tang tang tang tang! Banana Network 8.09pm news. Two newscasters reporting news. The first news was crime: there’s a Green Goblin in town destroying banana plantations!
Green Goblin came out shouting, “ha!! Kill all bananas!!! Hahaha!!!”
A passer-by called Peter Parker for help. Spiderman came to rescue. When spiderman reached the scene, spiderman said to Green Goblin, “What?! Don’t you have something better to do then destroying bananas? You bodoh lah!” and spiderman swung away.
Green Goblin started crying and said to himself, “oooh….. Green Goblin so bodoh!!!”
Second scene:-
Back to the newscaster, now it’s time for sport, reporting live on Formula One.
Two pit stop crews waiting at the pit stop for the car to come in. One team was Banana team and the other was RedBull team.
Ok, now come the Banana team car dashing into the pit stop lane and then sped out from the pit stop with full throttle after just 6 seconds stop. Wow! Impressive!
Then, there come the RedBull car (I was the RedBull driver). It was so slow!! It took a few minutes for the crew to change the tyres and pump petrol. What a stark contrast!
Third scene:-
Again it was sports news, reporting live on the Champion League between Banana FC vs Trinity United.
The players of Banana FC were smartly dressed, look good and burly. Hey hey, the Trinity United players were all acting like retarded players. After kicking off, the Banana players were in total control of the game. The poor Trinity United players couldn’t even find the ball!! So, Banana FC trashed Trinity United 15-0.
Yeah, we played joke on all the other teams and we did have fun. In all our scenes above, we projected the Banana Superiority and depicted others as inferior or even retarded. So, as expected, after our performance we were booed by everyone. Some participants took it personally and shouted at us. “What about fair play and respect?” “Other than making fun out of us, what are the messages you want to send to us?!!” Those were some of the remarks thrown at us when we walked down the stage. I knew some even went to the extent that they complained to the Rotarians. The atmosphere was quite tense and hostile then. But we, the Bananas stood united. All the effects on audiences were purposely and intentionally inflicted. We offered no apology.
I learnt something very valuable. If we can all stand united and deeply believe that what we do is right, we can achieve anything under any form of adversity. I am very proud to be in Banana team as my team had shown tremendous unity throughout and we really had fun even though we were hated by everyone. I honestly think that other people hated us because they envied us. We were the ones making most noise during lecture; we were the ones shouting our cheers when our team members performed while other teams sat quietly.
(to be continued)
Labels: Report
posted by harnniann at 10:01 am
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