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 1 October 2010

2222

At the end and/or beginning of each month, as usual, I’d be delivering groceries to the 2 families who monthly groceries are sponsored by a particular club until the end of this year.

I had initially wanted to visit Lin first on Thursday, but she said she’d be sending her daughter to KLIA – summer holidays are over for the daughter and so she needs to go back overseas where she is currently studying.

So I decided to deliver the groceries to Sofie’s house first. She had just started renting a new house early last week, and so this was my first visit to her new home. This time, the instruction given by Sofie was quite clear… unlike the instruction she gave during my visit to her old house, where she told me to find a house with a buaian hijau outside. :-)

I managed to get to Sofie’s house without any problems, and without using the GPS. Her place now is nearer to Ipoh, almost half the distance to the old house. Makes it much easier for me to visit.

The house, being a new house, of course looks a lot better. It is in fact better in many aspects – 2 bedrooms (as compared to just 1 in the old house), better drainage and no worries about water getting into the house during heavy rains.

The children, however, are still schooling at their old schools, which means they need to get up earlier and cannot go by bicycle like they did from their old home. Sofie will need to go to PPD Ipoh to transfer her children to nearby schools.

The rental rate is RM100 higher than the earlier house, but it’s worth it although for the moment budget is a bit tight for her. Sofie has been looking around for small time business opportunities – there are already a few stalls selling kuih including goreng pisang, one selling ais kacang but after scouting around, none sells burger. So yep, her plan is to set up a burger stall as her source of income. Despite her illnesses, despite her weaknesses, this woman got vision lah, I like… :-)

By 3.30 pm I made a move from Sofie’s house. Buddies board meeting was to be held at night, so I wanted to get home early to be able to get a rest before going out again for the meeting. We didn’t have a meeting last month because Mdm Chair wanted to do her terawikh prayers, while the vice-chair was on MC due to throat cancer. Despite discussing 2 months’ matters, I still managed to finish the meeting in about an hour. Just go straight to the point. No side-tracking!

Friday was Lin’s turn to be visited. After checking with her and finding out that she’d be coming home right after her daughter checks in for her flight, I told her I’d be coming on Friday afternoon. Only after I made that plan did 2 more appointments came – one was a business appointment (I need to earn an income too kan?), and the other was a meeting on the Men Against Violence campaign, of which I had been roped in to be in the organising committee.

So in the morning, after sending some documents/forms to our center (for further action by another volunteer), off I went to my former office. When I resigned from the company, my former boss had indicated that she’d still be passing some of the jobs to me – basically jobs which the staff aren’t experienced enough to do like projected financial statements and winding up jobs. When I went I thought I’d be getting a winding up job… only to find out that I was getting 2 winding up jobs! Alhamdulillah, rezeki…

Right after that appointment, I headed straight to the minimarket where I usually get the supply of groceries. The minimarket so happens to be near my former office.

After lunch and zohor prayer at home, off I headed to Lin’s house. It was raining earlier, but by the time I wanted to leave home, the rain had already stopped. But halfway to Lin’s house, it rained cats and dogs! Aduh, I was thinking, how la was I supposed to unload the groceries from my car in the heavy rain? I still drove on, hoping and praying at the same time that the rain would subside by the time I reached Lin’s house, or that it wasn’t raining at Lin’s house.

Alhamdulillah, prayer answered. The sky was dark when I reached Lin’s house, but it hadn’t rained yet. So unloading the groceries from my car wasn’t a problem. Better still, Lin’s son was home, and so he helped to carry down the stuff.

I just had a short chat with Lin. There was a meeting I needed to attend after that, so I quickly made a move. I got to the meeting a bit late though (I had told the chairperson of the organising meeting earlier that I may be late because I already had other plans outside of Ipoh). Coincidentally, when I reached Ipoh, I had to pass through a route full of traffic lights, and as luck would have had it, every time I reached the traffic lights, the lights went red…

I got to the meeting half an hour late, but when I walked in, they had actually just started  the meeting. So I wasn’t really late at all! Well, plans are now finalised, the Men Against Violence (MAV) campaign will officially be launched by the Mentri Besar of Perak at Ipoh Polo Ground on Sunday, 31st October 2010. Do come and support the programme! I will post more details later.

So, what has the subject 2222 got to do with this posting?

Within these 2 days, I delivered groceries to 2 families, attended 2 meetings and got 2 winding up jobs… :-)

7 comments:

Wan Sharif said...

Mmm.. nice meaningful number - 2222.
Semuga di murahkan rezeki...

Ummie said...

How's your family reaction knowing you getting personally involved with these people's lives?

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Hip! Hip! Hurray! 2222 times!!!! purrr....meow!

Pi Bani said...

Ayoh Wang,
Jangan 4 nombor ekor dah lah... :-)

Pi Bani said...

Ummie,
Firstly, I am not married. So I don't have to worry about not having enough time for hubby and children.

I'm staying with my mother, and in any case, mother always comes first, so she has no problem with me getting involved with all these families. As a matter of fact, from time to time, my mother and other siblings would contribute either in cash or in kind, knowing that the contributions would be personally handed over by me.

If your question lebih menjurus kepada how they feel about me dealing with HIV+ people, well, they're not worried because obviously they know how HIV spreads, and more importantly, they know that I know what I'm doing.

Pi Bani said...

CiS,
Woi, tak letih ke lompat banyak2 kali?

Wan Sharif said...

Ha..ha.. belum pernah tikam ekor lagi..
Tak tahu lah kalau umur dah senja ni ..nak kearah tu plak.. mintak jauhlah .. maybe I will just join CiS.. lompat banyak2 kali...