Lest I forget: My new life begun

Meeting new people was not what i could do easily. I was a confident girl where i grew up but when I met so many new people it took me sometime to get adjusted to. There were my classmates who spoke in their dialect that i could not understand and being from the north I had my tongue twisted to speak in the southern accent. It confused me most time as to why they did not speak the standard Malay language.

Adjusting to speak in the southern accent was one, and trying hard to speak English in the classroom was another. I think that was why i kept closed to only a few friends at school.

Living in the dormitory was another task to adjust to. We were in a mixed group of girls from remove Class to Form Five. The older girls tried their best to get us settled in. If i am not mistaken, the first year i was in the boarding school, there was only 25 of us in a dorm. The seniors did a little orientation to get to know us. We were asked to sing i think in the first week of my stay in the third floor of Block A.

The dorm prefect then was Kak Nik Maimunah from Kelantan and Kak Kamaliah from Perak was the deputy if i am not mistaken. Kak Kamaliah could sing could act and very athletic. A very popular senior. She was in form four.

As Kak Kamaliah was very very active in Dramatic Society, she was in charge in orientating us newbies into the dormitory life. I remember how scared i was when the few new remove class in the dorm were made to sing. i think there were only 5 of us. I sang a song made famous by Biduanita Saloma and on the spot I was given a nick name Saloma that lives with me until now. Most of my close friends and classmates and juniors know me as Saloma and kak Saloma. I bet some of them think that it is my real name.

I was made to feel at home by the presence of Kak Jamnah Din and Kak Fatimah Yusuf. Their kampong was not far from my Kampong eventhough there were from Kedah. The last time I heard Kak Jamnah was the Head matron in langkawi Hospital and Kak Fatimah Yusuf was teaching in one of the IPTAs.

Due to the strict rule of the clothes to be brought to school in the initial list, I did not have many change of clothes and I did not know how to tie a sarong, so I was mostly left to wear a few of my skirts and dress after school. A couple of weeks later i think we were issued school uniforms, 3 sets each a pair of PE shorts and a pair of House shorts.

We sent most of our clothes weekly to the laundry company, we called it Dobby day. I sent everything except my undies. The clothes came back nicely starched and pressed.