All of us at Bantus would like to extend our most heartfelt congratulations to Riz and Raz Ainuddin on the birth of their first baby, a darling little girl last Sunday, 14th August.

Both mother and child are in good health. If you’d like to visit them yourselves, they’re in Pantai Medical Centre, ward C327 safely back home now. We trust that baby Arianna will be turning up at the academia with her proud parents sometime soon!

The air quality has gotten so bad that we would advise you all to slow down on your training sessions. Classes will carry on, but our workouts won’t be as intense as before so as not to tax your lungs too much.

If you have respiratory problems, we strongly encourage you to cut back on all aerobic activity especially if it’s in the open air. A few general pointers on dealing with the haze situation:

• Wear A Mask—There are a few sorts being sold in pharmacies, but it would be money well-spent to get one of the more dearer types which are molded to be more form-fitting on your face, and can filter the air better. Guardian sells these at RM6.50 a piece, and stocks deplete rapidly as soon as they arrive at the stores.
• Drink More Water—This can’t be stressed enough. Your normal 8 glasses a day may not suffice in these conditions.
• Hide In Air-Conditioned Buildings/Rooms
• Don’t Smoke

Bantus will be one of the opening acts performing at the Sunrise Jazz & Rhythm Festival this Friday, 12th August

The performance troupe will be handling this one. Meet at Plaza Mont’ Kiara’s courtyard at 7:30pm. There is a chance that the show may be cancelled due to the haze, and we’ll keep you posted on this right here. We can still hang around to chill out or have dinner together even if it is scrapped at the very last moment.

We’re hoping that you will be able to rise out of your bed victoriously the next morning, valiantly ignoring the hangover/puffy eyes/whacked-out feet from partying the night before. Actually, you won’t have a choice, as the Batizado is where all our students are expected to turn up to play in the roda, and for some, earn their cordaos.

• When? 3:00pm Sunday, 11th September 2005
• Where? 1 Utama Shopping Centre

Even if you’re planning to be a wallflower, you can’t afford not to watch this particular public roda, which will showcase some of the finest talent in capoeira that Malaysia has ever welcomed to its shores in broad daylight (seniors and regular students will appreciate the gravity of this statement).

Beginners, take note: to earn your cordao you will need to play in the roda with Mestre Pintor, who will ‘baptise’ you by tripping you up sometime during the game, and only then will he award it to you. No jumping through rings of fire here, or doing 100 pushups + 100 situps to prove your worth. Capoeira is more concerned about you keeping your wits about yourself.