The 8th 30-Hours Famine

After 30 hours, I leave the venue feeling rather nauseous, stronger spiritually and physically and experienced something tiring yet satisfiying.

Many people feel that it is stupid wasting 30 hours for charity what more, starving for 30 hours. I have to admit that I participated because I've never sleep in a sleeping bag before - excited bodoh head- or in another words, I've never leave the comfort of a bed. However, the organisers, Sin Chew Daily and World Vision never fail to remind us of our good deeds and sacrifices. 30 - hours famine is first started in Australia and is practised in many countries, including Taiwan, Singapore, US and etc.

Over 2500 participants, age ranged from 2 years old to 56 years old but mostly secondary school and college students, collected a whooping RM 700,000 for this event which is doubled the amount of participants and donations from last year. I am not suprised that there's more female participants than males.

Firstly, an introduction to the venue of the event. The event was held in Stadium Juara. What?? Juara? I heard of Bukit Jalil, Putra, Merdeka but Juara?? A literally unknown indoor stadium until a map was given to me. It's situated in the KL Golf and Country Club. Quite a old stadium but has a pleasant atmosphere. The toilet facilities were good except for the long queues. Thankfully, there's cleaners cleaning the toilet even on the Sunday and ample supply of toilet papers. The PA systems were operating smoothly and air-conds worked just fine. Of course all is not perfect. I'll describe the problems according to the sequence of event.

I arrived there with my 2 friends, Anna and Emily at about 12.30 pm. Oh ya, I ate my breakfast, my mum suggested chicken rice since i'm going to starve for 30 hours but I did not finished it cos I'm not used to eating chicken rice in the morning, at about 11 am. So I started fasting since 11.30 am Saturday to 8 pm Sunday. That's about 32 and half hours. Hhaha. In our goody bags, there's

• 2 bottle of water and a notebook (complimentary of Nesh Filter Company)
• a pen (BIC brand. I remembered the brand because mine ran out of ink only after half day of usage!)
• 4 packets of soyabeans (For emergency only)
• a t-shirt (One that I'm going to wear for the next 30 hours)

and

• an event booklet in mandarin ( I speak mandarin, I understand mandarin but I AM ILLITERATE IN CHINESE!! )

The volunteers had meticulously planned the layout and participants distribution. Every 20 participants or so were divided to groups. The stadium hall had been divided to 130 columns for each group. I was in group 17. Second row from the stage but not a direct view cos my place was more to the right side of the hall. We were asked to change to the given t-shirt and gathered back for our group photo shoot. Every box is about 30 x 35 inch. Obviously, comfort was not given much thought but better than what I initially pictured. Cages... with signs that say, "DO NOT FEED THE PARTICIPANTS".

The event officially started at 2 pm. The Sports Minister, Datuk Azalina was the guest of honour. I have to say that I enjoyed her speech the most cos it's the only English speech I heard during the entire event. Speeches by the chairman of Sin Chew Daily, World Vision and Nesh representatives lasted for nearly 1 and a 1/2 hour. Then about 4 pm onwards, there's presentations about tsunami relief efforts by Sin Chew Daily which lasted about an hour. 5 pm, World Vision representatives with videoclip of their overseas charity works which include helping the tsunami victims, rural areas folks, poverty-stricken countries and etc for another 2 hours. Every presentation presented was very touching. Pictures regarding humanity touched everyone's heart and the music played an important part too in presenting the message. The videoclips show that small things make a big difference especially towards those who had suffered much. I am not showing off or anything but I have to say that most participants were quite ignorant about tsunami facts. I mean, I admit that I have not contributed much but at least I followed the news, know the facts and aware of what's going on. To many, it is as though it's their first time seeing the full impact of tsunami on screen. What the organisers have done is reminding the participants, including me, that we should not forget the tragedy although 6 months has passed.

Special mention have to be given to the emcee, a rather plump bespectacled chinese guy with crew cut. He is one hilarious guy who doesn't mind embarassing himself and knows how to liven up the participants. His antics brought much laughter to everyone. He'll be dancing, shaking his booty and extra tyres..

Then about 7 pm, dinner time. Yah rite. Another talk. Jason the host of, "Journey with Jason" aired in AEC Channel 19, Astro came to talked about his journey to a remote tribe in somewhere outskirts China. Rain there is only 35 mm per year. He talked about their difficulities and yet they do not want to leave their house and move to the town. It is their culture and home.

For both days, constant footage of entertainers and singers from Taiwan namely A-Mei and errr.... dunno the others name were aired. Anyway, their main intention is to motivate us. Sorry larh but I dont need them. I have my personal cheerleaders! My mum called to ask whether she should ta-pau sate or famous amos cookies and my dad constantly asked me not to force myself. Sakai Cheryl messaged to ask my condition and Yattuang said I've fasted for almost 28 hours whereas Mei Kuan said she ate sate for dinner. I think sate emit the strongest smell. Why no one say they ate durian? Bottomline, thanks to those who supported me physically (messaging requires energy and finger work) and spiritually (those who dont call or message but they care).

8.30 pm. Finally, real entertainment. A concert called "Love Concert" by local artistes including A-Niu, Astro Talent Quest Winner and Runner-up (so obvious i dunno their name), a local girl group, M-girls (quite la-la) and local rapper. I dunno the rapper's name but his songs are good and he's quite good looking too!! I heard his songs in the radio before and remembered cos the music are somehow unique. During the concert, I sat at the chairs at the back. The usual joined-in-a-row spectators chair in stadiums cos my back and buttocks were aching for sitting at the floor. First timers are usually much stupidier. I've seen people who brought cushions , picnic mats and choosing the ideal places. The front crowd gave much more enthusiasm compared to the back spectators. Guess those sitting at the back just dont bother. The front participants acted as though they're in a concert. There's "paparazzi" snapping pictures at the side and fans screaming and shouting. Other than that, the atmosphere was quite cool. I wave my hands in the air occasionally. Just wanted to get into the mood. Maybe it's just the first day and only 9 hours , most participants were feeling rather energetic. I can't wait to see tomorrow!

Bedtime was 10.30 pm. Most of the programmes scheduled were very punctual. This is one advantage because if the booklet shows that a talk last for an hour, the talk WILL last for an hour. At least i'll be prepared! Fitting 2500 people was already an uneasy task but sleeping is really an impossible task. Thus, the organisers had made the decision to asked the male participants to sleep outside the stadium to make place for the female participants. At this point, I can't help feeling relieved for being a female. Most males were very gentlemen. They have no complains... for now. Even with the male participants sleeping outside, there were limited places. So, Anna and I have to sleep on the spectators chair. It's hard (rock hard)compared to the carpeted floor but ... only for a night. Boy was I wrong!! I couldn't sleep the whole night. Anna is truly a sleeping princess. As soon as she gets into the sleeping bag, zzzzzZzz... The seats were made of plastics and my sleeping bag kept slipping. Luckily I have my small pillow aka "lam-chim" with me and the seats were quite flat. At least my head was at a more comfortable state. When I finally starting to sleep, I felt so hot. Different from the others, I was wearing bermuda shorts ( my faithful roxy shorts) rather than jeans cos I am very afraid of HEAT! Even when I sleep at home, I'll sleep with my feet uncover. Sleeping in the sleeping bag was like sleeping in a thermos flask. I was sweating! Again, tossed and turned around for quite some time before i decided to sleep ON the sleeping bag and use a towel as my blanket. Finally, I slept... for dunno how long then I heard a few girls whispering and laughing. ArggHhH!! HELLO. SOMEONE IS TRYING TO SLEEP HERE#%$^*&(&@!! A "hard" night. The next morning, Anna was complaining that it was freaking cold. ("-_-)

Morning programme for normal participants started at 8 am. Eccentric ones started at 7 am. Just kiddin. 7 am programme was for Christians and Buddhists who want to attend prayers. I was wondering why don't the organisers just let us sleep till 9am? Let us rest and use minimum energy? *SlaP slap* Enough of selfishness. Wake up. Remember your purpose here.

Ok. We had to gather at our no.17 box again to show our group leader that we are alive. First segment for the day was an light exercise conducted by a chinese sensei. Much of the exercise is to help relieve stress and tiredness. Then, first presentation for the the day is from a church youth pastor. Some group members sang to spread love and hope message, i think. It's in Mandarin. If the mandarin is to "chim-chim" aka difficult, I'm blur. About 2 hours later, representatives from the Tsu Chi Buddhist Association turn. Of all the presentations throughout the fasting event, this presentation made me dropped a tear or two. Pictures of survivors and news footage showed images that were really disturbing but real facts. Dead bodies in piles and missing person pictures were aslo disturbing. They also showed their charity work in Sri Lanka where they adopted a village and helped rebuild them. One particular clip was an old man who lost 20 members of his family, leaving him alone. The volunteers just patted his back and gave him a hug then he burst in tears. I can see he was relieved in a way. At least he knows there are still someone who cares for him and there's hope and help. What's more touching is this village population are Muslims yet they respect the volunteers Buddhist chants and beliefs. Help in dire time knows no race, religion, age, gender or ethnic.

Next presentation is regarding AIDS. A lady, head of AIDS department in a hospital, also a doctor, lead this presentation. She educated us on the preventive measures and the true facts about HIV/ AIDS. Since I already know, this presentation was quite boring until an hour later where they invited a HIV victim to give a speech on stage. He proved that he is a survivor and people with HIV/AIDS should not be discriminated. Note: Recently a YB suggested that people infected with AIDS/HIV should be confined in an island. Bullshit! HIV infected 39.4 million people worldwide, topping third world countries such as Africa as the main killer. 15 million are orphaned because of AIDS and every 14 minutes, someone becomes orphan because of AIDS. Heck, we are indeed living on an island. Earth is our only home. Where can we go? Did you see the Discovery Channel advertisement about One World, One Home (or something like that)? Kids/Chidlren are the most innocent victim of HIV.

In case you dont know, HIV CANNOT be spread through (if you do, just skip):-

• saliva - quantity is too insignificant
• sweat
• mosquitoes - unlike denggi case where aedes mosquitoes are involved
• toilet - sharing towel, comb (u should worry more about dandruff), cubicles
• staying together or playing games
• blood donation - donating blood in msia should not be a worry unlike in china

HIV CAN be transmitted by:-

• promiscuous sex - sendiri cari pasal. guna kondom
• from infected mother to her baby - sometimes bastards infect their unaware wives after fooling around
• drug addicts sharing needles - again, sendiri cari pasal
• illegal blood transfusion -in china, irresponsible agents buy blood from poor people who sell their blood but agents reused the needles and hence spread HIV to innocent people, creating a place known as AIDS village.

What i wrote here is rough notes i got from the presenters. It's a rough idea. For more detailed, you should visit Malaysian AIDS Council at http://www.mac.org.my. One important message is anyone, anytime, anywhere can get infected by AIDS. Be prepare with facts before it's too late. Stop being ignorant.

After talking bout AIDS, the next representative is from World Vsion, Hong Kong branch. A Hongkee lady who talked about a volunteer etnics. She gave a rough idea of what a volunteer work in oversea. The right way to comfort people, to help, the qualifications, the welfare of volunteers and etc.

Then, we have an half hour break. Not that it matters since I go to the toilet like every 2 hours or so. When you are hungry, water is VERY essential. I am PROUD to proclaimed that I HAVE NOT TOUCHED MY 4 PACKETS OF SOYABEAN DRINK!!! Problem no.2. Water is very scarce! No kidding. The water supply ran low for two hours in the afternoon. Nesh provided filters where we can get water directly from the pipes around the stadium. There's about 3 water pipes. The water current was so low that i have to wait 45 minutes just for my turn to fill up my bottle. Being tired and hot were not helping a bit. Temperature was high and organisers scrambbled to solve this problem. The source of problem was the filters. The water was so dirty that it cloaked the filters. I overheard a participant in the queue suggested that the organisers should used Diamond (another filter company) instead of Nesh, next year. Being the considerate me "er-hurmph", I initially wanted to fill up 3 bottles, 2 500 ml bottles and my own water bottle but seeing the queue was so long, i decided to just fill up 2 bottles. Nope. BAD IDEA. After two hours, I have to line up again. Sigh. Why drink so much water you ask? No.1 To prevent bad breath. Hhahha No.2 To dilute the stomach acids. No.3 To fill up the stomach which leads to Problem No. 3. Too much air in the stomach, making me nauseous and had headache.

This 30-hours famine had a theme song called "Child". We were requested to sing this song and the organisers played the songs like 10 times for both days. I wanted to sing but again the lyric is in Chinese.

And there's an auction. Things such as autographed CD's, cinema up and coming posters, The Incredible umbrellas from US of A and books. This auction is more like a comedy market scene cos the emcee made it so funny.

At about 1 pm, movie time. The emcee asked us to choose between 2 movies. One was a Korean Movie about a nine year old boy who wants to buy a sunglass for his mother who suffers from an eye disease and the other one, a French movie about friendship. The Korean movie was selected. At this point, I was back at my seat at the back again. I was having a slight headache and tried to drink some soyabean which ended up making the situation worse. Probably not sleeping well last night has contributed a tad bit. I thought at last I can get some sleep cos the organisers dimmed the lights for the movie section. Again, my plan crushed cos the sound from the movie was very loud. I realised the Koreans speak exceptionally loud and rude! Fine, I thought. Maybe I can watch the movie and try to sleep at the same time. Mana tau.. HAIHS... Korean movie naturally, the characters speak Korean but the subtitle is in Chinese. It's like lost in remote Africa and the map is in Russian. I probably slept uncomfortably in sitting position for 20 minutes which I thought was 2 hours and ended up watching the entire movie, leaving my imagination to come up with my own story. When the crowd laugh, I know the characters said something funny but I can't laugh cos I dont' understand. This may sound silly but I nearly cry at one scene because the mother beat her son legs with a cane and he didnt' move an inch while he was crying and explaining. They ended up hugging each other and cried. The silly things I do.

After the movie, it's another concert but this time it has live band. The lyricist who produced the theme song of this event sang his song and songs from Disney, Wish upon a star and Go the Distance. Go the Distance happens to be one of my favourite song! Hahahah. What a good choice to cheeer me up!.. There's also acapella, bands, tribal instruments, glass cups where they filled it with water and etc. Another relaxing section.. until they invited a band with the lead female singer singing like tak boleh berak aka sembelit/constipated. Not so terrble la but near.

Finally last talk of the day. By this time, everyone was tired. No one was paying attention to the presenter. Heck, he was asking participants to draw imaginary picture. What makes him think we have energy to move? Out of respect, I followed his instructions although most people were half-asleep.

6pm. 2 more hours. This time we went back to our box. We received our certificates of appreciation and our group photo. Maybe I wrote my letter "L" like "Z". My name on the certificate ended up as Amanda Zai Lee Chen. Budohnya. This is the time we talked to the rest of the group members, wrote autographs and exchange numbers. Participants were invited to share their opinions with everyone and the most memorable part was when the organisers projected the problems that we encountered during the two days. The water shortage was shown alongside with the African women carrying bucket of water on their head, and have to walked miles for it and the tribe with 35 mm of rain per year. The male participants sleeping outside were sharing similarities with people suffering from poverty, sleeping on the street. Toilet facilities were in contrast with people bathing, washing and drinking from the same source of water. What we suffered were for a mere 30 hours but they have no choice. Initially I was very agitated by the long queue for water but after seeing this clip, I have no complains. How can I , when there are people far worse than me? And the thought of going home is very consoling! In our group, we took pictures and joke a lot. Our group leader distributed our dinner comprised of a last finger sized sponge cake, a bun and a slice of chocolate cake. Then, the theme song was played again. This time is special because everyone sang together, including me. Aiya. I admit I sang the chorus only and a few lines. Playing the same song many times helped me remember a few chinese characters. Everyone even asked for another time. We stood up, held hands and sang together. Nearing to 8pm, the VIPs were invited to hit the "gong" 30 times for 30 seconds.

30 , 29 , 28 ,27 ,26 ,25 ,24 ,23 ,22 ,21 ,20 ,19 ,18 ,17 ,16 ,15 ,14 ,13 ,12 ,11 ,10 ,9 ,8 ,7 ,6 ,5 ,4 ,3 ,2 ,1 .. MERDEKA!

Yah. I did it. I completed my first fasting.

This is definetly a nice experience. I wont say it's once in a lifetime cos I'll definitely be back and I'll drag Garfield Cheryl Gan along! MWahahahA..

On the way home, my dad asked me whether I've seen any "dirty" things floating. I told him, even if I see things floating, it wont be ghost. Probably bak kut teh, cheese, chocolate, ice cream but not ghost. With 2500 smelly stinkos, this is one place the ghost would not want to be.

There's an artiste during the concert segment said he joined the 30 hours fasting, then 3 days and also 15 days fast. One step at a time. I completed the 30 hours fast. 3 days fast, I'm coming!