Visiting the house that was…

As mentioned in my previous posting, yesterday, together with a fellow volunteer and Mr R, a representative from a particular organisation, we went to visit Hana’s old house to assess if Mr R’s organisation would be willing to help out with the house repairs.

Initially, we planned to meet up at 3 pm, but yesterday morning itself, Mr R got a call requesting him to attend another function. We couldn’t simply cancel or postpone the visit, because Hana had arranged to take leave from work to be able to be home during our visit. So, it was decided that we meet up at 4 pm instead. But you know how it is to get away when you’re attending whatever functions… so we only finally made a move from Ipoh around 4.45 pm.

Just as we were leaving Ipoh, it rained… cats & dogs!! I was really hoping it would be dry at Hana’s place as it would be difficult to climb up to her old house in the rain. For one thing, it would be slippery and we wouldn’t want to injure ourselves in trying to help others…

As we exited the highway, I said, “Thank God it’s dry here.” Immediately it started to drizzle. Uh oh… I spoke too soon, didn’t I?

But no, it wasn’t raining when we reached Hana’s house but it looked like it would rain anytime. We headed straight to the house that Hana is renting, parked the car there, and up I went to call Hana so we could together go to the old house needing repairs.  The old house was less than 50 meters away anyway. While at first I confidently climbed up to get to the old house, halfway through I got a bit confused and I let Hana show the way. I could no longer recognise the house.

“Ni ha rumahnya,” said Hana. “Bahagian depannya pakcik saya dah tolong robohkan sebab dah jadi sarang penagih dadah.”

No wonder lah I couldn’t recognise the house!

The front section of the house was the one unfit for occupation. That was where Hana fell and broke her arm. Unable to afford repairs, they decided to rent a nearby house for safety reasons. So the old house was left empty. Apparently drug addicts seem to get along very well with empty houses, so the house finally became a “port” for the addicts. That was when Hana’s uncle decided to tear down the whole section.

The only section that’s left now is the kitchen section which is locked and so others can’t go in. Both Mr R and myself took some photos of the house. After a while it started raining and so we walked down and headed back to Hana’s rented house. Hana gave me the receipts of her purchases of the children’s schooling needs, plus the list of items which need to be bought at their school co-op at the end of this month. I was in a rush so I couldn’t really sit down to calculate everything. So based on what Hana told me, that the whole total was “Empat Ratus lebih”, I gave Hana RM400 and told her I’d transfer the balance into her bank account once I manage to calculate everything. She needed cash to buy a second pair of uniforms for her children (she was short of cash, so she had bought one pair each first). Next year even her youngest son will start schooling, so she has 3 of them with schooling needs.

By the time we left, it was raining… cats and dogs… again! Seemed like the rain was following us.

Anyway, Mr R told me to get a copy of the title of the land, and asked me to do a short write up, detailing Hana’s family background and needs. Hopefully I will be able to do that soon.