One of my PE teachers used to have this tagline – ‘Bring out the animal spirit in you!’ This was used at the start of friendly matches or during our physical fitness tests. Allow me to modify this tagline a little – ‘Bring out the Kampong spirit in you!’
Kampong, a Malay word, is used to describe a village. In the Malay village, the community is often cohesive, close-knitted and cooperative. When Singapore started to develop public housing, we have wanted to retain this community spirit so all the flats come with corridors. To be frank, I am not 100% certain this is the reason for having common corridors and void decks for our flats but I learnt this from the Channel 5 series ‘En-Bloc’.
For those of us growing up in HDB flats, the common corridors definitely hold fond memories. Well, my childhood was practically spent on the long-stretched corridors playing chasing games with the kids of my neighbours. We even extended our ‘territories’ to the accompanying stairway. Our play-time started immediately after breakfast and continued through to lunch. We would have skipped lunch if not for the warning canes from our mums.
Community Centres (CC) were built in each housing estates to foster friendly relationship of the community while providing workshops and recreational activities for the public. In the older days when people were poorer and not everyone owned a television, some of the neighbours would go to the CC in the evening to watch television. (If you can recall, the channels are not 24-by-7 when we were young, some channels start broadcasting only at 6 pm on weekdays.)
To be frank, I used to participate in the activities of the CC actively when I was in primary school. I will attend drawing lessons and take part in drawing competitions and lantern festivals of the CC often. Somehow as I grow up, I gradually lose interest in the activities of the CC, until recently.
When I wanted to sign up for yoga lessons at the nearby CCs, I was amazed by the array of activities that the CCs conducted these days. CCs are becoming chic and trendy with coffee outlets for those who wish to chill out after lessons or simply want to chill out at a quieter spot with a nice cup of coffee. The classes available at the CCs cater for all age groups with special classes for children, senior citizens and working adults. The types of lessons are comparable to the latest fad, such as yoga, salsa and in-line skating. For those who prefer the more traditional types of lessons, one can still find the all-time favourites, such as cooking, language, dancing and singing lessons. There are also local and overseas trips organized.
The CC I frequent are relatively quiet on Saturday morning when I attend my yoga lessons except for the fervent basket ball players who dribble away on the court. I was attending a beauty workshop on Saturday afternoon when I was being swept away by the ‘Kampong’ spirit which I thought was long-gone.
The CC was crowded with people with different interests and different age groups. There was a Malay wedding at the multipurpose hall. There were parents bringing their kids for drawing lessons. There were girls (from age about 10 to 60) attending the beauty workshops. The CC congregated the community under the same roof and rekindled the ‘Kampong’ spirit. When I talked to two of my classmates, I was informed that there was even a Women Executive Committee (WEC) which consisted of 30 odd members who met monthly to organize different activities for the ladies. Wow, I was immediately swelled with respect for my classmates. They sacrificed their personal time so that the ladies members in the CC could enjoy different classes and activities.
During the class, the girls also cheered each other on when we were practising our make-up. We encouraged each other for those who were shier and less experimental. We helped look-out for each other when we tried on the colours. This was when we met each other only for the first time and did not even know each other’s name. Moreover, we were also from different age groups. Yet, all barriers were broken when we washed our faces at the basins or applied our eye-shadows together in front of the mirror.
All unease I felt about signing up for a class alone was dismissed. I truly enjoyed the experience. I was also felt with warmth on the experience and the witness of the ‘Kampong’ spirit once again. I will come back for my classes to pick up new skills and
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