Khaleef’s International Friends (Happy 41st National Day, UAE!)

as usual, when 2nd december is near, khaleef’s school will hold an ‘international day’ together with a parade in conjunction with UAE’s 41st national day. students will come to school wearing their national clothes.

khaleef proudly wore a maroon baju melayu complete with songkok and samping to school. even I was so proud seeing a baju melayu worn amongst other national dresses. all his classmates looked so adorable wearing glittery costumes, beautiful dresses and smart-looking outfit.

 

this is my khaleef with his best buddy zayn who is also in the same bus as he is. I love this picture. I love how the boys instantly put their arms around each other the moment I asked them to pose for the camera. cute!

 

another good friend of khaleef, kynan – now THAT is a hug! cheek to cheek!

 

completely in love with this shot and the adorable kids. the way they put their arms around each other – innocence, friendship, pure happiness. a malaysian dude, an indian, a filipino, a pakistani and two egyptians : it did not matter where they were from or that they speak english in different accents – they have fun together, laugh together (get scolded by the teacher together!) and that’s what’s important!

 

there is only one other malaysian in khaleef’s class. this is norissa and she’s a spunky one! it’s so cute that they’re wearing similar color tone. love it!

 

kekecohan!

 

love these pictures too! believe me it was difficult to take picture of khaleef in class by himself or with only one classmate, because the other kids would start to surround him and wanted to be in the shot too. too cute! romanian, pakistani, iranian, sri lankan and egyptian – many more!

in the top picture, the kids are showing thumbs-up while saying BAGUS! let me tell you the story behind it!

 

* * *

 

before the kids went off to the field for the international day parade, parents hang out in the classrooms to do a presentation about anything from their home country – it could be a song, picture or they could talk about their country’s flag or the national dress.

I wanted to show them how to play ‘batu seremban’ but the parents that went before me all just stood there talking about their country. just talking, so their presentations were short. they told the kids about their country’s flag. about the languages they speak. so I didn’t want to be so ‘over’ hahaha. so I quickly changed my presentation! buat simple-simple je lah!

I taught them a couple of words from the malay language especially ‘bagus’ with a thumbs up. ‘bagus’ means ‘good’ in malay. the kids enjoyed doing the thumbs up as they shout ‘bagus’; I just quickly cut the class into half – team khaleef and team norissa (both kids are from malaysia) and had a contest to see which team can shout ‘bagus’ the loudest.

short and simple, but I can see that the kids were responding well and enjoying the shouting and gesturing!

this short activity really made me miss my old job SO MUCH. yes, I used to work around kids – teaching, lesson planning, preparing reading materials – a lot of tense situation (that makes me want to rip my eyes out, haha) but definitely a lot more enjoyable moments that make me laugh, as well as endearing moments to treasure.

 

* * *

 

after terrorising the class, parents head on to the field for the international day parade. there were also cultural shows being held in the middle of the field like the emirati girls dancing, african drums and many more!

the weather was wonderful – at 9am, the sun was out but it was cool all around. winter was already here in dubai!

I was seriously smiling and grinning the whole time watching the little ‘country representatives’ strutting down the field in their national costumes. they were SO adorable. I truly enjoyed the sight of different cultural identity in their clothes. amazing!

can’t help taking a lot of photos of these little ‘diplomats’, while waiting for khaleef’s class to pass by.

 

 

the final two pictures above were two malaysian kids I spotted. one was this cute little girl in red baju kurung. another one that caught my eyes was this enthusiastic boy in white baju melayu, raising his flag ever so proudly up in the air. super cute!

 

…and then it was khaleef’s class. note the boy in the baju melayu at the background? noisy, ceria, enthusiastic, joyful, exuberant. they were shouting UAE! UAE! at the top of their voice.

 

left! right! left! right!

 

with fellow malaysian, norissa. malaysia boleh!