Living together for fun - case 4

Kang came in like a skeleton boy.  He was only 14 years old.  He was extremely thin.  He refused to eat any food.  He only depended on nutrition beverage powder.  He claimed that he had constipation problem.  He did not realize it was because he did not eat at all.
When everyone of us gathered to eat our meal, he would just stand near the table staring at the food.  Since he did not want to eat so we decided to implement a fast on him.  We forbade him to eat anything including his nutrition drink.  This method worked.  After the 3 days fast he began to partake some food.  He pretended to cooperate with us while planning to escape.
Once he tried to escape from the toilet window.  He was caught before he could succeed his plan.  He managed to bend a metal bar on the window.  From that day onward we kept close watch on him.  He could not do anything but to follow our routine day in and day out like praying, reading Bible and study.  He was slow in study especially in Bahasa Malaysia and English.
One day he took an umbrella and jumped down from the balcony on the second floor as there was no way to come out of the building.  He thought the umbrella would served as parachute but it did not.  He injured his hand so instead of escaping he rang the bell and asked for help.  So again his plan to escape did not succeed.  He was warded in hospital for a few days.  Since thence he decided to stay in the centre.
One good thing about him is the ability to keep things neat and tidy.  But he is very slow in doing things.  We taught him to do different types of housework.  Later he was put in charge of feeding goats.  He proved himself to be very responsible in his work.  He did his job faithfully everyday though it took him long hours in the goat pen.  The busiest time for him was when the female goats gave birth to baby goats.  He had to help the weaker ones to suck the mother's milk .  Sometimes the baby goat's leg got stuck in between the planks on the floor and he had to rescue it whenever it happened.  Even during midnight.  He would wake up and ran to the goat pen when he heard the cry.
Because of his hard work his appetite became good compared to former times when he hardly ate. Now for each meal he eats at least two big plates of rice.  He put on weight and became chubby.
Thank God for the change in him.  From a sickly boy he became a strong and healthy boy.  He loves spiritual devotion.  That also contributes to his fast recovery and change.

Living together for fun - catching grasshoppers

Catching grasshoppers has become one of my favorite hobby.  It is one of the training activity.  Why catching grasshoppers?  It is because we rear a lot of birds.  The young birds need grasshoppers as food to strengthen them.
I remembered how we caught grasshoppers in the beginning.  We went around housing area looking for grasshoppers but there were not many grasshoppers there.  I only could catch a few mini size grasshoppers about one cm long.
Then we started to go to other places.  We found a lot of grasshoppers near Melawati dam near Wangsa Maju.  The flowing stream provided the moisture for both the plants and grasshoppers.  Along the stream there were bushes ,shrubs and wild grass growing everywhere.  There are many types of grasshoppers and the one found on the lotus plant at the side of stream is the hardest to catch as they are very active and swift.
They are green in colour with a black line on their back.
Among the "lalang" we can get some grasshoppers but our action must be fast.  Some grasshoppers are very easy to catch because their bodies are fat and round with spider like legs.  Near the dry areas we can find brown grasshoppers and they camouflage among the branches and grass.
There is another type of grasshoppers which is bigger in size.  They are about 10 cm long and they can fly.  They normally move slowly on ground beneath the grass.  We have to kick the grass to make them move out.  If you are not fast enough they will fly away.  We are most joyful and proud when we can catch this type of grasshopper.
Sometimes we go three times a week to catch the grasshoppers when we have many small baby birds.  So we have to find a few places so that the remnant can breed and multiply.  I realize that not every place has grasshoppers even though there are bushes, grass and wild plants.  Places with fresh streams breed a lot of grasshoppers.  They breed well near fresh water.  But I also found grasshoppers in an area where there is forest next to it.  At the edge of the forest on the slope there are many grasshoppers.  Though there is no stream there.
We use our bare hand to catch the grasshoppers.  We wear long sleeves and long pants to avoid itchiness on our hands and legs.  As we have to move and step on wild grass and plants.  At times we were bitten by leeches .  I have overcome my fear of leeches.  I found the easiest way to stop the bleeding caused by the leeches is to place a small piece of newspaper over the wound and leave it there for some time.  Of course you have to wipe away the blood first.  Have we met snakes in our catch ?  Sometimes we did but they were more afraid of us.
In catching our eyes must be sharp and our hands must be fast before it jumps away.  In this way we train ourselves to respond in a quick manner.  We put our palm over it and close it with our fingers.  Using hand is faster than using net.  We have to catch  gently without hurting it so that we can keep it alive for a few days.
We put each one into a plastic bottles with holes made all over it to allow ventilation.  We normally go in a group of five and we can get hundted over grasshoppers.
After the catch the grasshoppers will be put into a wooden box with netting at side.  They are kept alive to feed the baby birds for a few days.  A small dish of water with some pieces of wet newspapers in it provides
water and moisture in the box.
It is hard to rear grasshoppers.  They do not survive well in man-made habitat.  Unlike crickets which can be reared in quantity.

Living together - fishing experience

Fishing was not my hobby.  In the past I was very afraid of holding a live fish with my hands.  Not until I had the chance to follow people who caught fish by casting net into the shallow river or at the seaside.  It was part of the training I went through.
There were times when we cast net almost everyday.  Of course my leader would be the one who cast net.  We just followed behind or helped to carry the pail for putting the fish that we caught.
We normally cast net in the small river.  The depth of the river was about our knees.  The deepest part would be till our waist.  We would move from one end of the river to the other end.  It took us about two hours in the whole process.
When the leader threw the net into the river It was like a skirt falling down into the river.  Normally we would corner the fish near the bank or rock.  When the net sank to the bottom of the river, the followers would bend down our bodies to touch and feel for the fish inside the net.  We did not mind getting wet.  Everyone of us would press at different corner of the net.  Even though I was afraid  of the live fish struggling and jumping in the net, I had to pluck up the courage to do my job.  When I got a fish at one side of the net, I would press it down and took it out from the net slowly.  I had to hold the fish tightly so that it would not jump about .  I got to be careful of the sharp fins .  I was poked by the fins and  it took me few days for the pain to go off.  Most of the fish we caught were black Tilapia.
After many rounds of experience I became confident of holding a live fish whether it is big or small.  The fish became our food.  We prepared the fish for steaming by ourselves so we were quite good at cleaning the gills, stomach and scaling .  Sometimes we got hundred over fish and we could not finish eating them and the fridge was full.  So the surplus ones we tried to make salted fish.  We gathered information about how to make salted fish and gave a try.  After cleaning the fish we put salt all over the fish.  To get away from the flies we wrap up each fish with newspaper and then hanged the fish under hot sun for few days.  The result was quite good.
Then catching fish by fishing rod was my next try.  I followed my leader to Port Dickson .  We went to the sea about one to two km from the shore.  We started fishing in the boat.  For a long time I could not get any fish.  Then I started to pray.  God answered my prayer and comforted me by giving some small fish to me.  The greatest fish I ever caught was a four kg snapper which I caught in Opotiki in Newzealand in the last holiday.  It pulled my fishing rod so hard until it bent.  It was such a joy to be able to catch such a big fish.
This is my new hobby and I overcome my fear.

Living together for fun - hitch-hiking

Have you ever tried hitch-hiking before?  To me I gained wonderful experience each time I did it and I got to
know more people.
To hitch-hike successfully the person must be sincere and humble.  He has to be patient and enduring, able to withstand hardship because sometimes he has to stand or walk under the hot sun for a long time.  His will has to be strong and must not give up easily.
Malaysians are friendly and helpful that is why we still can get someone to give us a lift when we need help.  Hopefully the increase of crime rate nowadays will not cause  people to become unfriendly or withdraw their help. The person who hikes has to be cautious to select the driver who is kind-heart so that he will not get into trouble.  The same too for the driver he has to pick up the right person.
Through my experience it is difficult to hitch-hike in the city area though there are more cars than the outskirt.
No one seems to be willing to stop for you.  We must give consideration for the driver and make sure he has a safe place to stop for you.
Normally we go in groups of three or four persons.  The leader will lead the group and make decision.  Why do we hitch-hike when there are other public transport to take? It was part of our training and adventure.  Most of the time it is because of financial problem.  It is one way to travel even when we do not have money.
Most important of all is to build up our faith in God.  We have to pray for someone to stop for us.  Each person in the group has to cooperate with one another and keep close to one another.
It is possible to travel to any part of our country like highlands,seaside, remote kampung.  We have tried all these. We can hike anytime in the morning, afternoon or even after midnight. There was once I led a group to
hitch-hike from Kuala Lumpur to Tampin.  We had a project in Tampin.  A van was used to transport the cooking equipment while the rest went by hitch-hiking.  All the cooking utensils and food were sent by van but they had forgotten to bring the big kuali and the gas.  As I was the only group who was still before Seremban so they called me to collect these two items at Seremban. They waited at the roadside where we would pass by to give the items to us. The driver who gave me the lift was so kind and helpful.  He was willing to stop to collect the two items.  Most of all he was willing to carry the  cooking equipment. I believe not many people are willing to do so.
How about hitch-hiking at night?  Will it be more difficult?  We have hitch-hiked at night for a few times either from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh or from the north to Kuala Lumpur.  Before twelve midnight it was easy to
thumb a lift.  After that not many cars stopped for us.  I noticed that very few Chinese drivers would after midnight.  But the Malays and Indians still dared to stop for strangers.  Especially the Malays were willing to offer their help and do good deeds even at inconvenient time.

I am so thankful to those drivers who have helped me before.  Thanks to the religious Malay man who gave my group the lift.  How we shared our religious point of view.  Thanks to the lorry driver who gave me the lift
at Ulu Tiram because at that time I was very worried as the sky had turned dark and we were in the remote area.  Thanks to those drivers who took us to Genting Highlands , Frasers Hills and Cameron Highlands.

Living together for fun case 3

Yin was sent to our care centre because she was not behaving in a normal way.  She acted like a kungfu fighter pointing her fingers at everywhere.  Her face was miserable and was crying most of the time.  Her mother did not know what to do with her.
After her mother left her with her I asked her to go to bathroom to bathe.  After less than two minutes she came out from the bathroom.  Her clothes were changed but I knew that she did not bathe.  In the first two weeks I had to help her to bathe and also to wash her clothes .
At first we gave a bed to sleep but found that she urinated on the bed almost everyday.  Then she was not allowed to sleep on a bed anymore but had to sleep on the floor so that she would not dirty the mattress anymore.
Then the next problem arose.  In the middle of night she woke up and stole the things from the drawers in the
room.  She liked to take things like cotton buds,sweets etc.  In the end we could not let her sleep in the room anymore.  She had to sleep outside the bedroom.  Then she began to steal the food from other places when everyone else  was sleeping.  We left no choice but to limit her movement at night to avoid all these mischievous acts.
It was my job to guide her to wash her own clothes.  I tried to encourage her ,love her and accept her even though she was terrible.  She could not read but she could listen and speak well.  So we also tried to teach her to recognize some basic Chinese words.
When we went out with her we had to be very watchful as sometimes she would just take something from the shop and put into her pocket. Every morning we were given some housework to do.  Even though she could not do the cleaning job well yet she was also allocated something to do.  She had to sweep and mop the staircase.  Extra effort and time had to spend on her to correct her.  You might ask why not leave her alone since she could not do a job well.  But I found this is a way to help this type of people as they cannot be left idle.
After a year we found that she began to change gradually.  She is no longer greedy for food.  She will not steal food anymore.  She was fat before but now she is slim and fit.  She is friendly,always smiling.  She is helpful too.  Of course she still has her weaknesses like untidiness.  But she is improving.
It is rewarding to help people and see them changed.

Living together for fun case 2

Mr. Gan was a teacher in the 1960.  He taught for about 2 years and then fell sick mentally.  Since then he could no longer teach anymore as he did not recover from the sickness.
When I first met him ,he was in an old folks home established by a local church.  He was not happy.there.  He cried each  time we visited him.  But we did not know why and he did not want to tell us.
One morning something happened in this old folks home.  Gan wanted to cook instant noodle and had a quarrel with the maid in the kitchen.  His temper was rather bad too.  In his anger he took a dustpan and hit on the head of the maid and injured her.  Then the person in charge of the old folks home called up the police and he was arrested.  After the incident he was not allowed to stay in that place any longer.
When he came out of the prison after about 3 months he had no place to go so he went to a centre where i was working there.
After the prison experience he became dirty and did not like to bathe.  He was quite clean when he stayed in the former old folks home. He simply bathed and did not clean himself properly, hair not properly washed.  Sometimes he wore back the old clothing after bathing.  To encourage him to bathe I would buy body shampoo with strong fragrance for him so that I would be able to know whether he bathed by the fragrance on his body .
In the former old folks home he was not required to do any house work.  Food was prepared by somebody and clothes were washed by the washing machine.  He just spent his life eating,reading books and sleeping.  Here in this new place he had to hand wash his own clothes and had to do some housework.  As he had never done any housework before, he could not sweep or mop the floor at all..
As goats were reared in this center grass had to be prepared for the goats to feed on.  The other workers would bring in the grass by lorry which they cut from other places.  Gan had to chopped up the grass brought in as it was long with stalks. Surprisingly he was able to do the job well.  And it became his responsibility to prepare the grass for the goats.  He became useful.
After one year he became slimmer .  He was more fit and healthy.  Even though he had not fully recovered from the mental illness ,he was able to live a happier and healthier life than before.
In the first old folks home Gan was living a very easy and relax life.  He was not doing any work at all.  Life was easy as food were served on time for each meal and clothes were washed by the maid.  It was a meaningless life without any contribution  to the people around.  That is why old people must not be idle.  As long as they could move or do things they should keep themselves busy.
In the second place he has to do his work everyday.  Since he could not do any housework so he just do the part that he could do.  Besides this he has a lot of people around him that interact with him .  The spiritual environment of morning prayer and preaching also contribute to his mental health.