Stories from my bapak (Chapter 2)

 TEMASEK childhood stories

 In Temasek, Mat Nor - Madrasah Wak Tanjong  - pioneer in this school.

Mat Nor was the only person in the village to have a brick house.  Everyone else was living in wooden houses.    For the first madrasah,  Used to be just a tent, and later on,  they went on to construct a row of classes, only 3 or 4 classes. 

morning madrasah and afternoon, normal school.

Madrasah used to also teaches how to give 'syarahan', that is to do public speaking or preaching.  But bapak said, he just couldn't do it.  He couldn't speak in front of people.  His other friends could and would sometimes be invited to speak in other schools or events. 

Ngaji is also in the mornings - it's first come first serve.  Bapak would follow his father to the mosque for subuh and after subuh, would immediately go to the ngaji place to place his bag or something - to reserve the queue position, and return home first.  They will come back about 730 am to start the ngaji class.  There are times when he arrived there and someone would have arrived earlier to start reading.

Kedai kachang pool at pasar geylang was there even when he was a kid.  He claims it to be the best kachang pool in Singapore  The kachang pool beans would be squashed when the dish is being prepared to serve.   The shop is still there, run by the later generations.