Doulos Mural Day

Mhmm... another late post. I'm ashamed but this is so far the only free time that I have. So here goes....

On the 11 of December 2008, Farrah, Sabrina, Bethany, Daniella and I joined the mural painting competition at Pending, Kuching, Sarawak.The murals we painted were supposedly meant to be a welcoming thing for Doulos but we weren't allowed to be there before the ship arrived. Something about letting teenagers with tins of paint on the loose. Therefore the competition was held on the opening day.

Lining up for registration

GBA stands for "Good Books for All"

I know this is weird, but I never knew Doulos was a Christian ship. Since I was a kid I always thought that Doulos was this big ship with loads of cool books on board. Little did I know..... I was amazed to learn that Doulos actually means "Servant" in Greek. It is also known as the floating UN. They're even young children on board and they go to school on the ship, I mean... how cool is that? They get to travel all round the world. Doulos's purpose, "BRINGING KNOWLEDGE, HELP AND HOPE TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD". Their core values are, loving God, Esteeming people, working as a team, serving with excellence. You see, living onboard isn't just all fun and games and travelling, you have to work too. I actually am very touched by what those on board are doing. They devoted themselves and volunteered to help people in need all around the world. I wish I had the guts to leave everything behind and live for the greater good by helping others, but sadly I don't. It shames me to say this, but I love material stuff. I wouldn't last a week without a fan, my mp3 and a television with astro. Therefore I respect and admire those onboard the Doulos. For more information on Doulos check out their website at
http://www.mvdoulos.org

Well, my whole group thought that we were going to be painting on the ship. I thought that would be impossible but then again anything can happen. So we made our way onboard and went in search of the registration area. When we didn't find it we figured that the registration would be back on the port. So we went back down the steps. Whoah don't get me started on those steps, 10 times or more a day and I'd be slim in no time, hahaha.... no seriously they're killer steps. We found the registration area and since they were still packing the goody bags they told us to walk around first. So Beth, Dani and I headed for the shade. Thats when I noticed that the white painted plywood boards along the entrance was our canvas, 2 boards for each team.

Our "canvas" of white behind us

We, thinking that the theme was culture (due to bad judgement) had already planned what to do and thinking they were going to ask questions, hid most of the meanings in the mural to save us drawing it all out and saves time. For example, the colour trails to the hand represents all the cultures in Malaysia coming together as one nation. We got the shock of our lives when we saw everyone else drawing boats and waves and even Digi people (what the.... yeah Digi, Malaysia's mobile phone coverage) We went along with the original plan anyway, because it was too late to change and we did not join to win but to enjoy ourselves (although if we did win that would've been great) So Beth and Dani went ahead and drew the guy in the mural, whom Beth decided to call Bujang in the end, and Farrah and Sabrina went along and drew their cool looking tribal art. Farrah did the bottom and Sabrina did the right. I on the other hand, sharpened a pencil, then thinking that it was a total waste of time, went digging into bags and handed all of them mechanical pencils and lead, got ready some paint and started painting the background. So I merely painted the mural and did not draw anything. The whole mural turned out well though and I'm very proud of it. It was kinda the coolest day ever.

just after we finished painting

Oh Bujang, we're so proud of you

Us posing next to Bujang

Hopefully this isn't the end of the organisation but just the end of the ship. Doulos is retiring in 2010 and I hope that there will be another vessel that will carry on the good work of Doulos.

Picture taken at the end of the competition

xoxo, babyJ