Various updates...

I haven’t been receiving any news on Zana for quite some time. Remember Zana? The problematic young woman I sent to a shelter home in 2006? When I received a text message on Monday from an unfamiliar number, it came as a surprise to me when I found out that it was from Zana. She changed her number for the umpteenth time. No wonder I could not get hold of her earlier. (Zana would at least mention her name in the message… unlike Yah who assumed I would know who the sender was just by saying “Kak, ini nombor baru saya.” *rolls eyes*)

I was quite worried at first. Usually when my clients call or SMS, it’s either they are in trouble or they have a favour to ask. But no, all Zana wanted to do was to ask how I was doing and to give me her new number. Hmmm... surprising really. I remember the last time she was quite upset with me because she wanted to leave the shelter home and I didn’t (I couldn’t, really) help her out then. Even the last info on her came from Kak Hawa, the person in charge of the shelter home, who told me that Zana had started work as a security guard. That was before Raya last year.

Now Zana works at a nursery. I’m not really sure if she meant children’s nursery or plants nursery. And her baby (now 1 year plus) still stays at the shelter home. Again, I’m not really sure if she left her son there for good or if it is just a temporary measure. I was quite busy at the office I didn’t call her then. We just exchanged a few SMSes and so all I could get was just a little info. By the time I tried to call her later that night, my call didn’t get through. She must have switched off her phone. I will have to try and call again later… hopefully before she changes her number again!!

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Yesterday was Fuzi’s appointment at the HIV clinic. Apparently last year when her appointment date was fixed, the staff at the clinic had not got hold of 2008 calendar yet. As such they were not aware of the public holidays for this year. So Fuzi’s appointment was fixed on the 23rd January, which was on Thaipusam, a public holiday here in Perak. If Fuzi hadn’t asked me earlier, she probably would have just gone for her appointment on the 23rd. In fact, she prefers her appointments to be on public holidays so that none of her older children would have to miss school to take care of their younger sibling. But what’s the point of going to the hospital if the clinic is closed?

Since a lot of reshufflings were involved, there were so many people at the HIV clinic yesterday. Fuzi got to the hospital at about 10 am but only managed to see the doctor after 1 pm. Then she had to go for blood tests which involved another round of waiting; and then to the pharmacy to get her supply of medication. Yes, Fuzi needs to start taking medication now that her CD4 count has dropped quite drastically.

By the time Fuzi called me at 2 pm, she still hadn’t got her supply of medication yet. She said she wanted to have her lunch first as she was already very hungry by then. I told her to call me when she’s done so I could fetch her at the hospital. Meanwhile off I went to the bank to settle some things for my NGO’s bank account. By the time I fetched Fuzi it was already after 3 pm. I just took her to my NGO centre for a while to get some supplies of groceries for her family before I sent her home. If she was to go back on her own, she’d probably only reach home after 5 pm.

On the way, Fuzi said she wasn’t even sure if her children had lunch. She didn’t expect to go back so late and as such did not cook before leaving for the hospital. But according to her there were some leftovers from the previous night’s dinner, so if the children were hungry, they could eat the leftover food. When I heard that, I decided to stop by a stall to buy some food for the children. Oh the poor kids… it may be already too late for lunch (it was already 4 pm by the time we reached Fuzi’s house), but better late than never I guess…

Anyway, Fuzi’s date at the Mahkamah Syariah (to legalize her Narathiwat marriage cert) will be on Monday. Understandably, right now she’s feeling so nervous. There are so many things on Fuzi’s mind right now. The marriage cert thing… her PR status… her children’s nationality… her son Ijam’s HIV status… her youngest son Iwan’s birth cert (with “Maklumat Bapa Tidak Diketahui” written)… wow! She sure has a lot of problems. But she’s still going strong, all for the sake of her children.

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Today I received a call from Mrs. K. The moment I answered the call, she immediately passed the phone to Mr. K. I heard over the phone Mrs. K telling her husband, “Ayah lah cakap, ibu tak reti!”

What they wanted to tell me was that their 13 year old daughter was offered a place at a residential Agama school. The problem was that they only received the offer letter today while their daughter was supposed to register yesterday! They called up the school to inform them of the problem and were told to register today, by hook or by crook.

Hmmm… this is a residential school we’re talking about – surely they’d have to prepare some things for their daughter to bring along to the school. I told Mr. K to just go and register her first so that she would not lose her place (the school is not that far from their town) but if possible to ask for permission from the school to bring her home after registration and send her back on Sunday so that they could at least have some time to prepare whatever necessities for the girl. That way at least I’d be able to go over this weekend and help out whichever way I can.

They are supposed to call me back after the registration. I’m still waiting for their call. It’s raining cats and dogs now in Ipoh… I wonder if it’s raining there too.

I guess I will just have to wait.