Acknowledgements

It is the last day of the year 2009. Week and half ago my EVS project in Malaysia ended and I flew back to my home country Finland. I had an incredible experience in Malaysia. For that I have many people to thank.

• PT Foundation and most importantly Raymond and Hisham for opening their home and life for me to take part. I definitely felt like a family member and will feel partly Malaysian rest of my life thanks to them.
• Helsinki Youth Department and Sam taking good care of the project and worrying about me ;)
• European Voluntary Service, Youth in Action and whole European Union for making this experience possible in the first place.
• DAW. The whole group but most importantly our director Christopher Jacobs who taught me a lot. He trusted me to be able to do Shakespeare in English and co-direct 13-year-olds and so I did. Soon Heng and Kien Lee also deserve superb appreciation for lending a helping hand in the transportation, and for their guidance and friendship.
• All amazing international friends: Nicholas, Veera, Celeste, Bettina, Lukasz, Clayton, Karolina, Julian, Guat Hong, Sandee, Sian Czhe, Rajibul, Jaja, Pallavi, Lotta, Riina, Farid, Qahar, Tapai, Hana and everyone I met and made me feel so welcomed.

Thank you! Terima Kasih! Kiitos!

In the verge of 2010 I am back home in Helsinki Finland and I feel complete happiness about my life. 2009 was amazing year... and 2010 will be even better with all the friends, courage and knowledge I've been lucky to gather this previous year. And Bye! Thank you for following my journey in Malaysia. See you soon again!

Happy New Year !!!

Fabulosity

Fabulous night was as Fabulous as it should be. For my last post I'll share some pictures with you.

Our host of the evening: Edwin Sumun aka Shelah.

The night was a success! Congratulations to us all!

Ready to Be Fabulous!?

World Aids Day

I Am

I Am...

...proud to be a Red Ribbon Supporter and part of the PT Foundation family. Together with the staff and 250 volunteers we made the Red Carnival - World Aids Day celebration - happen last weekend in one of the biggest mall's of KL: Sungei Wang Plaza.

Many many volunteers were working hard. Celeste, American PT Volunteer, kept track of the ever changing lists of volunteers and participants and handed me my Official Photographer tag.

I enjoyed taking photographs of the colorful event but I also appreciated the fact that I wasn't the only one in that role. For example Ali, from Iran and a professional photographer, took amazing shots. Thats how there was time for me to watch the performances, socialize and dance like mad woman, when needed ;)

The objective of Red Carnival is to raise funds for the HIV work we do at PT but even more importantly raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. The theme this year was "I Am". We used four slogans: I Am Against Stigma and Discrimination, I Am Learning About HIV, I Am Practising Safer Sex and I Am Getting Tested.

Besides red ribbons we handed out mirror cards where it says in the front "You could be looking at someone who is HIV positive". The HIV does not discriminate. It is everybody's worry: Spread the awareness. Not the virus. As my wise colleague put it.

Balloons. And the cute trio of Fared, Andrew and Jeremy posing for the camera.

Also I Am balloons were given to the public, mostly children, in the carnival theme.

Quiz question: What does red ribbond stand for?
Answer: It stands for life. And it should be placed near your heart.

From the information table people could collect more specific brochures of HIV/AIDS.

There was also brochures about Finland cause Finnish Embassy was one of our biggest sponsors this year. Yey! Go Finland! (This funding had nothing to do with me. They found PT on their own. But they did know about my blog! The power of blogging :) )

The main event at the stage included performances from the community and local bands/ dance groups/ stars. The Rainbow of PT -show by the transexual and sexworker community, included beautiful singing by beautiful Nisha.

Young hip hoppers.

Between performances there was games and quizzes about HIV. One of the most touching moments were when the HIV positive people came forward to give their views on the issue the stigma and discrimination. HIV does not spread by hugging, kissing or being friends with a HIV positive person.

This perfect picture is taken by Polish Lukasz who borrowed my camera for just a few moments.

Harmonica Quarter made few of us really show of our dancing moves. We can definitely Can Can, can't we Steven! So much fun.

Gorgeous Jaclyn Victor - who is a Malaysian Idol winner - made crowds gather around the stage. Even the cars passing by the Fiesta Street slowed down. Her singing was a breathtakingly touching. The highlights of the concert was when all PT Volunteers - including me - joined her on the stage to dance in the background and her "Satu lagi - One more" performance after audience's request: I Will Survive a cappella.

She also has such a nice, down-to-earth, personality. I consider myself lucky to met her in person. You can see me sweating like a sponge after the jumping and dancing in the Malaysian heat while she looks glowing and fabulous.

Here I am standing in the red shadow of one of our celebrity MCs: Will Quah did excellent job on getting the sometimes shy audience to come to the stage to take part in the quizzes and games. Well done Will!

One of the best parts of the weekend for me was to see my design all over the place. All the posters, buntings, backdrops, patches, t-shirts, mirror cards etc. you see in the photos, are from my pencil and macbook. Here you can see my I am -graphic in men's underwear! It will be available on sale in late December in the Undershop ;)

The weekend was overwhelming, fun and exhausting but in a rewarding way! Today is the 1st of December - the official World Aids Day - and so I'd like to remind everybody to work together to Stop Aids. Keep the promise. Spread the word. Happy World Aids Day everybody!