Part 1 - Apa Khabar Orang Kampung?

Apa Khabar Orang Kampung or AKOK is a festive carnival like community get together event organized by a local television station. Frankly speaking, I have never heard nor watched this program before. Apparently, this event has traveled all around the country, touching folks from all walks of life – the farmers, the fishermen, the village heads, from near and far. Multiple agencies both from the government and corporate sectors have teamed up in putting up a good show. With live telecasts and the opening gigs graced by prominent politicians, this event has been a hit, I was told. And when I appeared puzzled on site last week, obviously I had a lot to catch up with and to do it fast.

Yup…that was how it started. Even when I was in Jakarta, text messages came in non stop on my mobile, bearing the AKOK title. Ishhhh…tak senang kita nak bershopping tau!!! My girl at the office explained to me what was required by the client. Such a simple do, I thought to myself and my staff would be able to oversee the task assigned to us. We have been asked to carry out a training session to selected school children from the Kampung Tengah, Gemencheh area. Simple mahhh…nothing my boys and girls in the office couldn’t do.

So there I was enjoying myself in the streets of Jakarta – mall, spa and bajaj hopping, savouring nasi padang till I could feel my pants tighten on the waist line. Little that I knew, pressure and duress over AKOK were sputtering back home, both in my office and the client’s.

When I got into the office on Thursday (was away from Monday till Wednesday), I was not even at my work station yet, when my girl hijacked me and spilled out everything I needed to know about AKOK’s development. Rasa nak melenting ada, rasa nak pi serang orang pun ada. But, I must have been on cloud nine still after my retail therapy. No one got any shelling and after a quick meeting with my staff, things became pretty much under control. Tasks were reassigned and everyone was smiling again.


There was one issue still pending though; who was to go do the training in Gemencheh. In my email, I proposed one of my junior trainers to conduct the session. Unfortunately, it was no deal with the client. They wanted yours truly jugak untuk turun padang. Reason being, this was a big do, it was to go live on national tv and the Yang Berhormat was to do the launch. Ohhhh….penat travel to LA pun belum hilang lagi, have to go to Gemencheh pulak?? All that 150 kms? Nak buat macamana kan, client first, self second. Well, at least, that’s how my life has been revolving in the past few weeks. Leaving me with no choice, it was unquestionable that Gemencheh was my immediate destination for the weekend.