THEY WILL ASK thee as to what they should spend on others. Say: "Whatever of your wealth you spend shall [first] be for your parents, and for the near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer; and whatever good you do, verily, God has full knowledge thereof." - Al-Baqarah (2:215)
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Friday 25 July 2008

Family Day preparations

Yah finally called me a few days ago. She didn’t quite understand what my colleague told her on the details for the coming Family Day and so she finally decided to call me. Thank goodness she did. Otherwise on that day she’d be waiting elsewhere while we’d be waiting for her in Ipoh.

From what my colleague told me earlier, Yah would be going from Ipoh together with the rest of us. Yah on the other hand, was under the impression that she’d have to go to Taiping and we’d be picking her up there. I suppose the communication breakdown was due to wrong assumptions. My colleague, assuming that Yah was still working in Ipoh, told her to wait near a particular private hospital in Ipoh. Yah thought the hospital is in Taiping.

The confusion is all cleared now. Yah is no longer working in Ipoh as her mother has been bedridden and as such is no longer capable to take care of Yah’s 2 younger kids. So Yah had to go back to her hometown further up north, not only to take care of her kids, but also her mother. Her 2 older daughters, who are staying at an orphanage won’t be joining the Family Day trip. Oh by the way, despite complaining about certain things at their orphanage (biasalah, budak dok asrama mesti ada complain punya!), in their recent exams, they both got 1st in class. Way to go girls!

Anyway, since Yah is already up north, she might as well go straight to the zoo and wait for us there.

I told Fuzi that although her house is slightly north of Ipoh, our chartered bus from Ipoh will be taking the highway and as such will not pass her place. I told her to figure out the best option for her and the kids. She is one of my earlier clients and has been getting a lot of assistance since she became our client, and so this time I thought I’d let her solve the problem herself. Cannot manja-manja her too much. After all, it’s not too complicated a problem. Well, she has already made arrangements to come to Ipoh on the 3rd of August so we don’t have to worry about having someone going in a separate car using the old road just to fetch her.

Hana and Jah who stays in a town south of Ipoh, also Shila & Laila, Pushpa & her grandma plus Valli’s kids will be coming to Ipoh by bus early in the morning and we will have our volunteers waiting for them at the bus station. Valli has not confirmed if she herself can join the trip but her 2 boys aged 14 and 12 are definitely coming. They will be under our care for that day.

Actually I was more concerned about Lin. This is her first time joining and none of the other volunteers know her and neither does she know any of the volunteers except myself. If anyone had to wait for her at the bus station, it will have to be me. But when I called her to confirm, she said she and her kids will go straight to our meet-up point. I like this woman – very independent. And it is good to note that even her grown up children (aged 17, 19 and 22) are joining us. I look forward to meeting them all.

For the moment, it looks as though I will be joining this year’s Family Day after all. But in the event I have to give it a miss, I don’t have to worry about the logistics for my clients anymore.

I do hope I will be able to join though. It has been a long time since I last went to visit my “friends” at the zoo… :) I hope to be taking lots of photos this time.

I was told they can make special arrangements if we want to take pictures with the python. Taking pictures OF the python is not a problem for me, but WITH the python?? Hmmm… would I be daring enough to do that? Sounds like a FEAR FACTOR episode to me…

6 comments:

Kak Teh said...

Python? PYTHON???? Reading about it give me the shivers!

Pi Bani said...

Kak Teh,
Ahah, looks like my post-Family Day posting will very likely have a picture of the python... hehehe...

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

hooray, one more week to go and we're off to Zoo Taiping!

hari tu ada animal show with similar attraction: letak ular sawa atas bahu for a minimal fee. biasa la diorang ni tak boleh tgk saya senang, they threw me a challenge to carry a 2-meter baby constrictor. i know i've been under the spotlight lately for being a coward and so you know la what the outcome was. i'm a coward. THERE. hehehehe...

Pi Bani said...

Kerp,
Laaa... ingatkan kot you took up the challenge. I thought you were only afraid of dogs.. and VVIPs.. :)

Tapi betullah diorang ni... dahlah suruh kita buat benda yang kita tak berani nak buat, kena bayar minimal fee pulak lagi. Patutnya depa lah yang bayar kat kita to do something we don't like, kan??

Pak Zawi said...

Pi,
Visited Taiping Zoo at night once. Like it so much. Please say hi to all of our 'friends' there.

Pi Bani said...

Pak Zawi,
La hai... I yang dok kat Ipoh ni pun tak pernah lagi pergi the Taiping Night Safari. Orang Kelantan dah sampai dulu!