The ABCs of Life

It has been a really hectic week … or rather month! Due to Raya celebration and SMS’ launch, I had time off from school for every Saturday in October. But I’m teaching at home twice a week now and I’m trying to prepare materials for teaching my babies at home and at SMS and that made very little difference in having my normal Saturdays back. Fatigue; that’s what I’m feeling and time-management; that’s what I really need.

Anyway, we had an official launch of the school last Saturday, officiated by Datuk Shafie Apdal who was kind enough to lend us a hand with a great sum of monetary support. It came out in the news; in Utusan and also about a minute or so clip on national news and that’s on Malaysian tele of course! It’s great to know that there are people concerned about what we’re doing here in Southampton or in the UK, for the Malaysians, but it’s disappointing to also understand that help won’t just come without any compensation. Tit for tat.

I’m always proud to be a part of SMS but not any movie filmed for the purpose of highlighting others on the effort of others. Whether we’ve misunderstood the facts or some people just made some twist, trying to make it faketual. Real, but not true.

Well, enough said about those unpleasant things. What’s done can’t never be undone. The students did a good job performing for that day though we had very little practice due to a really short notice. All of them sang Negaraku and Jalur Gemilang with the audience and later Iffa and Fatin performed Pantun. The double Haziqs, Aisyah and Emira recited two Malay poems and Aimi played a nice tune with her recorder. I didn’t get to see all the performance then, but I was happy seeing them do so during rehearsal.

For your information, Sekolah Malaysia Southampton (Malaysian School Southampton) has been operating since June 2007 with 42 students coming from Malaysian families currently living in Southampton (parents might be students and also workers). It was a great effort founded by Prof. Madya Dr. Abd Samad Nawi whom recently graduated (PhD) from Southampton University, supported and funded by Southampton’s City Council and all Malaysian families here. SMS’ main objective is to educate the younger generation about their roots; religion and culture by stressing on the knowledge of Fardhu ‘Ain and also teaching Malay language as a complementary subject. Teachers and administrators of the school are mostly postgraduate students studying for Masters or PhD. And of course some of them are just like me; a housewife or a househusband whom most people think has the least to do in life … huhuhu.

I should be off to sleep now, we need to leave early for London tomorrow to get Fidaa’s passport done. That’s all folks, sleep tight fi hifzillah :).