Sofie revisited

After I went to visit Sofie slightly more than 2 weeks ago, I was thinking of visiting her within the next week or so to settle whatever contributions I managed to get for her from my kind-hearted blog readers. By then I had gotten the money to buy bicycles for the children and a few others had also committed to give a fixed monthly contribution to her family.

However, things didn't really go as planned, not because I didn't want to, but because something unexpected happened - a little girl decided to see the world much earlier than anyone had anticipated! Yep, you would have read by now about the experience I had trying to help out Sharifah and her baby, my little Cek Mek Molek.

Sofie at least had her sister to look after her; Sharifah on the other hand, had nobody.

Since I managed to settle Sharifah's and my little Cek Mek's problems temporarily by sending them to a shelter home on Friday last week, I figured I might as well get things moving for Sofie this week, before some other emergencies crop up! Contributions were already coming in, and since some of my kind hearted blog readers had entrusted me with the money without even knowing me personally, I simply had to make sure Sofie gets the necessary help.

Yesterday I had to check out the venue of our coming Family Day, tomorrow I have some important discussions in my office, so I decided to go today, with a trainee volunteer.

Before we went over to her house, we stopped by a bicycle shop in the small town where she stays. I received contributions to buy 4 bicycles for all her 4 children, and 4 bicycles definitely wouldn't fit into my car, as such the best option would be to buy the bicycles there and get the bicycles delivered to Sofie's house (I mean, Sofie's sister's house).

After paying for the bicycles and leaving Sofie's address with the shop owner, we went to my car, only to find a surat saman for not displaying a parking coupon. Adoii, the only parking coupons I had in my car can only be used in Ipoh. The town we went to is under the jurisdiction of another town council. It's not like I park my car in that town often (in fact that may have been the first time I parked my car there). How I wish they still use parking meters so that people like me who'd only drop by the town once in a blue moon can use those meters instead of having to buy a parking coupon. But oh well, I will just pay the RM10 fine by post. I wasn't about to go search for their office to pay, so we just headed over to Sofie's house. The shop owner promised he'd send the bicycles in a short while.

As I got into the house, immediately I looked over to the right - the exact same spot I saw Sofie during my last 2 visits. This time, she looked even weaker than before. Apparently she was just given a new combination of ARV medication and her body was still adjusting. She had been vomiting, she couldn't eat much (as she said, baru telan nasi dua sudu dah pengsan), her skin became very itchy, and she felt very hot she couldn't even bear to wear any clothes. She just had a batik sarong to cover her body. She's supposed to go to the hospital again in 2 weeks time... but if her condition remains the same or gets worse, I wonder how she's going to get on and off the bus to get to Ipoh!

Only her 3rd child was home when we went to visit today. All the other 3 were at school. Her 11 year old son who was home, by right had some tuition class in school as well this afternoon, but he decided not to go. "Nanti takde siapa nak jaga mak." - that's what he said.

He's a very obedient boy I must add. While we were chatting, the bicycles we bought were delivered. The boy didn't simply grab the bicycles. It was only when we mentioned the bicycles were theirs and told him to keep the bicycles in a safe place did the boy finally dared to touch the bicycles.

Anyway, I told Sofie about the monthly contributions that has already started going into her bank account, including the one from our Education Sponsorship for Children. Sofie mentioned that with the money in, she will get her eldest son to help buy school uniforms/shoes for her youngest daughter. The girl just started schooling this year, and with all her older siblings being boys, there was no hand-it-down uniforms she could use. Sofie ended up buying just one pair of very poor quality uniform for the girl, costing her RM8. Yes, the girl uses the exact same pair to school every day. So people, before you complain about your child's friend in school wearing dirty or smelly clothes, check out the child's background first ya? And help them out if you can.

I also pleaded Sofie not to ask her eldest son (the one sitting for PMR this year) to work part time after school, as she had planned earlier. I begged her to let her son concentrate on his studies. I even warned her that the financial aid may be stopped if the sponsors find out she lets her 15 year old son work part time. (the sponsors didn't say anything lah... I was the one who pandai-pandai tambah as I really wanted the boy to concentrate on his studies)

Sofie's sister was around when I told her all those, I hope she'd make sure Sofie would abide.

I myself better check on Sofie in two weeks time when she's supposed to come for her hospital appointment. She may be too weak to travel by bus...