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!!

Poor boy's poor vision

When I went to Sofie's house for my raya visit more than a week ago, I was told that Sofie had brought her 11 year old son, Saiful, to an optical shop just to get his eyes tested for free.

The people there told her that Saiful needed to wear glasses ASAP as the power needed is already too high. They told her that since the power is so high, a cheaper pair of glasses would be rather thick and as such, a bit heavy too. So they recommended that a thinner/more expensive pair is made for Saiful. The cost? More than RM200 (this is after discount for student package). They also told her that after a year, Saiful would need to make a new pair. Since Sofie couldn't afford it, she told them she'd come back later. They gave her a card with Saiful's details, plus a discount voucher and told her to bring them the next time she comes.

So I planned to bring Saiful to the optician to make a pair of glasses yesterday. Together with a trainee volunteer, off we went to Sofie's house after lunch.

Sofie was too tired to follow us, so it was just me, my colleague and Saiful. Saiful is so used to me by now he has no problems coming with me without his mother tagging along. According to Sofie, her youngest girl, Ika, had wanted to ponteng sekolah when she heard I was coming to fetch Saiful. She wanted to come along. But Sofie managed to coax her not to.

Sofie did give me the card and discount voucher given to her earlier. The card showed that the power needed for Saiful's glasses were 350 for the left eye and 200 for the right. Oh wow, that bad... I thought.

My colleague and I decided to go to another optical shop in town. At least we'd have a second opinion on what kind of glasses Saiful really needs.

After testing his eyes, the optician told us to bring Saiful to see an eye specialist. The power needed for his left eye was actually 600!!! The right eye is normal. They didn't dare make a glass that thick for Saiful without a specialist's recommendation. Imagine from no glasses to wearing glasses THAT thick - surely it would be hard for Saiful to adjust. According to the guy, he suspects there may be other problems with Saiful's left eye.

I'm glad we didn't go the optical shop that Sofie went to earlier. Obviously they just want to make money. At least this one that we went to yesterday were more honest. They could easily kelentong us and told us to immediately make a pair of glasses for Saiful, but they instead opted to tell us the truth and recommended what was best for Saiful.

So Saiful needs to see an eye specialist. There's no eye specialist at the district hospital in the town where they live, so he needs to come to the Ipoh GH Specialist Clinic. But we can't bring him to the specialist clinic just like that. We'd need a referral letter.

My colleague and I figured we might as well settle the matter yesterday. We decided to bring Saiful to the District Hospital, see a doctor at the outpatients clinic, and hopefully get a referral letter to go to Ipoh GH specialist clinic.

But Saiful didn't bring along his birth cert, and so we had to head back to his home first to get it. Then off again to the District Hospital.

Lucky for us there weren't too many patients there in the afternoon. With the last number called being 1420, I got 1428. Just 8 patients away. Thank goodness.

To cut the story short, after all the eye tests done on Saiful, the doctor did give us the much sought referral letter. We can now go to the Eye Specialist Clinic in Ipoh GH anytime to give Saiful the opportunity of proper check-up and treatment for his eye.

After sending Saiful home, I asked Sofie when she would be coming to Ipoh next. She'd need to get her supply of medication some time end of this month. I told her I'd call her if I can arrange to come and fetch Saiful any earlier to bring him see the specialist, but if for any reason I'm not able to do that, at least Sofie must bring Saiful along with her the next time she comes to Ipoh, which is in 3 weeks time.

Whatever it is, at least we've got the referral letter done. One step at a time.

But you know what really amazed me yesterday? We were chatting in the car and I asked Saiful about his school exams.

"OK lah, tak lah susah sangat," he said.

"Periksa tengah tahun hari tu dapat nombor berapa?" I asked.

"Nombor satu."

"Waah... berapa orang dalam kelas?"

"42 orang."

What can I say but... WOW!! Even with his vision problem he still managed to come out tops in class!

That fact made me even more determined to help the boy. A responsible young chap he really is, and bright too! Even my colleague who came along commented that the boy seemed like a very responsible and obedient type. And oh, handsome too! (If any one wants to look for bakal menantu in about 10 years time, all Sofie's kids are good looking - 3 boys and 1 girl... :))

I hope the specialist at the Ipoh GH eye clinic will be able to help Saiful. I hope it is not too late to help him with his left eye.

The belated birthday do

After reserving Saturday for my final (I think) Raya rounds, I thought I'd make Sunday my rest day. Other than a kenduri aqiqah at a friend's house nearby my place, I was planning to simply relax at home in the afternoon.

But on Saturday during my Raya rounds, a text message came in from Wani. She wanted to do a small makan-makan at home on Sunday to celebrate her son's birthday (which fell during fasting month) and so she invited me to join the do.

So yes, after the heavy lunch during the kenduri aqiqah for my friend's first grandchild (it was sort of aqiqah cum Raya open house), and after my zohor prayer, off I went to a fellow volunteer's house. 3 of us volunteers planned to go, so we might as well car pool. And since I had been driving around on Saturday, this time I just wanted to sit and relax in the car, so we went in my colleague's car. We did try to call a few other volunteers to ask if they'd like to join and make the birthday-do a bit more meriah, but most of them already had other plans, so tiga orang pun tiga oranglah!

As we got to Wani's house, her elder son, the one with hearing problems and a very highly excitable kid, came running to the car. Aiyo, I so very gayat lah with this boy. He got even more excited when I took out a hamper from the car to be given to them. It was just a cheap hamper - the same type that I gave to the other families I visited on Saturday, but good enough to excite the children.

All the food were prepared personally by Wani - first I ate the mee soup, then the nasi impit and finally the moist chocolate cake. The chocolate cake was nice but it was so rich I simply couldn't take in any more food after eating it. Besides, I did have heavy lunch earlier at the kenduri aqiqah.

After a while a few female neighbors came and they did seem a bit shy seeing a man (my colleague) in the house, and since we were already full (or at least I was bloody fool, errr... I mean bloody full!), we decided to make a move.

Tomorrow I intend to go to Sofie's place to bring her son to an optician so he can get a pair of glasses. The poor boy must be struggling in class trying to figure out what's written on the board. It's about time he gets a clearer vision of things.

Raya Rounds - #4

Having completed my puasa enam on Friday, I arranged for another raya rounds on Saturday. My initial target was 5 homes, but I couldn't get hold of Jah, so 4 be it.

I told Shila last week about my plan. When I picked her up at her mother's house last week, I didn't go in as we still had a long way to go to see Anita, her son and my Cek Mek.

I contacted both Hana and Rosnah to ask if they would be home on Saturday. Hana said she'd be home the whole day while Rosnah said she'd be home by 5 pm. So I made plans for my visits to start at 2.30 pm.

I also called Maria to check if she'd be home, and yes, although 3 of her children were at their Atok's homes over the weekend, Maria and her youngest child would be home.

And so, I left home at about 2 pm and headed straight to Shila's place first. Her daughter Laila was not home - she was attending a raya do in school. Only Shila, her mother and Shila's 6 months old nephew were home. 6 months old? Yayy!! Another baby for me to play with!! And the little boy smiles a lot too! But initially I thought the boy was just about 3 months old. No, he's not really small. It's just that I just saw Cek Mek last week, and the girl who's only 4 months old was definitely more montel than this boy!

Anyway, while I was helping myself to nasi impit, Laila called up her mom to say that the function was over. So off we went to fetch her at school and we headed straight to my next destination - Maria's house. Maria stays in another town not far from Shila's.

The house seemed quiet when we got there, but the front door was open, so we knew somebody was definitely home. I gave the salam, and Maria then came out to greet us. I saw a boy lying in front of the TV, watching a cartoon series. Suddenly I realised, hey, this was the same boy I used to visit at the hospital when Maria gave birth to him. He's already 3 years old! Waaa.... sudah besar!! My, my... how time flies! I thought it was not that long ago when a pregnant Maria called me, crying and crying (to the extent I found it difficult to understand what she was saying over the phone!), feeling scared about all the possibilities of her future.

Maria is a much calmer person now. Yes, she does call me from time to time to tell me of some minor problems, but at least she no longer cries when she calls.

After a while, we left Maria's house and headed to Hana's house. When we got there, the doors were closed, so were the windows. I gave the salam, no response. I tried calling Hana's phone number, no answer. So we just left.

Next stop was supposed to be Rosnah's house. Just to be sure she was back from work, I called. To my surprise, Rosnah was still in Ipoh (she works in Ipoh) and she asked where I was. She was about to get into her car to head home when she noticed a flat tyre!

"Spare tyre ada tak?" I asked. Having done the job myself previously, I thought Rosnah may be able to do the same.

"Ada, tapi saya tak reti nak tukar tayar!" she said.

Oh well, she had no choice but to call another friend in Ipoh to help her out as I was elsewhere.

So I didn't get to introduce Shila to Rosnah although they stay quite nearby each other. On my way to send Shila home, a call came in on my handphone...

"Kak, tadi kak call saya ya?"

It was Hana. She just realised there was a missed call on her phone. She was actually in town when I called earlier. Haiya, and she told me earlier she'd be home all day! I was not about to turn around to head back to her place, so I just told her I'd try to visit her some other time. God knows when that will be...

So yep, I only managed to visit 2 families although I had planned to visit 4 and managed to reach 3 of the 4 homes. My raya sakan plan was not so sakan after all... :)

Boleh sampai tak boleh sampai?

The HIV awareness programme we're hoping to do for the Orang Asli community is targeted for December, in conjunction with the World Aids Day. Hopefully we can get all the plans worked out by then.

But I can't wait until then to give help to the OAs who are already infected/affected by HIV - especially cases which had already been referred to us. Like the recent case I mentioned.

Actually another volunteer, Pat, has been assigned to Wan, the OA lady. I'm just the co-buddy, that too because the volunteer who was on clinic duty when Wan's case was referred to Buddies, felt that Wan's son deserved assistance from our Children Education Fund.

Earlier, when I asked Rosnah on the whereabouts of Wan's kampong, Rosnah told me that we'd need a 4 wheel drive to get there. Then later when I asked Shila, Shila said the kampong is accessible by car. She had gone there twice to mandi sungai.

This morning Pat called me to ask me again on the name of the OA lady. You see, Pat stays in a town where there are quite a few OA settlements, and other than being involved with Buddies, she and her husband, with another group of volunteers do go in to OA settlements from time to time. So yes, Pat is quite used to going in to OA settlements. Just as well that she has been assigned as Wan's buddy.

However, Wan's kampong is in another town, not far from the town where Pat stays. After getting some info from me before Raya, Pat was thinking of going to visit Wan. She had wanted to go for the past few days, but it had been raining in the mornings and her husband advised her not to go on rainy days as the roads may be slippery. But the weather looked clear this morning and so Pat called me to get more info on the lady before attempting to find the kampong, which she had not been to before, and so she herself couldn't be too sure of what to expect.

About 4 pm today, Pat called me...

"Aiyo Afizah, don't ever attempt to go there alone lah!"

Pat was glad she went in her Kancil, and with a friend. Apparently, the road is very narrow, and she had to go quite far in, uphill. After asking here and there, she still was not able to get to Wan's house. She then got to a place, where she was told she'd have to walk to get further in. The only other choice is by motorbike.

Well, both Pat and I had visited Hana's home before where we had to park our cars at the bottom of the hill and climb up on foot. But that was considered easy - walking up would take less than 3 minutes.

To get to Wan's house, Pat was told that she'd need about an hour walk. An hour?! I guess when Shila mentioned the place is accessible by car, it never occurred to her that we'd have to go so far uphill.

Nope, Pat was not prepared to walk that far in. But she wasn't about to give up either (she's a very dedicated volunteer!). Coincidentally, one guy was going up on a motorbike, and so Pat stopped him and asked if he knew Wan. Luckily the guy did. So Pat asked for a favor from him - asking him if he could go up and get Wan to come down to where Pat was. She even gave him some petrol money in return.

Off the guy went. Pat and her friend had to wait for quite some time, she thought the guy had simply ran off with the money. But the guy did finally come down, much to Pat's relief. After all the waiting, Pat was told that Wan had gone to the hospital for her appointment. It was at this point that the guy admitted to Pat that Wan was actually his sister! Duh! So Pat gave her number to this guy, and told him to get Wan to call her.

Anyway, the guy mentioned that based on the time, chances were that Wan would be at the town's bus station, back from her hospital appointment. Off he rode his motorbike to town, and within minutes, Pat received a call from Wan. True enough, Wan was at the bus station. So Pat told Wan to wait there for her.

Yes, after all the obstacles, Pat did finally get to meet Wan. Wan has a sister who stays in town, and her sister can be contacted by phone. At least if we need to get hold of Wan, we can now pass a message through her sister. Pat also took down Wan's bank account details.

That means I can now easily pass some money to Wan while having my butts parked in front of my computer - online banking lah!

But that doesn't mean I no longer intend to visit Wan. Visiting the place sounds adventurous enough, and I do love adventure! I do however have to make sure I go in the proper attire when I visit her - and especially proper walking shoes. And probably also with a small backpack - complete with drinking water and all.

And more importantly, as Pat advised, not to go alone.