Melepaskan anjing tersepit

Belum sempat duduk lama setelah kembali ke rumah petang tadi, telefon tangan saya berbunyi. Dari nada dering yang kedengaran, saya sudah mengetahui panggilan itu datangnya dari salah sebuah perlindungan yang pernah saya kunjungi. Dan seperti yang saya duga, panggilan itu datangnya dari Kak Ana, yang menjaga rumah perlindungan di mana pernah saya menghantar Anita dan anaknya serta Sharifah dan Cek Mek ku yang comel.

Tenang saja suara Kak Ana ketika itu, menceritakan perihal Anita yang telah ke negeri asalnya di selatan tanahair untuk menghadiri majlis perkahwinan anak saudaranya. Menurut Kak Ana, setelah 3 minggu di sana, Anita telah membuat keputusan untuk tinggal terus dengan kakaknya di sana. Dari satu segi, syukur alhamdulillah Anita akan tinggal semula bersama keluarganya. Namun mengapa sebelum ini Anita tidak mahu tinggal di sana? Dan mengapa sebelum ini kakaknya pernah memberitahu bahawa beliau tidak mampu untuk menanggung Anita?

Kak Ana telah mencadangkan kepada Anita agar pulang dahulu semula ke rumah perlindungan untuk menyelesaikan segala urusan surat-menyurat dan temujanji hospital. Kak Ana juga telah mencadangkan kepada Anita agar menelefon dan membincangkan soal ini dengan saya terlebih dahulu. Seperti lazimnya, oleh kerana saya yang menghantar Anita dan anakknya ke situ, Kak Ana akan memberitahu saya terlebih dahulu sekiranya terdapat apa-apa perkembangan, sama ada menyenangkan atau tidak. Sekurang-kurangnya jika Anita menelefon saya kemudian, saya sudahpun mengetahui sedikit-sebanyak latarbelakang cerita.

Setelah menunaikan solat asar, saya dapati telefon tangan saya menyalakan lampu merah – bererti terdapat panggilan yang tidak dijawab. Terdapat 2 panggilan dari Kak Ana dan satu panggilan dari nombor yang tidak saya kenali. Dan satu SMS dari nombor yang sama meminta saya menelefon kembali. Walaupun nama tidak disebut, saya dapat mengagak panggilan tersebut dari Anita.

Berkali-kali saya mencuba untuk menelefon nombor berkenaan, namun panggilan terus disambung ke peti suara (dan saya tidak suka bercakap dengan mesin!). Akhirnya saya hanya menghantar mesej mengatakan bahawa saya telah cuba menelefon tetapi tidak berjaya.

Lalu saya terus menelefon Kak Ana. Apa yang nyata, suara Kak Ana tidak lagi setenang panggilan yang awal tadi.

Rupanya entah apa yang diceritakan oleh Anita kepada kakaknya sehingga kakaknya terus menelefon Kak Ana bukan sekadar untuk memarahi, malah memaki-hamun Kak Ana sehingga pada satu ketika mengibaratkan Kak Ana seperti lembu dan kemudian mengibaratkan Kak Ana seperti syaitan bertopengkan manusia. Entah apa juga diceritakan oleh Anita kepada kakaknya sehingga kakaknya mengugut untuk mengambil tindakan mahkamah ke atas Kak Ana kerana enggan menyerahkan dokumen-dokumen Anita dan anaknya.

Aik? Bila masa pula Kak Ana enggan menyerahkan dokumen-dokumen tersebut? Kak Ana cuma meminta Anita untuk kembali dahulu ke rumah perlindungan untuk menyelesaikan dahulu segala urusan surat-menyurat dan temujanji hospital. Akhirnya Kak Ana memberitahu Anita bahawa oleh kerana saya yang membawa Anita ke rumah perlindungan itu, maka beliau akan menyerahkan segala dokumen kepada saya dan Anita perlu mengambilnya dari saya.

Setelah bercakap dengan Kak Ana, saya cuba menelefon Anita sekali lagi. Kali ini panggilan dijawab. Sedikitpun tidak saya sebut mengenai apa yang telah diceritakan oleh Kak Ana kepada saya. Walaupun saya mempercayai Kak Ana, namun saya ingin mendengar versi cerita Anita.

Tidak banyak diceritakan Anita. Dia cuma menyebut bahawa dia telah berpindah semula ke negeri asalnya dan ingin mengambil semula dokumen-dokumen yang disimpan di tempat Kak Ana. Anita meminta bantuan saya untuk mengirimkan dokumen-dokumen berkenaan kepadanya.

Tidak lama kemudian, Kak Ana menelefon saya sekali lagi. Kali ini teresak-esak menangis. Rupanya seorang lagi kakak Anita pula menelefon untuk memaki-hamun Kak Ana. Oleh kerana tidak lagi dapat menahan geram, Kak Ana mengambil keputusan untuk menghantar dokumen-dokumen Anita kepada saya hari ini juga. Saya cuba menasihatkan Kak Ana agar tidak tergesa-gesa. Saya ingin mencadangkan kepadanya agar mengambil wudu’ dan bertenang dahulu sebelum mengambil apa-apa keputusan, namun Kak Ana ketika itu sudahpun di dalam perjalanan ke Ipoh semata-mata untuk menyerahkan dokumen-dokumen tersebut kepada saya malam ini juga!

Kesian Kak Ana. Silapnya hanyalah kerana dia terlalu mengambil berat. Walaupun Anita pernah berkasar dengannya sebelum ini di rumah berkenaan, Kak Ana terus melindungi dan membimbingnya. Namun ini pula balasan yang diterima.

Dan Anita pula? Apa yang saya nampak, Anita inginkan kebebasan. Dan kehidupan di rumah perlindungan tersebut baginya terlalu mengongkong. Dia inginkan tempat untuk berlindung dan pada masa yang sama dia ingin kebebasan untuk keluar masuk sesuka hatinya. BANYAK CANTIK LU PUNYA MUKA! Entah berapa lama pula dia akan tahan untuk tinggal di rumah kakaknya sebelum berpindah pula ke tempat lain. Benar-benar tidak mengenang budi!

Saya pasti Kak Ana menolong selama ini bukan untuk dikenang budinya. Namun bukanlah juga maki-hamun yang dijangka.

Sabarlah Kak Ana. Kita telah mencuba. Mungkin kita gagal membimbing Anita, tapi ramai lagi insan di luar sana yang masih memerlukan bantuan kita. Janganlah satu kegagalan ini melemahkan semangat kita.

Teruskanlah perjuangan Kak Ana untuk membantu insan-insan yang memerlukan bantuan dan bimbingan…

Of birth certs and ICs

Last week both myself and Anita received a big "Urusan Seri Paduka Baginda" envelope containing the reply from JPN Putrajaya (to my letter enquiring on how to go about Anita's case) and a whole bunch of forms to be filled up.

Good that we got the reply with all the procedures and what not, telling us to go to JPN Ipoh, but our problems are far from over. Just looking through the forms makes me pening already. Who can sign the surat akuan? Who can be the penganjur?

Kak Ana and I decided to go to JPN Ipoh without filling in the forms first. We'd need to meet the officer to ensure we get the right people to fill in and sign the forms.

Last night Anita called to ask if I'd be free today to go to JPN. I had some urgent matters to settle at the office in the morning so I told them I should be free after 2 pm. And this morning we confirmed to meet up at JPN Ipoh at 2pm.

Just after I left my house nearing 2 pm, Anita called to tell me they had just left the home. Duh! That would mean they would only reach Ipoh after about 1 hour 15 minutes or so. I decided to stop by our NGO center, but after a while I figured I might as well go to JPN and ask around first. And so I did.

First to the IC department. Asked one lady at one of the counters where I should go just to get some clarifications. She told me to get a number first. Went to the counter to get a number, the lady told me to go direct to counter 9; no need to take number.

Since the customer at counter 9 was taking so long with the officer there, I decided to go up to the birth registration department first.

This time after enquiring at the information counter, I was asked to go direct to the next counter as the lady there was the officer in charge of late registration of birth. I still had to wait my turn, but the guy in front of me looked like he was almost done, so I thought I wouldn't have to wait that long.

But the guy had soooo many queries, from one thing to another. I couldn't help eavesdropping as his story was rather interesting. The guy, quite an elderly guy, had married a foreigner, but after giving birth, the lady cabut and left him - leaving the baby with him.

Now he wants to register for his baby's birth, but since it is considered late registration, there's another form he'd need to fill. The problem is, his marriage was not registered in Malaysia. Which would not be a problem to register the child if the mother was around... but she's not! And worse still, the birth of the child was not at the hospital, as a matter of fact, the officer at the counter couldn't help but chuckle when the guy wrote in the form "Tempat lahir: Tepi Jalan." She told the guy to at the very least just name the jalan. Ya lorr uncle, tepi jalan mana? :)

After listening to the guy's problem, I guess the late registration for Anita's baby shouldn't be much of a problem. I just wanted to make sure who could sign the form if the person is not a family member.

As I was heading back to the IC department, Kak Ana called to ask where I was. They had just reached JPN. I decided to wait for them, and was pleasantly surprised to see not only Anita and her baby boy, but also Kak Ana's daughter carrying none other than my little Cek Mek, and also another child staying at the home, 2 year old Nanda.

Goodness, Cek Mek has grown! But I was a bit concerned noticing some sort of rashes she seemed to be developing at her neck and her arms. I was even more concerned when Kak Ana mentioned that the problem started after they changed her medication. She's already 5 months + but still on medication? The doctor had not been affirmative about her HIV status but every time the little girl was brought to the hospital, they'd definitely poke her with those needles to get her blood tested.

Now even Kak Ana is worried that Cek Mek may be positive after all. (I had been worried since day one when she was delivered through normal delivery.) However, I am still hoping and praying that she's still being given medication just as precautionary measures and not because she's HIV positive.

Anyway, back to the problem of Anita's IC. I was told by the officer that since Anita's parents are not around (mother passed away and father nowhere to be found), we'd need to get 2 people who had known Anita for at least 10 years to sign the surat akuan. That would definitely leave me and Kak Ana out.

Somehow we'd still need to get the help of 2 of Anita's half sisters. The evil sister in Ipoh is out of the question. Anita has another sister in KL whom according to her, "boleh bawa berunding" while another sister back in her kampong, wouldn't mind signing the form but would be reluctant to come when called for an interview by the JPN.

Kak Ana and I decided that it would be best to submit the forms in KL to make it easier for the sisters to go for the interview. As for the sister back in her kampong, we told her to coax that sister, telling her that we'd pay for the bus fares when she is needed to go to KL.

So that was round 1. There shouldn't be too much problem with the little boy's birth cert (except for citizenship status which can only be confirmed after Anita settles her IC problem - but that can be rectified later), but looks like we still have a long way to go to get Anita's IC done.

Next step - coax her non-evil sisters...

Jejak kasih?

When Anita's sister called me last week trying to get hold of Anita's present address, I didn't give it to her although I knew the address. I just buat bodoh (read: be myself... :)) and pretended I knew nothing about whatever that was going on between them.

I mentioned that Anita did call me to seek help regarding her identity card; and that I'd inform Anita (about her sister trying to look for her) the next time she calls. Anita's sister however didn't want me to tell Anita about her call. Even if I really knew nothing about the goings-on between them, I would have suspected something amiss. I mean, why wouldn't she want Anita to find out that she tried to call me to find out Anita's whereabouts?

Anyway, based on the text messages the sister's "so-called" hubby had been sending to Anita (which Anita did not respond to), it was very unlikely that the sister wanted to patch things up. The way I see it, things may get even worse for Anita if her evil sister and the guy get their hands on Anita and her baby.

For the moment, I will just let Anita and her baby stay with Kak Ana, at least until we can settle her identity card and son's birth cert problems. Kak Ana can in the meantime try to educate Anita and maybe one fine day when Anita is capable of being more independent, she can live on her own if she wants to.

Actually there was another "jejak kasih" call the week before, which I'm not really sure if it was really a "genuine" intention to patch things up, or another "udang di sebalik batu" intention.

No, not another of Anita's sister trying to look for her. This one came from Zana's sister. Those of you who had been following my blog earlier may remember my postings on The Problematic Young Woman.

Zana was the first of the out-of-wedlock pregnancy cases that I had to send to shelter homes. I sent Zana to KL in 2006 before she was due to deliver. She delivered a pair of twins just before Raya in 2006 and due to her own attitude, she couldn't get along with the other occupants of the shelter home. After a few months, she was ready to head back home to her own family. Both Kak Hawa and myself were made to believe that her family was ready to accept her at home.

Then on the very day that I went to fetch her, she got a call from her sister telling her not to come home as her father was very furious with her. And I only got the news when I got to the home. Lucky thing I had another function to attend to in KL earlier in the day, so my trip to KL wasn't really a waste of time.

Kak Hawa and I then agreed that while Kak Hawa was to try talk some sense into Zana, I would try to speak to her family, hoping for them to reconcile.

But my attempts to get in touch with the family were futile. Zana's younger sisters did not even dare answer my calls and text messages. I finally did get a text message from a different number...

"Assalamualaikum. Saya family Zana. Maaf ye, Zana dah takde tempat dalam family kami. Dah 2 kali dia buat kerja bodoh tanpa fikirkan kami. Kami dah bagi peluang tapi dia tak gunakan peluang yang diberi."

To me the message was to tell me not to pester them further. So yes, I stopped at that.

Since then, one of Zana's twins died, and Zana had moved out of the shelter home, initially with her son, but later on Kak Hawa went to get the baby from her as Zana had not been giving the much needed attention to the baby.

Zana had been contacting the shelter home from time to time, but except for once, she never even bothered to visit her baby; despite saying time and again that she wanted to take the baby back. The boy is now already 3 years old.

Back to the recent "jejak kasih" call, it was a totally unexpected call.

"Ni Kak Afizah ke?"

"Ya saya. Siapa ni?"

"Saya ni adik *Zana*. Akak ada tak nombor telefon terbaru dia? Kami dah terputus hubunganlah dengan dia."

Terputus hubungan, did she say? I thought they were the ones who didn't want to have anything to do with Zana anymore?

Truth is, I too had not been able to get in touch with Zana. She's no longer using the last number I had. I didn't ask Zana's sister why she wanted to get in touch with Zana, but I told her that her best bet would be to get in touch with Kak Hawa at the shelter home since Zana's son still says there and Zana would still from time to time call the people there. So I gave her Kak Hawa's phone number.

The next day I called up Kak Hawa to find out. Yes, Zana's sister did call her but like me, Kak Hawa too was not able to give her Zana's contact number. You see, although Zana does call the shelter home from time to time, almost every call came from a different number. Whenever her credit runs out, instead of topping up, she'd get herself a new prepaid number. And sometimes she'd call using a friend's phone.

The only thing we can do now is to inform Zana the next time she calls, about her sister wanting to get in touch with her. And it will be up to Zana if she wants to call her sister back.

Why did the sister want to get hold of Zana? Has it anything to do with Zana's older daughter who is being taken care of by Zana's parents? Do they really want to patch things up? Has Zana's garang father forgiven her?

Hard to tell now that I myself am not able to get hold of Zana...

Various updates

I wasn't on clinic duty on Wednesday, but I needed to see SN to get more info on Moorthy, the guy whose legs will be amputated soon and who needs a shelter after the operation is over. I managed to find a place for him but I did not take down his details earlier.

I knew SN would be busy on Wednesday morning, so I went in the afternoon. And as usual, whenever I go to see SN to discuss one case, we'd end up discussing lots of cases!

After taking down Moorthy's particulars, I took the opportunity to ask SN on a few other cases.

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Remember Nora? I met her during HIV clinic some time in March. She's the 24 year old woman who has an 11 year old child. Rather stubborn, and didn't seem to get along well with her family despite their efforts to help her. Refused to stay with family members and stayed with boyfriends instead. SN told me of Nora's new temporary place of residence. Guess where?

Staying with another boyfriend? Naah...

At a shelter home? Naah...

Back home with her family? Naah...

SHE'S IN JAIL! Reason? I don't know. But from what I understand, it had something to do with kena tangkap with her non-Muslim boyfriend, and since she couldn't afford to pay the fine, she had to spend time in jail.

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Both SN and myself are happy with Sofie's progress. Remember in my earlier postings about Sofie, I kept mentioning about how weak she was? Every time I visited she'd most probably be lying down, too weak to even get up.

Well, of late, Sofie seems a lot better. When I went to visit on Tuesday, she was even attempting to tidy up the kitchen. She still tires easily, but at least there's a whole lot of improvement in her health. Alhamdulillah. But she still needs a bit more time before she can even think of getting a job as she cannot tahan standing for too long.

I also told SN about Saiful, Sofie's son who needs to see the eye specialist. SN advised me to just bring the referral letter first without having to bring the boy, just go to the eye clinic, present the letter and set an appointment for the boy. Only bring the boy on the appointment date. Great, at least he doesn't have to miss school too often.

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On another note, I got a surprise call last night from... guess who?? Well, first I heard a man's voice - when he mentioned his "so-called" Muslim name, I suspected he was the "so-called" hubby to Anita's evil sister. When I asked, "Siapa?" he passed the phone to a lady. Yep, indeed.. Anita's evil sister, sounding so angelic.

She asked if Anita was staying with me. Ahh, they must have thought Anita was staying with me.

"Tak, dia takde dengan saya," I confidently said. I wasn't lying of course. :-)

The sister then told me that Anita "lari dari rumah" and she mentioned that they had a "small" misunderstanding on the day that Anita ran from home.

I asked if they tried calling her. She said she did but while the phone rings, Anita never answered the calls.

She claims she is worried about Anita's safety and that of the baby too. "Saya risau pasal dia orang bawah jagaan saya. Anak dia pun saya ingat nak ambil buat anak angkat saya. Laporan polis pun saya dah buat."

Laporan polis? What did she report to the police? That her 23 year old sister ran away from home? And that she took along her own child with her? Duh!

I told her that Anita does call me from time to time asking me to help out with her IC and maybe what I can do is the next time Anita calls I'd tell Anita that the sister is trying to get in touch with her.

"Tak payah bagitau saya telefon. Saya cuma mintak akak dapatkan alamat dia aje, biar saya sendiri gi jumpa dia."

Oh, like that ah? Well, I just pretended I wasn't aware of their problems. I do know the evil sister had attempted to give away the baby for adoption before, with some payment in return of course, but the couple who initially agreed to adopt the child eventually decided against it when they found out that the mother (Anita) was HIV positive.

Frankly, if the sister was really sincere in trying to patch things up, she wouldn't have told me not to tell Anita that she called.

What I know is that while their calls were not answered by Anita, the guy did send a few text messages to Anita, saying nasty things. Maybe Anita should just change to a new number.

Anyway, speaking of Anita, whatever happened to her identity card and her son's birth cert? Well, somebody managed to speak to a top-level officer in JPN, explaining to him Anita's problem. The officer told this somebody to get Anita or someone on Anita's behalf to write to him directly and furnishing him with copies of whatever supporting documents available.

Anita herself is not well educated, so I am writing the letter on her behalf. Right now I am waiting for copies of the documents (which are all at the shelter home where Anita is staying). I need to hurry, before the JPN officer forgets about his conversation with this somebody...

Am going off to KL tomorrow and will be back in Ipoh on Sunday. I hope to finalise the letter when I come back and send out the letter by Monday.

Tengah rajin ni baik siapkan apa patut. I may be hardworking at times, but at other times I am hardly working. So yes, pi siapkan kerja cepat-cepat sebelum angin malas timbul!!

09/09/09

Today is 09/09/09. And I am purposely setting this posting to be published at 09:09 am. Oh... saja gatal... :)

I do hope nobody saja gatal to call 999 though!

Anyway, my anticipated "sekejap cakap lain, sekejap cakap lain" for Anita's IC and her son's birth cert has begun.

No, I haven't brought Anita to JPN just yet. My colleague, who has been handling Anita's case earlier before Anita decided to call me (I am not Anita's Buddy) was the one who had been liaising with JPN.

Earlier on, when I sent Anita to go back to her hometown, my colleague told me as long as Anita could get any one of her sister's birth cert, that'd be good enough.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Very sure!", came the answer. I wasn't too convinced though, although I was amazed how sure he sounded even though I was sure he wasn't so sure himself. (errrrr... am I making sense?)

When Anita came back to Ipoh last week, I called my colleague asking him to arrange an appointment with the officer he had been liaising with. He said he'd call the officer and get back to me before 4 pm the same day. He never did.

On Monday, the colleague called me from my NGO center. He wanted to tell me that there was a fax from the Sultan's office to inform about the cheque presentation from the Yayasan. Yep, the one I had already settled last week.

He didn't even mention anything about the JPN matter. When I asked, then only he mentioned about some forms that needed to be filled up and submitted to JPN.

"No need to bring Anita?", I asked. "No need. We can submit for her", he said. Frankly, I didn't believe him. He has a tendency to assume things. Anyway, he said he'd leave the forms at the center.

Yesterday I went to my NGO center to get the forms. One look at the forms and I knew that the forms were meant for the child's late birth cert registration. Nothing at all on Anita's IC. So I called that colleague, and since he was already on the way to the center, I waited for him to come.

When he got to the center, and I started asking him questions on this and that, he answered each question as though he was sure of things... and even mentioned that Anita has to go back to the JPN at her hometown to get some documents from there. Well, how come earlier when Anita was at her hometown, nothing was mentioned about having to go to JPN there?? I wasn't at all convinced.

I asked him for the form provided by the hospital when Anita gave birth earlier (the form they gave to be brought to JPN for child's birth registration). Anita gave the form to him to seek his help earlier. The piece of paper, which now looks like kertas balut belacan, was at his home. Adoi, why lah keep at home. Keep lah at the center!

Anyway, he promised he'd pass the piece of paper to my office today.

I have been getting contradicting advise from different people - some say just do the baby's birth cert first, no problem. Some say we'd have to get Anita's IC done first.

So which one really should come first? The chicken or the egg?

I am not going to bring Anita to JPN only to be kicked here and there like a ball. I don't want to call 999 on 09/09/09!!

I think I'd better look for networking in the right department and get all the necessary info on the correct procedures before I proceed further.

I'm quite tied up with some other matters now, and I bet those at the JPN are already in their raya mood. So rather than getting the "ni bukan bawah bidang kuasa saya" answer, I think I'll start getting some networking first and only proceed with matters after raya.

The escape... at last!

Despite the smooth escape from her "evil" sister's house last week, Anita couldn't be too sure of how things would turn out when she visits her other sisters back in her hometown. I too was quite concerned of a "keluar mulut buaya, masuk mulut harimau" situation. When I managed to speak to her eldest sister on Tuesday morning, I thought there was a chance. But after that there were no more calls from Anita. And it has been a whole week since I sent her off at the bus station. I began to wonder if she got into some kind of trouble.

As I was driving to my office this morning, my phone rang. It was from Anita - and she was already at the Ipoh bus station! Aduh, why lah didn't she notify me before she boarded the bus?! I had already made other plans this morning so I couldn't simply go to the bus station to fetch her and send her to the shelter home. Besides, I'd also need to notify Kak Ana at the shelter home - she may have other plans too for all I know.

Anita had no choice but to wait. I had to settle some work at the office and I also needed to go to Istana Kinta. You see, I got a call yesterday from a lady from Yayasan Sultan Azlan Shah to inform me that my NGO has been listed amongst the recipients of grants from the Yayasan and that the cheque presentation is to be held next weekend. I was asked to go to Istana Kinta where their office is to confirm attendance. (Yes, THE Istana Kinta where some political drama took place earlier this year but I shall not go into that)

So yes, I went this morning and once I got into the Istana compounds, I was a bit tercangak-bangak looking for the office but made it without making a fool of myself... or so I think. Anyway, I read through the letter and noticed that for the cheque presentation (by HRH Raja Muda), the dress code for ladies is baju kurung/baju kebaya. I never had any kebaya all my life and it had been quite a while since I had any baju kurung in my wardrobe. My wardrobe now is full of jubah or ala-ala jubah. Hmmm... wonder if my sister still has any baju kurung that I can borrow. Never mind, that I can resolve later!

Back to Anita's case, as soon as I got to my office this morning, I called up Kak Ana. She was on her way somewhere. I told her about Anita's sudden appearance in Ipoh without notice, and asked if I could send her over to the shelter home today. Thank God Kak Ana said she should be back by then.

Then I called my colleague who had been liaising with the JPN officer, and asked him to make an appointment some time next week if possible. Today was already too late, and Monday is a holiday in Perak. Simply bringing Anita to JPN any time next week may not be a good idea. I don't want Anita to come to Ipoh all the way from the shelter home only to find out that the officer is on leave or outstation. It's best to make an appointment. After all, Anita's case is a bit, errm no... a lot complicated, which definitely needs the attention of a higher ranking officer, not simply any Mat, Minah, Ah Chong, Mei Lan, Muthu or Meenachi at the JPN counters.

After my zohor prayer, off I went to fetch Anita & her baby boy. I didn't want to get caught in the anticipated jam in my kampong as the Deputy Prime Minister was scheduled to make an official visit to my kampong around 4 pm.

Anita and her baby had been at the bus station since morning. Poor souls! But without earlier notice from Anita, it was difficult for me to reschedule my commitments. Anyway, as soon as they got into my car, we headed straight to the shelter home, which is about 1 hour 20 minutes drive away. I didn't want to come back to Ipoh too late and rush for buka puasa. Any questions whatsoever that I needed to ask Anita would have to be done on the way to the shelter home.

We reached the shelter home around 3.20 pm. Kak Ana was not back yet but her husband and daughter were there to greet me and Anita. The daughter then called Kak Ana and was told that Kak Ana would reach the home soon.

While waiting for Kak Ana, guess who I got to see, hold and play with? Yep, none other than my little Cek Mek! Woo hoo! Goodness, she's such a good girl - tak banyak ragam langsung! And she has obviously become chubbier! Unlike some babies who smile or laugh when we play with them, Cek Mek has that selamba look - like muka sadin like that! Eh, sounds familiar lah pulak... ikut siapalah agaknya... ;)

Anyway, after a while, Kak Ana came back, and after explaining some matters to her, I simply had to make a move. Initially I wanted to leave by 4 pm, but since Kak Ana herself got home a bit late, I only managed to make a move at 4.20 pm. I had at least another 1 hour 20 minutes of travel time to go through and I wanted to have a bit of rest before berbuka so I wouldn't be too tired for terawikh.

I reached Ipoh about 5.40 pm and since I hadn't performed my asar prayer, I immediately headed back to my kampong. But just before the bridge in my kampong, some traffic police signaled to me to stop by the roadside.

No, I wasn't breaking any traffic rules lah! Definitely not speeding - it was after all just a jalan kampong!

The DPM's visit to my kampong that I mentioned earlier, remember?? You see my kampong is a traditional kampong smack right in the middle of Ipoh. The roads are small and at certain stretches, when cars are going opposite direction, one car would have to make way for the other. And my car was going the opposite direction of the DPM's car!

So, guess who had to make way? The DPM? Of course.... NOT! Not only did I have to make way for the DPM's convoy, there were so many other cars also going out as the function had just ended! Wrong timing sungguh...

Oh well, at least I've settled Anita's escape and a new shelter for Anita and her baby boy. As for her IC and the boy's BC, I believe we've still got a long way to go... at least another 6 months if we're lucky...

A little update on Anita

No, Anita is still not back in Ipoh. Her bags of clothes and milk powder for her little boy are still in my car. Despite travelling light (well, the boy wasn't that light lah...) the other day, looking as though at the most she'd only travel for 2 or 3 days, it has been 5 days now and she's still at her home state.

But she did call me, three times including this morning's phone call.

The first call was the update I included in my previous posting on her "escape". The second call was on Saturday. By then she had gone to her late sister's house, hoping her brother-in-law would have a copy of the SIL's birth cert. Too bad, he didn't. Anita then asked me what to do.

Knowing that Anita had other sisters (although she didn't sound too fond of them, and likewise, they, of her), I asked her to try get a copy of birth cert of at least one of her other sisters. We just needed to show that they share the same mother, and that the mother was already a Malaysian.

Since Anita is now at her home state, and her eldest sister stays in the same state, Anita decided to go to this sister's house. No doubt before this they didn't get along too well, but I was hoping the sister would at least have a little pity on Anita. Anita just needed copies of supporting documents, that's it. And the sister doesn't even have to post the documents, Anita's there to collect the documents herself.

Well, this morning a call came in from Anita. The moment I answered the call, she immediately passed the call to another lady - Anita's eldest sister. The sister told me the only document they have is their mother's death cert. I asked if she still has her own birth cert. She said yes, but then asked if a copy of her IC would do. I suppose like most of us, since we already have our ICs, when people ask for our birth certs, we'd have to search high and low for it. Likewise with Anita's sister.

But ICs don't show our mother's name, and so her sister's IC wouldn't prove anything. Meaning, yes, I'd still need a copy of the sister's birth cert, and yes, the mother's death cert. And whatever other documents they can produce.

Alhamdulillah, the fact that Anita's sister herself spoke to me at least indicated that she was willing to help out with that bit of giving copies of the supporting documents. Or at least I hope so.

For now, I am still not sure when Anita is coming back to Ipoh. Or if she still wants to go to the shelter home. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, her eldest sister had mellowed and opened up her heart to accept Anita? Maybe the little boy managed to melt her heart? Maybe there is no need for part 2 of "The Escape"? Yeah, who knows... (but I'm not putting my hopes up too high though)

Whatever it is, I hope Anita will not give me short notice and call me in the middle of the night to tell me she's at the Ipoh bus station. I told her earlier that if she needed me to send her to the shelter home when she comes back, if possible she'd need to get a bus which will reach Ipoh in the morning (or at least during daytime), and she should call me once she buys her bus ticket so I'd know when to expect her.

I have my own life to lead too...

The escape: Part 1 (updated)

After discussing things over with Anita on Wednesday, and after I offered to pay for her bus ticket, Anita had actually wanted to leave her sister's house on that very same day.

I told Anita not to rush things. I didn't want her to pack her things in a rush as she may end up forgetting the important things, like her birth cert and ARV medication. She had after all managed to endure her sister & her guy(the so-called hubby, or "jantan tu", that's what Anita called him) for so long, just bear it for one more night. Besides, we weren't even sure what time the bus to the intended town would be available. So we both went to the bus station to buy her a ticket.

After checking through each ticket counter, I finally approached one counter and asked for a morning bus. The guy at the counter at first suggested 9.30 am, but that would be too early.

You see, since Anita's sister and her guy would leave home by 9 am to go to work, and since Anita wanted to leave without their knowledge, I would have to fetch Anita after 9 am. I wouldn't be able to get Anita to the bus station on time if we were to buy the 9.30 bus. So we opted for the 10.30 am bus.

After buying the ticket and after finalising our plans, I sent Anita back to her sister's house. But Anita didn't want me to send her right to her house. When she went for her hospital appointment, she left her son under the care of the guy's mother, who stays just nearby. Anita didn't want the guy's mother to notice my car. Even though the lady is innocent and oblivious to whatever's happening in the house, she may just later in the day innocently ask in front of Anita's sister who I was.

Nope, that had to be avoided, so I dropped Anita off at a nearby petrol station.

I promised Anita I'd fetch her by 9.30 am. So this morning, about 9 am, I left my office to fetch Anita. I got there at about 9.20 am. Duh, there was some sort of a pasar pagi there, making me confused as to which way to take to get to Anita's sister's house. Suddenly I saw amongst the crowd - Anita and her baby coming my way. She figured I may not be able find my way and decided to come out to look for me.

She got in the car and showed me the way to get to the house, as her things were still there. It would be difficult for her to carry everything, with a baby in tow. I just stopped for a while outside the house, and while I held her cute, chubby and playful baby boy, Anita went in the gate to get her things. She had one bag of clothes and one paper bag of milk powder. No, she didn't intend to bring all the things with her on the bus. With her chubby boy, it would be difficult for her to carry so many things.

So the big bag and the milk powder were left in my car while Anita herself brought another small bag consisting of just enough things to last her and the baby boy for about 2 days at the other sister's house.

Coincidentally in the morning, before Anita's sister and her guy went off to work, Anita was tidying up the house (she's being treated like a maid in the house - no, a slave... a maid at least gets paid!) and accidentally knocked the guy's handphone to the floor. Apa lagi, mengamuklah both the sister and the guy! Again, the sister told her to berambus, and said, "Tengahari ni aku tak nak tengok muka engko kat rumah ni!" Hmmm...

Well, she got what she wished for. This morning's escape went rather smoothly. We got to the bus station on time and Anita and her baby managed to get on the bus without much trouble.

So much for part 1 of the escape. I wonder what her sister is thinking now. While she may have gotten what she wished for, frankly I think she still wanted Anita around - as her slave. All the while, Anita had been doing all the house work and even having to serve them their food. And believe it or not, Anita and her baby had been sleeping in their little store room in the kitchen! (There were other rooms upstairs.)

Now the sister will have to do the housework herself.

Part 2 of the escape? That will have to wait until Anita comes back to Ipoh from the other sister's house, if she comes back, that is. I don't think Anita herself will run off just like that - since most of her things are still in my car. I'm just concerned what will happen at the other sister's house. Will that sister be asking too many questions I wonder...

*Update: Just received a call from Anita this morning. She safely arrived last night, but since she needed to get on another bus to go to her sister's place in another small town, she slept at a makcik's (a distant relative) house. The makcik told her that Anita's sister (the one that Anita intended to seek help from) had passed away quite some time ago. And nobody told her about it?? Aduh, how much more cerita Melayu can this get?!

Escape from hell?

I finally met up with Anita today to listen to her problems. She called me at 1 pm just as I left my office. Perfect timing. I told her to wait at the hospital's main entrance and look out for my Kenari. I had only met her once before, that was some time last year, and wasn't really sure if I'd be able to recognise her this time.

But as I got to the hospital, there she was, standing away from the others, making it easy for me to spot. So I told her to get into my car and we'd chat as I drove. We couldn't stop for lunch anyway, could we? :)

OK, so what are Anita's problems?

If you had followed Anita's story here, you'd know that Anita didn't have an IC due to some problems with her citizenship status. Just to recap for those too lazy to follow the link, Anita's mother was a Singaporean who married a Malaysian and eventually got a Malaysian citizenship. However, in Anita's birth cert, her mother's citizenship was indicated as Singaporean. Shouldn't be a problem if her father's a Malaysian, right? Well, Anita has a different father. An Indonesian. And so in Anita's BC, it was indicated that her father was Indonesian and mother Singaporean. That makes Anita a non-citizen. Her mother was in the process of doing all the necessary statutory declarations to correct Anita's BC, but before that was done, her mother died. Her father? Nobody seemed to know where he is. And the matter was left hanging just like that.

The last time we went to visit, we were told by the sister (with whom Anita is staying) that the sisters were willing to help - just tell them what to do. After finding out from JPN, my colleague informed Anita and her sister of the documents needed. We told them to inform us once they get all the documents ready.

Well, they never came back. So even to this date, Anita still doesn't have an IC, and her son, who is already 1 year old, still doesn't have a birth cert. It looked as though they weren't too concerned about getting the IC for Anita and the birth cert for her son.

My colleague went to visit her at home recently and found out there were other problems to it. Today, I found out what the problem was.

You see, the sister whom Anita is currently staying with, only pretended to be nice when we went to visit last year. She made it sound as though it was she and her hubby (or so I thought), a convert (or so I thought) who had been taking care of Anita all the while.

Hmmm... what's this with the "or so I thought"? Well, if what Anita told me is true, Anita's sister never married that guy and that guy never converted to Islam. They are just staying together, leading everyone (including the guy's mother) to believe they were married. They kept telling people that they had their akad nikah quietly without all the hassle of kenduri and what nots. And to date they don't have any children either, possibly planned that way.

That shouldn't be a problem to Anita anyway. Her problem is that she had been mentally tortured staying with them. Since she doesn't have an IC, it's difficult for her to get a job, so her sister arranged for her to do some work at home - assembling things for a factory and gets paid based on each finished product. She's paid about RM200 to RM250 a month for that.

BUT Anita doesn't have a single sen in hand. All the money for her work-at-home job is held by the sister who claims she's the one who has to take care of Anita and her baby. Oh, the sister's good at ungkit-mengungkit too. The only time when Anita gets to hold some money is when she needs to go to the hospital for her appointments - the sister would give her RM10.

There was also a time when the sister needed money and told Anita to borrow from any of us in Buddies under the pretext that it was for her baby. Anita refused.

Things get even worse...

The so-called sister's "hubby" at times would try to seduce Anita when the sister's not around (Oh he knows Anita has HIV! He couldn't care less). But when Anita's sister comes home, she accuses Anita of trying to seduce her "hubby".

And since this guy eats pork, sometimes he'd force some of the meat into the mouth of Anita's son.

Of late, the sister has also been finding faults with Anita; calling her b*bi, p***mak, pembawa penyakit and a whole load of sh*t. At times she'd even tell Anita and her baby to berambus. But despite telling Anita to berambus, the sister actually controls Anita's movements. If she finds out that Anita has been talking to anyone, Anita would get a scolding. That's why she makes sure Anita doesn't have a single sen in her hand.

And here's another reason (I think) why Anita's sisters don't seem to like Anita. Anita's mother never legally married Anita's father. Aiyo! All these kawin tapi tak nikah runs in the family or whaaat? To the sisters, since Anita is an "illegal" child, they are not legally adik-beradik.

I told Anita even under Islamic law, they are still siblings by virtue of sharing the same mother. It doesn't matter if Anita was born out of wedlock.

So, now Anita wants to run away from her sister's house. She's seeking help since she doesn't have a single sen. Before she called me today she even went to see the hospital's welfare officer. The officer told her about the possibility of trying to stay at the shelter home where Sharifah was sent to (Kak Ana's place). When Anita told the officer that she'd be seeing me after that, the officer told her to discuss things over with me first.

Whatever it is, no matter where we end up sending Anita, we'd need to settle her IC and her son's birth cert problem. Without an IC, it's hard for Anita to get a job, and without a job, how was she to feed her child? Anita would need to get at least one of her sister's birth cert which indicates that their mother was a Malaysian citizen.

According to Anita, there is one sister who is more of the "boleh bawa berunding" type who would give a copy of her birth cert to be used as supporting document. But this sister stays in another state down south, and she doesn't know about Anita's HIV status. She had promised many times she'd send over the copy of her birth cert, but never got around to doing it. I asked Anita if she'd be able to get it if she went personally to that sister's house.

"Boleh tu memanglah boleh, tapi macam mana saya nak pergi rumah dia? Saya mana ada duit nak bayar tambang bas."

So I offered to buy her the bus ticket. We'd need to settle this IC and birth cert problem ASAP before things get even more berbelit-belit!

To avoid interrogation, Anita is not telling her sister here that she's going to the other sister's house to get the copy of birth cert.

And her plan is, she will leave when the sister and her so-called hubby are at work. And when she leaves the house to go to the other sister's house, she's leaving for good. When she comes back with the copy of the other sister's birth cert and IC, she intends to go straight to any shelter homes that would accept her.

I called up Kak Ana and she's willing to accept Anita and her baby.

So now to plan for Anita's "escape from hell".