Wake House visit by the interns

he Rumah Wake ( Wake House) 

      The journey to the Rumah wake was mixture of emotions such as excitement, uncertainty, and little bit of fright, because this was the first time that I was actually encountering someone who is HIV positive. Human perceptions can be scary. They actually shape up the things to form a certain definitive shape even before we actually see or encounter it. But I told myself that this trip will be one that would break my perceptions and help me to grow and mature.

      Our first destination was the women’s house, where the HIV positive women and homeless women stayed. The place itself looked weary and old. To be honest I actually thought ‘can the patients live in this condition?’ But proving my expectations wrong, the people living in the house all looked healthy and were friendly. They were just like any of us who visited the place. As we sat down and started talking with the women, they opened up their stories. Some had the disease for 13 years already while some were new and joined the wake not too long ago. They were provided with medicines and check-ups through the support of the government. It was an interesting experience listening to them speaking their side of the story. But at the same time, it also was also heart aching to see some abandoned by their family and having no dreams for the future.

      In our second destination of the transsexual house, the people there were more opened up with their experience and the current situation of the transsexuals in Malaysia. There in fact are lots of transsexuals out there who are HIV positive and it is continuously spreading. It was a scary thing to learn about, but also was a call for The Red Project team to do their job and take part in educating the people about HIV/AIDS!

      We may not know any HIV positive people around us FOR THE MOMENT. But as we always say, AIDS does not discriminate. The people in the Rumah wake would not have guessed that they would one day become HIV positive and live their lives with AIDS. Thus it is really important that we could build a community that is ready to accept these people, to care for these people and treat them just like any other human being. Discrimination is what makes them more difficult. Disease itself maybe a part of it, but the eyes of the people looking down on them, ignoring them and judging them is what makes them feel the pain and give up all hopes. Hope we could contribute in building that kind of society. Start by changing ourselves!!

Source : www.deviantart.com

My best day during internship…

    

  I was in a sleepy condition when I woke up at 5 am in Za’ba College. I pushed my body to take a bath with freezing water..bbbbrrrrrrr…!! That’s really made me fell sick. But I had to get the bus at 7 am, and went to KLCC with Ha, because I wanted to visit the skybridge at Twin towers, and it only opened in the morning, so we had to wake up early and go to KLCC as soon as possible…

      At 6.45 I went to the bus stop in front of Za’ba College, and Ha was already there. We got the earliest bus (rapid KL) to KTM station, when I arrived there, the train already came and the passengers ran to go inside, but we couldn’t enter that train because we didn’t buy the ticket. So, after we bought the tickets we have to wait the next train around 20 minutes. After we arrived at KL Sentral we bought rapid KL train ticket to KLCC.

      KLCC station was very crowded when we arrived there. And we had to meet Ben who was already there to get the ticket for us. But unfortunately there was a problem with the signal and I couldn’t call him. Finally, after 15 minutes there, we managed to call him. And he was still queuing to get the tickets. And we got the ticket at 1.30. So, we had a lot of time to go around the Twin towers. Ben suggested us to try the experience in Petrosains, what a really amazing experience there ( you have to try it ).

      And after 2 hours in Petrosains, we visited the sky bridge, that’s really awesome…I really liked that moment… but its only 10 minutes, but I think that’s quite enough.:)

      Then, we decided to visit Bukit Bintang, and our first destination is Pavilion Plaza, and we walked around, and we had lunch there, actually we planned to watch movie, but the ticket already sold out. So, we went to Berjaya times square to find another cinema there, but unfortunately the ticket already sold out too, after drink at the Tea Shop we back to UKM…

-Iqbal-

My Ceedership Sharing

AIESEC Activity

Chapter One-AMAN

The 1st weekend, I was so glad to be invited to join AMAN,-Malaysia AIESEC AWARD Night. Compared to Chinese Award Night which is usually held on the last night of our National Conference, the professionalism of AIESEC Malaysia really impressed me and I did notice that AIESECers in Malaysia all did awesome jobs in the last year not only in terms of exchange number but also for the members and LC’s organic growth. Hope AIESEC Malaysia and AIESEC UKM will have a more rapid growth next year^^

Chapter two-Central Area Election Day

Me and AIESECers from LC UKM and interns

 Me and the Red Agents from The RED Project

In China, usually LCs will hold its own LCP election ,so members from one LC probably have no idea of the procedure of other LC’s LCP election, but here in KL, Malaysia ,a big AIESEC event of Central Area Election which is consist of 4 LCs –UKM,UPM.UM,TUC really provided a platform for AIESECers to know more about other LC and have some knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of their brother LCs, I do like this way and hope it could follow this suit later .

Chapter three-AIESEC Gathering &Bonding Time in UKM

Every Wednesday evening, to every AIESECer in UKM, it is a special moment ,since it is a AG time  yay! Unlike My LC ,the only gathering time is every month LC meeting ,most time of which is kinda boring and serious, however the one held in UKM is quite member motivated where the ground dance ,TM session and alumni sharing provide the chance for members to know more about each other plus get more idea of the excellent former AIESECers and other function work, so TMers in UKM, you guys really do an awesome job, hope you could keep up this tradition and perhaps add more elemant in it in the future^^

Chapter three-My farewell Dinner

In our LC, as the OCP of Red Wings Project in our LC,I have arranged or participated a lot of farewell dinners for interns, and here ,in UKM, as a CEEder ,I got the chance to get my own Farewell dinner though I don’t like the feeling of saying goodbye to my friends.

Well I own great thanks to the AIESECers who joined my farewell ,for you guys were under mid-term exams, so quite busy with study and AIESEC work already  but still spare time to join it ,I was quite touched by it, thanks a lot ya^^.Held in Zaba, the farewell dinner was prepared with Satay and many other traditional food ,we even hold (could you ask Jarod the Chinese food we had for drinking competition?),,it is absolutely one of my sweetest memories in Malaysia

My Work

Chapter one –find sponsor

Well it is hard to find sponsor to support a non-profit project, not to mention to find one in Malaysia where the official working language is English and corporate cultures is quite different from that of China in one month ,however ,the more challenging the work is ,the more meaningful.

The CEEDership is, so starting with making proposal, then making cold calls and later visiting companies, our marketing team progress step by step, I am so glad to work with Charlene and Kuan Yoke –the two passionate girls for marketing work, and also enjoy the OC meeting of TRP

Pei ling , Jarod , Geraldine ,Vincent and Hui Yee, I am really proud to be the colleague with you guys^^

Chapter two- Conduct workshop

Although my JD of ceedership did not include workshop , yet I did appreciate TRP team offered me the chance to be the Red Agent with interns and AIESECers, making one of my AIESEC dreams –to be facilitator for HIV/AIDS come true. The workshop was held in SEGi College, which is quite far from UKM. Getting up around 6 am ,it took us like 4 hours to get there ,welcomed by the teachers and students there ,the whole process seemed to be quite enjoyable with the help of very responsive students ,we were proud to be The Red Agent! 

Culture Shock

Batu Cave tour

On the 3rd weekend, I went to Batu Cave with my Intern friends, without acquiring any knowledge about the cave, I thought it was a cave showing drawing , like a museum visiting. However when I went there ,I was deeply shocked by the Indian Crowd there, whom with flowers on their head and barefoot ,what’s more ,there are some certain people with hooks deeply linked to their bones and several people pull them on the back ,it seems that they were under great pain to pray ,the sincere spirit really impressed me a lot 

Malay People

Well before I came to Malaysia ,my Chinese Friends told me to be careful when talking with Malay people, this is mostly because we were so unfamiliar about their culture or we misunderstood that they were kinda cold when treating foreigners. However during my stay, I was so surprised by their friendliness, for example ,a Malay Uncle kindly introduced me the yummy food and could remember what I ordered even 2 weeks after and I still remembered a Malay Staff in Starbucks sacrificed his working time to look for the way to get the printing place for me ,there are so many cases that shows people here is a lot nicer than I thought and I really miss them^^

Malaysian Cuisine

The food here is a combination of Malay, India , Chinese and so forth, so it is quite diversified .as to the Malay food. I was quite impressed by the spicy and oily food here ,even as a Chinese who loves Sichuan Food(which is famous for the spicy sauce),I did find the Malay food a little bit more spicy ,however most of the food is very delicious. 

Malaysia Tour

Chapter one-Penang trip

On the 2nd weekend of my CEEDership ,I went to Penang ,the trip of which took me 5 hours ,then in USM,I met my old friend- Yi Ying (she did a internship in Dalian last year) and her friend – Qing Yoong ,a nice @er who kindly showed us around Penang by his car, during my 2 days visit ,the tourism sites and best ever food in Malaysia there attracted me a lot and the moment I left there I was kinda sad and didn’t wanna go back ,haha

Chapter 2 – KL tour

Since UKM is a little bit far from the central of KL ,so Yoo Jin,Milou,Bob ,Ramiro and I decided to book a hostel in China Town which could facilitate our 2 days KL tour. It was an amazing weekend, not only did we pay visits to Batu Cave ,Chinese Town ,some Museums,but also we went to Reggae Bar and Zouk Nightclub where I found the nightlife in KL is amazing ,lots of tourists plus exciting atmosphere

Chapter 3-Melaka

Well introduced by my German friend that Cameron Highland is a must-go place for tourists, so I bought the ticket one week ahead to get there with Milou and Yoo Jin, however I did miss my bus and only to be told that it was impossible for me to make it on my last weekend ,so I have to give up Cameron Highland.. kinda sad=( 

However ,I went to Melaka then with Derek who kindly drove me there and made my trip so wonderful .Actually it’s a spontaneous idea ,neither of us did a good research of Melaka even when we were on our way there, haha ,how random we are =).Melaka is far smaller than I thought and it only took us several hours to finish all the tour sites, but I really enjoy it

Chapter Four-meet up with my friends in Malaysia

During my CEEDership time,I met my old friends Alvin ,Moritz ,Usong ,Muslih and Kenny ,some of them jst came to Malaysia to visit me or the AIESECers in different LCs, Its so glad to meet them again in different places and thanks to AIESEC that made me have friends all over the world and I am not alone even in China ,^^    

first four days in Malaysia.

The AIESECers

Before I arrive in Malaysia, I could feel the welcome given by the UKM AIESECers, from the greetings by Pei Ling and the useful preparation booklet by Ben. When I arrived , the constant concern from them for me warmed my heart, still remember the 1^st day Jarod showed me around the beautiful campus though he got many classes then, still remember when something goes wrong with my room it was Charlene that shared her new dorm for my 1^st night; still remember Jing Wen, even as the LCP who has lots of stuff to deal with everyday, yet invited me to attend AMAN which became one of the sweetest memories in Malaysia, still remember Derek and Vincent were so kind to drive me to the AMAN place and Kajang ,and of course there are so many other sweet AIESECers that I could not name one by one, it is them that make me feel AIESEC UKM was like my 2^nd home here.

The work

The 1^st day I joined the financial training from the Finance director together with the Finance and Marketing department members, it was so cool to get the professional Finance knowledge here. The second day, through the conversation with Jing Wen, I got a general idea of the LC here and later I joined the OC meeting and later got a training from Ameen on Flash which was really impressive. Although there seems to be a big challenge facing in front of us for finding sponsor, however I do enjoy the AIESECers’s passion and hardworking, so guys from TRP, I really cannot help waiting to work with you !

The Life

Well I am so glad to live in such beautiful garden-UKM, the accommodation is quite cool, with a quite thoughtful Chinese roommate; the food here is a collection of Malay, Chinese and India, quite diversified and yummy; and the school transportation is quite convenient with several buses taking us either to the center of campus or KTM, so the life here seems pretty cool, don’t need to worry too much on it .

So for the first 4 days of my ceedership, though facing some culture shock, I do enjoy the people, the work and the life here.

written by :

Megan Ma (ceeder of The Red Project)

12 August: HIV Training from MAC

We were paid a visit from Victor, a representative from Malaysian AIDS Council, today to recieve training on how to conduct HIV/AIDS awareness workshops. We had useful discussions on HIV/AIDS-related issues and how to convey them to different sets of audiences. He shared with us knowledge he gained from travelling around the world in his job, which was helpful.

We went through most parts of our workshops, and he showed us some activities and energizers we could use while conducting workshops.

One of the most interesting parts with this training session was the presentations of, and discussions about, the HIV/AIDS situation in our respective countries. It really illustrated how large the differences are in how the issue is percieved in different countries, the reasons for it, and how different countries deal with it.

Most of us feel better equipped to conduct workshops after this day.

On behalf of all the interns, we would like to thank Victor and MAC for their dedication and time. Welcome back!

Red Agent Mattias

7-9 August: Trip to Pulau Besar

All the interns set out with the bus at midnight from KL towards Pulau Tioman, a supposedly very scenic and nice island on the south-eastern coast of Malaysia. Unfortunately, as we arrived at the pier where a ferry was supposed to ship us to our destination, we discovered that all boats to Tioman island were fully booked for the whole day. We made a quick decision and changed our plan to go to a smaller island nearby called Pulau Besar. After a bumpy 20 minute speedboat ride, we arrived at the island. The first thing that struck us, apart from the obvious natural beauty of the landscape, was that it was surprisingly serene and quiet even though it was a weekend - in the middle of summer holiday season.

We split up in three houses and enjoyed our airconditioning and beds. Most of us immediately changed into swim suits/swim shorts and plunged into the turqouise sea.

The remaining time on the island was mostly spent being lazy, either by the beach or in one of the restaurants. The only actual activity was a nice snorkling trip on the second day. All in all a very relaxing and calm trip. The staff in the restaurants seemed to live the laid-back islander lifestyle to the fullest, as a nasi goreng took approximately 2 hours to get after ordering it. The only disappointment I had was the lack of diving spots, which I had hoped for. Apparently, the usual groups of Pulau Besar's visitors (retired french people) lacked interest in exploring these amazing waters, so the diving business in the area was confined to Tioman island.

On the way back, we surprisingly met Emma, our house mate, in a bus station somewhere in the wilderness. She was returning from a Singapore trip.

Now it's back to the daily routine!

Red Agent Mattias

HIV-home visit

Yesterday we made a visit to the HIV-houses in the north of Kuala Lumpur. These houses are supported by MAC and Standard Chartered Bank. There are three different houses. One for women, one for children and one for transsexuals.

The visit made a big impression on every Red Agent. The first person stories were very emotional and the positive way of living these people at acquired was very inspiring. One of the women living in the transsexual house, was particularly ambitious to tell fellow Malaysians about HIV and fighting the stigma.

All of us agreed that this would probably be one of the best ways to make young Malaysians aware of the growing threat of HIV.

What was also very nice to see, was how happy the children in the HIV-house were. They had lots of education material and toys available. The house looked very neat and clean, and the staff looked very caring and lovely.

It's very nice to see that these people have a place to call home, where they are safe and cared for. We wish the inhabitants of the HIV-homes all the best and lots positive living!

26 July - Last day in Singapore

Today was already our last day in Singapore and we made plans to go out quickly. Ameen took a bus back to Malaysia in the morning. Mariette decided to join our other intern Daphne to visit China town, where they visited a beautiful, three floor, Chinese temple. Estee was planning of taking us, Kanika and I, to have a nice bicycle ride along the east coast of Singapore.

After a short train ride we arrived at the beach. The beach turned out to be a big recreational area where lots of Singaporeans do sports and spend leisure time. We took a look at the water skiing cable ride and the guys doing nice stunts on the ramps and waves. After a short walked we arrived at the bicycle rental shop and we hired three bikes. Fortunately all three of us were good bikers and we had a nice ride along the coast.

Halfway we made a nice pit stop and took some pictures of the giant ships waiting to be docked. The view on the skyscrapers from the beach was very pretty.

After an hour or so, we returned the bicycles and made our way back to Estee's house. After arriving we packed our luggage, thanked Estee's family for housing us and left. Estee joined us to the airport and after a very sad goodbye we hurried to the gate. At the gate we were reunited with Daphne and Mariette and boarded the plane.

After 45 minutes we arrived in KL and we took a cab back to the intern house. Our Singapore journey had ended. It was a very nice experience, because of all the nice places we visited and of course most of all because of Estee's presence.

Singapore 25 July

The day started as holidays should start, late in the morning, after a nice long sleep. As Estee had a birthday party today, she couldn't guide us through Singapore, so we went exploring on our own.

We started roaming around malls in the beginning of the afternoon and had a nice lunch at the local food court. Apart from being even colder than Malaysian malls, the Singapore malls are almost the same. After a short while we grew bored in the mall and decided to watch Estee's dance practice.

The dance rehearsal took place in a park and we went there by train. The type of dance was Lindy hop and the specific practice was about lifts, which made it quite entertaining to see. During the "show" a funny looking Indian guy, reeking heavily of alcohol and sipping a Bavaria beer, joined us and started hitting on Kanika. Kanika though didn't seem to like the male company and quickly exused herself.

After the practice was over we (Kanika, Mariette, Ameen and I) went to the famous Singapore "Night Safari" and Estee went to the party. The nightsafari is located in the heart of Singapore and consists of a huge area of beautiful rainforest.

While being in the safari park, we visited the animal show and made a 45 minute trip by tram. The show was a compilation of a few big predators showing of from the stage and some small nocturnal animals doing tricks with their instructors.

The tramride took us through the biggest part of the park in about 45 minutes. We saw lions, elephants, tigers and a lot of the other animals that live in the Himalayas, India and equatorial Africa. The night safari was especially beautiful because the exhibits looked very natural without big fences and moats.

After the night safari, we went back to Estee's house and watched a movie together. Then it was time to end another magnificent day in beautiful Singapore. Tomorrow would be our last day already and we quickly went to sleep.

Elco

Best day of my internship :)

Today I woke up with excitement and curiousity as Estee had planned a surprise for me! I tried my best to guess what it was with the little hints she gave me but it was all a failure. These days in Singapore, I always wake up with a huge smile on my face as it's been 8 weeks away from the comfort of home. Every morning getting up at her place is like a paradise for me as there is a nice bed (which I have been longing for quite long!) and her family is very welcoming and nice. Estee if you are reading this, Thanks for all the hospitality and pleasure :).

Estee and Elco went to the airport to fetch Mariette while the lazy bone (I) was still asleep. After having a nice breakfast at home we set our day and went Downtown.

To reach there we had to take a train. I was surprised to see the accuracy and the development in Singapore. The trainstations show the accurate time for the journey from one place to another! Sometimes I wonder whether Singapore is an Asian country!

We reached the Orchid road which was a posh area with all the sky scrappers all around! It seemed like a really busy street and no less than the New York Times Square (Just seen it in movies!) We were surprised to discover that there are 800 shopping malls in Singapore! But to our bad luck the sales session is not going on.

After that, we went to Little India as suggested by Mariette and to my luck, I got decent Indian food! It was nearly as good as Estee's surprise (I was eating chapati after 8 weeks). After having a stroll around town we went to the Bugis street. It was like an open market with really cheap stuff for sale!

By the evening I was about to burst out of curiousity for my surprise but then Estee planned to take us to the Singapore Flyer which was like a dream! We were practically on top of the world as they told us we were 165m above sealevel and we could see Indonesia and Malaysia too! After the nice view it was finally time for my surprise. It was embarrassing and confusing when we walked into a 6 star hotel, The Fullerton, in our flipflops and the guys wearing shorts! We all had glitter in our eyes when we saw all kinds of chocolates, chocolate puddings and cakes, the fountain! We all ate like we had never eaten before and I couldn't help but smile because of the amazing treat and thought.

We ended the day by walking down the Boat Quak with a beautiful view and breeze from the riverside. As I walked down, I recollected all my memories from my last visit to Singapore with my family.

This is how my best day of my internship came to an end! And thanks Estee for the cherishable memory. Love you....

-x- Kanika

Singapore 23 July

Woohoo, yesterday evening we, Kanika and I, took a plane to Singapore to visit Estee. Ameen one of the other interns was also in Singapore and together with Estee, he fetched us from the Changi airport.

After a short busride we arrived at Estee's parents house, somewhere in the Tempines district. We felt home very quickly and the night was spend in a nice and soft bed.

After a good night of sleep and a hot shower we decided to go to Santosa, the manmade island in the northwest part of Singapore. Santosa looks like paradise, it's all very clean, the beach is beautiful and there's plenty of vegetation.

In the waters of Santosa we had a little sumo competition. Kanika and Ameen teamed up and I and Estee formed a team. With the girls on our shoulders Ameen and I charged into eachother and had tons of fun.

After floating around the whole afternoon, we were hungry and took the train back to vivo city. We ate at the mall and hurried back home, because Estee had a nice surprise for us.

At 8:30 we were expected to arrive at the Timbré musicpub. We had some nice drinks and a pizza and listened to the livemusic till late. When the show ended, we took a cab back to Tempines and everyone fell asleep quickly.

Tomorrow is another wonderful day in Singapore. Meri and Mariette, the other interns, will join us and we will have even more fun. Estee also said she will have a nice surprise for Kanika, but you'll read about that tomorrow......

Red Agent Elco

Country Presentations

Starting from last friday we have a new tradition. Every week on friday, we'll have country presentations by one of the interns about their own country and culture. This is a nice way for the other inters to get to know more about the different countries involved in the project.

Last friday it was up to Kanika, Shreysi, Beverly and Wenda to present their countries. This because Beverly left on saturday and Shreysi and Wenda will leave tomorrow.

First it was up to Beverly to tell us about the country were the Honkies come from. She covered a fast amount of topics, from Jackie Chan to the fragrance of fish (which explains the name Honk Kong :P).

Kanika and Shreysi told us all about India and its beautiful festivals and even performed a few typical Indian Dances.

Finally it was up to Wenda to present the wonderful island of Mauritsius. She told us all about the colonial history, the beautiful nature and the growing economy of the island. Wenda also performed a real African dance wearing a traditional Mauritian skirt.

So the country presentations were a big succes! Next week it's up to Korea and Holland to show all its tradition and hidden secrets.

Thailand trip!

While the other interns (Kanika, Andreas, Estee, Elco) were in Bali, we went to Amazing Thailand.

Well, the trip started with a long bus journey to the LCCT airport. Before boarding the plane we were of course checked for any dangerous instruments in our luggage and the airport authorities took all of Beverley's and Wenda's cosmetics, because they exceeded the maximum amount of fluids you can take onboard. So they didn't have a very fortunate start of their holiday.

After a short while in the plane, we arrived in Bangkok. After leaving the airport we realised we had forgotten to write down the address of the hotel we were suppose to go to. Luckily Wenda's phone had access to internet and eventually we found out about the hotel's address. After taking a pink colour Toyoto Corolla taxi to Pattaya, we arrived at our hotel.

After checking into the hotel, we went out for a nice dinner, walked around the street, checked out the beach, and then came back to our nice room with air-conditioning and television.

The next day, we got up early and had a very nice breakfast. We went out to the beach for water sports and some relaxation. After relaxing I wanted to have a thrill and decided to go jet ski-ing for half an hour and it was totally awesome!

Beverley and I got our henna tattoos done and after relaxing and enjoying on the beach we went back to the hotel and then went out shopping. In the evening, we went for a Transexual Cabaret Show. Pattaya is famous for hosting these shows in various theatres. The show is full with dazzling talented artists and entertainers who will deliver funny performances including comedic impersonations and dramatic numbers. It was a family show, so no naked or other offending sights. The show was very nice although Beverly got very jealous looking at how clean and beautiful the skin of the transexuals was.

The next day, after our usual nice breakfast that we were getting used to very quickly, we went out to do some adventure sports. What I meant was.... bungee-jumping from a height of 60 metres. The others didn't want to join me, so it was just me. When I was finally standing on a platform high in the air, I didn't dare to jump. I said to the instructor, you'll just have to push me. And then without a warning he pushed me of the platform. It was very cool, but I was super scary and I screamed loud at the top of my voice!

After that, we went aroud Pattaya for more sight-seeing, food tasting, shopping, and had a wonderful dinner. We also watched a Thai cultural show.

On our last day, which was the 29th June, we took a ferry to Kolen island from Pattaya. It was a beautiful island with super clean beaches and the water was clear like in a clean swimming pool. It was soooo adorable to see Beverley swim like a cute little duckling with her sunglasses on in the sea.

After that we all 3 went for a very painful/relaxing Thai massage. At the massage parlour, we were actually asked to quiet down as all three of us were laughing and giggling, because the massage was so painful and akward. They didn't want us to disturbe the other customers.

All good things come to an end and so did our fun-filled and amazing trip to Thailand. On 30th of June, we took a cab to the airport and after finishing the left over money we had at the Thai airport, we said bye bye to Thailand and head to Penang for another great trip:)

Love,

Shreysi

Intern's trip to Bali!

Finally, the day arrived where we (Andreas, Kanika and myself) went to Bali to have some sunny days at the beach. Just before we left, Estee decided to extend her stay in Malaysia and to join us. So we hurried to the airport, because we had not bought her ticket yet.

When we arrived at the airport, the queue at the sales office was sooooo long, that we thought we would never be able to buy a ticket in time. But with her puppy eyes and the brightest of all smile, Estee managed to convince a young lady in front of the line to let her pass :D

So we hurried to the departure hall after buying the ticket just to discovere that the flight was delayed. All the rush for nothing -_-"

One hour later, the plane finally took off for Bali and after merely three hours later we arrived at the local airport. We took a cab to Kuta Beach, the main tourist spot in Bali and after a quick stroll we found two available rooms at a nice hotel.

After a night of sleep at the hotel, we decided that the hotel wasn’t that nice after all so we set out to find a better place to call "home". After walking an hour through Kuta, searching for available rooms, we found that the nicest/cheapest hotel was just beside our old place!

So, we took one big room in the Secret Garden Inn. The room had four beds in a row, a fridge, air-conditioning and a nice bathroom.

After settling down in our new room, we went to a surf school along the beach in Kuta, to book some lessons for the next day. Having done that, we went to the beach to check out the sea and play in the waves.

In the evening, we went to a nice restaurant and had a nice western-styled dinner.

The next day, we were picked up at noon from our hotel and were brought to the surfschool for the surfing lesson. We were given our surfing gear and went to the beach for some enlightenment on the theory and basic surfing movements. After mastering the basics, we set out for the "real thing" and plunged into the sea!

What looked easy at first turned out to be quite tricky. Balancing on the fake surfboard on the beach was much easier than in the water. Especially getting up from the lying position into stance without falling was very hard.

All three of us managed into stance on the board occasionally, but the consistency wasn’t really there. This because of the strong waves who made us loose our balance. At the end of the day, Andreas, who had been dying to surf since the day he arrived in Southeast Asia, decided to take the 5-day surfing course while Estee, Kanika and I chose to do some sightseeing the next day.

Because the surfing was quite tiring we went to the hotel's swimmingpool afterwards to just float around and enjoy the afternoon sun. Actually we made this a routine and visited the pool everyday.

Of course we ended the day again with a nice meal in a very fancy restaurant. We enjoyed our pasta and during dinner Andreas discovered that the restaurant had an adjacent hotel next to it. Andreas went there to get some information about available rooms, but came back with a rather sad face. The rooms were expensive, even for Europeans ;).

The next morning, we were picked up by a van from the travelling agency who took us to the watersports center, were we did some parasailing, jet skiing and snorkeling.

In the afternoon, a chauffeur took us to Tanah Lot and Uluwatu. Tanah Lot is a beautiful Hindu temple in the sea (see picture) and Uluwatu provides a beautiful view of the coast and sea. At Uluwatu, we also watched the indigenous people perform a fire dance.

After our day trip ended, we went back to Kuta Beach to hooked up with Andreas for a very nice meal at the Havana Club, a Cuban-styled restaurant. We filled our stomachs with a huge meat covered skewer. The skewer was so big, that it had to be shared with two people. So me and Estee teamed up and so did Andreas and Kanika. The latter of the two had big difficulty finishing the plate, while me and Estee were screaming for more ;)

The next morning, was bye-bye day. We went to the airport early for our flight back to KL because a new adventure was about to start: Penang!

Read our Intern's diary

Bali trip 26th of June - by Elco

What’s behind the AIDS epidemic? - by Meri

Let’s get serious - by Elco

Let’s do one thing - by Prateek

dancing to the rhythm of Malaysia - by Kanika

new perspectives - by Meri

after 3 weeks internship... :] - by Carmen

training day by M.A.C. - by Estee

Meri’s first week over - by Meri

happy bday to Carmen!! - by Patty

The first post - by Andreas

Prateek returns back to India

It's some days since Prateek returned to India!

His development traineeship ended and now he is already 

back, full of memories and stories to tell (as he is telling us)!

Prateek from your friends in the Red Project,

we wish you all the best!!

Here are some pictures of the last night in UKM and a video 

made by us to remember your time in Malaysia and 

The Red Project!

What's behind the AIDS epidemic? - by Meri

What do you guys think is the root cause of AIDS epidemic?
Does it make sense to bring dozens of interns from around the world to work on HIV/AIDS awareness?
Would the world be a better place if there was no AIDS?

Looking forward to read your answers as comments!

-Meri

Let's get serious - by Elco

Dear Reader,

This is my first post on the blog. I’ve been in Malaysia now for almost 1814400 seconds, which means that during my stay, 302400 people have been infected with HIV around the world. Which underlines the importance of our work here. With my three month stay in Malaysia, which is approximately  1/320 part of my life, hopefully I can save a few young Malaysians from doing some risky behavior they will regret for the rest of their live. Meaning that with just this small amount of effort I can save life’s. Isn’t that nice J?

Having conducted three workshops now, I noticed that the knowledge level of HIV/AIDS between institutes varies a lot. Now it doesn’t make a difference for me to conduct on either one of these institutes , because I’m equally happy when an audience regards the presented information as known as when they seem to have never heard of HIV/AIDS.  In the first case I’m relieved that someone has already taught them the essentials about this growing danger. In the second case I’m happy we, as red agents, can teach them the basics of HIV/AIDS before they become sexually active or start using drugs.

Having said that I’ll start telling you about my experiences with Malaysian people. One of the keywords in describing the Malaysian society is diversity. Malayans, Chinese, Indians etc. live together in this exotic melting-pot of cultures. I’ve accompanied a group of Malayan UKM students to visit the Cameron Highlands,  given a workshop to a group of Chinese students and have seen the Hindu temples at the Batucaves. The funniest experience however was when I actually had to show a Malaysian cabdriver the way in his own city. He looked quite astonished when we said we weren’t willing to pay the amount the meter indicated, very strange :P.

In a way this multicultural society reflects our Dutch population, which is also a combination of native Dutch people, Moroccans, Turks, Chinese, people from Suriname etc . It’s nice to see when so many different people can live together in harmony.

So this was my first post on the blog, a quite serious one. I’ll promise you my next one will be crazy as hell, be prepared!!!

Let's do one thing- by Prateek

This is my first write-up for The Red Project, but surely not the last . It’s been almost 20 days, since I have been allied with this project, and started calling myself as the proud Red Agent. I am feeling, a little disheartened, because now only 6 days more have left for me in Malaysia. I will be going back to my country on this coming Tuesday, and joining my college. All my fellow interns are working really hard for the coming series of workshops, and as not being a part of the coming series, I am missing all those night long preparations and dry runs, I am still working on some of the most crucial issues for this project, but that’s is the kind of work I would always love to do. I feel, it need  a lot of guts to stand in front of a bunch of curious youngsters with  a “don’t-torture-us-anymore” expression on their face. I wanted to conduct a workshop, since the day I have joined it, but some reasons restraint me from doing so, but finally, I conduced my first and unfortunately the last workshop on 9 June’ 09 at Institute Kojadi, I shouldn’t lose the opportunity of saying that it was awesome. I was a part of one workshop before also, but did not speak, but here I spoke, and I think It was ok la….!!!! Lolz…

I seriously don’t want to go back to India, now, because I want to be a part of coming workshops, but still cannot postpone my departure as my college has already been started and I m missing my portion of studies, though I am not a nerdy-birdie guy, but still I am missing my friends, college and university, I have made a kind of bond with my fellow interns, that I hardly gets a chance to miss my friends in pune, but still they are calling me everyday, saying if I ever dare to postpone my ticket, they will disown me, and it was a serious warning indeed.

Hope this week-end, as it is my last in Malaysia, will be full of parties and more, even if we work…….we will do it in a party style……yeah…!!!  I will write one more time before going and one after reaching India……..so wait for my write up………..haha!!!!!! 

Hugs and kisses……to all red agents and people who are linked with The Red Project somehow………!!!!!