MENGO H2O Hunt 2014

This was the first volunteering trip I went with my fellow coursemates (16 dedicated volunteers from University Putra Malaysia!!! Whee~~~~~) for the MENGO H2O Hunt 2014 at Publika last Sunday. We had to wake up early and take the bus early but at the end...we were still a bit late (boohoo...) that we did not have enough time to change into the Tshirt provided by the organiser and to take breakfast. The briefing was very brief and we were taken to our respective check point (as we were not familiar to that place) to start our work almost right away.

Awesome morning view. That's one of the reasons I love to wake up early in the morning.

We could even see KLCC and KL Tower bathing in dawn light from Publika!

Unlike the tree planting event that I went before where everyone had the same work scope (which was planting trees, haha), each of us have different works to do. Mine was to be the head marshall (a.k.a. game master commonly) of check point no. 2 - hike & seek. The participants would have to look through the bookmarks each stated with a substance to find 10 water pollutants and jot them down within 10 minutes to avoid a penalty. For environmental studies student like me, it was a really easy task (hehe, being proud of myself) but it's somehow slightly confusing for public especially the term 'cadmium' (I was refraining myself from telling them, ''you handphone!!!'', hahaha). So my job was to watch the timing and give them the stamp on their 'passport' after they had completed their task.

Had you found this check point? ;)

The mysterious bookmarks, let's seriously think about what are the water pollutants existing in our environment.

Sounds superior, right? Hehe.

While waiting for the participants to find my check point, I just looked around the building or Publika. This shopping gallery is really special, so far it has the most unique design for a shopping center that I have ever seen. Every floor seems like ground floor as there is open area for some of the floors. For example, the square is not exactly on ground floor but it is on G3 which we had to take two flights of escalators to reach there (we got lost somehow when looking for the registration site). There were people cycling (I believe that the bicycles were borrowed from Publika) or jogging at the shopping gallery (healthy lifestyle! Don't just go shopping at shopping mall!). It was so adorable looking at the little children interacted with their parents, they were just so so cute! And I saw couple bike! Two person sharing one bike! How sweeeeet! Besides, the washrooms in Publika are somewhere you should check them out. The designs of the washrooms are very artistic. One of the washrooms that I went has the paintings of traditional Chinese characters and dragons while the other one has...cartoons? Maybe if I was not wrong. Yeah we came to Publika for the first time and it excited me and Erika (hahahahaha).

The Washroom. Hahaha. Thanks to Erika for having an obsession to take photo through washroom mirror and her sense of arts.

The Square, which is located at the third floor a.k.a. 'G3'. And I noticed there is a place called The Circle at ground floor, the place we first reached Publika. 

Our VIP. (from the left: Ms. Yasmin Rasyid, Mr. Eric Tang, Dato' Anuar Saddad, Mr. Awang Muzaiddin, Mrs. Jen Kristen Chang )

The prize-giving ceremony! Congratulation to all the winners! 

I have heard of the name of Yasmin Ras long time ago but have not met her face-to-face. She is the founder and president of EcoKnights, a non-for-profit environmental organization started in 2005. I was just too shy to walk over and say 'hi' (boohoo again). There were not many volunteers there, not more than 30 persons. Too bad we did not really have much time to talk to each other. When I was carrying out my duty, watching the participants trying their best to solve the task, I wished that I was one of them. It was simply so exciting, just like 'The Amazing Race' that we watched on TV but this one was carried out in a smaller scale. As I was fixed at one check point, so I was unable to go anywhere else as I like to take photos or observe how the whole event went (not event the flagging off! Noooooooooooooooo). If possible I think I would just be a full-time blogger next time, haha. Oh yeah, there is another important thing. I think we would be on TV and newspaper, bwahahahahaha, there were many reporters there walking around with the bulky cameras (ok ok, DSLR).

Me and my fellow coursemates posing after the event. (credit goes to Gee Latif)

After communicating for a few weeks over emails and phone calls, finally I met Mr. Syamil in person and I was surprised that he is really young. I even used the word 'Mr.', that sounds so old. He is the assistant coordinator for MENGO Support Unit Office. Hahaha. Just found that the colour of our clothes looks like Power Rangers. (From the left: Me, Syamil and Rahimi, the president of the Persatuan Mahasiswa Fakulti Pengajian Alam Sekitar)

P/S: That's it! Hope that next time we might have the chance to work together again! But honestly, next time our faculty should send one team or two to join this challenge! Hehehe..