Hi Everyone,

With the bad weather we have been having everyone has been getting rather bored and frustrated as we haven’t been able to go out and catch bats. To stop everyone going completely crazy, on Sunday we paid a visit to the local kindergarten in the Orang Asli (aborigine) village of Penderas, about a mile from Kuala Lompat. They were tidying up the school to be ready for a district wide competition to find the best kindergarten in Temerloh district. They wanted some murals to brighten the place up a bit, so we volunteered to help. Of course our main mural was going to be about bats, and how important they are in the local peoples’ lives!

So, 10 am we arrived, it was all a bit chaotic as there were loads of kids running about the place, and electricians rewiring, teachers cleaning, and village men crafting a new roof for the outdoor rest area. But we found some walls and got started. On the outside of the building we painted the Malaysian flag, and a large number one with bits of the flag worked into it. But the real masterpiece was inside, where we painted a scene about bats and put up a simple message on the top wall:
“They who live in caves and forests,
Eating insects, dispersing seeds and pollinating flowers,
Helping us everyday even though we don’t realize it,
They who we need to take care of!
(Fruits + Flowers)-Insects = Love bats!”

We spent all day doing it, and didn’t quite finish the bat mural (Zam is going to finish it off today), but it was great fun, if a bit exhausting! Below are some of the photos.

The Kindergarden at Penderas. Top: the play area. Middle: some of the local children. Bottom: inside the classroom.

Left: Jirah, Fatim and Jovic working on the Malaysian flag. Right: Mimi painting fruits that are pollinated or dispersed by bats

Left: Saveng putting the final touches to the Malaysia 1 mural. Right: Ain still working on the bat poem

Left: Zie, Julie and Ain at work on the bat mural. Right: Dr Kingston painting a Cynopterus dispersing a fig!

Top: Ain with the bat mural poem. Bottom left: Saveng, Julie and Jovic with Saveng's "Malaysia 1" mural. Bottom right: The USM girls' Malaysian flag mural

The bat mural at the end of Sunday. Not quite finished, but almost there!

The team at the end of a hard day!