I took part in the mass musollah clean-up on Sunday, 14th of July, strictly as a volunteer. Prior to that, I was involved in the packing of the donated items on the 13th, which was a Saturday.
If I had to sum it up in a word, it would probably be…………. Alright I can’t really find one. That’s probably why I’m writing this post.
But the whole experience felt like a state of controlled mayhem – the good kind. On Saturday, the donations kept pouring in endlessly, and so did the volunteers. This lead to a flooded mess of telekungs, kain pelikats and sejadahs – it seemed that taking stock of them and then arranging them into organized bundles for easy distribution was going to take the whole of Ramadhan. However, there was no shortage of a helping hand or a willing smile.
A human chain of sorts was created, loosely, and after taking inventory the items were then slowly packed into huge red plastic bags. Someone handled the bags, another the sejadahs, then it went down the line all the way to the slippers. This was how it went on for perhaps an hour or two – and then the packing was done!
It was faster than I thought it would be. The volunteers had come at around 11am, and we were all set and ready to go by the time the adhan for zuhur rolled around.
My entire family had been roped in to help out with the event – with my dad at the helm as the driver. He’d had to attend a short briefing in order to know which area he had to cover on Sunday, and just like that, the contingency plan was done and waiting to be carried out.
On Sunday, me, my parents, my brother and a friend headed off to our first stop – Laselle’s musollah.
We went about vacuuming, dusting, wiping and placing the new donated sejadahs and telekungs. We even brought a secret weapon!
The cleaning did not take long at the ladies’ side as it was already kept in very good condition. With that, we then eagerly carried our pails and rags to head over to the men’s musollah, located at the carpark as well.
It was a little different as this musollah came with a little sectioned-off place for ablution taking, and we’d then had to wash it. (Well, my dad mostly, I watched warily for cockroaches – there must’ve been about 5 of their little horrible corpses near the drainage area.)
I happily went to re-arrange the sejadahs and place the new kain pelikat (undoubtedly a less gruesome task) and helped to paste the new qiblah sticker on the ceiling, with the help of my brother’s broad shoulders and strong back.
After a little vacuuming and dusting, the place was done.
Afterwards, we packed into the car and drove all the way from Laselle to……. Sim Lim Square.
However, the shopowners kindly informed us that they would have no need for our cleaning services as it was already taken care of, and so with two musollahs down we headed for our last pit stop – KK Hospital.
The makeshift musollah was housed at a staircase; so there was not much to do. The new items were placed there together with the sticker, and that was it!
Most of the volunteers, including us, met our objectives quicker than originally thought due to reasons such as these. We then drove home to rest up, for at night there was to be a feast for the volunteers at Masjid Kampong Siglap.
When iftar came, the sponsored food from Chicken Heaven tasted like… well, heaven. After a long day of lending their help and support, the volunteers could relax and enjoy the delicious meal for break fast.
The days of planning, packing, and cleaning have been well-spent. Despite the flurry of activities and amidst the chaos, I feel that it has been a well-rounded experience, especially since my entire family had pitched in to help. The mass iftar afterwards only served to bring a people with a common goal together – to do good in the name of Allah swt.
So here at IslamicEvents.sg, we would like to thank all of the below for their heartfelt support:
Also, many many thanks to all the volunteers who have dedicated their patience and their time for this nation-wide event, the various nameless people who have selflessly donated their material resources, and any others who have in any way helped to pull the Mass Musollah Clean Up of 2013 off.
