Back to work… sort of…

Alhamdulillah, this time during my Raya break there were no “disturbances” relating to my voluntary work. My clients and fellow volunteers this time allowed me to raya in peace. :-)

After a whole week of break, it’s time to get back to work. But nope, I’m not planning for any house visits yet until I complete my puasa 6. During my Raya visits my clients would be happy to serve me food and drinks, and it wouldn’t be nice to turn them down. So, no visits until next week at least.

However, first day after the break, SN has already called me as there was a case needing a shelter home. Thank goodness she didn’t ask me to arrange for the guy’s transportation. She only asked if we could cover his transportation cost to go to the shelter home. That shouldn’t be a problem, since we do now have the Clients Welfare Fund, and with the recent RM20K cheque that we received during Ramadhan, I think we can put aside a certain amount for that particular fund.

Fuzi sent me a text message seeking my approval for her to buy reference books for her daughter who will be sitting for her PMR this year. I have always told my clients whose children are under our Sponsorship Programme to inform me if there were any needs relating to the children’s education, and buying reference books would definitely be approved. What usually pisses me off is when clients ask for money for other matters like Mrs K who asked if there was any duit raya… (she also used to ask if she could borrow money to pay for all sorts of things) or Rosnah who once asked if we could help her financially to get her car repaired! In contrast, there are some clients like Sofie and Nuri who had to fork out some money to buy schooling stuff for their children but never told me about it to enable me to reimburse them with the money. When asked why they didn’t inform me, they’d say, “Seganlah. Dah banyak sangat dah akak tolong.”

Since there will be no visits this week, and I will only be on clinic duty next week, this will still be a quiet week for me. I’m taking the opportunity to settle some admin matters. We didn’t have a board meeting last month.

I plan to visit a few clients early next week. No visits on Wednesday as I will be on clinic duty, and then I will be taking another short break during the long weekend of 16th – 18th September. The very next week, on the 23rd, I will have to bring my mother for her appointment in Putrajaya. The next week ie the final week of the month, I have 2 meetings (including our own board meeting), and a clinic duty to attend. And then the first week of October, I will be away for 3 days as I have already registered for the National AIDS Conference in Penang.

So yes, busy weeks ahead. I’d better make full use of the peace and quiet this week…