Oh what a day…

I had promised a representative of a private hospital I’d bring her to visit the homes of 3 of our needy Indian clients today. The visit was for the hospital’s CSR for the coming Deepavali and they had approached me to recommend a few names. We don’t usually allow outsiders to visit our clients at their homes, but to fair to them, they too needed to assess the needs of these families, so after getting the permission of the families involved, I also told the hospital rep that they shouldn’t send any more than 2 reps for the visit. We wouldn’t want to attract neighbors’ attention by visiting in a big group.

Apparently, they too were busy with so many programmes coming up, so only one lady joined us. There were only 3 of us during the visit – me, my colleague and the hospital rep.

First house was Kamala’s house. Kamala had earlier on stayed at the outskirts of Ipoh, with her daughter Kavita schooling in a nearby town. Due to the distance, Kamala finally decided to move to the other town. They cut down on bus fares but the rental is higher now, from RM80 for the earlier house, now it’s RM200 for the 2 room terrace house. But the house is bare…

Oh, I also met Letchumi at Kamala’s house. Letchumi? Yep, meet Letchumi, Kavita’s buah hati…

(Ahem Brad, interested in this minachi?)

Next stop was to Pushpa’s place. Pushpa, 14, orphaned since baby, stays with her grandma in an estate in another town. My colleague was supposed to know where the house is (he had been there before), but when we got to the estate, alamak, which road to take? So quiet, nobody around to ask… until we finally saw a small signboard which says “perumahan estet”. Somehow the place got me thinking of Ladang Gadong (eeks!!) though I have never been to ladang Gadong either. We finally found the house, went in, and I had just sat down for a while when a call came in from a blog reader who wanted to talk to me about a HIV+ friend of hers. I went out so I could have some privacy to talk to the caller. It was quite a lengthy conversation, I wasn’t even finished with the caller yet when the hospital rep and my colleague were done with Pushpa’s family. I was still talking on the phone when the 2 of them got out.

The 3rd family stays at one of the low-cost flats in Ipoh. This time we had to climb up to the 3rd floor. My colleague, a handicap, stayed in the car. There are no lifts at this flat. I had visited this house once before, for the sponsorship assessment visit. Back then the house was bare. A colleague who’s the family’s assigned buddy, asked around for donations in kinds, and managed to get some used furniture. So when I visited today, the house looked much better furnished…

It was almost 12.30 pm by the time we left. I sent my colleague and the hospital rep back to our center, rushed back home for lunch and zohor prayer, then immediately out again to attend the meeting on the “Men Against Violence” campaign. It was one of the last meetings before the campaign launch, and a press conference was also called for today…

The campaign, organised by the Sekretariat Pembangunan Masyarakat dan Sosial Wanita Umno Negeri Perak, together with BN component parties and NGOs in Peraks, will be held as follows:

Day/date: Sunday, 31st October 2010

Venue: Polo Ground, Ipoh

Time: 8 am – 1 pm.

Guest of honour: MB of Perak

All are invited to attend! I’ll be the makcik in charge of the exhibition booths.

 

After the meeting, I rushed to my center, to get a box of used clothes (which I had received earlier from friends to be distributed to the poor – I have already distributed a bulk of them but still had some extras, the sizes were not suitable for my clients), then rushed back home, solat asar, then rushed out again to a friend’s house for her majlis yaasin/doa selamat before she leaves for Haj end of this month. I had also promised to meet another friend there, to pass the used clothes to.

I finally got home at 7.15 pm, very much needing a bath!