The day a ‘musang’ landed on her school’s stage….

This hilarious but scary incident happened yesterday and here is my daughter’s account when she got home from school.

Alexandra and a few girls from her class were on the school’s stage to rehearse for next Monday’s school concert.

They were all nicely dolled-up in rainbow-colored flowing robes completed with sparkling headgear and colorful make-up on their faces.  Just as they were floating and swirling gracefully like fairies dancing on fake clouds and accompanied by a very soft music in the background when, without any warnings or signs, and all of a sudden, the ceiling above them began to crack. Before you can even say Jack Robinson, a big portion of it gave way and came crashing down on the girls. Pandemonium broke out that very moment. What started as a musical show ended up like a mini war zone.

The flying dusts, floating particles and other small pieces of debris rained on their heads and faces, making them looked very much like a bunch of kids playing in the snow instead of Chinese fairies dancing on the clouds. The startled girls quickly ran scrambling down the stage. Terrified, one or two of them broke down to wail loudly. My daughter did not cry out but she was very badly shaken. Luckily no-one was hurt. I dare not think what will happened to these innocent kids if the impact have been greater than what it was that day.

The school hall had just got a renovation done to it during the recent December holidays. The floor was given new carpets, the wall a new coat of paint and the ceiling some patching-up work. It was less than a month ago and now, something like this had happened.

Obviously the contractor who got this project must be one of those infamous “Kontraktor Kelas F” – a special class of people who can start a business with RM1 as capital, operates without the relevant experience and are not responsible for the outcome.

This is a clear case of what the Chinese would say, “steal the work, reduce the material” or “tow gung kum liew.” You paid RM10,000 for something but got back RM1,000 in value, you know what I mean?

Not only the girls got a terrible shock. A big fat civet cat (musang in Malay) that hides in the space between the ceiling and the roof also got a shock of its life. No-one knows how it got there or how long it has been there. It was tip-toeing around its dark home when the ceiling gave way. Of course it came crashing down along with the dust and debris; landing on all fours on the stage, looking just like a lost alien that had landed in a space ship right in the midst of some stunned earthlings.

Shocked and bewildered, the poor cat looked around with confused eyes before darting off like an arrow released from the bow and surged towards the hall’s exit and ran helter-skelter along the corridor. Clueless as to which direction to go to, it gate-crashed into the nearest classroom where my son was sitting at the front row and the teacher was half-way with their Maths lessons. The students got so excited at the sight of this unexpected intruder. Some boys quickly climbed onto their desks while a few girls screamed hysterically, for how many of us have seen a civet cat running wild in a metropolitan city?

When pursued by other students and the teacher, the frightened animal then ran around the classroom in circles, trying to hide under chairs and desks, and trembling with fear at the commotion its presence had caused. When cornered by some brooms-wielding humans, it finally jumped out the class window and disappeared into the bushes behind the school building.

What a commotion for the school that morning, all because some greedy and irresponsible fellow did not do his job ethically! Stadium in Terengganu collapsed, hospital’s ceiling in Ipoh collapsed and now this. Occurences like this are getting insanely common in this country. 😦

Seriously, how would you feel and what would you do if one of those kids on the stage was your own child and she was hurt in this incident?