Today I sent over some foodstuff over to the K's. In addition to the Raya cookies, I also had an additional pack of rice, sugar and a bottle of cooking oil; plus some other used clothes still in good condition. The last batch of clothes I sent were only suitable for Mrs K, this time I had some suitable for the daughter as well.
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Tomorrow morning before I go to my office, I intend to send Raya cookies to Rosnah and her daughter. Rosnah did mention earlier that this week she'd be working on afternoon shift, so she should be home tomorrow morning.
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Anita sent me a text message today, asking about her IC and her son's BC. I called her back, telling her we'd proceed after Raya since right now everybody seems to be busy with Raya preparations. She said she and her baby are okay at the new home. She also asked if I'd be visiting them for Raya. Adoi, so many people to visit la for Raya...
Anyway, I spoke to Kak Ana last week and according to Kak Ana, Anita seems to be very rajin at the home. She helps with the sweeping and all, and without anyone asking her, she volunteers to help bathe the younger children. I guess she is so used to being the "slave" at her sister's house, she doesn't feel comfortable not doing anything.
Due to her family upbringing however, she doesn't know how to pray, and so Kak Ana will teach her.
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As for myself - I've mowed the lawn (yes, puasa, puasa juga... rumput tetap kena mesin!). Tomorrow to shop for some needs before the family gathers this weekend. Friday, to clear up my ever messy table at home. Saturday, got to cook lah!
My office will be closed for the whole of next week. BLISS!
Yesterday was the day for the presentation of cheques awarded by Yayasan Sultan Azlan Shah for various NGOs and shelter homes in Perak.
We (the reps from the various NGOs/homes) were to report to the person in charge at 2.30 pm while HRH The Regent of Perak was scheduled to arrive at 3.45 pm.
I had never been inside DBI's premise, so I wasn't really sure where the function hall was. And so I decided to go early. Good thing I did. I thought the venue would be somewhere at the ground floor - but apparently the function room was on the 10th floor.
There were quite a number of representatives already present by the time I reported to the person in charge. After a while, they called out each organisation to make sure we sat according to the numbers allotted. Mine was number 69. And in total there were 71 recipients. Surely you can guess where I sat, huh? Yep, last row...
Anyway, when the emcee called out the names of the various organisations, I kinda figured he wouldn't pronounce Buddies correctly. As expected, he mentioned Buddhist of Ipoh. I pointed out to another officer that it's supposed to be Buddies, not Buddhist. So this officer went to correct the emcee. The emcee replied back, "Tapi tulis sini budis!" Duh, dah lah tak tau, degil pulak tu!! The officer then said to him, "Ni tulis orang putih, sebut BA-DIS bukan BU-DIS."
Hmmmph... maybe next time we should just change the spelling to Badis...
Anyway, after our seating arrangements were settled, the protocol officer then briefed us on what to do etc. The lady sitting beside me began to get nervous. Every now and then, she'd be asking me, "What is it that we have to say after we get the cheque?" And every now and then I'd have to tell her, "Menjunjung kasih, tuanku."
At about 3.50 pm we heard the sound of sirens loud and clear. Obviously HRH had arrived. And walking in along with him were the Raja Puan Muda, and also Raja Ashman and Raja Eleena.
The official function started off with a bacaan doa, followed by a speech by Raja Nazrin and then on with the cheque presentation. The emcee did some blunders as well during the official function, with wrong pronunciation of names. Despite the presence of royalties in the room, our giggles were rather obvious when the emcee tried to pronounce Persatuan Autisme. And at one time, he was about to say Persatuan but realised it was Pertubuhan, so he went like... Pers..tubuhan... (now what does THAT sound like??)
I was quite worried that he would again mention Buddhist Society of Ipoh - what a shock it would have been to those present seeing this Mak Aji going to get the cheque!
But guess what? I think after the giggles due to the word autism, this time he played safe. He only mentioned my name without mentioning the organisation!
Well, anyway, with 71 recipients altogether, frankly I had expected a cheque of maybe just RM2K, or at the most, RM5K.
I hope nobody realised I went terbeliak biji mata when Raja Nazrin mentioned in his speech that each recipient would be awarded RM20K each. Of course, there's a condition to it. In six months time we will all have to send a written report with details on how we spent the money.
Time to plan for new project, maybe?
Since judgement has been made that a particular fast food chain doesn't have exclusive rights to the use of "Mc" for only their products, I guess nobody should be complaining about the title of my posting this time. If somebody does complain, I shall just McDono (make donno daa..), tak gitu McYam? (for the uninitiated, that's MekYam!)
OK then, back to my story...
I got home from Putrajaya yesterday at about 2 pm. I still had some shopping to do for the poor families but I needed a rest first. So immediately after my zohor prayer, I took a short nap which was good enough to refresh me.
Then off I went shopping - other than foodstuff for the poor families, I also needed to look for a birthday present for Wani's 7 year old son, Shahril. You see, both Wani's sons are sponsored under our Education Sponsorship for Children programme, and since Shahril's birthday was yesterday, his sponsor has sent some money for me to buy him a present.
I wasn't really sure what to buy for Shahril. I was looking at this, looking at that... unable to decide what to buy. Suddenly I saw a boy about Shahril's age, begging his mom for a badminton racket. Hmmm... why not I thought. Besides, he has a brother to play with. So yep, I ended up buying a pair of badminton rackets, complete with the shuttlecocks, of course.
I was too tired and lazy to cook (actually I was plain lazy), so after shopping yesterday Pi Bani masak guna jari telunjuk. Tunjuk, tunjuk, tunjuk... BAYAR!
This morning, after my pasar tani routine (erm, not so routine actually - had more things to buy today as my suku sakat kaum kerabat is expected to be back next week for Raya), off I went for McPi McDelivery. (Mek Pi make delivery...)
First up was Wani's house. Besides being the one furthest amongst the 3 homes I intended to visit, I also needed to get the raya cookies I had ordered earlier to be delivered to the other families. Wani was actually just expecting me to get the cookies and pay for them. She was pleasantly surprised when I handed over the birthday present, some foodstuff and some duit raya as well. She had purposely kept quiet yesterday (about Shahril's birthday) as she didn't want the boy to nag her for a present. Her intention was to buy something after raya, ie after she gets money from her temporary job selling the cookies.
Next up was Sofie's house. I pay extra attention to this family - no, not favoritism... but based on the fact that Sofie herself is still rather weak to cook or go out shopping. For the other families at least I could just hand over some money as the mothers are still strong enough to cook for their children and go shopping for their needs.
Apparently just yesterday morning, Sofie's 7 year old daughter, Ika, was asking, "Mak, makcik Afizah tak nak datang ke dah dekat nak raya ni?" Oh God, thank goodness I decided to visit them today. She was already outside her house on the buaian hijau, waiting for me.
Her 2 older boys, who slept after subuh, got up when they realized I came. It was almost 11 am by then. They had already asked their younger brother to wake them up at 10 am, but the boy forgot...
Sofie's sister (the one she had been staying with before this) and family will be going back to their father's home in another state on Friday before raya. She did ask if Sofie too would like to balik kampong, but Sofie is not fit to travel that far. So yep, it's just Sofie and her children on Hari Raya this year.
And since Sofie is too weak to cook for Raya, this time I made sure the foodstuff I brought along were either easy to cook or "instant" stuff. They were delighted when they saw the nasi impit segera I brought. Sofie was thinking of teaching her second son (the 13 year old who had been showing interest in cooking although he doesn't know how to cook) to make some kuah kacang. But I told her there was no necessity for that as I had also brought along canned kuah satay, canned rendang ayam and canned beef curry. Nothing beats home cooked food I know, but at least Sofie doesn't have to worry about her children not having anything special to eat for Raya.
I also gave them the Raya cookies I ordered from Wani. Again, the children were delighted. They had earlier on hoping they'd get some courtesy raya cookies from a neighbour. Apparently, Sofie's 11 year old son had been helping out that neighbour with some easy tasks with her kuih raya business, to get a little income for raya. Gosh, only 11 years of age and already has some sense of responsibility to get income for the family. Mind you, the little income he gets is for the family, not himself!!
Before I left, I handed over a packet of duit raya each to the children. Ika then asked if I'd be visiting them during Raya.
I told them I'd be busy with my own family on Hari Raya, but I promised I'd come to spend Raya with them within Syawal. Hopefully within the first 2 weeks. And this time, I hope to bring along some home cooked food for them.
After Sofie's, I headed straight to Fuzi's house. I didn't tell Fuzi earlier that I was coming. I just decided to drop by since her house is just on the way back.
Nobody was home. When I called, Fuzi said they were out shopping for the children's Raya needs. I asked if it was okay for me to leave some kuih raya and some other stuff outside her house. She said it should be alright. So yep, I just left some kuih raya, foodstuff, used clothes and the family day photos they had been asking for.
And so that wraps up McPi McDelivery for the day...
Remember my posting about Moorthy who will undergo a surgery in October when both his legs will be amputated? He is for the time being staying at the hospital ward for many months already as he doesn't have a place to stay. Amma illek, appa illek...
With no home, no family members, no money, and added with the fact that he is unable to fend for himself, not only does he need a shelter, he also needs caregivers to take care of his needs.
So we can't simply send him to any shelter homes, we'd need a shelter home with proper caregivers, and one which would accept HIV cases.
Guess what? Eureka! Yep, I found one. In Penang. I've spoken to the person in charge and she said there shouldn't be any problem as they still have 2 or 3 empty beds and they have caregivers around the clock! My only task is to arrange for transportation to send Moorthy over to the place. I don't think there should be any problem with that. In fact, since his case was referred to us by the hospital, we'd probably get them to send Moorthy over to his new home in an ambulance.
Whatever it is, we will wait until after the surgery so there's still time. At least we've got one problem solved...
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As per previous years, during Ramadhan I'd usually be getting a lot of contributions coming in from my networking, for me to distribute to the poor families I'm dealing with. In fact, this year I'm getting a whole lot more than usual. I'm using some of the money to buy goods to be sent to the families, while some will be distributed in cash, either by sending personally or by banking into their respective accounts.
I wish I can send some financial help to one particular lady and her 10 year old son. This is one of the new cases referred. Although somebody else was assigned as the buddy, the case was still referred to me for the Children Education Fund.
The only problem is, the lady stays in an orang asli settlement in an ulu kampong. And she doesn't have a phone. I cannot contact her, she will have to contact me.
But it has been 3 weeks now, and she has yet to contact me. I do have her address, but when I googled for the map, the kampong doesn't seem to be listed. So how lah?
Then I remembered I have a few clients staying in the same town - different kampongs, but they may know where this kampong is. So I sent a text message to Rosnah, and her reply came:
"Nak ke kampong tu kena naik 4 wheel drive, ala adventure mendaki. Jalan tanah merah & berbatu-batu."
Oooh... sounds adventurous. I love adventure! Woo... maybe I should transform to ala-ala Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider, huh? (a particular cat in Sydney must be choking now...)
But seriously, looks like I can't go in my Kenari. And even if I can get a 4 wheel drive, by the sound of it, I'd probably need a driver experienced enough to drive on such terrains. I don't want to end up upside down...
Any suggestions, anyone? Hmmm, since there seem to be more and more cases involving orang asli, maybe I can liaise with JHEOA for awareness programmes in orang asli settlements, and let JHEOA arrange for the transportation, huh?
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Am going off to KL this afternoon as my mother's follow-up appointment at Hospital Putrajaya is tomorrow morning. Will be driving back to Ipoh immediately after the appointment. I've got some house visits to do on Saturday, and on Sunday, I'll be attending the cheque presentation from Yayasan Sultan Azlan Shah by HRH The Regent of Perak.
See you later folks!
