When the children cry

If you think poverty is on the way out of this country, have a look at these photos and think again...









Feeling nauseous already?

These photos were taken at the orphanage in Machang that we went to for our Mini library for orphanage project. On the morning we arrived, there were nobody there since the caretaker was out running errands and the kids were at school except for one very sad-looking 8-year old boy who were left alone at the centre since he injured himself the day before. Yup, he was there alone..sitting aimlessly for hours on one outdoor bench without any adult supervision. Since nobody greeted us when we arrived, we quickly made ourselves at home and went to have a look around. We had the shock of our lives when we went into the dorm and saw the images above...quoting Iskandar 'Pengsan dua kali!'. It was beyond our comprehension how an orphanage under royal patronage ended up like this!

Anyway, we were originally suppose to set up the mini library as well as to help repainting the centre. But after seeing the state of the dorm, we decided that cleanliness and basic necessities for the kids were more important than the (false) exterior image. So, after a short discussion, a few phonecalls and a few hours of hard work, here are the results:





The state of the dorm is still far from perfect but with limited resources and time, those were the only changes we could do, for the time being at least. We were told that the kids here are the problematic ones, hence the horrendous state the centre is in right now. We were also advised not to leave the books with the kids since they would only turn them into paper rockets. Funnily, when the kids came back from school and we finally got the chance to spend some time with them, we didn't see any of those rebellious tendencies or acts at all. They were polite, responsive and showed genuine interest in the few books we brought in initially. Were the kids putting up pretence just for us? Or was it the caretakers? Only god knows...

At the end, we decided to go ahead with the mini library project anyway so it was set up straight after barbecue dinner with the kids on Sunday night. Here are some photos:







The photos were a bit dark because we were in darkness. Only 1 out of 4 lights in the main dorm was functioning. Hopefully the rest will get fixed soon.

I will put up more photos from this trip here in the next few days ya...

The last supper

Congratulation mates! :)

That's what friends are for (Part II)

If everything goes as planned, I will be heading to Machang with a group of friends next Saturday afternoon for this project. The project fund now stands at RM6k but contributions in the form of $$$ or books are still warmly welcomed. Alternatively, if you want to assist Dr Bubbles and Islamic Relief Malaysia in providing aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, you can find some info in his blog and definitely here. Let's do our bits for the unfortunates ya..
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If my Srikandi friends were frank, my basketball friends were, well....simply BRUTAL! Peek here for a bit of a clue. I guess, it gave a new meaning to the phrase 'the butt of the joke'. But we've been friends for years. They stood by me through my dark years and I know deep down, they LOVE me (muahahaha) so, just let them have a bit of fun eh.. (grrrr!)

Meanwhile, yes, I concurred on the issue... but I have never ever been on a diet and I don't intend to start now. I just love food too much to even think of limiting myself to just a certain type or amount. So, instead, I will start swimming and playing basketball regularly again. Or I shall TRY to anyway!


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Managed to finally meet up with the Lalak Gang on Labour Day holiday last week. It has been a longgg time since we last met for this ( actually, it was just me who last-minutely backed off for other commitments on a few occasions) so we stayed on for 5 hours to lepas gian (with breaks in between of course)!