The Waus--The process

Back to the past...
4th July, 8.30am
Sekolah Kebangsaan Zainab 2

In front of me lies a huge banner, we were asked to use wax to put our signatures on the banner. There was a huge picture all painted from wax, on the banner, where the Wau making instructer had to paint. With wobbly hands, I laid my signature on the banner. Satisfied, I took a picture of it. For the next one hour or so, I listened attentively to the Wau making instructer as he taught us the process of making the Wau all from scratch... " Now you girls should try making the body of the Wau" the instructer encouraged us. Our teacher then divided us into groups of four and we were to make the body of the Wau out of sticks and strings. I was in the same group as Louise, a friend of my.
To start off, Louise and I held the sticks in place while both our buddies tied one of the ends with strings. Thereafter, we took turn tying the knotts of the string and holding the sticks in place. Not long later, we finished the body of the Wau. By Wen Yu

We were required to sign our names on a banner which was filled with elaborate drawings of flowers! We had to hold the melted wax pen carefully as the melted wax in the small container in the pen was boiling hot and if we tilted it, we would get scalded! After seeing a few of my friends scald themselves, I kept repeating to myself that I MUST NOT TILT IT! I MUST NOT TILT IT! I MUST NOT TILT IT!!!!!!!!!!! After seeing a few of my friends succeeding in not spilling the melted wax, I felt ready. I held the pen firmly and wrote my full name carefully. It was perfect(to me)! Just as I was feeling super proud that I had not spilt the wax, I seriously SPILT THE WAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ARGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I had been rejoicing happily but I forgot that it was not a normal pen so i actually SHOOK IT and it spillled on my signature!!!!!! BOO HOO!!!! The perfectness of my picture was gone!!!!! :( "Sorry..." I mumbled dejectedly as I gave the pen to the teacher. I had been so sure that it would be perfect! Now it was a bit ruined!! :( While everyone was writing their names, I took a photo of an example of how a Wau will look like after being painted. After everyone had put their signature on the banner, we then proceeded to learn how to make the body of the Wau with sticks! After the instructer did a sample and explained how to do it in front of us, we were grouped into fours and had to make our own body of the wau. It looked so easy when the instructer did it but it was actually very hard! Two of us had to hold the sticks in place while the other two wound the string tightly around them to secure it in place!!! After half an hour of hard work, we finally finished!! By Klara

PHOTOS BY KLARA: