Shopping with the children

I don’t like shopping. Call me weird if you want but I just don’t like shopping, especially on weekends when there are so many people at the mall. If I need to shop, I’d usually go on weekdays during office hours. With my flexi working hours, that’s possible.

But at the end of last year, when people were busy buying schooling needs for their school-going children, I had to go shopping for schooling needs too… not once… not twice… but 3 times within 3 days and one more time 2 weeks later! Buying the same things… only different sizes. And I don’t even have any children of my own!!

You see, out of the many volunteers in my NGO, I’m the one who has the most children from the families under my care. Not only are these families with the most children, they are also the poor ones. (Yeah, the poor families do seem to have more children, don’t they? The rich ones usually don't have that many.) When we approved the Children Education Fund for 17 children, 11 of them were children of my clients.

Of course I didn’t bring them all together – they wouldn’t fit in my car! It had to be one family at a time, and I had 4 families to handle. Thank goodness my other clients either don’t have school-going children yet, or the few others who have, can afford to buy the schooling needs although they may not be rich.

So first up was Mrs.K’s family. Since I needed to bring Mrs.K to open up a bank account to apply for MAC’s Pediatric Aids Funds, we went on a Friday, after Friday prayers. Mrs. K only had 2 school-going children, but her 5 year old girl tagged along. She was happy enough she could follow, she wasn’t bothered she didn’t get anything. We had to spend quite some time at the bank, after which we immediately went shopping and after that I had to rush back to Ipoh as it was getting late. So, I didn’t have time to bring them for makan-makan…

Next day it was Fuzi’s family. We went on a Saturday morning. Fuzi’s children were very excited, not just because they were going shopping in Ipoh, but also because they got to ride in a car. By the time I reached their home to fetch them, they were already waiting outside their house, doors all locked, all set to go. And mind you, I was not late (in fact I am very particular about punctuality). Fuzi had 3 school-going children but the other 2 children also followed as there was nobody home to take care of them.

Since it was a Saturday, and it was during the year-end sale, imagine the crowd...

While Fuzi and her other children were choosing the uniforms, shoes, etc, I took care of Iwan, her then 6 month old baby boy. Good thing I didn’t meet any kepochis who knew me… they’d be wondering whose baby I was carrying… and I wonder what kind of stories they may come up with…

Anyway, since only 3 of the children were at school-going age, the 4th child put on a sour face when he didn’t get anything. And it was tough walking past the toys department. He kept pulling his mom’s baju kurung. I didn’t want to start buying toys for him, he may think I’d buy one for him every time I bring them out. Besides, this is not the only family under my care. But I had other plans they didn’t know about.

After taking them for lunch, I brought them to my NGO center. There were a few boxes of used items in good condition donated to us to be handed over to the needy. There was a box of toys and a box of story books. I told them to choose whatever they wanted from the boxes. They got excited and kept asking me again and again if they could take more than one, no matter how many times I told them to take all they wanted! By the time we headed back to their home, the 4th child was already smiling from ear to ear… this time he got some toys with him… it didn’t matter that they were used toys.

Came Sunday, it was the turn of Lily’s family to go shopping. Since I had other things to do in the morning, we went in the afternoon. Again, the place was packed… even worse than Saturday. Lily’s youngest child didn’t get to choose anything because he was only 4+, but he was happy enough when I brought them out for some ais kacang (actually it was ME who got tempted with the ais kacang… the weather was hot!).

The next family was Yah’s but at that time Yah’s husband, Azman, was warded at the Ipoh GH while the kids were with Yah’s parents. So, it was only 2 weeks later after Azman was discharged, Yah came to Ipoh with her 3 school-going children and I brought them to the same shopping mall where I took Fuzi and Lily. The only problem was that Yah’s son was a bit small for his age and we couldn’t find a uniform for his size. I had to seek the help of a salesgirl who finally found 2 pairs of uniforms for him. His was of better quality so they were more expensive than the rest…

Lunchtime came and I purposely asked the children if they wanted to eat rice or fried chicken. I knew the answer would be fried chicken but I just loved to see their excitement when answering…

So there you go. Now, for someone who doesn’t like shopping, I’d call that an award-winning achievement!

And I haven’t even told you about my monthly shopping for diapers and milk powders! I do get cash contributions from my friends asking me to buy all the necessities for these poor families. So imagine the amused looks I get when my trolley is full of diapers of various sizes and milk powder for various ages.

Hmmm… they may think I’m a mean baby-producing machine!!!