Say It With Me Now... F-I-S-H!

FISH!

That's what today was all about, really. From the proceeds of the Buddhist Exhibition last week, we funded today's Releasing Life ceremony. Generally, we buy up some animals that have been caught and release them back to their natural habitat. Last year, they did birds and crickets. This year, they went with catfish.

Bad idea.

They ordered the fish at 7am, then collected it at around 10am, and brought them back here. They came in 4 big plastic tongs and are very very heavy. It was worth more than RM200, so you can guess the number of fishes there. The main obstacle for us is to keep them alive till 5.30pm, the actual time they would be released back to a river in Salak Tinggi.

The fishes are very packed and they will surely deplete their oxygen supply quickly. So we had to do some teh tarik-ing, by scooping some water out and then pour it back from a distance to allow the water to mix with the air. Luckily I had a class, so I didn't have to do so much. Nonetheless, the smell is very obvious and some of it had gotten onto my pants by 12pm.

Anyway, at 4pm the praying ceremony started. We had to carry it into the prayer room which was a challenge in itself as it was heavy and filled with stinking water. We did our 40 minute chanting in the fishy room (I felt I could throw up!) and had to transport it back to the ground floor to be loaded onto the pickup truck. All the guys had to be the ones doing it - and it was definitely stinky and dangerous.

In total, we had about 20+ people coming with us, so we got a college van, and some of our own cars. Mine was one of them. So all of us went to the river together. The night before - we had a meeting where a rough map was drawn out. After a left turn, we were supposed to go straight a little bit and then turn into the river. The person who drew it drew a short 1cm line on the paper. But when I actually went there, I realized that the map was seriously out of scale. We kept going and going and going before reaching the said junction to the river.

And that was not the end! The river is situated deep in the area, and we had to drive on a makeshift road! I felt annoyed at the pebbles and sand that were destroying my tyres. Worse, muddy potholes were everywhere, making the path only suitable for 4WDs. I was beginning to regret it.

Then, we reached the side of the bank. I almost heaved a sigh of relief - until I saw that we had to go up a short and steep slope, and then down another steep slope before actually reaching the bank. Climbing up was hard enough, but then we had to transport those fishes! What ensued was quite chaotic:

1. The pickup truck had to leave as it was already 5pm, so we hurried to take the tongs down.
2. Some of them were too heavy, so we had to use pails and scoop some fishes up and form a human chain.
3. It was very slow to pull the thing up and then lower it down to the bank.
4. Everyone was divided onto the two sides, and those at the bank started emptying the pails even before we managed to chant - fearing that villagers would come and catch them again.
5. By the time all the fish were on the other side, they went straight into the river before I had a chance to wipe my hands and take out my camera.

Fine, I thought, at least it's all over. Let's go home!

Or not.

As the pickup truck has gone off, it was up to the 3 remaining cars to carry 4 big tongs back. That is fine and all - except the tongs won't fit in our boots. All three are Proton sedan cars, and we overestimated the opening of our boots. I squeezed it in one way.... squeezed it in the other way... all the while trying to ignore the smell it will leave on my car. It just won't fit in nicely! So we had no other choice but to drive the 10 minutes back with our boot door open, and the tongs hanging out halfway. That was acceptable - we had no other choice anyway. But then...

What about the fourth tong?

Steve recommended a complex strategy of 3 cars carrying 3 tongs out, then 1 car will drop its tong off at the main intersection and go back for the fourth tong.

I recommended that the fourth tong be pushed into one of the car's back seat, and we can all go back together.

My solution was generally accepted, but we had to find something to cover the seats so it wouldn't smell like fish. But we had to run out of cardboards, so I suggested getting coconut/banana leaves. This IS a village after all, and there are a few plantations in our immediate vicinity.

Steve went off to search, and came back 5 minutes later with a dried coconut leave - not much help there. By that time though, some were getting restless and said that if they started walking with one tong they'd be out at the main road by the time our cars get out. So they took one tong and started walking.

Realizing the inefficiency of my idea, we just drove back with three tongs stuck in our boots. I had to ask the person sitting beside me to keep a close eye on the boot, as I had to adjust to driving with just my side-view mirrors - I'm quite dependent on the rear-view mirrors. We managed to make it back intact, and the first car to reach went back to pick up the last tong.

Gawd! That was awful!

If they ever decide to release fish again next year, I'm not volunteering my car. It's all for a good cause, yes, but still....

My clothes are all wet from the fish water. I planned to send it to the laundromat tonight, but my current dirty laundry is not enough to fill up the machine - so it's not worth the RM2.50. I'll wait till tomorrow.

I'm not sure why, but all that happened today left a bad taste in my mouth. It was just plain weak planning, all done in the last minute. I suddenly felt the urge to indulge, even after having rice for dinner, and I went and bought a beef burger. It was a binge, no doubt, but in defense, this was my first time buying a burger within the college. I always resisted that temptation as I was afraid it would give me sore throat, but I just couldn't care less just now.

I feel much better now. But now the focus is on my camp this weekend. I have a meeting in 4 minutes with the Secretariat Head - she is rushing me to pass her the final registration forms. Sigh...