Raya visit to Fuzi's house

After fulfilling Mrs. K’s raya invitation on Thursday last week, the next day I decided to pay Fuzi a visit for raya. Besides it was already time to deliver milk powder and diapers to her little Iwan.

First I went to shop for the things, then I called Fuzi just to be sure she was home. It was after all raya season and she may be off with her children to beraya elsewhere. When I called and asked Fuzi if she was home, her immediate answer was, “Ada kak, orang macam saya ni nak beraya ke mana?”

So off I went on the 7th day of raya. The main door was already open when I got there as she already knew I was on the way. Otherwise, the door is most of the time closed since it is just a makeshift door. I need to start asking around for a discounted rate for a proper door as the present door sometimes opens by itself whenever it is very windy. It seems very unsafe.

When I got inside I saw the children playing some board games. Fuzi’s baby, Iwan, who’s now about 16 months old, and can already walk, was rather cautious seeing me. He’s always afraid of strangers and although he does see me every month, it takes a few minutes for him to warm up to me – unlike Mrs. K’s 9 month baby who’d recognize me immediately whenever I went to visit them.

Fuzi said the children did get some duit raya from some neighbours and while her girls were the saving type, and the 2 younger boys’ duit raya was given to Fuzi, her 9 year old son finished all his duit raya buying firecrackers from a nearby shop. The shop owner even called Fuzi every time the boy went to buy firecrackers from him, telling Fuzi that her son was wasting his money buying firecrackers. (Dah tau budak tu wasting money, pergi jual kat dia buat apa?!)

When scolded by his mother, he answers back. Poor Fuzi has been having a tough time dealing with this boy. Tell him nicely, he doesn’t listen. Scold him, he answers back. Yeah, I’ve heard about how tough it is bringing up orphans, but in Fuzi’s case, the other kids do listen to her. As a matter of fact, the 2 older sisters are very responsible girls who help out their mother to look after the family. It’s just this boy giving her the headaches. I don’t know, maybe he needs a fatherly figure to talk to him for him to listen. I’ve tried talking to him… went in one ear and immediately out the other…

I asked Fuzi about the status of her marriage cert – whether it has been legalized. She said she had gone to the Pejabat Agama to be interviewed by an officer there and was asked to supply a few sets of supporting documents for them to submit to the relevant authorities. At least it shows progress. Hopefully things will be finalized soon although I am still not satisfied with the fact that she had to pay some suspiciously large amount of money to get things going.

* A fellow volunteer who had been helping Fuzi to get Bantuan Kanak-kanak had been relating this problem to a few officers at the Welfare Department. All they could tell my colleague was “Alaaah… biasalah tu, yang sanggup bayar lebih lagi pun ada.” 'Biasalah tu' was all they could come up with. I wonder if it is also a “biasa” practice amongst them too.*

Anyway, Fuzi’s children kept asking when the raya gathering will be (like the one I organized last year). I haven’t planned anything yet for this year so I couldn’t answer their question. Obviously they’re eager to attend the gathering so I’d better start thinking of organizing one.

I’d better bring this up in my NGO’s board meeting next week.