International Conference on Decolonising Our Universities

Paradise Sandy Beach Resort, Penang Malaysia

View from my hotel room's balcony at Paradise Sandy Beach Resort. Penang

A 3-day-2 night international conference was held in Paradise Sandy Beach Resort, Penang on 27-29 June 2011. I am pleasured to be one of the team as the student helper/observer. Being a student helper means the whole team will be hands on fully from the preparation work of the conference to the tiny little stuff during and after the conference.

A total of 16 peoples were in the student helper team, leaded by our person in charge, Poh Chuin, and a powerless management intern that working at the IPS, Sylvester. Our team were consisted of post-graduate students came from all around the world, 7 of us from Malaysia. 2 from Nigeria, 1 from Yemen, 3 from Iran, 1 from Philippines, 1 from Palestine and 1 from Indonesia.

Day before conference

We have been working on the preparation of the conference days before, prepared those conference kit, a very tedious work that require good organization and team work. From labeling the file to slot in all the papers accordingly to the files with coloured dividers. All need a lot of time even with many pairs of hands. Loading the stuff from the office to the loading zone of the lorry that handled the delivery was also part of out job scope. Loading always comes with unloading, so we all have to help to transfer boxes and boxes from the unloading area to our temporary secretariat room set up near the conference hall. That tiny little room were where we work on 180 files for the very last minutes paper slot in on the afternoon of the day before the conference date. The lunch were served at 1pm that day, i remember it very clearly as all of us were starving by the time the last file of the conference kit done with slotting in the last paper. The food served was not in a lot of variety, but we were all starving, so everything just tasted good for us.

After the lunch, we were allowed to check-in out hotel room respectively. I were staying at the room 1503 through out the conference. Sharing the room with me were our team photographer, Eeling. The room was spacious, with a king-size bed and a small kitchen. After taking a quick shower, we were back to work. Most of the things had been done.

At 4pm, i was waiting for a friend at hotel lobby. At that time, most of us were already feeling hungry. That was temporary solved when Ray bought some chips and we just opened them up and ate it at lobby. That was when i met my visiting Prof. from India who were invited as a participant for this conference. Him being invited is actually one of the reasons that made me applied for being a student helper even after i missed the date of submitting my resume for applying as rapporteurs for this conference apart from wanting to be a part of this conference. He gave me and my friends some 豆沙饼 after founding out that one of us missed the lunch and most of us were actually having growling stomach. He purposely went up in his room to take it and came down again just to give that to us. Sweet.
After that was when i finally have the time to take a stroll at the sandy beach. The weather that day were good. Warm and nice. Lounged at the sun bathing chair and chatting, making fun of friends were awesome.

At night, after the dinner i went to lobby to do some net surfing and of course, took the opportunity to cool off my tooties. Sandy beach is somehow has the ability to cool off whatever anger you have and calm your mind. Some of my friends joined me at the beach later that night, we were having fun chating and taking crazy photos.

My day ended with a hot shower and struggling in bed.