Fruit Farm trip...

Today, I brought the RR boys and girls to a fruit farm.It was actually a surprise trip planned for them. You see, one of my colleague, TSP's family owned a fruit farm in Tehel. Though it has been there for quite some time, TSP rarely mentioned about it until recently when he asked me to take him to the farm to get some durians for the office staff. Happily, I went to the farm and it was really a fun farm. Though the durian yield wasn't that many that day but we had quite some quality ones. While I was at the farm, I helped myself with the rambutans, the mangosteen [ not ripe yet at that time], durians and limes.I then asked TSP if he would allow me to bring in the RR children to visit the farm and have a go at the fruit trees. He confirmed that it was okay for me to bring the commanders and children to the fruit farm. I was very glad at that time and I had made plan for a great visit to the farm.
Waiting in anticipation for about a week, it all came to pass just a couple of hours ago. I had made plans and arrangements with my colleague that we would arrived at about 1.45pm to 2.00pm deadline. - 8 adults and about 30children made it slightly on time. From the word 'go', the children were on their way scouting out the new farm environment. Upon arrival at th efruit farm, my colleague, TSP and his nother was at hand to receive us. Immediately the children went into a feeding frenzy of rambutans. It seems, earlier, my colleague had cut down some of the yellow skinned and red skinnned rambutans. He knew the children are coming and they would want to sample a lot of food at this time. So, he pre-prepared the fruits by cutting them from the branches earlier and ensure that everyone had their fills. He then tells the children about the mangosteen tree, the rambutan trees, the pulasan tree and many other types of fruit tree. Then it was off for a walk around the fruit farm whereby explanation on the cocoa tree and cocoa fruit took place. The farm hand, Kadir cut opened two pcs of ripe cocoa fruit and everyone had a taste of how cocoa taste in it's pre-processed state. I then explained to the children that the cocoa seed would have to be cleaned, sunned and later pulverised into powder form.Viola! With some blending and so on, at th eend of it, we will have raw chocolate.

It was the durian trees that fascinated the children. I could see that some of the children were truly very happy while some were practically clapping the hands to squash some noisy mosquitoes. When Kadir cut opened a few freshly dropped durians, hands of assorted sizes and shapes attack the fruit. It was kinda fun seeing the children and adult sampling the durian fruits. We went from one tree to another to sample some durians. At the end of it, you could see that the children were truly satisfied with what they had had. For me, it was an educational outing to show the city children what a rambutan, mangosteen, lime, cocoa, langsat and even durian trees looked like. I am very sure they have not seen nor know the fruit trees and this was a good trip for them. For me, I have been fortunate to be able to see these fruit trees during my younger days. I hope they would cherish the memory of events that had happened today. Hopefully too that they would able to tell their parents and siblings that they have seen what fruit trees are all about.

For most city dwellers and children, they have no clue of what these trees looked like while the fruits are usually at their reach with ringgits being flashed to the sellers/middle men. As we were about to leave the farm, I thanked my colleague, TSP and his mother for allowing us to visit and sample the produce from their land. It was indeed a great learning experience for me and we were treated free samplings of the fruits. I have been blessed and I know the children are equally blessed!~

As for the commanders, it was a gentle reminder to them that 40 days fasting & prayers are just a stone throw away. So, it's feasting time before the fasting time! Cheers , everyone!