T’was seven o’clock on a cool Saturday morning and about 100 children were already excitedly waiting in the MUlti Purpose Hall to board their buses and head southwards to Negri Sembilan.
This year’s Sunday School outing was to the Yakult factory located in Seremban. After one last visit to the toilet – Auntie Yuh Bin warned us “Go squeeze every last drop of pee or p**p out because it’s a long trip!” – three busloads of happy, chattering children made their way to the Yakult factory in a 90 minute drive.
The ride didn’t seem that long. We thought it would take a lot longer. After all, Bus A was supposed to land in Alor Setar, Bus B in Bangkok and Bus C was supposed to head to China, but reach the Yakult factor we did, all safe and sound – by God’s grace.
The Yakult staff were very, very efficient. As soon as we arrived, we were quickly ushered upstairs for a short briefing about Yakult. We learnt that we have millions of yucky bad bacteria in our big and small intestines that constantly try to make us sick. Fortunately, there’s also good bacteria that fight the naughty bad bacteria. We learnt that we can help increase the number of good bacteria by eating healthy food, practising good hygiene and also drinking yummy Yakult!
After the briefing, some of our kids were lucky enough to win prizes when they managed to answer a few quiz questions. In fact, we were quite impressed when Sara answered the first question which was “What is the name of the good bacteria in Yakult?”. The answer was a mouthful – Lactobacillus casei Shirota strain. Say what??? At first it sounded like “lick-your-toes-already-basi-loh something-something”. Smart alec this Sara… After she got the first prize, EVERYBODY also wanted to answer the question!!!
Anyway… the kids enjoyed the cartoon video after that, because it was funny and best of all, the Yakult staff served ice-cool Yakult. Teacher Adeline and Tien Li said it tastes so much creamier and fresher than what they buy in the supermarket. I smiled and said it tastes like bacteria. Okay-lah… it was yummy bacteria.
We were then taken to the viewing gallery above the factory floor. Big glass windows allowed us to peek into the way Yakult is made. One thing we found surprising was that ALL the millions of bottles of Yakult in Malaysia is produced by machines with VERY FEW humans involved in the process. In fact, I counted less than 8 people working! They explained that this was to ensure the high-level of quality of every Yakult bottle. No cameras were allowed in the viewing gallery, so you have to take my word for it!
After our visit to the factory, we then hopped onto the buses again and like happy little good bacteria, swarmed into KFC in Jaya Jusco, Seremban. Nice meal of fried chicken. Good thing the toilet was nearby because after the meal, every Sunday School kid must have deposited a billion bad bacteria there. Peee-yooo.
The trip back home to Klang Wesley was un-eventful. By “un-eventful”, we mean that nobody threw up in the bus, although one little one in Bus C suddenly declared halfway on the highway that he had to go doo-doo. Quick as lightning, I asked Uncle Bus Driver if he could stop. Thankfully, there was a toll-stop just ahead. I asked if little one could hold on (I forget his name… so many kids!). He said “yes”. When the bus stopped, I quickly took him to the boys bacteria-deposit room where he then said, “I only need to shee-shee”. Haiya… make me panic only. Anyway… when we stopped, another load of kids decided this was a good place to unload more bad bacteria… peee-yooo again!
We reached church at 1.30pm. Then we had to make sure we got all our blessed little ones got in their transport and safely on their way home. Nice trip me thinks – short, sweet and educational.
Praise the Lord for good bacteria yes?
Post & Pics : Andrew