Fund-raising Carnival at St David High School Melaka - 22 Jul 2023 [DONE]

There's a phrase in Malay, "Seperti Kacang Melupakan Kulit", which literally means, like a peanut forgetting its shell. In the context of my secondary school education, proud to say this does not apply! 

When I first found out about the (then) upcoming fundraising carnival to be held in St David High School, happy to find the responses from my fellow ex-schoolmates in our Whatsapp chat group. To be frank, there were only SOME of us who actively voiced their wish to join, and in the end only SOME actually did turn up (both on time and late).

The link to the event's Facebook page is <HERE> 

I knew traffic would be bad, and available parking extremely limited - nothing changed since those days.... Sort of reminds me of the situation at Infineon on a rainy day.... My family and I arrived shortly before 9am, but by then it was already very crowded, with many students participating in the carnival as well as manning the counters and food stalls. Also on active duty were the teachers, but not from my time as those who had taught us earlier were all retired (yes, I know I'm THAT old already).

As with most events these days, in order to ensure good fund management, all transactions were in the form of cash vouchers that could either be purchased beforehand or during the event itself at the appropriate counter. Very fortunately, I had purchased earlier, as there was a very, very long queue at the counter during that day.

Right inside the entrance, there was a fire truck parked there on display, though it was gone before noon. Possibly some emergency calls.... The assembly area which was open-air during our time, was now fully covered with a high roof. There were several counters there, and highlight on display were the electric vehicles (EV's) from Volvo. 

The school hall where we had several memorable events back in the day (including our stage performances and debates) was used for jumble sales. 

The food stalls were located at the school field. Unfortunately, in order not to damage the track / football area, the 3 rows of food stalls were placed very close to each other, leaving little room for the bustling crowd. We basically could not stop or walk slowly between rows, so I had to resort to multiple passes to identify what they were selling on both sides, and finally zoom in to the stall to buy something. There were limited seating and tables to eat (not everything was easy to eat standing up), so we ended up sitting at the stairs near the vocational classroom block (at least that was I believe they were from last time, not sure if they are still used for the same purpose nowadays).

The students were really going out, to push sales of the food and drinks. I remember my Americano being prepared by a teacher, who somehow was over-enthusiastic when it came to adding sugar.... 😅 

Not sure if it was part of the event, but there were a few students in full cosplay mode - and a few in cross-gender outfits as well. Possibly to promote the face-painting counter, there were a few students going around as well. Seems to be working, as the queue to that counter was even longer than then queue for the vouchers!

The remove class block classrooms were used for games booths, where we could try our skill and luck (mostly luck) to win several small prizes.

It did drizzle lightly, but that did little to dampen the spirits - the crowd was huge and did not thin down towards midday. Our ex-schoolmate group was supposed to gather at 11am, but somehow few came a bit late.

Photos above taken by my friends, credit to them. Somehow this time I did not really take any, as was fully engrossed in the event.

And a short post on the school's Facebook page on the outcome of the event with some photos can be found <HERE>

My family and I had a good time. For my especially to see my alma mater once again, in better shape then when we graduated. Telling some old time stories to my kids about the time when I was their age. Unfortunately, we had to leave after noon, so I did not manage to meet some of my ex-schoolmates who came much later. Overall, was happy to have managed to attend. Congratulations to the organizing committee, teachers and students for making this a successful fund-raising carnival! Looking forward to the next such event!