30 Hours Famine... Mission Accomplished

Back from China, as promised, it is still not the time for me to update about my trip as I have yet done with the pictures editing. Nevertheless, this might be a little late, an update about the 30-Hours Famine event that I participated 2 weeks ago.

It is a yearly event held by the World Vision to raise funds for the unfortunates. This year it was held in Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil. It is an event whereby participants will need to donate a sum of RM100 (students) & RM150 (non-students). Arrived as early as 10am, there were already a lot of people lining up to register themselves.



Upon registration, we were guided into the stadium by our group leader, we were the group No.238 comprising of 16 members.



We were given a tag with lanyard & an orange shirt while the volunteers for the event were in yellow uniform. Our group leader is Ms. Pei YingPeiki and she had been helpful throughout the whole event.



This year was rather remarkable as it marked the 10th anniversary of the event and we had a record breaking 5,500 participants.



As the clock ticking to 12pm where the whole event will be officially kick-off, we broke the ice among our group as it was a first time experience to all of us. We took our very first group photo in our cool orange uniform. As the clock strucked 12pm, the event kicked off in a colourful manner where giant balloons were thrown into the crowd.



As the clock strucked 12pm, the event kicked off in a colourful manner where giant balloons were thrown into the crowd. Loud cheer were echoed around the hall to mark the beginning of the 30hours famine.



We were given a handy manual of the activities that we will be expecting and sang many times the official Famine song. The event was emceed by a chinese host & translator, William & Yap. Even redfm 104.9 brought the event to live on air with DJ Alvin non-stop for 30hours.



Many activities kept us busy and to forget about hunger, there were talks given by distinguished guest from China, games & performances. For those who opted for a walk instead around the hall, there were several booths offering the event's souvenirs & inspirational books. There were even a semi-permanent tattoo kiosk. Exhibits & explaination on the World Vision missions & objectives were shown to give us a clearer picture of our contribution for the event.



Group activities & team building to allow us to mingle around with the rest of the members in the group and get to know each other more. We were given a task to build a house with just newspaper, there were a meaning behind all these activities, to appreciate what we have and enjoying now, there is indeed people in some corner of the world who lives under the paper as their shelter.



By the end of the group activities, we already passed the 4 hours mark, meaning 26 hours more to go. We took a group photo again and guess which is my younger brother here? I am the one wearing the cap standing on the far right of the photo.

As the hours passed, we can really feel the stretch of our hunger, there were some in our group who were imagining having tom-yam soup as dinner but the fact is, throughout the whole event, we are prohibited from any solid food but we were allowed to drink just H20, and gulping plenty of water means we frequent the loo more than usual.

Hunger aside, the most exciting part of the event was the concert that night, a free concert indeed. We were entertained by the World Vision Famine ambassadors, familiar faces like Francisca Peters, Fish Leong, Nicolas Teo & Daniel Lee (Malaysian Idol 2). Despite the hunger, the whole crowd did not disappoint by roaring the stadium with loud cheer particularly when famous Malaysian born Taiwan based star like Fish Leong & Nicolas Teo perform their numbers.



The clock struck 10.30pm when the concert ended. Without realizing, we already passed the 10 hours mark, with less than 20 hours more to go. Feeling exhausted, hungry & tired, decided to call it a day, as I spread my sleeping bag (borrowed from Meow), and dozed off accompanied by my nano.



We were given a wake up call by the volunteers at 7am, everyone was called back into the hall and had our morning reflex & stretching session.



By the 2nd day of this event, with less than 10 hours more to go, this period it really test our determination. For the very first time, I felt so bad & tired, craving for food, a little bit irritated with the feeling of not being able to shower as we were only given basic necessities but at the same time, I can feel the pain & torture of the unfortunates. For us, it is just a test of 30 hours but how about the people in Ethopia who have to go through this period like forever. It again makes me realize that my contribution perhaps can save a life from malnutrition or at least to have a cleaner water source.

Less than 5 hours to go, we can see many taking cat naps, dreaded to go back & homesick facial expressions.



With 3 hours to go, we took another group photo, can see that everyone is exhausted & tired.



The final hour, group leader came in the hall with a bag of the simplest thing ever, cakes & soya milk but to us bunch, we felt like heaven, we felt hope, there were beaming smile on some faces in the hall. Again, it gave me a thought of how joyous the kids will be in a less fortunate country than us if they were given all these.



Counting down the final hour, everyone was on top of the world as we break fast for the very first time in 30 hours, as much as we want people around the world to have this kind of feeling as everyone has the equal rights to enjoy at least the basic necessities and equal rights to live in this world.



I wanna thank all the new friends I'd met, it was an experience that will stay true blue in my mind and hope to see you all again in the next year event.

Any mikemmery readers ready to take the challenge?

Coming up: Macau & China trip updates