SMS Kelantan as I Remember

This is a collection of stories and old photos of me, friends, teachers and events during my secondary school years (1975-79) at SMS Kelantan, which is now known as Sek Men Sains Tengku Muhammad Faris Putra. The school itself was started in 1973, and moved to the new campus in 1974 (you'll see grassless field in some pix!)

Best viewed using Morzilla Firefox!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Water Woes

One of the regular problems in school then was the water supply. The water tanks on top of the hostel blocks (inside the ceiling) were obviously not enough to cater for the "peak hours" of the bathrooms every morning and evening. I guess the water pressure was not strong enough to refill these tanks during those peak hours. During these periods, only the third floor (top-most) and the ground floor bathrooms would have flowing taps! We from the other floors had to go to one of these bathrooms. Can you imagine the crowd?

I remember that to ensure that I got enough & satisfying shower, I had to get up as early as 5am, to be among the first to utilise the bathroom. I also remember how later on we used to reserve water in our covered pails before we went to bed, so that when we got up we had some water for our perusal. Sometimes, we woke up to find our water reduced. Yes, there were "water thieves"! I know of some girls who were too lazy to "reserve water" the night before, and when they woke up to find a long queue in the bathrooms, they would simply "kebas" (took without permission) ours.

To make things worse, there were times when there was no water at all! During these times, we just had to "lompat pagar" (got our of the school compound) to get water from the wells of the nearby neighbourhood. The local people there then were very sympathetic towards us and were very nice :) . Here's a pic of some of the girls getting water from one of the wells:

And these girls had the time to take photo? But that time they were not taking water for shower. I wonder for what?


I remember there were a couple of times when I actually went with some friends to the girls toilet in the classroom block for my morning shower!

Eventually the school decided to dig our own wells in our hostel compounds! So the boys got a well, and the girls got one too. Since then, we didn't have to go out for water, and the bathrooms were not too crowded anymore, because many of us simply went down to the well for our morning showers! As a girl who grew up with well water, I really enjoyed it then. During peak hours it was like a "party" of shower. Girls would berkemban (folding sarongs to our breasts) and took shower together, fun, fun!

I do not have any pic of the well or near the well. How I wish there are some friends who actually possess some of these pix, and wouldn't mind sharing them with me. Please feel free to email me at sabariahmz@gmail.com to send me the pic.

Recently I had the opportunity to enter the girls' hostel compound, and sad to say the water well is no longer there... :(

10 Comments:

  • At April 18, 2009 8:40 PM, Anonymous Nury said…

    Sabar,

    Gambar ni was taken masa kami (kadet polis) gi camping kat kem Kijang. That was during 'cooking' time -- tengah basuh periuk.

     
  • At April 26, 2009 2:25 AM, Blogger Rhonda said…

    What a wonderful look back at your growing up years. We had 2 wells when I was little. One for the animals to be watered, the other we used for washing clothes and watering the garden and of course drinking.

     
  • At April 26, 2009 2:34 AM, Blogger busymum100 said…

    Rhonda,

    Thank you for dropping by *smile*.

    Nowadays kids can't understand what a well is. Even if there are still houses with wells, the water is pumped up. No longer using buckets and rope as we used to.

     
  • At April 30, 2009 5:16 PM, Anonymous kamilah said…

    well, it's not much different from now. we still have water problems. the topmost floor still doesn't have any water since the pressure was not enough to supply water to the shower heads. we still have the well in the hostel compound, but we do not use it anymore. now the girls have a new open-air shower built beside the ampaian.

     
  • At April 30, 2009 5:44 PM, Blogger busymum100 said…

    Kamilah,

    I didn't see the well. Is it still at the old place? The place in front of the girls hostel looks soo gloomy, with the roofs :-(
    But of course the roofs protect the clothes on the clothes-lines from rain.

     
  • At May 02, 2009 2:20 PM, Blogger Nana said…

    ada.dkt belakang tmpt kitorng amik air semayang.dh tersorok dibelakang ampaian

     
  • At June 04, 2009 7:39 PM, Anonymous kamilah said…

    skrng dh gone recently, dgn 'pmbgnn' baru y dilakukan

     
  • At April 13, 2010 5:52 PM, Blogger Mp3 Master said…

    i heve review page at breathless moment. i can pour out a tears at any moment now. ooohhh... 30 over yrs ago i was there.. but i'm not such a briliant as you all. i end up as teacher and still a teacher now.

    i know you my junior.. from the pic you display, i still can realise my "geng" there, kak nik, maizan, syarifah (serawakian) at the well.

    at muzic club... senani, ramlah, razimah, shila mohan (if i not mistaken her name)

    oh my .....

     
  • At April 13, 2010 5:53 PM, Blogger Mp3 Master said…

    i heve review page at breathless moment. i can pour out a tears at any moment now. ooohhh... 30 over yrs ago i was there.. but i'm not such a briliant as you all. i end up as teacher and still a teacher now.

    i know you my junior.. from the pic you display, i still can realise my "geng" there, kak nik, maizan, syarifah (serawakian) at the well.

    at muzic club... senani, ramlah, razimah, shila mohan (if i not mistaken her name)

    oh my .....

     
  • At February 28, 2011 11:57 AM, Blogger Mr.41 said…

    two thumbs up!!

    kenangan d faris petra,sentiasa melekat d hati...:)

     

Post a Comment

<< Home