Reunion and Farewell

DON'T BE SCARED BY IT'S NAME, IT IS CERTAINLY NOT THE END OF IT...
This is my third return to Penang to do volunteer work. Well, actually I really longed for this return but over these few weeks I had been busy preparing for the scholarship assessments, applying postpone for my National Service and getting myself enrolled in the GCE A-levels program in Taylor’s College. My plans to return started via an unexpected message and then a phone call from Amelyn. 

                I am being invited with her and three more others to a farewell dinner with the World Vision volunteers at 26^th of April. After considering the fact that I got to eat a nice, free dinner (XDLOL) and getting to hang around with my volunteer friends, I accepted the invitation when I had completed all my things. At 25^th of April, I embarked on another journey to Penang for 3 days.

                I reached the Penang Adventist Hospital early at 9 to do another fund raising volunteer work. This time, it’s with Ray and his other buddies. I met Shi Pey, Rachel and Kar Ho. Amelyn then joined in later. Our donations for this time will be contributed to the cancer patients. 

At first, we planned to go for charity singing events, but the idea was not a good one because we didn’t have any vocalists. So, it is just a normal fund raising campaign. We try to raise as many donations as we can and until the afternoon, we managed to raise more than two thousand.

               The next day is the main purpose of my visit. I worked at the Diabetic Centre with another volunteer named Shi Yin. Again, don’t ask me about my job, because I guess you already know… ^^ If you don’t sweetie, the answer is paper work and computer work. At the afternoon, Amelyn and the other volunteers went for another fund raising campaign and I am not joining in this time. They managed to raise more than a thousand within 2 hours.

A generous donor donated a hefty amount of RM500 for them and they were totally shocked by it.

 During that night, we have our dinner at the Hai Wei Seafood restaurant in Leisure Cove in Tanjung Bungah.

Before the dinner, we went to the beach behind to indulge in the beautiful scenery while having fun at the beach.

               

  We pose ourselves for photographs at the beach. It is certainly a great memory for all of us.

 We sat in the same table with the PR interns from the Development Department and two other volunteers from the World Vision. We got the chance to interact with the American ladies who were going to Africa for the next 3-4 months for another row of volunteer work after departing Malaysia. I felt that Americans or other Westerners have a different perspective and philosophy of life. Most of them lived to enjoy life. While we Asians are too obsess of material comfort and a life full of luxuries, most Americans and Europeans look for a simple, happy yet remarkable life to live on. They can devote all of their time in doing things that they like the most. I was really impressed by this. Their mind set is truly different from us. Maybe they don’t need to think about getting in the right college for their studies or worrying whether they earn enough for their living or have enough money to live on when they are jobless which makes them dare to live the life that they want, making them way happier than us.

I didn't spend the third day doing volunteer work in Penang, but I rather use it to hang out with my friends. I woke up early in the morning to go hiking in Youth Park with Ray and Amelyn. There was no sign of Jia Wei. He didn't even reply us after dozen of phone calls. Hence, we proceeded on hiking the Youth Park hill at around 8am without bothering his absence. The journey begins here.

 

Some of the scenes taken at the different level observation sites of the mountain.

 

After we reached halfway, we found out from Jia Wei's messages that he had just woke up at the moment.= = Anyway, we didn't bother that much. We continued our hike until the end. We reached altogether three observation sites along our hike and stopped at station 3 before going down the mountain from another way.

After hiking, we went to Jia Wei's house to fetch him. He then join us to have breakfast. We went to so many places that day. 

At 3pm, it's time for four of us to say goodbye. After sending Amelyn home, Ray drive me to the jetty.

Before departing, I was really sad because I don't know when will we managed to meet each other again because after this, it is even harder for all of us to meet each other at the same time. Our next step in education is about to start. Amelyn and Jia Wei is going to Form 6 and this means that there is only one month left while me and Ray will be starting our A-levels at July.

This trip is both a wonderful reunion with my friends and a farewell to the World Vision volunteers. Anyway, I really appreciated their companionship with me during this visit to Penang. I wish them the best of luck in all their favors and looked forward in our next reunion.

My humble opinion of matriculation

Decisions in life are usually tough and hard to make. We feared that we may accidentally take the wrong path that will lead us to our pitfall. But once you made one or already had one, you will feel much lighter than before as if you managed to unload the mighty burden that you beared for years in life. This is what that I am feeling now. After having my days struggling in search of my future education pathway, at least I had now finally made clear of myself that I wanted to study A-Levels. It is still freaking hard for me to choose my future career. This is because I know that my passion in medicine is not strong enough. I even have many doubts of myself as I often question how much that I really know of myself. However, I promise myself that I will define my path once I completed my A-Level studies.

            Yesterday, the results for students whom managed to get matriculation studies went out. Some of my friends were overjoyed when they got a seat in one of the 12 matriculation colleges in Malaysia, while others were pretty disappointed when they learn that their name is not in the list. The criteria of the distribution of matriculation seats among students remain a mystery to most Malaysians. Apart from having an outstanding result of straight A’s and being active in co-curricular activities, most people believe that one should get A+’s in all the science subjects and additional maths for science stream students. This causes some students having above average results whom scored well in their maths and science subjects to outdo straight-A scholars whom have average results.

This phenomenon is inevitable. It solely depends on one’s luck. I can’t even imagine how lucky I am! I got both the bursary awards scholarship and a seat in the matriculation college in Perak state. However, I had chosen the bursary awards scholarship and decided to reject the offer of matriculation. What a waste! Many friends of my age are now desperately struggling for this golden opportunity that is able to secure your future pathway in one of the prestigious local universities in Malaysia and hoped that their second time application would be a success. But I just toss it away without second thought. If I got the chance, I would rather give it to someone else whom really needs it. But I can't. Hence, I really appreciated this opportunity gain. I am grateful of what God, fate and destiny have in-stalled for me in my life. Consequently, I have to be optimistic and try my very best in this life.   

       

Confessions

What happens if one day you woke up and find out your world has changed? The hopes and dreams that you once firmly hold on to started to shatter due to doubt and suspicion. You lost your passion and were shocked to see that you didn't really enjoy any piece of fulfilling it. Maybe that was not your true destiny after all. But if that wasn't, then what else is?

 

Over these few days, I had been thinking deeply about my future. And as I proceeded with my thoughts, I started to realize that I don't even like to be a physician nor will managed to enjoy it after I am one.  I had been refusing to face the truth of this for so long and kept on marking it as my ambition. Now I realized that it's no use trying to run away from this topic. When I understand it deeply, I felt that it was not what I wanted at first. So, the soul searching continues at this critical state where everybody is going towards their respected pathways.

I am even now depressed when I found out that I didn't even really know myself. It has been 18 years and until today I still didn't know what I want in my life. This is really a big shame for me. I feared that I can't perform well in my career in the future. This is because I didn't have confidence in myself. I knew most of my weaknesses and scared that I may not succeed in coping with it. I am very unskillful and this saddens me every time I tried to think about it. How can an unskillful doctor treat a patient? I am currently trying to rectify this part of me. I really wanted to cry every time I think about this. I may look smarter and better than my friends but actually I am way more worse than all of them. At least they are not as childish as I am. They know what they want and what to get in their lives. But I am still undecided until today. This world is a complicated place and sometimes I doubt whether a naive and simple person like me can build my own heaven and led a financially stable life.  

Many people think that having an excellent record in terms of academic and co-curriculum will surely perform well in their future careers. But I tell you what, these records can only assist you to get your desired pathway. They cannot proof anything except that. Even though you perform well in your undergraduate and postgraduate years, you may still ended up as a jobless person after your education. Nothing in this world is certain. If you think that you are better than others, think again. You are just lucky that you haven't met your match. Everybody has his or her own talents or abilities and posses equal chances of success. Nobody is perfect and nobody is the winner among the winners. Hence, I realize that we must be humble and at the same time respect our friends and competitors. We must always remember to spare some space for self-improvement as we cannot stop at our success and past glories because they were now a page away in history. Hence, don't ever become overconfident about ourselves. 

It feels good to confess my ill thoughts that clouded my mind these days. I look forward in finding my destiny and resolving my doubts. Only by that day, I can proudly walk away as a determined person in this life.     

The Beckoner Journal-My Days as a volunteer in a Hospital 2

Day 6

            After two weeks, I returned back to the Penang Adventist Hospital again to do another week of volunteer work. It really feels great to return to the place you love to do what you really want to do that makes you satisfy. Upon reaching there, I was greeted by Miss Wong again whom were shocked that I had already parted there for two weeks and not one. I told her that it may be my last week in this month because I had the urge to settle my applications of other scholarships and make clear my further study problems. I requested the volunteer work attendance letter from her and she agreed to give me at Friday.

            I was being tasked at the Wellness Centre today. The Wellness Centre is a screening centre that conducts physical check-ups on the body of patients and helps in diagnosing health problems faced by them. It also conducts body check-ups for anyone who wants to monitor their health conditions. There are four different health screening packages for you to choose. Their coverage and cost varies differently according to your selection and what you want to monitor. There are four doctors working inside the Wellness centre and many nurses that assist the doctors in arranging the check-ups and doing the filling processes like other departments. Again, it was all about paperwork and done ask me more…

            As I entered, I was greeted by the boss of the department, Kit. She was a middle-aged Chinese lady in her forties. She was friendly and cheerful, but at the same time, strict and firm in making decisions and reprimanding her staffs. She told me that she used to work in one of the airline companies in Singapore for 18 years before returning back to Malaysia to work in this hospital 4 years before. She said that she kind of enjoy the environment here than the environment in Singapore. “In Singapore, everything is hustling, bustling and fast-paced,” she commented, “Not like here that was warm, friendly and relaxing. There were busy times but you still feel fun in whatever you do” We talked a lot during the time when she was around the office and not completely occupied. I even saw her interviewing a nurse to-be right in front of me in her room. From there I could possibly list out what an interviewer expect from a candidate.

            I also met another friendly nurse named Valerie there. I asked her everything about the Wellness Centre and what they do every day. I made friends with her after that. I worked until 3pm before calling it a day. It was boring having to do paperwork but fun in the sense that you got to meet new people.

           

Day 7

            Today was the greatest day of the week! Why do I say so? Because again I got the opportunity to meet with other people, work with them and make friends with them. Besides, today I am going to another new department. Let me tell you my stories for today.

            I reached the hospital very early at 8:20am. I mean, that I have to be early because I have to take the 301 bus from Sungai Dua to the bus transit at Komtar, and then take another 101 bus to Penang Adventist Hospital at Pulau Tikus. Hence, I got up at 6.30am and waited at the bus stop at 7 o’clock for another 25 minutes before boarding up the bus. I have to be quick or the streets get really crowded at 8. Having reached the hospital so early, I explored the streets at the back entrance of the hospital. There are not many buildings at there. Most of the buildings there are actually the houses of staffs and doctors of the hospital.

            My expedition lasted for about 20 minutes before I returned back to the hospital. Upon returning, I straight forward headed towards the Volunteer Service Centre. At there, I heard the clerks complaining that the Marketing Department requires volunteers to help them. They even told them that they may need 30-40 volunteers to help them! When I heard about it, my mouth laid out wide and I was pretty shocked by the amount they requested which was impossible. I started to wonder, what makes them so busy until they desperately needed so many volunteers. I soon learned the answer after Miss Wong placed me and another volunteer, Jia Wei to assist them at the department.

            The Marketing Department, no need to further explain, is located at the seventh floor of the One Stop Complex Building, the former bowling alley that is being converted into a nursing college 

and houses several other departments. The hospital is actually going to host a medical talk regarding cancer at Trader’s Hotel in 26^th of April 2012. They invited doctors from all over North Malaysia to attend this prestigious event. Now, they are frustrated in preparing the letters to be sent to more than a thousand doctors, physicians, consultants and faculty heads in North Malaysia. So, our task is to help them prepare the letters to be sent via post courier by today. We helped them to fold and seal the invitational letters. During the process, I got to know more about Jia Wei.
This serious-looking former Chung Ling student was of the same age as me. He just came back from the National Service and is currently doing volunteer work for the next few weeks. Well, we shared the same ambition as well. He wants to pursue a study in medicine and planned to enter Form 6 to achieve his dreams. He shared with me stories and life in the National Service and we talked much about our future. After that, an unexpected thing happened…

            Two more volunteers entered. They were actually here to help too. (I guess Miss Wong just can’t stand the frustrating amends of the Marketing Department.) This was how I met Ray and Amelyn. 
Ray Lim Zu Yi is a trendy-looking but calm and cool person that talks in a soft but serious tone. Although most of the time you feel that he actually thinks carefully any question before he tries to answer it, but don’t ever judge a book by its cover. He is wild and insane if you got to know him. 

Amelyn Chua Siew Hui on the other hand is an extrovert. She is a cheerful and hilarious person that is extremely fun to mix around. After I known her, I felt that she is a really nice and kind girl with a soft spot for others. Both of them are of the same age as me. When we did our task together, we got to know each other and slowly became friends. We finished our work at half past twelve and proceeded to the cafeteria together to have our lunch.

            Feeling bored of our paper work, we then requested to help the Development Department to raise donations for the Heart Patient’s Fund.  Again, this is my favorite part, and the most motivational one in all volunteer works I had before. This is my second time collecting donations from patients and the family of the patients in this hospital. I really can’t wait to create another miracle. After going to the Development Department to get the donation box and two big bags of soft toy puppy coin boxes, we embarked on our glorious mission to raise funds to help the poor children who required heart surgeries but cannot afford to pay for it.

            It is already half past one in the afternoon. We felt that we started too late and it was quite impossible for us to raise a thousand ringgit because this was our target for that day. Amelyn told us that the group that managed to raise more than RM1, 000 or one thousand ringgit will be rewarded with a pizza! Wow, and until now the offer is still on. Hence, we tried to reach the target. It was not hard actually. Amelyn have lots of experiences at this. She took part in this type of task almost every time she comes to do volunteer work in the hospital. I only have the experience once so I cannot match her in terms of experience. When we shared experiences, she was quite impressed by the figure me and the other volunteers managed to raise at that time. Both of us then exchanged our strategy and shared the tactics to persuade others to make donations. It is only the first time for Jia Wei and Ray, so they initially let us lead. After a short while, they added in and four of us together travel from building to building and department to department in order to fill our donation box with teeny weenie bits of hope for the children.

            During the process, we met a man in his fifties whom was full of grief and anxiety as his father was admitted into the ICU suddenly because his health condition worsened. Although we did not even know what kind of disease that his father was suffering from, but we could feel the sorrow and desperation the man was feeling at that time. Despite that, he was still willing to hear to us and together with his wife managed to donate RM160 to us. Oh, how touching is it to hear about this! Just put yourself in this situation the man is facing and you will know that it is not easy to act like this when your loved ones are still desperately struggling to live in the sickbed. We were completely frozen at that time when he donated such a big amount for us. We did not even know to say what after hearing his story and could only wish that his father would be blessed and quickly regain his health…

            We ended our fund raising event at approximately 4.30pm. We headed back to count how much we had managed to collect. We were shocked to find that we collected RM1170 from the event! It was considered a large amount within 3 hours time. We took some photographs of ourselves (and of course with the money). Then, we took a group photo and Miss Nancy again, talked to us and praised our astounding accomplishment. She had promised to buy us pizza for lunch at Friday where everyone was available. She then taught us some philosophy values and gave us a miny teddy bear as a token of appreciation. We went back at a quarter past five and I got a free ride home through Ray’s car.

 

Day 8

            There is nothing new today. At the morning, I and Jia Wei again went to the Marketing Department. We helped them to settle the unfinished invitational letters again. This was boring.

 We stole some time to go out at 10 o’clock to have a break for 45 minutes (haha, playing truant,) before returning back to the department again to complete the last of the paperwork. Then, Jia Wei finished his volunteer work at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

            After accompanying Jia Wei to the Gurney Plaza, I proceeded in doing my volunteer work at the bakery. 

In the bakery, I met Sara and Ayu again. I helped them to put the breads into plastic packets and fasten them. I also stick on price tags and information labels on the breads. After clearing the bread crumbs on the stainless-steel trays, I continued in folding confectionery boxes. Something unexpected happened again. Before going back, Sister Amy generously gave me a Pandan Cinnamon Roll as a token of appreciation for helping her to do work in the bakery. After that, I went home by bus around 4pm after taking a late free volunteer lunch at the cafeteria.       

Day 9

            Today, I reached Pulau Tikus early. Hence, I didn’t stop as usual at the bus stop in front of Penang Adventist Hospital. I purposely stop at the next bus stop about a few hundred metres away from the hospital to explore the area around the hospital. My expedition brought me to a few landmarks of Penang and I ended up back to the hospital through its back gate.

            Today, I met another volunteer in the name of Syen Hui. But I didn’t have the chance to talk to her much because she was being tasked in the Wellness centre and I am being placed at the Nursing Administration Department. 

So sad, I had to work alone today. My friends are all practicing singing for tomorrow's fund raising campaign I also met Hendrix again, who was doing the same job as her. Three of us got the opportunity to chat and mix around during the break we coincidentally took together in 12.

            At first, Miss Wong tricked me that the department was full of nurses and you got the chance to interact with all sorts of nurses and learn nursing staff. My blind beliefs was shattered as I found out that it was actually a very dull department full of clerks and no nurses unlike what its name said. It actually helps the nurses in arranging their working schedules, preparing checklists, filling their reports and other paper works that they must do as well as preparing certificates for qualified nurses. They are the backbone of the nursing department that rules and leads over them.  

            Want to know my job of the day? Today’s main course special was not preparing patient’s check-up reports nor folding files, but slashing papers! Fine, I will still do it and try to get the job done. Until the afternoon, I had managed to slash all the documents starting from last year to the previous month into paper stripes. Miss Sharon, a clerk whom requested me to assist her was pleased of my job, so as the Staff Development Manager herself. During my work there, I found a good book about leadership skills entitled “The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make” 

in the miny library of the office. I had been given the permission to borrow it by Miss Sharon under the condition that I return it to them tomorrow. I worked until 3.30pm and went home via the Rapid Lines Bus for the last time in this week.

Day 10

            This was my last day at Penang doing volunteer work for the week. Today is both the greatest and saddest day of the week. Again, the bitterness and sadness of leaving this place started to arouse. I don’t know why, but I suddenly feared of leaving my current life to return to SP, Kedah.

            Well, I went to the hospital by Zu Yi’s car. I think I really owed him a kindness for fetching me from my house to the hospital for these two days. Today, he brought us another new friend called Kean Hin 

with him. This lad may look shy and defenseless, but he is actually a strong parliamentary debater and a singer whose voice can completely blow up your mind. I am speaking the truth! Even until now, I can still remember clearly his unique voice singing “Count on me” drifting and circling in my head non-stop. Notably he was one of the greatest male singers in the same age as me that I known.

            After a 30 minutes ride, I reached the hospital at 9:40am. We continued in collecting donations for the Heart Patient’s Fund. Today was unlike the other days. We have new “competitors”. They were the members of World Vision, a charity organization whose mission is to help solve social needs of the citizens of other countries by sending volunteers to assist them. Most of them are 20 years old and above university students that saved about RM50, 000 to travel around 11 countries in 11 months to help people from all sorts of places in the name of charity. Their ultimate goal in this trip in Penang, Malaysia at this month is to collect about RM25, 000 for the Adventist Hospital’s Heart Patient Fund, which is almost enough for a child to perform heart surgery.

            Apart from having “competitors”, today was also Friday. Friday is a half day where most departments are closed by noon. There is not much visitors past afternoon. Hence, today we didn’t have any target in our donation. All we wanted to do was to enjoy the joy of raising funds, which is the process itself. We wanted to make this day a fun experience. So, we didn’t give ourselves stress in collecting the funds nor trying to hit the target. 

I think fund raising should be like this. It is not about how much you have raised, but it is about how much efforts and enjoyment that you have put in it. The most important part is you have really tried your best in helping the heart patients to alleviate their sufferings and enable them to have a new hope and new life.

            With Zu Yi’s unique guitar strumming skills (guess what, he learned it by himself!), Kean Hin’s ultimate diva voice and 3 bad singers who cannot do anything but persuading others to donate for the fund, we started another journey in collecting donations. We went for only a few departments, while avoiding going into the same place with other volunteers from the World Vision. At 12.30pm, we went to the Development Department for our pizza reward promised by Miss Nancy. Well, we expected only 2 pizzas for that day but it turned out to be 10! However, these pizzas are not only for us. There were actually shared by us and the other volunteers from the World Vision whom managed to collect RM1400 in that day.  We ate the pizzas with much gratitude and appreciation.

We even went into the Dialysis Center twice to sing songs for other patients who were undergoing dialysis treatment. It feels great to bring some joy into their lives and making them smile was very meaningful for us. We even heard many sad stories about patients in the Dialysis Center. An uncle told us about the life as a patient with kidney failure. You must undergo a 3-4 hours dialysis process for 3 times in a week, usually once every two days. You must control your diet strictly and avoid drinking excess water. It is a large burden to bear because each dialysis treatment costs about RM250 in that hospital and many times you have to spend hours and hours in undergoing the dialysis process. Sometimes when a patient reaches a state when he or she can no longer sustain his or her life through dialysis, he or she may eventually die of body intoxication. Although they can choose to have kidney transplantation, but it is very expensive to do so and not all the donor’s kidneys can match the kidneys of the recipient. If it rejects, their condition may become worsen. Hence, we must better take care of our health because a healthy body is the greatest asset of a person.

We managed to collect a total of RM940 in that day. Poor Zu Yi had his hands full of plasters and Kean Hin on the other hand is completely exhausted for singing so long. 

Anyway, “it is not about the money, money, money” as I said before. It is all about how you feel and what you experienced in the process. We were satisfied by the figure and hoped that this contribution can help the children. We finished our volunteer service that day at 4pm. Ray then fetch us back by his car. This was my last day for this week and probably this month doing volunteer work in the hospital. 

I was extremely reluctant to leave this place because I actually enjoyed the days of performing my volunteer tasks and cherished the friendship between me and the other volunteers whom I met during my service. I really hoped that I will return to this hospital to do another round of volunteer work when I am free and anticipated my reunion with the other volunteer friends. I will be sure to keep in touch with all of them. These remarkable memories will not cease from my head forever…