Camping with Lat

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Extra-curricular Activities on 17 Nov 2009.

Waileng & KV Soon report on a fun camp outing for homeschoolers with Malaysia’s beloved cartoonist Dato Lat.

“When Ipoh homeschoolers Intan and Harith revealed that they could get cartoonist Dato Lat to join us at a proposed outdoor camping trip, we were naturally excited! For the record, the REAL people behind this were Intan and Harris – THEY were the ones working hard behind the scene to put everything together for us to enjoy. So a BIG THANK YOU to the both of you! RIBUAN TERIMA KASIH! ” WaiLeng & KV Soon
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CAMPING FRIGHT

Most of us were camping for the very first time. Some children expected the place to be wild and untamed (thanks to their fertile imagination!) and came prepared for a rough ride. Sorry for the disappointment. Instead we were greeted by the clean and safe grounds of a holiday resort, with cool activities like biking, kayaking, swimming, treasure hunting and amazing-racing!

Campsite was at the lakeside – a perfect spot except for the noticeably dark and threatening clouds that descended upon us not long after the tents which were strenuously and meticulously set-up by each family. Great job everyone! The storm clouds played hide-and-seek with us. One moment they were hovering menacingly above us, and the next moment, the strong winds blew our tents away. Rain fell by the buckets! But luckily we had the ever efficient and helpful camping guides to do the tough job of shifting the tents for us. THANK YOU CAMPING GUIDES!

We were fortunate to be placed right next to a huge indoor tennis arena equipped with lighting and most importantly, clean toilets. Perfect venue for unplanned performances by our kids’ which ranged from flying demonstration (of the super hero kind), to rap-singing (can’t really tell which was which), and a yoga demonstration (of the spine-bending kind!).

The kids played a game called Tie the Mummy; each team was given a toilet roll with which they turned a teammate into a scary mummy! It was great fun especially when some kids came all dressed in scary/funny/strange Halloween costumse! (A Batman was seen throwing tennis balls with his Wacky Monster dad!).  All hell broke loose when Uncle KV (who hosted the evening show) announced that it was time to play the game that everyone was waiting for: TAG!

And so all creatures great or small, ghosts and humans (and in-betweens) ran helter-skelter around the courts. Everyone had a helluva fun on this halloween night! Another note of thanks to Intan & Harris for providing the party smacks and food gifts in the form of chocolates, biscuits and lots of peanut/raisin cocktails! YUMMY!

The sleepy heads were the first to crawl into their tents to call it a day – first prize goes to the Chan family! For the rest of the night owls, the night was still young! A trophy for Uncle Soon for successfully starting the campfire for the eager kids to barbecue their preciously delicious marshmallows! Seeing it done in books is never the same as doing it yourself!

The more adventurous adults moved their tents outside for a more authentic experience of camping under the star-lit skies. Only thing was, there weren’t any stars that night. But who cared? It was still real camping under the night skies compared to the less adventurous who chose to stay indoors under a concrete ceiling! For the adventurous it must have been an experience to remember for a long time to come, I’m sure. I can only imagine it for I was one of the indoor campers!

ART WITH LAT

Everyone woke up with great excitement – Dato Lat was coming! What a thrill to meet the famed cartoonist Dato Lat, who came unescorted, to give an interesting slide presentation of his childhood. One could see that every child and every adult in the room was rapt in attention, listening to his amusing childhood stories of “naughty adventures”.

He spoke lovingly about his home and life, playing various games with his friends in the kampung. It was a nostalgic stroll even though not many could attest to having lived in a kampung before! But who amongst us hadn’t read Lat’s books? Now our kids get to experience the genius of a humble kampung boy who made it big with his enormous talents.

Dato Lat touched every single kid that day, including those of us who are kids at heart, with his sketches of hope and joy, of possibilities and dreams come true. In fact, he did more than that, as he went down to the level of the children, to sit with them, viewing their sketches and giving them his invaluable advice and encouragement, and personally imprinting on them his trademark Lat signature. His rapport with the children was excellent! And a young lad from Penang came all the way here, to present Dato Lat with a special haiku! Lat was visibly touched!

After going from table to table autograph signing and posing for photos, Dato Lat had a short sketching session with the children. He made sketches of the children on the spot! This created a lot of enthusiasm and excitement amongst the children who were delighted to see their faces on paper! One could tell that Dato Lat was having a good time too! A group photo with Dato Lat was a perfect ending to a perfect event!

We hope those who came had a memorable weekend with us. It was a relatively stress-free event for us and we have Intan and Harris to thank for doing all the hard work for us. We definitely look forward to more future events here in idyllic Batu Gajah! Parents got to network and exchange experiences on homeschooling, and the kids got a chance to make new friends. What more can we ask for?
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Waileng & KV Soon lead Malaysian Home Educators Network (MALHEN). You can visit their blog Learning Beyond Schooling or see more photos on their Facebook.

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