30 Hour Famine: View from behind the stage

Before Astro ruined the Olympics closing ceremony for me, I had spent the afternoon in a traffic jam heading to Stadium Hoki Bukit Jalil for the World Vision 30 Hour Famine Countdown Event.

This was the culmination of the campaign, of which my trip to Laos was part of.

Yen Hau, Wan Zhen, Susan, Owen, Michael, Me, Lucent, Yee Lee and Sam.

It was a nice day for me as all of us who went to Laos was able to meet up again together for the first time since we left in June.

I didn’t get there for the start, in fact, I was supposed to be there at 2pm and was even late thanks to some massive traffic at Mid Valley Megamall that trapped me for 45 minutes (in the end, I went to PJ and did a U-Turn on the Federal Highway.

By the time I got there, Michael Wong (光良) was already in the green room with the rest, practising for his performance later. Michael is the Ambassador for the 30-Hour famine and had flown in from Taiwan. Also present at the event was Dr Wee Ka Siong who officiated the event.

I was also invited on stage at one point towards the end of the event along with my friends Yen Hau and Yee Lee from Sin Chew and 8TV respectively. We joined Michael, Owen Yap and the emcees to talk a bit about our experience during our trip to Laos. I spoke in particular about how I felt being there, as I have a sponsored child with World Vision.

The kids were singing in Mandarin!

The rain did nothing to dampen the mood, from what I saw. The fans still flocked to the front of the stage in raincoats when the performers, including Daniel Lee and Francissca Peter, were onstage. Other personalities included my friends Deborah Henry and Terry Ong from RedFM. When it was time to break fast, they all energetically counted down from 10 and the rouse of applause at the end was an indication of how what a sense of achievement they felt, I’m sure.

Michael with Francissca Peter. I wanted to take a shot with her but was, er, too shy.

More pictures from the event on my Flickr!

4.22pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Tags: 30-Hour Famine, Deborah Priya Henry, Francissca Peter, laos, michael wong, Owen Yap, Terry Ong, world vision, 光良