Ramadhan House Visit #3

When Zainab sent me a text message last week telling me that her daughter had been discharged from the hospital, I had wanted to visit them at home. But Zainab said she was going back to her husband’s hometown to fetch her younger daughter. Apparently when kakak was warded, she wouldn’t let her mom leave her at the hospital while adik wouldn’t go home unless her mom went home with her. So Zaki (Zainab’s hubby) sent adik to Zaki’s hometown to stay with the grandma. For 4 days adik stayed with the grandma and for 4 days she was spoilt rotten by the grandma! By the time Zainab went to fetch her, adik said she wanted to stay with her grandma.

Oh well, adik still followed Zainab back to Ipoh. I went to visit them the next day; bringing with me a whole load of groceries for the family. Zaki still isn’t working, while Zainab had to take a few days unpaid leave after kakak got warded; so they probably are getting less income this month. With Raya coming soon, some goodies would cheer the kids up.

Kakak looked a lot better than when I saw her earlier at the hospital. However, she is still on medication and will need to go for a couple of follow-ups.

On Saturday I went to visit Yah’s family up north. This time I brought along more things than what I’d usually bring during my house visits. Other than the normal groceries and baby’s needs, there were also some raya goodies and cookies for them.

I had problems parking my car when I got to Yah’s house. As mentioned in one of my earlier postings, the jalan kampong there is small – just nice for one car and pretty scary if you have to make way for another vehicle coming from the opposite direction… with the paddy field on one side and the water irrigation on the other! Usually when I reach Yah’s house I could just park my car at the path heading towards the house, but that day the path was full of sand, bricks and gravel. (Remember I said Yah’s house needed repairs because a huge papaya tree fell onto her kitchen? Well, those things were for the repair works.)

I couldn’t simply leave my car on the road as other vehicles wouldn’t be able to pass; and to park further up at the compound of another house would be a problem because there were so many things to be carried to Yah’s house. So there I was struggling – gohead gostan gohead gostan :) to get my car out of the way so as not to block any vehicles trying to pass through. Thank God mine was just a Kenari… even then the front tyres ended up parked on the heap of sand while the back tyres just a few inches from the heap of bricks!

Yah’s brother was doing the repairs for the kitchen with the help of a friend. They are not pros but Yah couldn’t afford to waste so much money to repair a house on a rented piece of land, so she had to resort to getting her brother to help out. The brother couldn’t afford in terms of money, so he offered his energy.

Anyway, Yah’s children helped to carry the goodies from my car to their house. Yah’s baby, who is now about 1 year 3 months old and already walking; seemed a bit cautious when she saw me. Yep, this was the same stranger her grandma kept telling her to call "mama". When she saw the milk powder and the diapers, she knew they were hers. She pulled the packs of milk powder and then she sat on the diapers! For the first time, when I took the little angel into my arms, she did not avoid me. Usually she’d just cling on to her mom or grandma. Needless to say, I was so happy this time around…

Abang Chik, who’s usually very naughty, was quite well behaved that day because his uncle was around. He’s quite scared of his uncle who threatened to cut off his ears if he’s naughty! (Of course it’s just a threat… but Abang Chik thought it was for real)

Kak Long and Kak Ngah, as usual, didn’t talk much. Yes, these are the sisters who gave me the present I mentioned in my earlier posting here. When I’m around they don’t usually talk much, they just sit down and watch me chat with their mother and grandmother. They were probably taught never to interrupt while the elders are talking (jangan menyampuk cakap orang tua!).

After about half an hour, I made a move. I needed to stop by Fuzi’s house to get photocopies of her children’s birth cert and her late husband’s death cert. My colleague who’s in charge of client’s welfare is trying to arrange for Fuzi to get Bantuan Kanak-kanak from the Welfare Department instead of the measly RM115 Bantuan Am she’s been getting.

Groceries and raya goodies for Shila's and Rashid’s family have been passed to them through another colleague of mine who happened to be heading towards the town they’re staying, so I don’t have to go there. And raya goodies for Aini have been passed to another colleague of mine who usually visits her.

As for Nuri and Ani, they are not keen on having me visit them at home. They both stay in the same kampong and they both complain about having “kay-poh” neighbors – so I didn’t deliver anything to them. Maybe the next time they come to Ipoh, I might just meet up with them and give some “duit raya” for their kids.

So I guess no more house visits until after Raya. I may need to organize another Raya gathering this year for the ladies and their kids (Fuzi's children are already looking forward to it!), but for the time being, I’d better concentrate on my own Raya preparations first. There’s the lawn that needs to be mowed (yes, I mow the lawn myself)… the house that needs to be cleaned… and my messy table that needs to be tidied… plus my own household necessities that need to be bought before the whole jingbangs get together for Raya.

I will just make a few phone calls to my other PLWHA clients whom I have not visited just to ask how they’re doing….