AIESEC MIRACLE Youth Conference 2005

Went to visit my relative's house in Klang on May 29. Bought some Durians on the way as “buah tangan” (“visiting gift”?). Didn’t do much else in Klang, except going to Jaya Jusco to do some shopping.

My family left Klang on May 31 and they sent me to Wai Kit’s house in PJ before going back to BP. Me and Wai Kit had a late lunch at a nearby food court. Took a bus and Monorail to reach Times Square. Went to the new Borders there hoping to see Yi Jian, but it was his day off. The problem with Times Square is that it is too big until you might say “OK, I don’t feel like going down that aisle”. Mun Yin and gang were only free for supper, so we ate at Kenny Rogers first.

Had supper at a mamak stall in PJ. Never seen a mamak stall like that—there was a bit more “class” at the upper floor. But the food sucked big time. *sigh* Anyway, there were 6 of us (Me, Wai Kit, Mun Yin, Shing Yeong, Yu Chii and Minh Huong).

Left for UPM AIESEC’s MIRACLE Youth Conference the next day. It is very very likely that I'll miss some important stuff as my memory is not very good. But with the help of Albert's blog etc., I hope I can still give a fairly well description.

DAY 1 (1-6-2005)
Wai Kit was my guide all the way to KL Sentral. From there I took a Komuter to Serdang station. There were AIESEC members waiting there, and one of them said I was probably the last one. Haha... Anyway, I had to wait for quite some time before a bus came to bring us to UPM. Met Theng Wei. While registering I found out I was in group 10.

The morning wasn't anything special i guess. We learnt about some rules and had to write down stuff like "what are your dreams in 5 years time etc.". Can't remember much... then we had lunch. Met with the ReCommers after lunch:



I guess then the participants were split into their respective groups (1~12). We played some games then. For groups 7~12 (i think), we played Trustfall first. Basically a person from the group stands at the corner of an elevated surface (1.4m high?) and falls backward to be caught by the forearms of the other team members. I injured my cheekbone when Duncan (a facilitator from Canada) fell down. I also fell once, and it was fine. Actually, everyone would be fine if they fall following the arc of a circular motion (ie, not bending your knees etc.). After that we played a game where we were in a circle and we all tried to sit on each others thigh and walk.

We danced to some songs after that. The songs are great, the dance moves are fine, but the space available for us to dance is soooooo small lah (lecture theatre/dewan kuliah woh...)! We danced in between certain sessions in the days to come as well.

We also played a game where one person from each group had to memorise a passage and pass on the information to another person from the group. This goes on 9 times, and the last person from each group speaks out what he has heard.

Then it was debate time, which is basically Economy vs Environment. To tell the truth, it was rather boring. The people didn't have enough time to prepare I suppose. And it was all rather shallow talk with unsubstantiated points, or out-of-point stuff. And there's the problem of the AV system... always can't hear clearly what the people on stage are talking about.

Played a game called "Survivor" after dinner. Basically we had to find out the murderer of "Mr. Raja". We had to walk around the campus in search of "stations" where we can get "clues" in the form of conversations, interviews, chats with policemen etc. And the worse part of the whole game was that the murderer could be "found" without visiting ANY of these "stations" lah!! It was rather dumb. Haiz... a bit disappointing.

After the whole thing and supper it was bedtime. Now let me tell you how my room (and everybody else's) look like. It looked like a prison cell. The 2 beds comprised of a metal structure + a thin mattress. There was a long desk, some shelves and 2 cupboards. Urgh. Awful. But then again, the only type of hostel I've seen is my old one in Singapore. So I have learnt to be grateful...

DAY 2 (2-6-2005)
Woke up early (too early in fact) and got dressed in formal attire. All the groups had to do roll-call. We had an idea in mind at first but last night Nancy taught us to dance with the music of "Tunak Tunak Tun" by Daler Mehndi. So we just did that for roll-call loh...

We played a "Geographical Quiz" afterwards (hahaha... my speciality!). We had to choose the correct name of a city/country/continent out of the 4 choices. Honestly, I found it too easy... haha... I'm not a bragger lah, just let me have my few moments of fame, can?

We all had to wear formal clothing as then it was the closing ceremony for MIRACLE 2005. You see, the youth conference was merely a part of the entire MIRACLE project. Datuk Ong Tee Keat was the Guest of Honour. There were some multimedia presentations and speeches as usual...

Then we had 2 boring sessions. In "Choice and Consequence" we were given certain scenarios where we had to write down what we think we should do. In "God of Gamble"... well, it was just plain boring, don't even feel like writing about it.

2 Hitz.fm crew came today to give out freebies... I got a free mini mini Rexona deordorant, a car sticker etc. Nothing much, but interesting to me, coz the Hitz.fm crew usually stays about the Klang Valley region only.

After lunch was "Mamaking", where we were supposed to voice out our thought about environmental topics etc. It would've been good--IF people had actually talked more and more time was given. *sigh* I can't expect much from the other participants I suppose. Many can't speak English properly, and some--like this guy from my group--said he came for the certificate!

For "Business Model", we basically played a game of barter trade in the lecture theatre. It was fun, but rather simplified version of economics. Basically it was a pasar there!

"MIRACLE Idol" after Dinner. We had a little time to prepare. We were left with no facilitator for most of today. Nancy is rather unreliable... they said she was sick on the first day, but she seemed fine to me afterwards. Anyway, "MIRACLE Idol", which I found out later, was mainly supposed to be wild random dancing. Seriously. I supposed I misinterpreted what the event was all about and coupled by the fact that we had to go on stage first, we fared horribly. Oh, excluding ZACK of course--he did wonderfully! And many people were so attracted to him ever since... haha...

Played a game after MIRACLE Idol. 5 against 5 from different groups. First round was plain water and afterwards was vinegar+water or something like that. Eww... It was an elimination type of game so there were semi finals and finals... Celebrated Marco (Italian facilitator) and some other people's birthday after that...

ZZzzz after that.

DAY 3 (3-6-2005)
My group managed to do the editted "we will rock you" roll-call today, since Nancy wasn't around. Gossips and "news reports" of yesterday ensued.

Then it was time for the imitation "United Nations General Assembly" (UNGA). All groups had to send 3 members as representatives of certain countries. Nancy (as usual) was nowhere to be seen. My group was supposed to represent Egypt at first, but since we couldn't draw the flag, didn't know what type of costume they wear and know not much about their environment problems, we switched to Singapore (not my idea!). Anyway, we tried to dress up Zack in traditional Chinese attire using mahjong paper. I focused on the speech while I let my other team members draw the flag etc.

The remaining people from each group were split into "NGOs" and "Terrorists". Don't wanna describe too much because it would be too long. Anyway, the UNGA wasn't very helpful as the NGOs and Terrorists kept attacking each other and the issues kept running away from environmental and going into war. All in all, another playful event I suppose. Nothing seems to be serious in this whole conference.

We finally got pictures with most ReCommers in + Tommy, the Organising Committee President. Here's a photo:


Watched a movie afterwards, called "Pay It Forward". I heard about the movie before, but I knew nothing about it except that Haley Joel Osmond (The "I see dead people" child actor from "The Six Sense") acted in it. It was a touching movie, however I found out that many people were sleeping. Aiyoh... then the message of the movie cannot be conveyed liao.

Had "Business Model" after that. Basically each group were given a company that was in some way related to the environment. My group got "Indah Water". For Part 1, we had to present the company's organisational structure etc. Kpchen presented it instead of me, and he did a brilliant job! I must acknowledge he's good on stage. Part 2 was presentation of brochures and TV commercials etc. My group followed my TV commercial idea, and I got the girls sitting behind me to help out. We did OK...

I enjoyed the next part the most. It was "Global Village", and the purpose of this programme was for us to interact more closely with the foreign facilitators and get an insight into their culture etc. Yoo Jih Yun from Korea is rather cute! She taught us to sing a Korean kindergarten song and gave us some dried fish strips (taste like those "Dahfa" ones) to eat with Kimchi sauce. The other facilitators also gave us presentations and basic vocabulary of their language and culture (Italian, Egyptian, Indian, Dutch, Canadian, German, Czech). Jason Wong, an experienced AIESEC member, also told us about his trips abroad and about the enriching AIESEC experience basically.


There was a "party" when we got back to the hostel. But I wasn't very interested in it. I slept earlier than others. It was a rather tiring day!

DAY 4 (4-6-2005)
Last day of the conference. Was woken up by the OCs rather early. After packing all my stuff I left it in the designated store room (269).

For the morning roll-call, my group did an imitation NZ Haka dance. We played a "staring" game and a "name the famous person/landmark" game. Apart from that, today was mainly recaps, reviews and more dancing! Got our certificates as well.

The touching part would have to be we all sang some meaningful songs before leaving. The lecture theatre was purposely left dark and the facilitators came in with candles as we all sang together. Sungguh terharu. Took a final photo with my group:


Had my final meal there and left with Theng Wei for BP, about 300km away~.

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS
1. Glad to have used all 3 languages in the conference. I'm a language lover and I like to pratice my languages whenever possible.
2. Thanks to Andy Choong, I could take photos during "Global Village". Thanks a lot man!
3. Thank you group members for helping me out. Couldn't have done it without all our help! Hope I've not done a bad job cause I don't really envision myself as a leader (I'm a passive type of person). If I had menyinggung perasaan (offended) anyone, please accept my apology!
4. The conference has helped in a way to pull me out of my comfort zone. Being a group leader I had to make decisions for my group and try to involve group members to cooperate together. Good experience I suppose.