Hari Sukan Negara

Last Saturday was Hari Sukan Negara (National Sports Day). Hari Sukan Negara is an initiative by the Malaysian Ministry of Youth and Sports aiming to encourage people to live more healthy and active lifestyles, and participate in sports. Some areas organised running races but the pace in Kg. Nampasan was a little slower!

Unfortunately you have to get up very early in Sabah if you want to do anything before it gets really hot. At 6am the music was turned up to full volume to get us all out of bed. It definitely worked for me but the guy sleeping in the room connected to mine managed to snore through it all!

These clips were recorded from my bed at 6 am!

Village residents were gathered at the centre by 7 am for registration, a welcoming talk from a local doctor, and a briefing about our walk. The plan was to have a short circular walk around Kg. Nampasan and collect litter along the way. We had a bit of group stretching and then we were off.

Being briefed by the doctor

My group of walkers were a bit too enthusiastic about the litter collection initially which meant that we had heavy bin bags to carry around the route and we were scolded for not keeping up! There was just too much litter along the way to collect it all in one go. I think this is partly because most households burn their waste in piles at the side of the house which can easily spread, but it is also the case that littering isn't so taboo as back in the UK.

There was a lot of litter along the main road, including discarded flip flops, food packaging, bottles, cigarette packets and car parts

Sadly there are no pictures from us working as a group to make stepping stones across a small stream but you can see below that the route was quite adventurous - we had to get around several building sites and areas where the way had been left obstructed by developers and new residents.

There were a few building sites along the route which we needed to skirt around

Returning to CREATE we were treated to a healthy breakfast of 'Singapore style' noodles which (unlike a lot of food in Malaysia) were not fried. There were also veggies with fish sauce or taramasalata 'Malay style', as I like to think of it. Everyone also had a health check where volunteers measured our weight, height, waist measurement, blood pressure and sugar levels. I'm pleased to report that I'm relatively healthy by all these measures but my waistline has definitely taken a hit (deep fried bananas are on offer way too often)!

Health screening and taking measurements for the 'Biggest Loser' competition

Our healthy breakfast (left) and some deep fried bananas (Kueh Pisang, right) which were breakfast the other week

Everybody who took part in the walk was eligible to win a prize in a lucky draw and I was one of the lucky many! Confusingly, the prizes for taking part in a day all about healthy living were bags full of sweets and chocolates...

No skill required to win in this draw

A ladies' darts competition was the other activity for the morning. I can't remember ever having played a game of darts before so I had some quick last minute training from my team mate and a few practice throws. Unfortunately the competition was tough and we got knocked out in the first round. The doctor had left by this point so we were able to commiserate with a beer and watch the finalists compete.

Just what the doctor ordered?