Final Stage

On Sunday we head out as early as 8am to Kompleks Penyayang Bakti which is located at Bandar Sri Damansara. Our journey took around half and hour. All of us gather there and start moving our tools and items out from the car. We start our work by clearing and trimming the grass as we wanted the whole place look neat and tidy. As we do not have tools for trimming the grass therefore we used our bare hand to plug the grass. We clear the place within an hour while waiting for one of our team member to arrived as she transport all the flower pots and plants, wood plank and brick stone to here.

After she arrived we carry all the items out from the car. As all of our team members are girls it was a heavy duty to carry such heavy item. We were very proud that we were strong enough to carry all the things. I started arranging all the water bottles on the floor accordingly while most of them arranged some plants into the bottles. There were few of our members doing the furniture while most of us arrange the plants. It was such an experience doing gardening as most of us are not experience in doing it. Moreover one of our member also bring some coffee as fertilizer for the plants. As we were doing the work we had our great time talking and sharing with each other. Other than that, there were few children watching us and they seem to very interested on our activities. One of them even volunteer to help out with the work. The children were very happy and playful as they talk to us.

 Picture 1.1 Trimming the grass

  Picture 1.2. Trimming the grass

   Picture 1.3. Trimming the grass

   Picture 1.4. Children helping out

Picture 1.5. Arranging bottles

Picture 1.6. Carrying stone brick out from the car

Picture 1.7. Carrying stone brick out from the car

Picture 1.8. Carrying stone brick out from the car

Picture 1.9. Try out on arranging the plants and flower together

Picture 1.10. Try out on arranging the plants and flower together

Picture 1.11. Start to get hands dirty arranging

Picture 1.12. Me and my team member arranging flowers

Picture 1.13 Try to separate the plants from the soil

Picture 1.14. Putting cement to attach both brick stone

Picture 1.15. Lacquer the wood plank

Picture 1.16. Drying the wood plank

Some of our team members went out to take away food for all of us as we do not want to waste time going back and font. We had an hour break before we start our work again. We started to hang the water bottles attach to the roof structure of gazebo. We hang the bottle plants by nailing it to the structure to strengthen the rope. We encounter a problem when we first hang the bottle as it was too heavy and afraid it will fall. Then we started to reduce the soil placing in the bottle so it will not weight too heavy. While we hanging the plants we waited for the wood plank to dry up so we could place the wood as a seat on top of the brick stone. We end up pushing the tree trunk as a table to place it beside our beautiful outdoor bench. Finally we clean up the place and throw all the rubbish away. All bottles covered with soil and dirty were clean using cloth. Further more we add on the wood below the rope of bottle plants so it will not move around. We clean up and sweep the place tidy before we left the place. 

Picture 2.1. Cleaning and fixing the bottle plants

Picture 2.2. Bottle plants

Picture 2.3. Bottle plants

Picture 2.4. Bottle plants

Picture 2.5. Bottle plants hanging on gazebo

Picture 2.6. Fixing the rope

Picture 2.7. Fixing the rope

Picture 2.8. Fixing the rope

Picture 2.9. Cleaning up 

Picture 2.10. Children trying to help 

Picture 2.11. Fixing the wood plank with the help of children

Picture 2.12. Moving tree trunk to the side of the bench

Picture 2.13. Cleaning up the floor

Picture 2.14. Sweeping the floor 

Most of the time while we were working, there were people came to visit us and ask us questions especially children. We had a great and fun time interacting with them and enjoying our community service at the same time. During this journey I learn how to work among team members and enable me to boost my leadership in my role during my duty. I learn that little things do cheer up someone like how we carry out the work on the site where all children were in fact very welcoming and happy to have us around talking with them.  Finally we had our photo session before we leave the place. It was a great experience and honor that I able to contribute to the society. 

Picture 3.1. Complete plants decoration and outdoor furniture

Picture 3.2. Children enjoying the outdoor furniture

Picture 3.3. Group photo overall look of gazebo with bottle plants

Picture 3.4. Group photo with outdoor furniture

 "Community service has taught me all kinds of skills and increased my confidence. You go out there and think on your feet, work with others and create something from nothing. That's what life's is all about. " - Andrew Shue

Preparation & Progress

We start our day early morning to had our breakfast before we start our work. We brought our stuff and water bottles to our studio to work. Firstly we rinse and clean up all the water bottles. We had our short discussion to separate the work task. There were few of them marking the water bottles to get the correct measurements before passing to another members to drill a hole. Then some of us cut the water bottle according the opening. While other of the members wipe the water inside the bottle before spraying colour onto the water bottles. We spend few hours on the task as we need to prepare at least 60 water bottles and of course we did few extra just in case.

Picture 1.1. Cleaning and rising the water bottles

Picture 1.2. Wipe and arrange accordingly

Picture 1.3. Group discussion

Picture 1.4. Marking the water bottles

Picture 1.5. Draw the cutting line

Picture 1.6. Marking the water bottles

 Picture 1.7. Marking the water bottles

Picture 1.8. Drilling a hole onto the water bottle

Picture 1.9. Cutting out accordingly

 Picture 1.10. Spraying

  Picture 1.11. Spraying

  Picture 1.12. Spraying

  Picture 1.13. Spraying

   Picture 1.14. Picture of me spraying second layer

Picture 1.15. Leave it to dry

It was very satisfying to see the outcome of the beautiful and colourful water bottles. During the process I get to learn how to work among big group of team members and having positive energy to keep us moving. After we had done spraying, we went for late lunch while waiting for the water bottles to dry.  

After we came back from lunch we had our short discussion on how we could arrange according to colour and tie them up. As usual we were separate into our own task, as I was cutting the rope all according to size and others were measuring the distance of bottles before trying them. Even though it look simple but we spend a lot of time correcting the length and tying to make it firm so it will hold the weight of the plants. I even made mistake on trying incorrectly, luckily my other team members point out before I proceed. During the process, all of us were helping each other even though we had our own task to complete. Finally we completed our work by 8pm. 

Picture 2.1. Bottle arrangement

Picture 2.2. Cutting rope

Picture 2.3. Discussion on the length of the rope

Picture 2.4. Tying accordingly 

Picture 2.5. Working together

Picture 2.6. Arrange accordingly 

After we had tie the water bottles then we arranged it all on the floor according to the colour we plan out so we can pack it separately and to avoid string tangle together. It was a tiring day as we spend whole day preparing all the water bottles. We were so excited for the day to set up all.