State Pidato Competition For Teachers

Wonderfully done banner hanging at the wharf. Good job, designer!

This competition was held in conjunction with the state level Teacher's Day celebration. This year, it was the turn of PPD Kapit to host the celebration.
I had a really packed schedule prior to the competition. Before this Pidato competition on Monday, I had a conference presentation on Saturday. Before the presentation, I was working on the paperwork for my nomination in the Anugerah Khas Ketua Menteri Sarawak.
The lack of sleep, pressure & intensity of labour I experienced during those 2 weeks were no laughing matter.

I was informally asked if I would like to join about this competition when I met a PPD officer during the Hari Kadet Polis I attended 3 weeks before. I was aware of the staggering amount of commitments I had so I politely asked for this competition to be assigned to another teacher.
One week before the competition, as I was representing my school during the Song PSKPP sports tournament, I was told that they could not find another teacher to take the competition. I laughed at that statement.

Come on. Kapit is actually really big. There are 3 districts under PPD Kapit: Song, Bellaga & Kapit. Within those districts are 7 secondary schools & more than 50 primary schools. Don't tell me you cannot find 1 English teacher who is unoccupied & willing to learn. You had to pick the busy bee all the way in the middle of the jungle me.
Anyway, I accepted because the PPD Song officers, who have always been very kind to me, approached me asked me nicely for my help. I did it for PPD Song. Not PPD Kapit.

That was a little bit of background story for your learning. Sometimes teachers who have a reputation for work get even more work pushed onto them not because the people doing the pushing think that they are the best for it. The reason is as simple as because it is easier to push it onto them.
That my friend... is the reality of teaching. You've got to learn Tai-Chi because not all administrators are fair or able to move human capital who are unwilling to be moved.

I had to depend on smartphone cameras for my photographs. Lol. This was the best.

Anyway, let's move on to the actual competition itself. I treated the competition as an English style public speaking where I was free to interpret the topic, speak about it in an interesting manner & motivate. Basically, I was somewhat of a clown on stage.
How embarrassing because I was nowhere near the mark. It was supposed to be the BM style Pidato with the eloquent spewing of facts, figures, statistics, government policies, etc. Very formal stuff.
There were lots of really good speakers during the competition & I learned a lot just from watching them & listening to them. One of them even brought realia onto the stage to illustrate her point.

The participants of the BI Pidato.

I learned a lot from this experience & I also got to know a lot of good teachers from all over Sarawak. I built new friendships & strengthened older ones (shoutout to Vimala & Norfarhana!). All in all, I gained a lot from this competition.
Even though undesired things will be pushed onto us, we should still make the best of it & take advantage of any opportunity that arises from it. Use it to our advantage. On our terms.