Khartoum Tales: Busy weekend

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Busy weekend

Was on my toes the whole day yesterday. Last night, we organized an event honoring the top students in Sudan. These are students who did very well in the Sudan Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) - ala ala our SPM exam in Malaysia lah.

Alhamdulillah, the event went ok.. cuma I mengamuk sikit sebab the music band came late. Typical Sudan standard. Suruh datang kul 5pm untuk soundcheck, pukul 9:15pm baru terhegeh-hegeh nak angkat soundsystem semua.

Needless to say, the band (which was actually pretty good), only managed to play for about 10 minutes for the Minister. Which is a waste. If they had done the soundcheck, they could have entertained the Minister and the other VIPs for at least 30 minutes.

Oh well.

Yang penting, there were no major blunders. There was electricity and air-cond throughout and the sound system was okay.

Alhamdulillah.. :)

Check out the colors -- meriah! Siap ngan lampu lap lip lap lip..

The students with the State Minister of Education and our Country Chairman

Students were dancing and taking pictures with the band

Which reminds me.. I came out in the papers too.. lepas SPM results were released. Although I was pretty confident that there was a misreporting. :)

Eh? Terbalik!

The point is... SPM is just ONE hurdle in life. I may have obtained good results masa SPM.. but after that, I struggled through university (almost didn't graduate!) and I was 2 years late in completing my Master's degree. And now, it's taking me forever to complete my PhD... *sigh*

I wish I could tell the students last night.. be proud of your achievements, but don't rest on your laurels. Yang penting, jangan fikir that you dah "terror", just because you got good results in the SSCE. Don't be like me.. don't be too over-confident and let success get to your head. Like I said lah, the SSCE is just one hurdle. It will not determine how successful you will be in life.

By the way, I have a former classmate who didn't too well in her SPM, and now she's one of the richest people I know. She has a BMW, a ferrari and masseratti and God knows what else.

So you see, the SPM is not "the one thing" in life.

Anyway... that was last night. Tadi pagi, we had breakfast kat Ozone with Muro, our friend from the Japan Embassy. Now this is one helluva guy. He actually wrestles with the Sudanese. Yup yup. Muro actually participates in wrestling competition with the Sudanese.