Journey Woman

Testing Windows Live Writer

2010-04-21T23:20:00.001+08:00

test…test……

Windows Live Writer lets me write stuff on my blog without having to login on my browser… cool……..

Last day in Tokyo...Sayonara!!

2009-08-09T00:45:00.003+08:00

Next morning had to wake up early to catch my flight back to Malaysia. Spend another 1 hour repacking my luggage. Only slept at 2am. I had to literary sit on my check-in luggage to close it! hahahaha

Zhou had to leave at 6:30am (flight is at 10:30am) and I had to leave at 7am(Flight at 11:30am). It was nice of the boys to wake up early to send us off.

Bye bye brothers! Dun forget to sent me air tickets to go to your countries! hahaha
The travel agency arranged for taxi to bring a few of us to the TCAT terminal and from there we catch the Limousine bus to Narita airport.

Met this lady from Antigua and Barbuda. er... can't remember her name but she's also from the same course as Jocelyn, Nurse Management. Somehow both of them talks to me in a very motherly way... guess all nurses are like that! hahaha Amazing that her luggage is not overweight since her course is 3 months!

My last meal in Japan....beef Udon. And I did some last minute shopping at the duty free shops. The souvenirs (snacks & chocolate) are cheaper here than if you buy from outside.

2 other JICA participants on the same flight as me. Azni and er....Hairunuda something. I'm really bad with names... I know Azni becoz sometimes I talk to him at TIC and only met the lady at the airport. Both of them are here for some police training course. We check-in our luggages together and of course it was overweight but we didn't get fine.... hahaha Finally we boarded our plane.... SAYONARA Japan. Dunno if I will ever come back again but had a great experience here. Thank you tax paying citizens of Japan for sponsoring my trip! hahahahaha

JAL is a good airline... doesn't have the 'smell' that will cause me to vomit. And the movies are excellent. Arrived in KL around 5:50pm. Hello again "Boleh" land.....

Evaluation & Farewell Party 31st July

2009-08-08T23:40:00.006+08:00

Finally... last day of the program..... was doing my packing for the entire morning.....Not easy... I had to weight & reweight & reweight my luggage. In the afternoon we had an evaluation of the training courses. Mostly ok but one of the comments I made was that the reading materials especially on the Laws and Support for PWDs in Japan should be given to us before we come over so we can do some pre-reading first. And most of us think that the time given for the project plan workshop by Ms Sarajean was not enough.

The boys looking so serious during evaluation!

Sato san, Sadaie san & Keiko san at the evaluation

Sadaie san showing the certificate that we will be getting AFTER we submit over progress report on our Project Plan in February next year. After evaluation, we had a closing ceremony. The boys choose me to represent them to give a speech. I didn't agree and told them it's an "autocratic" democracy just like Malaysia's government but they insisted on me. Dun know why they choose me since I'm such a shy person and not very good at giving speech.... ;) Anyway I said ok but the boys have to write the speech for me! hahaha actually a good deal.....

The Deputy Director of JICA TIC giving her speech

MY turn to give the speech.... Did not trip or anything.....phew!!hahaha

The whole team that was involved in our program...well almost all of them are here.

We called ourselves the "Decent Team" hahaha since this is the first year they renamed the course to "Decent Work for PWDs". I think this is the first time Nerand is smiling in a photo. I had to remind him to smile.

Farewell Party time! Quite a number of invited guest came. Some of our lecturers also came and Mr & Mrs Machida san (we visited their home at Atsugi City) also came. We had food, fellowship and some singing. I also showed a video of our past 6 weeks activities to them. They really enjoyed the video... they should.. took me 2 nights to compiled it! hahahah

Both Indra and my host families also came for the party. Nice to see them again...

After the farewell party. Asahi san took us out for a farewell dinner. We went to one of the drinking restuarant near Hatagaya.

We had beer, sashimi, noodles and other stuff and just laugh & laugh and talk.... I'm going to miss these people......

We had one last farewell song in the streets before saying "sayonara"

With Matsuura san, our coordinator cum interpreter for the past 7 weeks. She must be so relieve that it's finally over! hahahaha

We said our goodbyes and the boys & I headed back to TIC. I went to say goodbye to Jocelyn who is from Micronesia and Latifa. Jocelyn is here for Nursing Management course and will be leaving on the 2nd August and Latifa is leaving on the 8th August. It was nice to know them.... different field, different culture, different background.

This is Jocelyn. Went to her room to say bye bye. She was also packing.

The boys were very happy when I told them that I will open a bottle of sake for our last night since my luggage is overweight. So all of us squeeze into Zhou's room (he's leaving early the next day so had to do his packing) and and had our last drinking session. I'm going to miss drinking with the boys.

Last lecture, Tokyo tower and party time!

2009-08-04T14:52:00.005+08:00

Our second last day in Japan....one last lecture on JICA programs on Disabilities and JOCV (Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers)

ah.....can't remember his name... this guy is from JICA headquarters, telling us about JICA programs

Keiko....nakal yeah? Taking me taking her picture.

Oto san working in JOCV...telling us about the JOCV program and how to apply for JOCV if we need their services.

Keiko.....can't wait to get rid of Kiran & us!

Last discussion on the meaning of "Decent Work". This is what we came out with after 6 weeks of studying on decent employment for PWDs.
What is Decent Work?

Own choices-PWDs gets to choose their own career
Recognition & Appreciated
Equality in wages, gender, opportunity
Dignity
Security – financial & social
Humanity
Responsibility
Interdependent
Personal development
Accessibility environment
Socialization – to be in an inclusive society

Had some time after our discussion so Nerand and I went of to Shinjuku to do some last minute shopping and then head off to Tokyo Tower.

820 yen to go up to the middle part. We stayed for 2 hours there so we can catch the night view too. Was worth the wait. Still remembered the first day I met Nerand. Talked to him on the street without knowing that we were in the same course.

Tokyo Tower

My last "Sukiya" meal. Beef & Eel bowl with Miso soup and tofu. 950 yen. Cheap compare to KL price.
The Sukiya shop near TIC. Been having my dinners there for the last few days since I'm sick of the food at TIC. Easy to order.... go in sit at the counter, point out what you want at the menu and just nod your head! hahahaha Most of the staff there understands a bit of english.....
Second last day so we have a "mini" party at Kiran's room....His room is big for the wheelchair users so usually we hang out there. Bought our laptops there and exchange our photos and of course drinking beer. Japanese beers are cheap and nice!

My brothers for the past 7 weeks! Going to miss you guys! Kampai!

Project Plan Presentation-29th July

2009-08-04T09:39:00.004+08:00

Finally.....after 2 weeks of preparing our Project plan, we had a presentation on last wednesday.

Asahi san, the course leader of the planning commitee doing an introduction before our presentation.

Sadaie san and Sato san from JICA came to see our presentation

Ogawa san (R) who is one of the planning committee member for this course and a few JSRPD staff also came.
Nerand is first. He's project is called "Building Bridges". He wants to implement a Job coach support system for his students who will be working in the open employment after graduating from the special school

Indra's turn. His project is approaching companies to hire PWDs. Currently his database got 400 over members.

Next is Kiran. HIs project is called "Move to Change" He wants to establish a wheelchair workshop in Nepal. Of course the PWDs themselves will be building the wheelchairs.
Zhou's turn. His project is Training of trainers. To better equip the trainers to train PWDs to have the necessary skills to work.
Finally it's my turn. My project is called "Sweet Voices". Renovating & expanding the bakery section in United Voice.

Phew...finally it's over... all of us can relax a bit! For the final comments most of them said it's only the beginnning. We have to go back to our respective country and implement the project plan. Have to submit a progress report in 6 months time so we can get our certificate..... work! work! work!

Tokyo Disneyland

2009-07-27T17:45:00.008+08:00

Last Saturday I went to the Matrix....... er I mean Tokyo Disneyland. It's a saturday. It's school holidays. Do I need to tell you how many people were there? Had no choice... my last weekend in Japan. So off I go early in the morning..... Ticket fees-5800 yen about RM200 which is quite resonable.

Entrance

World Bazaar where you spend a lot of money there buying souvenirs. I think the profit does not come from the entrance ticket fees. It comes from a lot of crazy people buying souvenirs.

Queued up for 2 hours just to get into this ride....Buzz Lightyear. Lesson learnt- when they put there 130 waiting time I thot it was 1 and a half hours. I was wrong...It meant 130 minutes to wait!

Roger Rabbit ride.

It's a Small World Ride. Didn't go for this ride as I've been to the same one at Euro Disney.
Daytime Parade. One of the highlights in Disneyland. The last time I was at Euro Disney I was so caught up in catching most of the rides I missed this parade so this time I make sure I was there to watch it.

Video of the parade.

This is the amount of prams park outside one of the rides.... can you imagine how many babies/children were there?

Space Mountain.... one ride you must not miss...One of my favourite rides...Peter Pan. I remember taking both this rides at Euro Disney and I dun mind taking it again.....

For most of the rides be prepare to queue up at least 30 mintues for it. As I was queueing up for one of the rides I was just thinking that all this things here are fake.....it's like I going into the Matrix. But I felt happy taking the rides....took my mind off the Project Plan. So maybe it's good to be in the Matrix once a while....you just need to know when to get out! ngahahahahahah

JICA Net and accessible design

2009-07-27T16:25:00.004+08:00

Last friday we had a JICA-net meeting with a lady from Philippine, Ms Joy Cevallos-Garcia. She shared with us about her center "Tahanang Walang Hagdanan". This center provides services for persons with physical disabilities. They have a wheelchair section, woodwork section where they product table , chairs and toys and metal works. One interesting thing about this center is that they also teached thier members entreupreneurship so PWDs are able to setup thier own business. The center is also run and manage together by the PWDs themselves with some support from others.We had a good session. Also has some ex-JICA particpants joining us all the way from Nepal...of course one of them is Kiran's wife...Rama.
Had to go to the next door building where the JICA-net is setup. 3 countries meeting, Japan, Philipine and Nepal

That's us getting ready for the lecture.....I can see myself snapping this pict!

That's Rama, Kiran's wife... beautiful yeah? She came for this course last year......

In the afternoon we visit the Accessible Device Center. This place worked together with a few groups and of course the PWDs to come out with improvements to product designs that is accessible not only to PWDs but also to the elderly and others.
Braille on the cans so the visually impaired can differentiate from beer to soda...

The notch on top of the milk carton

Sharing about accessible toys for PWDs especially for the visual or hearing impaired.

Some of the products at the center

Project Plan & facilitating

2009-07-24T20:54:00.009+08:00

Didn't get to blog for the last few days...busy with project plan. Each of us has to come out with a project to crete employment for PWDs in our country. On tuesday we had the second day of project plan workshop by Ms Sarajean. She went through the details of how to write a project plan from background to goals to implementation to budget to sales. A lot of things. we were all very "stone" by the end of the day with so much info buzzing in our heads! But it was good to learn as most of us have to write a lot of proposal to ask for funds.

Next day we continue the facilitating workshop. Each of us has to take turns facilitating a session. I choose to go first (take the pressure off earlier!) My topic was "How to support/communicate" persons with learning disabilities". Did a couple of role play... even took Indra to the toilet! hahaha Managed to get response from the participants...phew! It was good exercise. Might be able to use it for training in Malaysia.

Next was Nerand. His topic was how to create awareness for people with intellectual disabilities.

And after him is Zhou. Zhou's topic was interesting though we were confuse initially. He makes us look at our schedule and reflect back on what we have learned so far.

The next day was Kiran & Indra's turn. Here you are seeing Kiran torturing Nerand! hahaha.. no just doing a role play on how does it feel to be a PWDs so he's tying up Nerand's hands & feets and ask him to try eating and drinking!

Aiyoo... hard eh?

After Kiran was Indra's turn. He's topic was the perspective of people towards PWDs. After each of our facilitating we will have a feedback session. It was interesting to see our different styles in facilitating...There's no right or wrong answers....also be participatory and allow participants to give out ideas .....And Ikezumi-san told us one very important word when doing facilitation..."feedback"

I enjoyed his sessions very much...... very open, very different, alwiz challenging you to think in a different way or perspective.

I Luv Yokohama!

2009-07-20T10:32:00.007+08:00

Yesterday went to Yokohama with Latiffah. Took an express train there from Shinjuku, only half an hour (thanks to Akiko who told me which line to take) if not if will take at least 1 hour to reach there. This place has one of the largest Chinatown in the world so naturally being a chinese I had to visit it! Beautiful city. Reminded me a bit of Perth (seaside) and also Paris (old european style buildings and some french sidewalk cafes). There is a JICA Yokohama here...whish I was staying here! hahaha

Nice sculpture!

Went up to the 69th Floor of this building, Landmark Tower. It has 72 floors. The view is fantastic but had to pay 1000 yen to go up, a bit to expensive in my opinion.View of the habour

This is Osanbashi Pier! Highly recommend....if you are in Yokohama... do not miss it. The style and design of this pier is beautiful. Never seen anything like it before and very, very wheelchair frenly.

We walked a lot from Yokohama Station to Landmark Tower to the Pier and finally we reached Chinatown! It's a lot like any other chinatowns but with a LOT more people! Chinese food here is super expensive. I had a bowl of "tan tan mien" and it cost me 800 yen! But at least here I can order in mandarin! haha
Finally we went to Yamashita Park which is opposite Chinatown. Nice park but nothing much to see so off we went. Wanted to visit the Ramen Museum but too tired and had to take another train there. Said bye bye to Yokohama and took the train back to Tokyo Central. I like this city a lot and it's a place that I definitely would luv to come back to again if I ever had a chance to visit Japan again. I had a great time here especially with Latiffah. Thanks Latiffah for accompanying me to Yokohama.

ITC, Job Coach & Okonomiyaki

2009-07-18T09:14:00.006+08:00

Last thursday & friday was our individual training and I choosed to go and look at the IT center for the disabled and also at Job Coaching. So on thursday Keiko arrange for me & Nerand to go to the ITC (IT Center) Tokyo.... This center provides IT training for PWDS
Sorry...can't remember her name but this lady was explaining to us some of the devices used by PWDs to assisst them to use the computer.

Many types of mouse and keyboards

This is call Intellikeys. The keys are changable. Good for UV members but damn expensive.
I like this one.... can you guess what it is? It is invented by a parent of a child with intellectual disability. Here no matter what disbility you have if necessary they will come out with a device to assisst you in using the computer. Good right? Instead of telling a PWD that they cannot use becoz it's not suitable....

Keiko was worried that I was not getting enough info..... actually she's right becoz I didn't have much time to ask the lady more questions but I guess I can alwiz email her.
After the IT center we visited a Special School at Oota Ward. Sendai-san, who is in charge of vocational training was showing us around the school and explaining the system. Funny I have not even visited any special schools in Malaysia yet. This school works closely with the Employment Support Center for PWDs to provide support for students who are employed after graduation.

The next day coincidentally all 5 of us choose job coach so we are went together (so much for individualise training!) to Oota Ward again to the employment support center to get some insights on job coaching. After that we went to Haneda Airport to visit one of the PWDs who is working at Starbucks.
Keiko enjoying her cup of coffee. She wanted to belanja us coffee but none of us took up her offer. The boys don't really drink coffee and I told her that I will never buy starbucks coffee becoz of how the company in US exploit the coffee farmers at Ethopia. Dun know if she stills enjoy her coffee after what I told her! hahahahaha
The boy beside Nerand in the green apron is the PWID working at starbucks and the guy next to him is the shop manager. He is now learning how to be a barrista. Matsuura asked us not to put the picture in any of our organisation homepage becoz of copyright and stuff and I told her dun worry... we will never advertise for Starbucks!hmmmm I think I just did.... should I take out the pict above?
They have a TV inside the toilet.... not TV programs but advertisements. Makes me wants to do my er..... business longer! hahahaha

After the airport, we visited another PWID working in a supermarket. She has been working there since May.

After that we went back to the employment support center for Q&A on job coaching.

When we finally reached TIC it was almost 7:30pm and I had an appointment with Yoko at 7pm! Last saw her in April last year when she was sent to UV to support a PWLD from JOCV (Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteer) Previously she has worked in Malaysia for 2 years and that is why her malay is good... better than mine! Rush over to meet her at the Yoyogi-Uehara station and she bought me to a nearby restaurant and we had okonomiyaki.

That's her cooking the okonomiyaki like an expert. She's from Osaka and that's where okonomiyaki is from.

Oishi

Tried something called er....."mirku, morko" dunno how to call it.....something like that which is only available in Tokyo....cheese, cabbage & flour. And we use like mini spatula to eat it as it cooks slowly on the pan.
This is Ms Yoko Sato. We spend most of the night laughing & laughing. I was updating her on UV's activities and talking about Malaysia's political scene. And she knows how hard it is to work with government servants as she was based in Pahang for 2 years..... oh and of course we complain about the royalty. She told me that once she was surprised to hear that when the sultan of pahang visited a village that was flooded they have to present him with basket of fruits in order that he might grant them more money for relief! They lost almost most of their processions and yet they have to give him something. I told her that's malaysian's style or mentality. Sad......

BTW she's 5 months pregnant. Aiyooo...she's as gila as me.....imagine her being a mother.... poor kid! hahahaha And we were having our conversation in Malay as she only knows a liiiitttlle bit of english... Funny... 1 Japanese & 1 Chinese speaking Malay in a jap restaurant. Have not laughed that much since coming to Japan. Yoko...Arigato Gosaimasu.....

He shall not die in vain! May his death also be the death of the BN dogs!

2009-07-17T23:15:00.006+08:00

Wanted to blog about my last 2 days activities but very, very disturbed by the death of Teo Beng Hock.

Agreed with Mr Goh's view......
http://www.themicahmandate.org/2009/07/i-cannot-remain-neutral-about-issues-of-morality/
Are we going to still remain quiet and watch injustice goes by. Is that what Jesus taught us to do?

And read Ee Chia's point of view of how Malaysian police treats people who are mourning the death of a friend. And while mat rempits and snatch thief are still roaming our streets. Malaysia Boleh!
http://eechia.blogspot.com/2009/07/beng-hocks-death-will-more-stand-up-now.html

Management Skills, Kabuki and more sushi!

2009-07-15T22:10:00.006+08:00

Last 2 days had a lady Ms Yoko Asakawa from JEN(Japan Emergency NGO) came to talk to us about Organizational and Business Management. Her NGO is the kind of dream NGO that I would luv to work in. They provide emergency and rehabilitation to countries that suffers from Conflict and Natural Disaster. They usually go into places that nobody goes to or difficult to reach not the main area where there are a lot of media coverage. They also provide psychological and economical self reliance program. This NGO works together with the local people to offer them relief. Yoko san shared with us some case studies from the NGO, some of the project they did and also shared some fund raising ideas that they did. Check out their website. Wonder if they hire foreigners......

That's Ms Yoko. Amazing lady Has worked for JEN for 15 years!

The 5 of us sharing our view of how to start a business

PCM

The essence of organizational management

Sharing about examples of business models that we plan to implement in the future or existing one. Of course I shared about our Employment Project. I'm the only one with an existing model... they rest have to come out with one which they plan for the future. Phew!!

The usual group photo after the lectures.

After that I met up with Dr Kenji Kuno for dinner. Dr Kenji is a JICA expert and used to be based in Malaysia so he worked very closely with United Voice. He was send back to Japan last year as his contract expires. He's applying to go back to Malaysia and this guy's Bahasa Melayu is waaay better than mine! Hopefully we will see you soon Kenji san!

Ginza the "Beverly Hills" of Tokyo! No shopping here.

Didn't go to Ginza for shopping but came for this....Kabuki, Japanese style theater. Interesting. Simple props and background (usual japanese style, simplicity) All the actors are males even those who acted as females. Not too expensive 1500 yen for the show and extra 400 yen if you want to get the english translation device which you can listen too during the show. Of course Dr Kenji was very generous to pay for me. Didn't stay until the end of the show becoz I was hungry and there weren't any sitting place so had to stand for about 1 hour.
Outside of the theater. Dr Kenji said they are probably going to renovate this building later to a high rise but will keep some parts. At least I've seen the old building before the reno.

Dinner.... what else but sushi.... He asked me to choose between tempura & sushi....dun really fancy tempura that much.

Yes... this is Dr Kenji Kuno. Our famous DET(Disability Equality Training) expert. Helped us came out with the module to train Air Asia staff before he left for Japan. Thanks for the Kabuki show and oishi sushi dinner! Arigato Gosaimasu!

Services for People with Mental Disabilities

2009-07-14T21:41:00.005+08:00

Yesterday visited JHC (Joint House Cosmo) Itabashi. JHC provides services for people with mental disabilities. They have many centers catering to the different needs of thier members. The local government there allocated 50% of the budget for welfare services which covers PWDs, senior citizen & children. So Itabashi has a reputation for being an inclusive community for PWDs. Here the PWDs can have a decent life and work and live together with the community. We first went to the JHC club house Sun Marina. Members can come here to socialise and have some training with thier peers. The guy next to me is Toshiyuki san. He's works at JHC and is also one of the committee members who planned the course I'm taking now.

Lunch at Sun Marina, cheap only 300 yen!

Next we went to another of their center, Akatsuka a bakery. The sell cookies and cakes mostly to the residents around here.

One of thier gift packages for the summer season

Another one
One of the members working there.

Next we went to Kosmo, a small restaurant. Here they open twice a week and also do meals delivery to offices and also to senior citizens.

Feedback session.

I think I learned a lot about people with mental disabilities for the past few days. As I shared in my earlier post, I dun know much about them. But I know a lot of them in Malaysia is just stuck in the hospital for many, many, many years some even all their life. That was the situation in Japan about 10-15 years ago until the gov came out with the law for MDs. Now they are trying to release about 76,000 of MDs who are ready to be integrated back into the community from the hospital. From what I've seen they are very, very capable to work. Just have to find a suitable job and not too stressful.

Studio Ghibli & Sushi

2009-07-13T20:21:00.007+08:00

Finally the day came.... I'm going to Ghibli Museum! Met Akiko at Kichijoji and we took a train to Mitaka and took a bus to the Museum.

This bus is specially for the Museum.

Recognise the figure?

Notice to tell people that today's tickets is all sold out!

Unfortunately we are not allowed to take any photos indoor. Inside you can see the replica of the rooms where Miyazaki and his team work on the animation movies..... and they also tells a bit about how animation first started. Quite cool. All the explanation were in Japanese. Thank goodness Akiko came with me so she could explain to me. Of course there's also a souvenir shop! I wanted to buy everything there..... Didn't buy much only 3000 yen worth of stuff! hahaha Hey it's probably my first & last time there. Ohhh and there's the new movie oledi shown in Japan "Ponyo".... based on the Little Mermaid story.... can't wait to watch it in Malaysia.

Outdoor we can snap as many photos as we like.....

Know where this character is from? ....Castle in the Sky.....

Part of the museum building

We spend about 2 hours at the Museum. Then we had teatime...Ramen....took picture but I think it's too sinful to show you all! hahaha After that we went over to Akiko's workplace which is near Mitaka Sta. She teaches english here part time.

We then went back to Kichijoji Station. Quite happening here. Lots of shops. I think I would rather come here to shop then Shinjuku. Only about 20mins from TIC and ticket cost is only 170yen. We shop for a while and then Akiko took me to a Sushi Bar where her fren works. The following photos are dedicated to MASAKI.......

Appetiser.....squid with seaweed & sea urchin, some shellfish, mini taro, prawn tempura, egg roll.

Tuna with sea urchin......oishi!

That's Akiko's fren, the chef. Funny guy!

This is one of the best sushi I've had..... the tuna just melts in your mouth....oishi

Great food, great fren!

Akiko's boyfren. Soooo thin.... told her must feed him more food! hahaha

More sushi....Noticed the sushi in japan is less rice more fish....in Malaysia....more rice and small fish! haha
This is something interesting. Chives with a bit of shaved benito and a squeeze of lime. oh.....oishi.

Cucumber with miso. Oishi! One more thing which I did not take photo(too busy eating).... He cut some parts of a huge shell fish (forgot the name) to let me try. wow...the sweetest tasting shellfish I ever had! Wah One of the best dinner I've ever had in Japan. Thanks Akiko!

Hakone

2009-07-12T10:02:00.005+08:00

Went to Hakone yesterday. Bus tour organised by JICA.
Old road used hundreds of years ago by express messenger between Tokyo & Kyoto.

Achery competition at the Hakone Shrine.

Thot I'm going to be alone on this trip again but was glad "Sun Sun" (Sun Quan from China) & Indira from Nepal came too! They are here on another course "Persons with Intellectual Disability in Community" and Sun sun(my nickname for her!) is a colleague of Zhou.

Can't help it! The guy standing there....nice "added" effect!

The guides from JICA....funny ladies.

Lake Ashi

Went on a cruise in this ship

Latiffah from Morroco came too!

After cruise ship ride, took a cable car ride up to Owakudani to see the hotsprings

See the smoke?

Black eggs....cook in the hotspring. If you eat one it will prolong your life for 7 years! Eat 3 or more.... sorry most probably have to find the toilet! hahaha

Greedy right?

This photo is specially for the BLACK coffee gang!Democracy for Malaysia!

Wonder how much eggs they sell in a day! Never see so many people eating so many eggs before!

Cooking the eggs in the hotspring
Group photo

Egg Plant, Hospital & Sake

2009-07-10T20:24:00.007+08:00

Today's our last day at Shirakawa.....*SNIFF**SNIFF* Morning we went to a farm. Mr Sato is a famous farmer in this area. And his speciality.......egg plant....... He hired 3-4 Cocoron members to worked in his farm after learning about them.
Egg plant farm....the straws are to prevent any weeds from growing and keeps the moisture in control.

This ladies are part-timers coming to help pack the egg plants.

That's Mr Sato in the middle. Very humble and funny guy. Invited us into his house....very traditional house....altar...deco...and other stuff......
Pickled baby egg plant. Of course those who knows me well knows that no matter how greedy I am there's one thing in the world I would not eat.......egg plant. Yup Did not even touch it despite Keiko tempting me saying that's it's very nice & crunchy.

After Mr Sato's farm we went to a general hospital to visit a member of Cocoron who is employed there. Sorry no photos allowed there. The member, Kawano san was in a mental hospital for 16 years before being discharge. He was then send to this hospital for on-the-job training and after 1 year he was hired full time. The staff are pleased with his work and attitude. He works as a nurse aide....helping in the laundry and changing bed sheets.

After the hospital visit.....we went to Mr Odedaichi (I think that's the spelling) sake place and was invited into his house for lunch. He ordered bento set from Cocoro-ya and also serves tempura, pickled veggies and stewed bamboo shoots with mushrooms.

Getting ready for lunch!

And this is what we had for dessert... key lime pie with homemade apricot sauce and japanese cherries...... do I need to tell you how good it taste? Keiko was very naughty.,.telling me it's egg plant.....
I might as well be wearing the T-shirt saying "Arrest Me. I'm eating too much good food in Japan"! hahahahahahahaThat's Odedaichi-san showing us some of his artifact. He has 2 samurai armour and some old weapons. It's like a mini Tokyo National Museum!
Yes... that's Keiko saying "Dun Mess with me if not you know what I will do to u!" *grin*

After lunch, visited the sake factory which is just behind his house. He and his father and father's father has been producing sake since 1865!

Inside the refinery.

This is where the labeling an packing of the bottles are done. Odedaichi-san has 4 PWDs working there. 2 of them has worked there for more than 20 years! He started hiring PWDs even before the law about hiring PWDs came out. Cool eh...... And he has no problem with them even though at that time there won't any job coach support or support system.

In front of his sake shop. I didn't buy much only 3 bottles! haha 2 to bring home (law only allowed 2 if not I'll get more) and 1 small bottle for Akiko whom I'm meeting this sunday.

After a sake shopping spree back to Cocoron center for feedback session.....
Keiko & Matsuura...must be SMSing their husband saying "honey, I'm coming back tonite!"
Feedback session.......I shared that I never think that people with mental illness are in the disbilities category. In Malaysia I dun think they are categorise in the disabilities section so I never take notice. All I know is that they are also having much difficulty finding jobs as most of them are only able to work part time. I think when I go back to malaysia I will be more aware of them.
Kiran presenting a "Thank You" card (from UV of course!) to Kamada-san from all of us.
I also gave her a pewter letter stand....with the Twin towers, KL tower and the Sultan azlan shah building. (Gave the same one to Shiraiewa-san from Tanpopo-no-ie) Immediately she put the card on the letter stand as display. We then say our "sayonaras" and head to the train station.
This is soooo cool. The train we are taking has a Pokemon theme! Pikachu.....Kawaaaiiii

And the seat cover......kawaaiiiii

The boys settling down in the train

Keiko....er....trying to do a ballet dance in the train.... Must be feeling very stress... Dun blame her...spending 5 days with me can be quite "stressful"! hahahaha

We finally reached Tokyo at about 6:45pm and reached TIC about 7:40pm. phew.....tired and missing Fukushima oledi!! I luv the villages......it's the kind of life I wish I'm living in now. Not much of a city person eventhough I grew up in KL.

Where is Democracy?

2009-07-09T21:22:00.005+08:00

Came back from Cocoron and got an email from Chin Huat asking me to take a photo in Japan with the sign "Where is Democracy?". Daijo bu (No problem!) Few weeks in japan and depraved of social activity here accept drinking BLACK coffee......so happily I took the camera and the piece of paper and went out to snap photos and I know just the right place to take the photo. Coincidently there happens to be a police station just beside the hotel I'm staying in. Perfect!

Apparently we can't find any Democracy in Malaysia so have to look for it in other countries! hahahaha in Japan... maybe there is democracy...maybe not....

That's the police station. Was thinking since I'm snapping pictures might as well take in a few more places.....

Famous japanese drink vending machines......

Train station where we took the Shinkansen(bullet train) ... just behind the hotel

Japanese doll inside the train station.....

Since it's the last night at Fukushima, the boys & I hang out at Kiran's room.....of course have to take one there! Sorry the sign should have said "Where is Democracy in Malaysia?" Maybe I'll do a new one when I'm back in Tokyo tomorrow. Democracy for Perak! Democracy for Malaysia!

If you want to see more pictures go to http://711whereisdemocracy.blogspot.com/

Cocoro-ya & best pickled cucmber I've ever eaten

2009-07-09T18:04:00.003+08:00

This morning first we went to the the Public Health & Welfare office for southern Fukushima. A lady there explain about their job function there and the services they provide for PWDs. That place also provides services for elderly & children.

Next we went to Nagomi-No-Ie (pict below) It's under Cocoron and is a sheltered workshop for Mental Disable. They get contract work there and the place is also used to cook food to be sold at Cocoro-ya. In case you are wondering... Cocoron stands for (Voice of the Heart).

One of the staff showing us the food they cooked to be sold at Cocoro-ya

The kitchen. Small one. No need to have a big one to start a food business. They only need to get a license.
This has got to be the BEST pickled cucumber I've ever tasted. It's pickled in sake husk....the leftovers after sake is produced from the rice.
This is Niko niko ya. A market near town. Many shops in town are closed down due to de-population. So Cocoron together with another group rented this shop and opens it only on thursday to sell fresh products. I bought a pack of sake pickled cucmber here. 350 yen but worth it. Sorry no preservatives is used so I can't keep it and bring it back to Malaysia....Guess I'll have to eat it here.....

Matsuura is happy to see all the fresh veggies.

Next we went to Cocoro-ya. This place is builted by Cocoron but they have to pay rental to the landowner. Only qualified farmers can sell their products here...those who use less chemicals on the veggies. Cocoro-ya has develop quite a reputation for selling quality products.

Nice place!

There's a cafe inside too. That's where we had our lunch. Bento box with plenty of fresh veggies from their farm! I told Keiko that if I eat this everyday I will lose weight! hahahaha Just for your info all the lunch we had are not free, we have to pay for it but it's worth every yen!

Guess what is this? Sake pickled cucumber! I asked the staff at the cafe to help me cut the pack of cucumbers I bought at niko niko ya and asked the others to try! Good food alwiz taste better when you share it! That's my philosophy! oh... the taste of the cucumber.....Can you imagine, the sake infused into the cucumber and when you put it in your mouth the taste of sake fills your entire mouth and combine the crunchiness of the cucumber.....hmmmm

After lunch we went to Cocoron center. There we try our hands at Calligraphy! They have it once a month there and a "sensei" (who is over 80 years old) comes and teach them. It's not a therapy session but just something for the members to do.
The sensei saw my name and asked me to write this 4 letters..."Flower, Bird, Wind, Month" and my name on the side. She wrote a sample for me....guess which one is mine and which one is her's?
Zhou of course has no problem writing chinese but he says calligraphy is different, difficult to write! hahahaha
Nerand trying calligraphy..... not bad... his chinese writing better than mine! Was thinking hmmm maybe Moses (a UV member working in EP. Has autism and non-verbal. ANd he likes to write things on paper) can do this. Maybe it will calm him down and he is able to communicate with us better..........
After that we visited a group home that's just beside Cocoron. About 8 people stays there. Group home is for the members to stay and learn how to live independently. The take turns to clean up, learn how to prepare food and learn how to stay with each other.

Cocoron & sake

2009-07-08T21:15:00.004+08:00

After a nice udon lunch, we headed to another village, Izumizaki to visit another center, Cocoron. It's a center for Person with Mental Disabilities.

This is Cocoron center.

Prof Nonaka giving a welcome speech and introducing our course after Ms Yoshie,the director here gave us a welcome speech.
Tea-break after the intro to Cocoron. They have a shop called Cocoro-ya selling good quality farmer's products and their sale last year was 30 million yen!!
After tea each of us presented our job report....a much shorter version then what we did last friday. Then we had Q&A session.
This is the food that was prepare for our welcome party....tempura, salad, rice cakes....

Yum!Yum!

Waiting for the party to start! Members and staff and some villagers came....

Even the mayor of this village came!

Member of Cocoron enjoying the food...

Members of Cocoron

Prof Nonaka bought a Batik Shirt along! The 2 girls are working at the council office. They are wearing "Yukata"

I found a boyfren! Cute eh? 5 years old......Yue hui-chan( I think that's his spelling). Matsuura was "crazy" over him too! He's such a ladies "man"! hahahahahahahahah
One of the guy who produce sake...bought some of his best sake over....This is the original sake taste. I dun really like it.

I prefer this one... has a fruity taste.... There's another one with lemon...not bad too. No I'm not drunk just enjoying the sake, good food and good company.

Fresh Udon! oiiishi!

2009-07-08T20:31:00.003+08:00

This morning we walk over to Madeiniya, a Udon restuarant, also run by Tanpopo-no-ie. The udon we saw them made yesterday.....it is used in this restaurant.
That's Madeiniya. It's beside a shopping area near our Hotel. The space is given to them free.
Had a feedback session with Shiraiewa-san. She told us her experience before she started Tanpopo-no-ie. I started asking her about self-advocacy in her center (job-habit....can't stray away from it!haha) They do have a self-autonomous group (in japan they use different terms) in the center.

Yanai-san, one of the staff of Tanpopo who helps out at the Udon shop

One of the members of Tanpopo working at the resturant

Great server!

My udon....char siew udon... and they also roast their on rosat pork there. The soup is ....just heavenly. I asked Shiraiewas-san for the "secret" recipe. hahaha

Indra, Keiko & Matsuura enjoying their Udon.

Group picture after lunch!

Udon, Mayor of Samegawa & potatoes!

2009-07-07T20:21:00.007+08:00

Today morning we went back to Tanpopo-no-ie to see the Udon making. First we have to really cover ourselves up....jackets, shower caps, gloves..... I felt like I'm going into a nuclear facilities!

Washing & scrubbing our hands before going in. We had to spray our hands with alcohol too! Very hygenic!

The dough is made yesterday. Then they use this machine to flatten it and cut it up.

The workers collecting the cut up udon.

And hangs it on this rack for drying before packing. About 7 people working together on the machine and collecting the udon. I think only 2 of them are staff. The rest are persons with intellectual disabilities. Team work is very important here. I bought 4 packs of the udon...315 yen per pack..... can't wait to go back to Malaysia and cook it!

Quality control. They will randomly check the moisture of the udon noodle.

After the udon section we left Tanpopo and went to the Mayor of Samegawa's office. He brief us about the situation of the village and situation of the disable people staying there. Nice and humble man. They are trying to promote the village as a tourist area..... I would highly recommend it. Nice, quiet surroundings.

That's the Mayor sitting between Kiran & Indra. On the right is the deputy mayor. The 2 ladies at the back are staff of Tanpopo-no-ie. Oh yes and dun forget Professor Nanaka at the back who is one of the committee member who planned the course. He's also from FUkushima that's why he followed us here.

This is the Tanpopo-no-ie building.

Lunch there again.....I dun mind having lunch here everyday. The ingrdients are so fresh! oiiishiii
Of course after lunch we have to work....... put on the boots and glove and of we went to the plantation area to pick potatoes.
Picking potatoes. Easy...pull the plant out and take all the potatoes from it. We also have to dig deep into the soil to look for more potatoes. A lot of fun... for me... City slicker never work in a farm before! The PWIDs were experts picking and digging out the potatoes.....

Group photo......only 2 staff and the 3 of us...the rest are PWIDs......

Having a tea break after the hard work!

After tea break.... separating the potatoes into big, medium, small & rotten

Saying bye bye to them........Sayonara!! Had a lot of fun picking and separating the potatoes. Too bad dun get to eat them!

We then stop by at the tomato farm that uses the hydrophinics technic. That way they can get the crops at least 3 times a year. And also becoz the vines are up on the stands a wheelchair user can pluck the tomatoes. Another idea of employment for PWDs. But it's expensive to setup a hydro farm...... and not easy as you have to control the temperature.....
Looks beautiful? We were plucking it and eating it.... very sweet & juicy! oiiishii

Prof Nonaka & I

Tampopo-no-ie, House of Dandelion

2009-07-06T22:55:00.008+08:00

This is Samegawa Village. South of Fukushima. This is where the "Tampopo-no-ie" is located. It's a welfare service center to provided training and support for independent living for persons with intellectual disabilities. This trip is planned so we can see the different between Tokyo and places outside of tokyo.
We were brought to the old place first. This center started in 2003. They had to moved as this place is on a steep hill and is not very safe.

Some of the staff of Tampopo-no-ie telling us the background of Tampopo. We were briefed for about 15 mins and the 5 of us were told to have a discussion and imagine 5 years ago when this center were setup.....what are the plans to find work for the PWDs. There's no major corporate companies here....only agriculture stuff and small population...... Not easy....We came out with bamboo basket, packaging, growing vegies, making jam......within 15 mins..not bad yeah? Feedback was most of the ideas is not bad but not sustainable! hahahaha

After that we were bought to the new place.... These are packages of Udon noodles...very cute.. you can customize the design. Here you see parent announcing the birth of their child and printed it on the Udon packaging to distribute. There's also the Nissan company who ordered the udon with a picture of their car to be given to the customers.
ohhhh had lunch there...One of the best food I've ever tasted....the vegies and miso are grown and made there. And the fish is very fresh too.....oiiisshi

The udon making section of tanpopo.....

Letting us taste their homemade blackbean miso.....oiiiishi X10 times!

I told Keiko now I know why she came with us to Fukushima! So many good food! ....look at Matsuura..... enjoying her miso........

Salad dressing and miso in a packaging...... The develope the recipe here. One of the special one is "Egoma" dressing... not sure if you've heard of it but it's a special product of Samegawa.

Pumpkin vodka......too bad they only produce limited bottles end of the year.....

That's their signboard in front of the building.

After Tanpopo....we went to a local farmer's market Temamekan. This is where the farmers around here bring their products to sell.

Cheap and fresh veggies

Egoma ice-cream...taste like black sesame

Later we met the staff of Tanpopo for dinner near our hotel. Bought us to a Japanese style food & drinking place.

Deep fried garlic...the whole bulb.....oiishi

Of course must have sashimi

This is konnyaku....dip it into soya sauce

Grill fish....

Staff of tanpopo-no-ie

More staff of tanppopo-no-ie. The lady in front on the right....She's the director of Tanpopo-no-ie. Shiarawase-san (I think that's the spelling) Fantastic lady. Her relationship with the village people is so good....she got some of the raw products for free! And they have some land to do some agriculture work for free too.....

Dinner was good....beer was good....food was good....the staff were very friendly.......it was a fantastic night.....

Shinkansen to Fukushima

2009-07-06T22:27:00.003+08:00

Yesterday we took the "Shinkansen", bullet train to Fukushima, north of Tokyo. Very fast...we arrived in 1 hour and 20 mins.
Waiting room at the train station for the disabled. Japan service...ichi ban! We waited in the room for the personnel to come assist us.
Matsuura san showing us the disabled toilet. I luv the huge open & close buttons!
When you are with wheelchair users....u go places.....we have to take a "secret" route behind to access to the lift.
That's er.... Keiko-san......noticed the red painted floor and the disabled sign in the picture before this?

One of the bullet train.

Taking a pict with both my "Tai Kors"

The double decker model. Too bad the one we are taking is only single deck.

Waiting room at the platform.

Matsuura & I. We were both looking at a shopping catalogue and laughing at some of the products. It's hilarious...there's one product where you can practice karaoke without disturbing anyone.....er...dunno how to discribe....I took the catalogue back (we are allowed to do that) so if you want to know ask me to show you!

Checking in. Our hotel is just beside the train station.

Kamakura

2009-07-06T21:53:00.005+08:00

On Saturday, I sign up under JICA to go for a trip to Kamakura...a popular tourist spot south-west of Japan. JICA has arranged a group of volunteers to be our tour guide. The are called Kanagawa Social Goodwill Guide (KSGG). So a group of us, 25 JICA "kenshuin" (participants) took a train to meet our guides.....
Met this lady on the train from Morocco. Her name is Latifah. Her course is similiar to mine...Employment for Rural Woman. Interesting woman....vibrant.....Might go to Disneyland with her.

View of the Pacific Ocean from the train.

Thot I would be "alone" without frens since the boys did not sign up for the trip. Hard for wheelchair users to go. Anyway was glad that this 2 "clowns" also came along. They are Laina & Erni from Indonesia. Knew them from japanese language class. Sad that they are going back on tuesday. I like hanging out with them. Funny...I alwiz talk to Indonesians but cannot find any malaysians at TIC. The indonesians are alwiz amuse that a chinese comes up to them and ask "Apa Khabar" and they will go ohhh and then ask me where I'm from. When I said malaysia they will go "ahhhhhh". kekeke Thing is they dun see many "chinese" malaysian here as most of the JICA kenshuin from malaysia are malays(government servant).

Gate to the Shrine. Built by the a shogun....Minamoto something.......

Washing hands and rinsing mouth.

These are the sake barrels offered to the temple for the Gods.

Write down your wishes and hang the wooden thingy.

Having lunch with our guides. We were divided into groups and at least 3-4 guides are assigned to each group. They will explain the history of the places. These are all volunteers from KSGG.
Maple tree....my name sake. Yes "Foong" does not mean wind...it means maple leaf.

The great Buddha. Kamakura most famous attraction. Group photo. Can you spot me?
Buddha is 11m(I think) high and weigh 121 tons. It's the second largest statue in Japan. Used to be indoor but the great Kanagawa Tsunami destroy everything surrounding it except for this statue.

Last photo with our guides.

Had a great time. Tiring but glad that I sign up for the trip.

Job Report & eating yakitori

2009-07-05T12:29:00.007+08:00

On friday, all of us has to present our Job Report, the one we have to submit when we applied for this course. As each of us only have 10 mins (10mins to speak and 10 mins for interpretation) Keiko was worried we dun have enough time to finish. Most of us has to cut out at least half of our slides! hahahaha
The presentation is open for the public to come and hear us report about our workplace and some of the situation in our country. About 20 people came, most of them are active advocates for the disabled in Japan.
Zhou (or Joe....nickname for him!) went first. He talked about his organization, China Disabled People's Federation and about his jobscope there.
Next is Indra. He's working in the National Federation of the Disabled-Nepal.
My turn, of course I talked about UV, employment project and a bit about Vocational Rehabilitation in Malaysia. Someone asked me about the Disability Act and what are impressed me most about the Japan welfare ssytem. I shared that I'm impressed that in Japan services and taking care of the people of very good and all the people are very well trained. Next to me is my interpreter...sorry can't remember her name. She and Matsuura take turns to interprete for us. Thank you ladies...... stressful for them.....
After me, we had a short break. One of the guy who has hearing impairment and is an expert in Economics was talking to me about the employment project. He was very impressed that only in 6 years time we could increase our profit 6 times from RM20,000 to RM122,000! Ask me what is the secret behind it and I told him that I can't tell him since it's a secret! hahaha

After the break it was Kiran's turn. He was good... finish in exactly 20 mins.. the rest of us was a bit over...
Last & finally...Nerand's turn, talking about the Suva special school in Fiji where he's working as the acting assisstant head teacher.

After the presentation I had to rush off to change and meet Masaki at Shinjuku. She came back to Japan for the weekend to attend her fren's wedding so I asked her to bring some stuff for me from Malaysia.
This is a small world... I was a bit lost and waiting for Masaki and I saw someone coming towards me in a motorize wheelchair and I thot she looks familiar. That's Seinep from Kyrgyzstan. Met her in Malaysia 2 years ago when we attended the DET (Disability Equality Training) at Sentul. And she was also looking for her guide.....and when I met her guide (another Akiko), turns out she was Keiko's colleague. Thank goodness I bump into them. I asked Akiko if she could call Masaki and tell here where I was. And Masaki finally found me. Seinep says it's God's intervention! Amen! Nice to see her again.....

So I ask Masaki to bring to eat yakitori...... should see her face when she looks at the menu.... boy she really miss Japanese food.... wants to order everything! I told her I only want to try original yakitori.. the rest she can order what she likes...

Tofu Salad...oiiiishiiiii

This is my favourite... takowasa... raw octupus, okra, wasabi, a bit of orange zest. Mix them together and it was goooooddd..... strange mix but it taste good...
Deep fried fish....Masaki says she miss eating fish so she ordered this.... oiiishi

Our place nearly could not fit all our food! hahaha

hmmm..... the main thing we came for... Yakitori...we ordered a mix plate...chicken wings, mince chicken, giblet, liver, heart, skin and meat. Almost everything except for the rear end and the head!!
After dinner we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Tower where we could go up to the 45th Floor. Nice night lights of Tokyo. When we were at the basement we saw homeless people setting up thier "bed" there. Yes... there are homeless people in Japan. More especially now with the economic downturn.

Masaki being a tourist in her own country! hahaha

Thanks Masaki for a very oiishi dinner and for bringing me my stuff from Malaysia. Domo arigato gosaimasu! Too bad she could only come back for the weekend.....

Atsugi City-Visit homes of Disable persons

2009-07-03T10:48:00.008+08:00

Yesterday, went to Atsugi City at Kanagawa to visit the homes of disable persons. It's about 1 hour from Central Tokyo. First house we went to is Mrs Miyae Matsuda. She is quadriplegia and is staying with her husband and 1 daughter. She is also a trained graphic artist. She is staying in Public housing.

That's her in the middle

Showing some paintings from a disabled painting group called "Group KAN" which she belongs to.
She is a very strong advocate. At the time when she got her disabilities (80's) the services offered in Japan was not very good and she has to advocate for better things for PWDs. Very inspirational and independent lady. Ganbatte!

This is her house helper a service offered by the government. She comes to help cook lunch for Mrs Matsuda.

After Mrs Matsuda's house we stop by at the local welfare center to have lunch and have a look at the center.

At the cafe......there's 2 persons with intellectual disabilities working here.

What I have for lunch..... japanese fried rice with dried shrimp, soup, salad, green tea & coffee. 580 yen....
A small shop selling snacks and other items there. Lady behind the counter is a wheelchair user.

Next we when to a Mr Jinno's house. He's also a quadriplegia. Had a motorbike accident when he was a uni student. After 1 year at the hospital he decided to go back to study and now he's working full time at home doing data entry. He's paralyse from neck down and can only move his right arm. 1 of the reasons he could go back to Uni to study is becoz the Uni has facilities for the disabled.
Mr Jinno is renting a private apartment not becoz he can afford it but public housing has no units for him.

Showing us how he operates the computer. The mouse was modified by Uni students for him to use.

Handsome chap right? hehe

Needs the slope at the entrance for his wheelchair.

Next we visited Mr & Mrs Machida. Husband got spinal cord injury and wife had cerebral palsy. Mr Machida is the manager of a sheltered workshop which we had a quick stop before going to his place. There are staying in a 1 story house which was built from stretch to accommodate their accessibility.

Showing the kitchen design... there's enough space underneath the sink to fit her wheelchair.

It's a lift that helps them get on to the wheelchair, get to the toilet and get to the bathtub. Amazing! That is why they decided to built a house of their own so they can install things like that. If they are staying in a public house or rent an apartment they can't install a lift like that.

That's them in front. Cute couple. Has been married for 26 years. We were wondering how they can afford the house but they took a housing loan and there's special rates for PWDs. And special things like the lift and motorized beds are subsidized by the government.

Overall these people are able to live an independent life becoz of support not only from the government but also from people surrounding them. It's important we do not see them as burdens but as part of our society. And they themselves also do not want to burden us but to live life independently and fully. It was a tiring day but certainly an enriching experience listening to them share their life stories with us.

Bakery and Tokyo Vocational Center

2009-07-02T21:26:00.009+08:00

On Tuesday visited the Swan Bakery. Founded by the late Mr Masao Ogura, who founded the Yamato Delivery service. This place mostly employs person with intellectual disabilities who works as bakers, chefs, cashier and waiters. It has 26 branches all over Japan providing employment to 280 PWDs. Key points there to making PWDs a reliable work force there:

Praise them from day one
Not to give orders
Let them choose by themselves

I think that's quite similiar to self-advocacy! haha Another thing is they dun promote that PWDs are working in the shop. Customer comes in to buy food like going into any other shops which is good....not charity based but a real business.
Yes...those are really PWDs working behind the counter....and a few others baking at the back.
Can you see my saliva drooling......can't wait to buy the breads.....the smell is fantastic!

Matsuura was very happy. She also can't wait to buy the bread......

Explaining to Kiran what is what.....

There's Prof. Ogawa on the left (he's one of the committee member who's in charge of this course) and on the right behing Kiran is Mr Ayumu Kaitsu, CEO of this Swan Bakery. Gave him my card and asked him to come and visit UV to give us advice on how to expand our bakery. hahahaha

After Swan Bakery, we went to the Tokyo Vocational Center at Ueno. This center serves the people living in Tokyo. They offer training and a "return-to-work" training for those who has mental disabilities who had to take long leave due to illness.

Training how to sort out key chains into different sizes and colours.

This is the evaluation room for vocational counsellors to evaulate a PWD.

Matsuura explaining how to use the device.

Me trying the er.....device. I think I past! hahahaha

Another device....

No elevator? No problemo!

2009-07-01T21:57:00.003+08:00

At the train station we were wondering how to get to the platform with no lift and why the station personnels asked us to wait near the escalator. This is why......

Now this is Japanese service for u. Malaysia public transport provider...*pppfffttttt*.....

Isetan Soleil & PESO

2009-07-01T20:39:00.007+08:00

If u watched the video above, can you guess the lady is a person with Intellectual (Learning) Disabilities?Visited Isetan Soleil yesterday. It's a special subsidary of Isetan. What's special subsidary? Well.... in Japan there's a law that says companies must have at least 1.8% of Persons with Disabilities working in their company. Failing to fulfil that the companies are fined at least 50,000 yen per person per month. So some companies formed special subsidaries where they hired only PWDs to work there. Isetan Soleil has 28 PWDs working there, 26 of them have Intellectual Disabilities and 2 with physical disabilities.
Folding gift boxes. Noticed the cardboard in the middle with words? It's called an assitive device to help make sure the box is properly folded. The staff uses assitive devices to train the employees here in various jobs. Kind of what we do in United Voice.

The instruction printed out for reference.

Doing stamping..... can you imagine doing stamping the whole day... sure got a few that's out of place but this workers can stamp it perfectly!

Guy with the tie is a Job Coach.

Pasting sticker in the Isetan brochure

Matsuura-san explaning about the folding of the paper. For ladies who wants to try out clothes at Isetan so their makeup does not smear the clothes.

That's Masakuni Shioden, President of Isetan Soleil. This is an important guy. He's the one who suggested this idea. Previously most of the work here are done by sales or accounting people (with no disabilities) and it's taking a lot of thier time and he formed this subsidiary to do all the so call "background" work. Now the PWDs have employment and the sales & accounts people can concentrate on doing thier job. Win-win situation! Here he's showing us the cards used by 1 of the employees who has no verbal skills. Blue card says "I've finish my work". Red card says "I've made a mistake". See.... what disabilities? She can speak through the cards.

Sorting out credit cards bills

The workplace

Went to Isetan to see the products. Keiko has to specially buy a handkerchief so we can see the packaging with the ribbon.
After Isetan we went to the Public Employment Security Office (PESO) or now known as "Hello Work" Job seekers come here to find jobs. And they have a section for PWDs. This computer is especially for PWDs to navigate and find job. There are jobs that's specifically for PWDs. Non-PWDs cannot apply. How cool is that!
The usual photo taking session in fron of the PESO office. The lady on the right is in charge of employment for PWDs.

National Rehabilation Center for PWDs (NRCD)

2009-06-30T22:17:00.004+08:00

Yesterday visited the National Rehabilitation Center and the National Vocational Rehabilitation Center for PWDs at Saitama Prefecture. I think that's Masaki's hometown, right? It's about 1 hour drive from Tokyo.Took the photo from the brochure..show you how big the center is. There's admin building, hospital, training center, dormitories, driving range, baseball field, college, research center and other stuff.... it's huge! The Japanese government started building it around 1979 to meet the needs of PWDs. The center offers training in independent living, transition suport for employment and other stuff. Want to find out more... http://www.rehab.go.jp/English/

Each of our countries flag at the conference room.

Showing us the room the occupational therapist train PWDs using the wheelchair how to bathe.
More photos. We are not allowed to take any photos unless there's no patient around....and this room has no one so we were happily snapping pictures.

Laundry room. Most of them have Intellectual disabilities. They are receiving training and at the same time the hospital staffs uniform get's washed & iron.

This hand looks very real..... or is it a real hand?

One of the guy explaining to us the about the hands & legs at the Prosthetics & Orthotics Laboratory.
Visited the Vocational Rehabilitation Center in the afternoon which is next to the NRCD. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take any photos of in the center so only got this of the logo. There's Prof. Terashima on the right who gave us a short lecture on the rehabilitaion process. The NVRCD gives vocational training to PWDs so they are equip with the skills to be employ. Courses they offer there...Mechatronics, Interior Design, IT, business management, practical work (specially for intellectual disabilities) like, office work, hotel service & product distribution. There you can also get vocational counselling and job coach support once you found a job. WOW. If only we have such a center in Malaysia. Not only good facilities but good well trained staff. Even the roads outside the center is barrier free with tactiles for the blind and wider walkway so the trainees can come to the center independently. Overall when I look at the trainess there, there's something I see in all of them...HOPE.

Homestay at Sagamiono

2009-06-30T21:22:00.006+08:00

Last saturday went for the homestay program. Keiko-san and Kitagawa-san came to TIC to bring us to the station.

That's Kitagawa san with Indra in the train

Once we reached the Sagaimono Station which is about 40mins from central Tokyo, I saw my host family...holding a placard with my name.... nice..... There's Hiroko-san (L), Aki-san and her daughter Hikaru-chan.
Indra & my host family is at the same place so we were bought to the home of Hiroko who's the leader of the "Hippo Club". Hippo club has been around for about 20 years in many pasrts of Japan and the members join it to learn other languages and culture not from a teacher but by hosting people from other countries. So I was surprise that a lot of them knows how to greet me "Apa Khabar" even the chhildren. One of them has stayed in Malaysia before with a host family.

Tea time after the introductory session and games time.

The ladies and children of Hippo Club. Guess what action we are making? I requested all of them to do this action for my camera....hehe
My host family....Aki-san, husband, Shinobu-san and 6 years old daughter, Hikaru chan playing a japanese card game. And they call me Foong-chan.... hehe. In Japan, you call an adult's name and end it with"san" and for children, it's "chan" so I guess I'm still a kid! haha and Hikaru calls me "onesan" elder sister.
Back of thier house, 3 stories, quite narrow, below is 1 guest room, 2nd floor is the living, dining & kitchen....and top floor is the entire master bedroom.

Dinner...what else to eat but sushi!

Have to show this. This meat is taken from the fin of a fish. Texture is like jelly fish...crunchy... I like it. So does Aki-san.
Fresh Blueberries!! Akisan and Hikaru-chan went to pick(dun think they are "self-plucking"! hahahaha) it in the morning before meeting me at the station........told them never eaten fresh ones before.....

The guest room where I slept...

Japanese Breakfast! Rice, grill fish, miso soup, salad, fried egg, sweet potatoe salad and this sourish seaweed thingy.

When to a museum nearby.....replica of a traditional Japanese house. I've seen it a lot in Japanese anime....like in "Inuyasha"......

Sending me off at the train station! Only stayed 1 nite. Had to return to TIC on sunday.

Indra's host family and mine......really didn't want to see us go or the other way round!! hahahahahahahahahahahahaha Had a great time! tiring but wonderful experience......

Decent Work and Facilitator skills

2009-06-24T20:03:00.004+08:00

Not feeling very well so won't write too much today......

Yesterday in the morning Hideko san, a lady who has rheumatism when she was a teenager so now she's a wheelchair user shared with us her experience. She's now working in INAX, one of the largest company in Japan.....er......they sell toilets and some other stuff including interior designing. Amazing...18% of employees there are people with disabilities.
That's Ms Hideko in the middle, behind her is her helper, a service from the government if she needs one.
Afternoon we had the lecture on right of decent work for PWDs. What is Decent Work? Many explanation.... work with dignity, meaningful work, etc.....Matsui san, (the one on my right) was telling us the different convention, resolutions of the right of PWDs to have decent employment.

Today we had Ikezumi san teaching us facilitators skills. He started by asking us to write down what we call People with disabilities in our own country.

China

In Malaysia the government's term was "Orang Kurang Upaya" OKU, People lack of Abilities. I shared that most of the PWDs would like to change the "K" to "Kuat", People with strong abilities and Ikezumi san likes it very much, says we should advocate to the government to change.

Japanese. There was another term, Sho Gai Sho but Matsuura san said she prefers to use this term when doing translation as that one is very negative.

That's Matsuura san, Ikezumi san and Take san on the right just came back from Ghana as a JOCV(Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers) volunteer and was interested in observing what we do in this course. The session is very interesting. Ikezumi san used very simple illustrations, no laptops, no projector. There r 2 different types of Education. 1 is "Education of Authority", putting in ideas and the other one is "Education of Change" which is drawing out ideas. Which one do u thing is better?

He also shared with us about 5 points on important Principles/Philosophies behing Faclitator:

Everyone has rich experience, knowledge, skills & power (including children)
Start with what people know,concern/interest. Build on what we have.
Change is possible!
Change comes from inside...(waiting is important)
Process than content. (He wrote down this quote, Democracy cannot be developed through the Authoritarian way and he demonstrated it. I laughed and told him that's how our government is behaving.....telling us there's democracy but ruling us with authoritative ways!)

My medicine, pills for cough and the powder is for cold.

Ok enough blogging. Went to see the doctor after Japanese class. Thank goodness JICA provide this facility here in TIC. Gave me medicine for cough and cold. Very drowsy now. Funny thing is I bought all sort of medicine from Malaysia and MC was telling me to get cough syrup and I told her dun need becoz I wouldn't be getting it. And first thing I got...cough. Irony....

Official program starts today!

2009-06-22T20:21:00.006+08:00

The official program starts today. Morning had the program briefing where we meet all the persons who is involved with this 7 weeks course.

The orientation is simple. We all introduce ourselves and Mr Asahi (who lost his voice so he mostly write the words down on the whiteboard and Keiko has to "voice" out for him) explained about the program. For the next 3 weeks we will have lectures, visitation, learning skills like facilitating, business management & organization. 1 week we will visit the Fukushima Prefecture. of course we have to submit some reports, job report which most of us prepare oledi before coming over, a Project Plan and a Progress Report (to submit 6 months after going back to our home country)

Amazing... so many people arranging for this course for only 5 of us. The back row, L-R: Keiko, Mr Akira Terashima, Mr Masaya Asahi, Mr Yoshmichi Ogawa, Okuhira-san, Sadaie-san &
Kitagawa-san. ermmmm If I have to write their position and from where it will take up an entire blog so later...if got time Front row: Zhou, Nerand, me, Indra & Kiran
Later on the way to the Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare, we stop by to take photos of the Japanese parliment or what they call there "Diet". Amazing when the Americans bomb Tokyo during the WW2 almost everything was flatten and this building was left intact. Very nice Aztec architecture.

View from the 17th floor of the Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare.

Mr Takao Chinone who works for the welfare department. He gave us the lecture on the Welfare Services for the Persons with Disabilities in Japan. Here the term they use is different from us. They use Intellectual Disabilities and we use Learning Disabilities. There's 3 categories in Japan,

Physical Disabilities which includes the visual & hearing impairment
Mental Disabilities, schizophrenia and other mental illness
Intellectual Disabilities

PWDs who are 18 years & above needs to apply for a cetificate (like our welfare card) in order to get the benefits from the government. 18 and below doesn't need as they are cover under the children welfare law. Those who are severe to moderate disabilities will get a pension from the government about 990,100yen a year.... sounds like a lot...even more then what I get in my 1 year salary but not enough if you are living in Japan. That's y they need to work and the gov is trying to create more employment for them. There's so many things to read on their welfare law....even Mr Takao couldn't finish the lecture in under 2 hours!
Came back about 5:30pm...check my mails and then went for my first Japanese lessons class, free at TIC. Classes is on from Mon-Wed, 6:30pm-8pm for the next 3 weeks. There were 7 of us in the class, me, Nerand, 1 from China, 1 from Sierre Leone, 1 from Jamaica and 2 from Indonesia. Basically we just make fun of each other's pronunciations! It was funny & hilarious! The teacher is damn funny. I took japanese lessons before more then 10 years ago and forgot most of it but the teacher knows that I learnt before becoz straight away I greeted her with "konbanwa" and pronounce it correctly! phew! She taught us the standard greetings and how to introduce ourselves:
Hajimemashite (How do you do?)
Moh Foong desu (My name is Moh Foong)
Malaysia no Kuala Lumpur kara kimashita ( I am from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
shigoto wa komuin desu (I work as a social worker)
Dozo yoroshiku (Nice to meet you)

Have to memorize it for tomorrow's lessons!

Meeting Akiko

2009-06-21T23:30:00.006+08:00

Met Akiko today (not the one in Malaysia who sleeps at 8pm!), an old fren. Last time I met her was when she was in Singapore with her parents in 2000. Still looks the same, slightly thinner. She bought me to Shibuya with the famous crossroads. Couldn't get a nice picture as it was raining.

It's amazing that it's raining and people still comes out. Everyone has their own umbrella. I had one too! bought it from malaysia as the JICA officer told us it's raining season. This is Akiko.

We walk from Shibuya to Harajuku. Bought the tickets to the Ghibli Museum at "Lawson"...it's a convenient store smimilar to 7-11. First thing I asked Akiko to do is to help me to get it becoz the instructions at the machine is all japanese. Keat Lim, Wan Ching......I'm going to Ghibli Museum on the 12th July! Yippee!! I will try to take photos but no cameras allowed inside. For those of you who wants to go in the future...contrary to what the website tells you...dun have to book 1 month in advance. For fans of Miyazaki, you want to go but cannot go here's the website link http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ cool eh?

Took a train back to Shinjuku and had lunch at Takashimaya.

I ordered cha-shoba...niceeeee

After lunch Akiko bought me to a cafe....can't remember the name......french name.....anyway the interior is nice. simple gray with paintings of gods & deities on the wall

Oh and this place only sells their famous tarts........

Akiko ordered a mango & fig tart..... delicious. 2 pieces of tart and 2 cups of coffee cost 2600 yen. expensive no? I think it's roughly the same price as KL for this kind of places.

First Saturday in Tokyo! Lepak time!!

2009-06-20T23:16:00.000+08:00

It's Saturday!! and of course we have to go out. Went to Akibahara becoz Indra & Nerand wants to get a digital camera ASAP. And so off we go trying to figure out the Tokyo rail system with our limited or no vocabulary of japanese language. I was the acting "tour guide" guiding the boys at the station! hahaha Not too bad. Did not get lost at all, well almost.... Nearest station for us is Hatagaya...take to Shinjuku and then we had to walk about 5 mins to the JR line to change train to Akibahara.
This is the Shinjuku JR Station, one of the largest station in Tokyo....they are 13-14 gates to different lines!Everyone is walking super fast....... And we can't find any lift for wheelchair users becoz commuteers have to go up a flight of stairs to catch the train. What did we do?...... Go straight to the info counter. What they lack in facilities....they make it up in services. The guy at the service counter politely ask us to wait there....and then they send 2 personals to escort us to the lift.....there is one..you just have to know how to get to it...it's like going through a maze!
The 2 "kawaiii" personals bought us all the way up to the platform, got ready the ramp, waited for the train to come...
And then when the train arrived....put the ramp and then make sure we are safely inside the train then only ask the train to move....
Indra, Kiran & Nerand enjoying the train ride. Took us a while to get on it but at least we are on the way.
This is something our transport people should learn. When we arrived at Akihabara (I told them where we were going earlier) there were 2 other personals waiting for us with the ramp. So efficient and very coordinated! And after that they escorted us all the way to the ticket exit! wow.. I'm impress.....

I heard from Kiran later (they had to go back to TIC on their own becoz I went to UENO so no more travel guide!) that they send someone to escort them all the way back to Hatagaya station so they did not get lost at all. Wow!

Akihabara! It's like stepping into my heaven! Electronics shop everywhere! Though it's very, very noisy...there's people shouting everywhere. And of course we get duty free prices. And it's cheap!

You can also get a lot of anime stuff here. I had to ditch the boys becoz they still want to look around for cameras and other stuff and I really, really want to visit the Tokyo National Museum before it close at 6pm. So I walk all the way to Ueno Park (about 15 mins) from Akibahara.

I think this ia a life size replica of a whale at UENO park. This statue is next to the Science Museum. If only they would stop killing them......
ahh... Finally reached the Tokyo National Museum before 4pm. Entrance is 600 yen. About RM22. Roughly the same price I paid to go into the Lourve at Paris but at that time it was student price. But then again you can spend the whole day at the Lourve and there's more things to see. If Kiran & Indra are here I can most probably go in for free as the admission is free for the disabled and their supporting fren. This is the main building called Honkan. It houses the sculptures, metal art, swords, paintings and other stuff from prehistoric-to present Japan. Spend one and a half hour here.
Kiddies ride at Ueno Park. So many rides! Helena & Haeleigh(my goddaughters) would luv this place....I miss them....

UENO park

Ameyoko at Ueno. Very cheap stuff. I bought a business bag there for 1050 yen!
Was glad the boys could make it back to TIC. Was a bit worried for them. After dinner we lepak at the lounge beside the dining hall. Saturday night! One group was playing some techno music on the computer. We were just sitting there chatting and drinking beer. I didn't drink any and bought my own orange juice becoz I had the Sapporo beer the night before and didn't like it. Too tired to walk out to buy other brands. ;P

Want to know more about Japan?

2009-06-19T19:42:00.003+08:00

yup.... yesterday & today was lectures on getting to know Japan.
Started with learning about Japanese people yesterday. Learned something about Omote & Ura. Interesting concept....omote is front and ura is back.....something like that. Japanese are bought up to show more omote then ura. It's their way of life. When I heard that I'm glad I wasn't born a japanese...Can you imagine me having to behave prim & proper all the time?! hahahaha

After lunch we learned about japanese economy...wah thot I was going to fall asleep during the lecture....me..learning economics...yeah right...and the professor was using all the economics jargon. But then it got interesting when he started talking a bit of history....one of my favourite subject. He was very frenly too...Has been to Malaysia to teach at University Malaya as a guest lecturer so he was chatting with me ...told me he likes to go Klang and eat Bak Kut Teh.

Today in the morning we learned about Japan education system. And after lunch, Japanese politics, which I was sharing about our monarchy system...said that mostly we think the Royals are wasting our tax payers money....thank goodness the lecturer did not ask me about the political parties in Malaysia....dun think got enuff time to talk about the BN cronies.

Finally the last lecture was on Japanese history. And the lecturer started on the atomic bombing on Hiroshima. And guess what? He says the bombing is not what stop the WW2, it contributed to it but the russians were also instrumental in making the japanese surrender plus many other factors. My personal opinion.... no matter what the americans says it does not justify them using the bomb on the civilians. Nuclear energy is a terrible thing and to think our government is going to built a nuclear plant just to supply electricity? What were they thinking? oh right.... they dun think at all.....
of course after a long day of lectures I bought (cheh....like a local) the boys out to jalan jalan. Funny that the locals always look at me and expect me to interprete becoz they thot I might be a Japanese but then I look back at them with a blank face and shake my head. hahahaha

Shop selling fruits & veggies... fruits are expensive......

Food at TIC

2009-06-17T16:21:00.002+08:00

This is what I had for dinner yesterday....Beef balls cooked in yoghurt with rice-540 Yen. We get free green tea, rice tea, coffee & tea. The Rice tea is very good & refreshing!

Usually they will display the set which cost about 600 yen (the amount JICA give us for our daily dinner) or you can choose ala carte inside. Once you've chosen your food, take the no. tag, go to the cashier pass them the tag and the meal card to swipe and then you take a seat and your food will be served to you. Very efficient!
The ala carte food inside....see the green tags on top....you have to note the number on the food you want and take the tag with the number on it.

The dining hall. I love this place not only becoz there's food..... You get so many people from so many different countries sitting down here eating. There's people from south east asia, africa, east asia, asia-pacific, latin america. You hear the different languages being spoken while eating.... it's beautiful. All from different countries sitting down having a meal together. All of us are different but yet all of us are the same. We are all human beings striving to create a better life for ourselves and for other human beings by coming here to attend courses. How cool is that?

ah yes.... this is what I had for lunch.... black pepper pork set -500yen.

Narend enjoying his stir fry beef

2nd Day at Tokyo-Orientation

2009-06-17T15:33:00.005+08:00

Today is the first of the many orientation days. They are 5 participants in this course and I'm the only female. In the morning we had a briefing about the facilities, rules & regulations of Tokyo International Center(TIC). In the afternoon we saw a video on how to use the subway or trains, where and how to buy tickets. If you've seen the rail map u will know what I'm talking about. After the video I told the lady that we are even more confused!! hahaha

Later we had a briefing about our program schedule by a JICA officer, Ms Sadaie. Funny she says the title of our course "Employment Promotion & Realization of Decent Work of Persons with Disabilities" is very long so should we just call it "Decent work for PWDs". Straight away I agreed with her...... took me a few weeks to remember that title!!

Our main training coordinator is Ms Matsuura, Riko. I think it will take a while before I can remember all their names. I'm good with faces but very, very bad with names.

Briefing room

The communications room where we do photocopying, printing, rent videos, CDs, karaoke, see the information counter and the travel agent.

Entrance to the TIC. Main door will be locked at 11:30pm but the lady told us that you can enter at another place if we come back later than 11:30pm. Phew!! At least I know I won't be lock out if I lepak way past that time........

Karaoke Room

In-house Clinic

Laundry Room. She's showing us the machine that's specially and only for wheelchair users to use.

2 of my coursemates, Zhou Kai from China and Narend from Fiji

Indra on the left & Kiran, both from Nepal

L-R: Ms Sadaie, Mr Saito and Ms Kashitani

1st day at Tokyo

2009-06-16T12:58:00.005+08:00

Amazing...I survived the 7 hours trip without vomitting. Took 2 motion sickness pills and slept for about 4 hours and I ate sandwiches! Usually any flying that's more than 3 hours.... u will see my face turning green. ohh I like JAL... dun have the usual airplane smell that I hate.

Anyway see the 2 clowns below... Liz & Jo send me off at KLIA... they want to make sure that I REALLY leave the country!! hahaha

I'm just practising the victory sign that most Jap will use when taking photos!
Where I'll be staying for the next 6 weeks....JICA Tokyo International Center
Met 2 participants from my course....we were on the same bus from the airport. The coordinators were there too, Ms Yayoi Kashitani and Ms Riko Matsuura.
The disable toilet in the room for disabled. This toilet is huge... compare to the one in my room..... the bathtub is very deep...almost half my height. Wonder how Swee Lan can get on & off the bathtub without a ladder a few years ago?! hahahahahah
My room......first thing I did? Plug in my computer.....hahahahBought my own laundry basket....it's foldable...very convenient!
Streets of Tokyo....went straight to the 100 Yen shop! Funny... when I was walking out I saw a guy walking the same route as me and holding the same map so I asked him if he's heading to where I'm heading. He doesn't know where he wants to go so I said why dun I bring u to the 100 yen shop (cheh!!) Turns out he was one of the participants in the same course as me!... Narend Prasad from Fiji. So the both of us was just walking & walking around the streets...... and a lot of Japs were just looking at him becoz he's black..... weird like they never see a black guy before!

This is what I had for brunch..... pork Ramen. You have to buy the ticket first and then go in to this very, very small shop and pass them the ticket. There weren't any english on the machine so I anyhow press and hope that there won't be any brinjal in my noodles! hahaha phew thank god it was good tasty porky ramen! Cost me about RM25 but it's was delicious! and the portion is huge!
of course how to resist not eating sushi in Japan? 4 pieces for 290 Yen... not very expensive.... will have it for teatime. Anyone wants to join me? No? hahahahah

Bye bye Old House

2009-02-21T11:48:00.003+08:00

I'm back!! Have started a blog for United Voice during the conference at Penang so I'm in a blogging mood now. hahaha BTW check out the UV blog at http://uvselfadvocacy.blogspot.com

Thot I'll write about my old house. That's right I've moved since beginning of this year. To where? I've moved from Taman Desa to Taman Desa. yup...... moved to a new condo opposite the Tmn Desa medical center with my family (unfortunately!).

I always thot that I won't be missing the house since I've have been staying at Josephine's place quite often for the past few months. But of course shifting my stuff for the last few days it suddenly hit me how much I'm going to miss the place. I've stayed there for almost 26 years. On the last day I went to every area and said bye. Bye bye house. Thanks for providing shelter, laughter, fun, tears, confusion, joy, learning, anger, comfort and love to me for the past 26 years.

Had to throw away tons of stuff. One of it was my collection of bus tickets.....*sniff* *sniff*

I'll miss my garden...

Badminton court/Drying clothes area/BBQ area/Netball court

Library

Entrance to the kitchen

Living room (R) and dining area

Kitchen

Going to miss all the tiles...This are classic Nyonya tiles.....beautiful right? James & Mei was asking me that if the new owner wants to renovate can they come and take the tiles.... hehe

Johari's Torch Run

2008-04-27T00:05:00.006+08:00

My boss, Johari (UV President) was chosen to be one of the Olympics Torch bearer by Samsung. What he did was he submitted an essay and was selected. I wanted to submit mine too but after reading through his (of course I have to help him edit a bit) essay I thot mine was not as inspiring as his. Basically he was writing about his experience as someone with learning disabilities and what he has been doing in UV promoting self-advocacy. Anyway I was estatic when I heard that he has been chosen.

Johari and I went for the briefing at Wisma OCM on sunday. It was exciting seeing some of the sports people there....the Sidek brothers, Yap Kim Hock(badminton players, if you dun know) and Nicol David who was just sitting beside me as she was under Samsung, very friendly person........ and some other personalities. I saw Jemilah Mahmood(president of Mercy Malaysia) and went up to her and shake her hands telling her that we are from the same school (Assunta). First thing she ask me if I'm going for the alumni dinner.... I told her no. Couldn't afford the ticket which cost RM200!

Woke up the next day thinking wow it's like waking up into a dream.... the day has finally come.... though I'm not the one running I was very excited for Jo. Samsung has 10 runners, 4 ambassors and 6 essay winners. The Samsung PR people was nice to let me tag along with all of them as I explained that Jo needs a supporting friend. We met at KL sentral and then went to Dataran Merdeka where we hang out at the Samsung tent to wait for the opening ceremony. I was known as "the nanny". I was keeping some of thier phones, wallets, cameras.....and other stuff. Then we went to Stadium Merdeka to hang around until the second leg starts. The Samsung torch bearer's run starts after 4pm from Sungai Wang to KL Tower. Jo's part was at the bottom of the road leading up to KL Tower. Sad to say I did not see him run as I was stuck in the Samsung van in a traffic jam near sungai wang but I did see Nicol run. And then after that we had a celebration party at the Chinoz, KLCC. Yup I think that was the summary for that day. We had a lot of fun and made some friends.

Steven was scolding me about taking part in this event after what the Chinese govenment did to Tibetians. I told him that these people shouldn't do it during the torch relay or even at the olympics. Though I sympatize with them there are other ways to protest but dun touch the Olympics. I'm a huge Olympics fan. I dun care which country is hosting them I support the event. Plus I think the protesting is a western propaganda. Yes China do have human rights issues but so does other countries especially the one that has a "chickenhawk" as a president.

Feeling a bit jealous that I was not one of the runners but I'm very happy for Jo eventhough he has no idea of the history of olympics or what the torch run symbolizes which I had to explain to him. For him it is something to prove to others that even persons with learning disabilities can do anything even running in the Olympics Torch Relay. It has always been a dream of mine to be one of the torch bearers. Thanks Johari for fulfilling that dream...sort of I think. Being able to be there and witnessing it has been one heck of an experince. Can't wait for the Olympics to start in August. I'm prepared to take 2 weeks not to go to Beijing but to catch it on TV! haha

In the van going to Dataran Merdeka. Guess who is Johari?

No need to guess who is this!

Know this guy? I'm surprise that when I show to my collegues and some of my friends they dun know who he is! People..... He is Lee Chong Wei, Malaysia's top badminton player, World number 2, one of malaysia's hope to win a gold medal at Olympics.

Taking pictures with some of the other torch bearers. Recognize the one second from the right beside Jo?

Johari with 2 other essay winners, Amir who has visual impairment & Vishnu (I think that's the spelling of her name) who is studying moral studies at New Zealand.

Ladies & Gentleman... this is my boss, a cheerleader! hahahahaha

The 10 selected Samsung torch bearers. Adrian, Ming Sen, Chong Wei, Datuk Sharifah (first woman from malaysia who has scale both north & south pole), Nicol, Thomas, Vishnu, Johari, Ras Adiba & Amir.

Jo's wife...er I mean his torch. Yes each of them gets one torch each and they get to keep it after the run. Jo has promise to let me keep his for a month! Yahoo!!

I survived 1Utama!!

2008-01-02T00:22:00.000+08:00

We've survived 1Utama! Woohoo.......

United Voice was given a booth at 1Utama to sell our products for the entire month of December & until 2nd January 2008. Imagine our excitement when we learn that 1U is partnering us. Part of the contract is that we must be open Mon-Sun, 10am-10pm. So each staff is in charge of 1 week. Basically we go there in the morning to open up the booth, wait for the volunteers to come, brief them, then go back to the office to do our stuff and then after work go back to 1Utama and jaga the stall and close up at 10pm. Imagine being at 1Utama 7 days in a row! Let's just say that I'm pretty much sick of the songs "Jingle Bells" & "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer". And I have a new found respect 4 those in the retail line. Very,very exhausting. By the end of my duty week I was just sitting behind the booth, too stoned, too tired to give out any brochures.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! We got a total of over RM14,000 from sales and donations. Not much considering that it's @ 1Utama but we are there first & foremost to create awareness for UV, second to sell our employment project products & third to raise funds for the UV building. There was 1 night where I was kind of fuming because sales was not very good and I was wondering what was wrong when someone came to the booth and started to ask me some questions. She was telling me that her young cousin has Dyslexia and the parents, not understanding her disability was treating her very badly, even calling her stupid (the parents ought to be shot!). She herself has dyslexia and her parents were not supportive of her initially but now she has a degree and working at Canada. We chatted a bit about the situation here in malaysia, the kind of support provided and she said that we are doing a very good job of promoting self-advocacy. Of course after that conversation I stop feeling mad because I was remained that it doesn't matter how much we are able to sell, it's letting people know and be more aware of persons with learning disabilities, about self-advocacy. That is what's important. That is why we are at 1Utama. It's funny how it takes a persons with learning disabilities to remain me of that.

Anyway feeling a bit sad while we were packing the booth on the last day. 1Utama was like my second home for the month of December. We had so many people coming to ask us for directions that I think by now I should know where 90% of the shops in the New Wing are located! hahaha I'm really, really thankful & grateful to all the parents of UV members, friends & volunteers who has come and help us jaga the stall. In fact I suspect some of them like Izzy who was very, very enthusiastic in helping to give out brochures might have ADHD! hehe Thanks to all the BLCians who came to help too. The PR people from the 1 Utama management are a fantastic bunch. They've been helping us a lot. BIG thank you to them.

Amidst the tiredness and the crazy repetitiveness of Christmas songs I think I really, really enjoyed myself there. It was certainly an exciting experience. If given the chance I dun mind doing it again end of this year.

Jo & Hui Ming slaving away setting up the stall. I was "supervising"! hahahaha

See.... I was hard at work too......

I conned Melanie to come & help jaga the stall. hehe She even made some earrings for us to sell to raise funds....

There was 1 night where my "volunteer" told me last minute that he couldn't make it so I had to asked Kelvin if he could come. He had to rearrange his dinner plans to come and help me for about 2 hours. Thanks a lot bro!

Some surprise visitors.........Michael & Daniel saw that I was alone (they were shoppping) so they teman me for a while. Daniel even bought me a drink from Juice Works! *GASP* I think he's interested in joining UV as a member!

I "volunteered" my Lifegroup to help out on one of our LG nights. hehe Thanks gals....

I call Susan the "Super sales mom". Her son, Brieve has Down Syndrome and he's working in UV under the Employment Project. We had the best sales day ever on the day she came to help. It helps that it was a public holiday. We made over RM700 in sales that day and over RM400 in donation.

Aiyoyo Parliament ah?

2007-12-11T18:54:00.000+08:00

United Voice has been invited to the parliament together with other disability groups to witness Shahrizat present the Disability Bill yesterday. Even tough it was my day off but I insisted on going. We had 6 places anyway. I told Swee Lan that I would not miss the chance of throwing rotten eggs at the MBs. hahaha

Took a cab there in the morning and was wondering if the guard would stop me since I have no letter with me but he let the cab pass. Then I found out from Chok who is from the Selangor society of Blind that the guard actually stopped them and ask for a letter. There were 3 blind persons in the cab. Talk about discrimination!!

There were about about 40-45 people there representing various disability groups. As usual we waited and waited until someone from the Ministry took us 1 round around the parliament lobby and then some of us were ushered in to the Dewan Rakyat and seated at the observation area. No mobile, no camera and remain quiet. Some MBs were talking about oil subsidiary and foreign workers. As usual James were falling asleep and I had to poke him many times. We had to endure listening to them talk for about 30 mins (seems like eternity!) Then Shahrizat came in and presented the Disability Bill. It was over in 2 minutes!! We left the hall and went back to the lobby to take photos with Shahrizat. She was being the usual politician... taking photos, shaking hands and assuring us that everything will be all right.

It was a nice experience. Dun mind going again next monday when they will have a debate about the Bill.

Guiding Chok around the lobby during the tour

I was in heaven watching Federer & Sampras

2007-11-24T19:21:00.000+08:00

Went together with Joan Lai(director of Seri Mengasih, a training center for persons with learning disabilities at Sabah) to watch the Federer vs Sampras match at Shah Alam stadium. I thot i was quite a Federer fan but apparently Joan is a crazy fan and when I met her other frens at the stadium....they are even crazier. Makes me realize that I'm more of a tennis fan then a Federer fan. It's nice to see Sampras have not lost his touch with his serve. I think his serve is still much better than Federer's. Both of us were actually cheering for Sampras eventhough we were wearing the t-shirt that says"Go Roger" becoz we wanted the match to go to 3 sets! haha I know. Crazy right? More time to see them playing but in the end Federer won 7-6 7-6 with no break of serve. The match is good, both of them serve & volley rather than playing baseline which Sampras does not like to do anyway.

After the match a few of us went for supper. It was nice being able to sit down and talk about tennis (ok mostly about Roger). Hard to find tennis kaki here. None of my close frens are interested in tennis. Of course I find out that most of them are only interested in watching Roger play and that they've become fans since after watching him won his first Wimbledon title in 2003. I was trying to tell them that there's is more to tennis than only Roger Federer. It's kind of sad. If Roger retire in maybe 8-9 years time I dun think that they will be watching tennis anymore.

It was a great experience. The whole thing seems so surreal. First time I'm watching a tennis match LIVE. Both Federer & Sampras in KL. It's like striking the lottery TWICE. 2 of the greatest tennis players of all time. How many chances do you get to see Federer play against Sampras? Steven thinks I'm crazy paying so much for the ticket but I think it's worth it. Won't even sell it on E-Bay which people r willing to pay 5X the price. If I didn't have to go for training for the whole week I think I would even go for the Nadal vs Gasquet match. Can't wait for the tennis season to start next year!

GO ROGER!!

Crazy Fans!

I'm an aunty now!!

2007-11-18T19:40:00.000+08:00

My nephew Emil Yew Jin Ahtiainen. Born on 15th November. Looks so much like my sister.
Hope he's not as"wai sek" as her! My mom can't wait to fly over to Finland to see him. Dripping saliva all over!! hahaha

*Note to BLC kids. Only my nephew is allowed to call me aunty. You all just stick to "Moh Foong jei jei" only ok? ;P

Dying

2007-10-24T01:23:00.000+08:00

If u were to ask me to describe the month of October this year, there is only 1 word that I can think of - DEATH. Usually this is the month I celebrate a lot of birthdays....My goddaughter's, my mom's, my sister's, mine, my godmother's, a few other friends and many BLCians. But this year, I seem to be receiving news of death one after another. First it was Datuk Sam then Olivia's grandfather & the news of Wendy's (my colleague at UV) dad dying of colon cancer all within the same week. Just last week Swee Lan received news that her sister is in the critical stage of leukaemia and only have a few weeks to live. On Sunday my sister told me her godfather's brother passed away in Ipoh. I’m not close to anyone of them. In fact I haven even meet some of them. But still you just can’t help but feel something every time you receive this kind of news.

Wendy's dad has been in the hospital 4 abt a month receiving chemo treatment. Last Friday as I was getting ready to go to work I received an SMS from her saying that he passed away in the morning. My initial reaction was 'oh dear'. A bit shock because I just visited him on Tuesday. Then pausing for a while I said 'oh finally'. I know, so mean of me, right? As much as I hate seeing Wendy's dad dying, I hate it even more to see her family suffering. They have been in & out of the hospital for about a month taking turns taking care of him. 1 month to see him suffering and dying. When I pick up Swee Lan from the airport after coming back from Shanghai she ask me how’s Wendy's dad. Only thing I could tell her is "dying". Wendy's family are very very nice people. The amount of support they give Wendy despite her having learning disabilities is tremendous so of course I can't help but ask "Why is God letting this family suffer?" And then of course I've learned never to question God because her dad accepted Christ before he died.

I'm finding it hard to smile and laugh a lot for the past few days. I mean I'm not laughing as much as normal (for those who knows me, u'llknow what I meant). Maybe it's because of my constant worrying. Worrying for Wendy & her family, worrying about Swee Lan and her sister. I'm also worrying about work, trying my best to ease Swee Lan's workload as she needs to take leave on & off to look after her sister, worrying if I'm doing enough or not. I've been thinking of my own death a lot too. How would I die? How old will I live until? Would I go peacefully (I hope!), would I die of cancer or heart attack? will I be knock down by a car? (in KL, most probably!). Come to think of it all of us are dying..... slooowly. We just like to call it ageing or growing old. I've been asking myself, as a Christian if it's right for me to be worrying so much. I'm like wasting all my energy on worrying. Shouldn't we trust & have more faith in God? But then again I think that worrying is all part of being human. I would be really, really worried if I don't have all this emotion in me after hearing all these bad news.

I think all these news of dying have really put my perspective of things in order. Compare to death, suddenly all the petty little things in my life like if I have enough money to pay my next bill does not seems to matter. It has really given me a kick in my butt. I've called up friends I haven met for a long time to go out for makan and chat with them. There's this project I wanted to start a long time ago but has been procrastinating about it. I've just talked to someone to help me kick start it yesterday and she seems interested in it and said yes. She asked me why I want to do it suddenly, I just reply "Life is short".

I'm not really in a celebrative mood for my birthday this year. Wanted to take day off but decided not to since I'm in no mood to celebrate & I need to be somewhere, at a training center for work. It's nice to get all the SMS wishing me happy birthday. It has certainly lifted up my mood a lot especially when my colleagues sang "Happy Birthday" to me over the phone. I’m so glad that I was not in the office to hear them ”Live”! PLEASE do not blame me if there's heavy rain for the next few days. I've also received an SMS from Wai Mun who told me her 5 years old daughter, Janell reminded her that it was my birthday. Both of us are still a bit befuddled on how Janell knew it was my birthday all of a sudden and reminded the mom. hmmm......

Special Olympics

2007-10-15T03:55:00.000+08:00

Did you catch the opening ceremony for the Special Olympics in Shanghai about 2 weeks ago? It is really spectacular. Can't wait for the Olympics next year. UV has 2 members who represented Malaysia in bowling, Seng Kit (who won a silver) & Zen Lee. Haven't heard of the Special Olympics? Check out the website. Our Malaysian team bagged four gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals.
How much did the malaysian government spend on them :RM0
Even when SO Malaysia asked for sponsorship they decline. Really, really embarrasing. The parents and volunteers had to fork out their own $$$ just to attend the SO World Games at Shanghai.

How much did the government spend on other non-disabled athletics: Millions of Ringgit
How many medals won at the olympics so far? 1 Silver & 2 Bronze.

Maybe the government should set their standards higher and refocus their priority to train the disabled people rather then just settle for undiscipline, unfocused, money-grabbing athletics.

So much for malaysia boleh.

Sad day for UV and Dignity & Services

2007-10-04T22:04:00.000+08:00

Datuk Sam(L) with Johari (My boss and UV President)

Yesterday we received news that Datuk Dr. Sam passed away. He is a paediatrician & was one of the Director of D&S. I don't really know him very well. Only met him once during UV's anniversary dinner last year. Only thing I said to him was "Excuse me Datuk Sam.....can you please get ready, it's your turn next to go on stage". And another time I spoke to him was on the phone about 3 months ago. He bought some tickets for UV members to go for a charity dinner to launch the "Pet positive" program for the disabled and I had to arrange with him on how to collect his tickets. We had a nice short conversation. He asked me how am I and how's UV and we talk a bit about the tickets arrangements. I can really feel the warm and friendliness of his voice over the phone. It's like talking to my grandfather. After putting down the phone I felt like wow... this is like one of the nicest phone conversation I've ever had. I can't wait to see him in person and have a nice chat with him. Sigh...........sad to say I won't have the chance to do that now. He was hospitalize 2 weeks ago and nobody is allowed to call or visit him becoz he needs to rest. So his death yesterday was quite a shocking news to us. I know some of the older UV members are very fond of him so they must have felt very very sad. I have a feeling of regret now of not attending the charity dinner becoz I know I'm going to be very tired after taking UV members for a picnic and I'm not an animal lover. If I would have gone at least I would have met Datuk Sam, talk to him and get to know him a bit better. sigh.....

Goodbye Datuk Sam. You have touched the lives of many persons with learning disabilities. You have certainly touch my heart with the short & sweet phone conversation we had. I will forever remember that

hmmm... now I think I'll call up some of my friends whom I have not meet up for a long time for a drink. You'll never know what will happen tomorrow...

Sabah Trip

2007-08-25T01:07:00.000+08:00

Last week I was at Sabah for a Self-Advocacy conference for a couple of days. It's a conference organised by persons with learning disabilities for persons with learning disabilities to learn about self-advocacy. I was there with some UV members as a supporting friend.There were about 7-8 self-advocacy clubs throughout malaysia that participated. We stayed at OBS(Outward Bound School) which is about 20 mins from KK town. I luv that place. It is surrounded by trees and just by the sea. sigh..... didn't want to come back to KL. I even asked the staff there if they are hiring or not! hahaha Anyway here are some of the highlights (both good & bad) of my trip there:

1) First time in my life that I actually like talking in Bahasa Malaysia. Most of the sabahans, even the chinese converse in Malay so I'm force to speak to them in BM. And for those of you who has heard sabahans speak in malay, you'll know what I mean...it sounds very nice... kind of like they are singing. If you have heard me talk in malay you'll understand why it is a huge effort for me to be able to even say a full sentence in BM!

2) I like the meal times not becoz I'm "wai sek". In OBS they will wait for at least 95% of the participants to come to the dining hall. And before we eat all of us will stand up for a minute of silent to give thanks for the food. Doesn't matter if you are muslim, hindu or christian, just give thanks in your own ways. Each table will seat at least 10-15 people and we will all share the food that is placed on the table. After that we are responsible for cleaning up our own plates & cutleries & the table. When I came back to KL on friday and had my dinner alone at home that nite I kind of miss eating at OBS. I mean I know my mom's food is 10 times tastier than the food there but somehow it was kind of tasteless to me(sshhh dun tell my mom). It makes me realise that sometimes no matter how good or bad the food is, it's the company that you are with that will make the food taste much better. It's a kind of community meal thingy if you know what I mean. It's nice that the conference is held in OBS and not in a hotel. Afterall it's a conference to teach them to be independent and to be leaders. I think one of the steps to being a leader is servanthood and what better way then to learn how to wash your own plates and help one another clean up.

3) On the last nite we had a farewell party and there were performances and singing and dancing. I learned how to dance the "bocor-bocor"(dun know if it's the right spelling) dance, kind of like line dancing, sabah style. It was cool.... the dance lah... not me.

4) One of the issues that were raised was about insurance for persons with disabilities. In malaysia no insurance company would sell insurance to them especially those who have cerebral palsy and suffers from epilepsy. And these are the very people who needs insurance the most. Sad..... shame on you AIA, ING and the rest. There was a lady who is the PA to the minister of welfare in sabah who says she will look into this matter. Yeah we'll probably have to wait a long, long time before anything happens.

5) I consider myself an extremely patience person but my patience was severely tested during this trip. I think I handled some of the situation quite well becoz I did not let my anger cloud the action that I took and the decision that I made. No details here but I can say that I'm glad no UV members were left behind in Sabah. I wish I was left behind in Sabah! hahaha

6) Imagine having just 4-5 hours sleep a day and having to deal with childish behaviour, tantrums, fightings and other stuff. Knowing that you are responsible for them is added pressure. Now I know how parents feels. I'm definitely staying single!!

7) Getting to know people from other SA groups is definitely the best highlight of my trip there. After hearing so much from the same group of people from UV, it's refreshing to hear from others.

Well, I had a great time in Sabah, a bit stressful but still great. We actually had some time on the last day to visit the handicraft market and went to an island. The people there are extremely friendly and the seafood is quite good & cheap. The next conference will be in Penang. After that I beg them to have it in Sabah again maybe somewhere near Mt. Kinabalu. hahahahahaha

Meal Time

Getting to know session

Sue Rickell, the keynote speaker. She has Cerebral Palsy and is a qualified training and consultant on the issues of disabilities. Cool eh?

Sunset at the beach

UV members having discussions

Farewell BBQ party at the boathouse

Boat Ride to the Manukan Island

Aslam enjoying at the beach

Bridge to Terabithia

2007-06-11T18:12:00.000+08:00

Just watched "Bridge to Terabithia". It's about this boy, Jess who befriends this girl, Leslie and as usual...... they formed a friendship and together they form this magical kingdom in the woods. There was this part in the movie where Leslie who have never been to church before followed Jess and his family to church on a sunday and after that on the way back had this interesting conversation going on between Leslie and Jess' sister who's only about 6-7 years old.

Leslie: The whole Jesus’ thing. It’s really interesting isn’t it?
Jess' sister:It’s not interesting. It’s scary
Leslie: You have to believe it and you hate it. I don’t have to believe it and I think it’s beautiful.
Jess' sister: You have to read the bible. If you don’t then God will damn you to hell when you die
Leslie: I don’t think so. I do not think God goes round to damn you to hell. He’s too busy running all this!
And she stretch out her hands to show the surrounding areas.

It's funny how some Christians have got a distorted view of God and non-christians have got a more simply view of Him.

I like this movie a lot. If you are expecting a fantasy movie then I think you'll be dissapointed. I like how the story explores the creative and imaginative minds of kids. It's makes you remember your own childhood and all the crazy imaginative stuff you thought of. hmmm... I think I'm going to get the book and read it.

Specially for Chin Hor, Masaki and the rest

2007-05-18T17:36:00.000+08:00

Our LG celebrated Ee Chia's BD on Wednesday (her BD's the next day, 17th May) at Sin Kee, Brickfields. She's 24 years OLD!! The food was delicious and the cake was goooooddd. Chin Hor, we thot of you when we ate the cake! wahhahahahahahahaha

Gift from BLC

2007-02-19T22:55:00.000+08:00

Got this gift from BLC and since a few people has been asking me what it looks like I thot I'll post it up here. I like it though it does not fit in with the colours of the furniture in my room. James said it does not matter becoz it matches my mom's furniture at the living room. haha

I think it looks alright beside my clock since the round picture matches the round shape of the clock. If I put something that's triangle shape I'll have the 3 main shape on my wall! hahahaha

Working in UV......so far

2007-01-14T15:45:00.000+08:00

A lot of people have been asking me what I do in United Voice. I alwiz tell them that I'm the tealady there!! hahahaha ok ok seriously..... I'm the "Administrator & IT Coordinator" there.Other than admin stuff, I'm also in charge of maintaining the computers, give computer lessons to UV members, organise events, help out in correspondence and any other stuff that Swee Lan pass to me. oh and I also help out in the Employment Project if they need any help.

So far I've organised & clean up the computers there, organise files, updated the membership database, written a proposal to Samsung Digital Grant (we've actually got the grant. RM34,000 to buy computers and other stuff. I was jokingly telling Swee Lan that if the Samsung people dun give us the grant I'm going to start calling them "Samseng"! ngahahaha), help organise a trip to Penang for UV members, work with Eugene Lau(the ex-Public Relation Officer of UV, yes he has resign last year in december) on correspondence and help put glitters on a lot of festive cards for EP.

We've also had the 1st National Seminar on Self-Advocacy for persons with Learning Disabilities which UV co-organised with UM, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), JKM(Welfare Department) and JPK(Special Ed Department). As usual I was doing all the clicking for the powerpoint slides presentations.

I have to tell you the truth. When Swee Lan first offer me the position, I did not even pray and ask God if I should work in UV. Everyone kept asking me to pray and see if its God’s calling. I find it very funny. God is always calling us. Why do we still need to pray and ask Him again and again? I’m imagining that when we pray “dear Father in heaven, is it my calling to blah blah blah…” and God is like slapping his forehead with his hand going ”adoi!! I’ve been telling you again & again YES and you are still asking me the same question?!” hahaha….
I was thinking that I don’t want to do this just because I’m a Christian. I’m doing it because I’m a human being. Would I be even thinking of working in an NGO if I’m not a Christian? That's one of the reason I choose UV. It's not a christian organisation. It's help me to be more open minded. Am I a blessing to persons with learning disabilities or is it the other way round? These are special people. Do you know that persons with Down Syndrome actually has an extra chromosome. That is what makes them so special. God puts them on earth so that they can teach us how to become humans. How cool is that?

I’m having a wonderful time at UV. Of course not everyday is flowery working there. Things that I dislike doing, like correspondence, dealing with parents, updating database, writing proposals and thank you letters, I’m actually doing it a lot at UV. God certainly has a great sense of humour. I think I have a lot of patience but sometimes my patience is being tested there. Apparently God is teaching me to be extra extra extra patience. My new journey has just begun and I'm loving every step of it.

This year's BD...

2006-12-20T23:26:00.000+08:00

These few photos was taken by Paul on the eve of my birthday. He'll made a good papparazi!! hahaha We had a great time. Played a new boardgame "Pictionary Mania", my BD present from James & Mei.

I'm glad that I had a holiday on my BD. Get to spend time with my goddaughters and my "family".

My birthday photos......

2006-10-06T21:07:00.000+08:00

Jo just passed me some photos taken on my birthday.....2 years ago hence the hairstyle!! Helena was only 2 years old......

Jo and Henry(we call him "ngai chai-short boy"haha), Helena's parents.......

Liz and Tiki....Helena's aunt & uncle....my "godsister" & "godbrother"!! keke

haha she really likes the cake.....

Changes

2006-09-16T16:43:00.000+08:00

Changes…
For the past 2 months I had to embrace a lot of changes.

Stop working for BLC.
Changes…

Became a Godma for the 3rd time.
Changes…

Started working in United Voice.
Changes…

Had a worship core meeting just last Monday
Changes…

During prayer time in one of our LG meeting I was sharing with Grace to not pray for me to decide if I want to accept the offer to work at UV but rather pray that whatever decision I make, I will be ready to accept the changes and face the consequences of my decision. It was a very difficult decision to make but I had to make it knowing that it will definitely change my life one way or another.

Changes
Many times we do not want it or do not want to face it.
Sometimes we have to give up something, not to gain anything, but just simply learning how to let go.
For better or for worst, we will never know if we do not make it.
We just have to learn to embrace and accept it and grow with it.

Taking Time

2006-08-28T13:55:00.000+08:00

This picture of me & Moh Cheng was taken during Moh Yeen's wedding last year. I remembered that she was going around snapping pictures and asking me to take pictures for her and I scolded her for disturbing me becoz I was busy helping out at the reception table and making sure that everything was ready. She was very free becoz.......*roll eyes* my mom went to consult some chinese medium and that person told her that those whose horoscope is a "tiger" cannot help out in the wedding as it clashes with MY's horoscope. Of course MC was delighted when she heard it (I had a sneaky suspicion that she bribed the medium!!)

Anyway she insisted that I take a photo with her. Looking at this picture I'm glad that I spared the 2 mins to take a picture with her as I realized that I haven't taken a picture with her in the past 8-9 years. It reminds me that no matter how busy I am, I just need take some time out to spend with family or frens. I will not regret it. After all, not to sound to negative, it might be the last time I take a picture with MC.

Haeleigh

2006-08-16T14:24:00.000+08:00

My second goddaughter finally came out yesterday at 12:29pm! Weighs 8lbs 12oz. Full name, Haeleigh Low Wing Yee. She looks so much like Helena when she was a small little baby. Mother and daughter are in good health.....dunno about the father though....he looks more tired than Jo! hahahahaha

I still remember the day when the 'cheh cheh', Helena was born. I was lepaking at UM with Ee Lyn at the engineering lab. Pantai Hospital is about 5 mins drive from UM. That day it took me about 2 hours to get there from UM becoz of the "kong fong bo yue" (rain & thunder). This time round, no such drama, the sky was clear and I waited until Liz called me to tell me the baby is out oledi before I go over to the hospital!! hahahaha

The mother is so relieve the baby is finally out. No more hearing her say "I feel so bloated!" hahahaha

The proud grandma!

The crazy godma! (the person holding Haeleigh is Siti, the maid)

UV Dinner

2006-07-30T15:19:00.000+08:00

yes.. this is a long overdue blog about United Voice's 1st Anniversary dinner. Was waiting to get some photos from Swee Lan....

The food was good (I think...didn't get to eat much), the MC was very good, the entertainment was good. It's good to see all the UV members, their frens & families truly enjoying themselves. One thing that makes this dinner amazing is that all the guest came on time!! We only started dinner a few minutes late becoz the MC was late. hahahahaha At the end of the dinner, you can really feel a sense of relief from those of us who were involved in organizing the dinner. Tiring but it's really worth it after seeing everyone having so much fun.

UV members & volunteers hard at work "beautifying" the stairs.
The rest of us are working hard too! haha
Derrick(UV vice-president) & Johari(UV President) greeting guest at the door.
With 2 "leng luis" at his left & right, Steven is very happy to help out at the reception table!! hahahahahaha
Big hall....can fit 52 tables in there
Peggy(UV member) keeping us entertain wif her keyboard skills...
Nice cake...
A dance presentation by the Friendship Club
This is probably one of the best part of the dinner. The UV members going on stage for toasting.
The VIPs enjoying themselves after dinner...
Selling UV products. If you squint your eyes and look at the center..you can see chilipadi...er.. I mean Ee Chia helping out. keke

Stripping them of their humanity....

2006-07-28T15:28:00.000+08:00

"It fills me with rage to hear about it and read about it. The pity I once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It's been eradicated by the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to be honest- I can't bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I can't bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can't bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they left behind. I can't bring myself to care because it's difficult to see beyond the horrors. I look at them and wonder just how many innocents they killed and how many more they'll kill before they go home. How many more young Iraqi girls will they rape?" ~~~ Baghdad Burning

How can the ppl who authorized the war go to sleep at nite with so much blood on their hands? What is worst then killing & murdering these innocent people? Taking away the very thing that makes us human....our compassion for one another.

My Ex-collegues

2006-07-17T16:06:00.000+08:00

Celebrating Michael's birthday last month (the guy right at the top...)

Had a BBQ at the boss's house. He rented the place as a warehouse to put all his computer stuff. (of course the boss wasn't invited! haha) It's sort of a farewell party for the few of us who resigned last month!!

haha....I only had 1 can!! seriously....

This is how you eat corn...

Learning to be Humble

2006-05-17T15:19:00.000+08:00

Few days ago I was waiting for the bus to get home at Brickfields. Now, I was in a "bitchy" mood that day and then I saw a lady with very, very red lipstick and I was thinking to myself "Woman...your lipstick is waaaaay too red for you" Then within the very next few minutes I was talking to her. Dun get me wrong. I didn't go up to her and tell her that her lipstick is too red for her. I overheard her asking a lady if the Taman Desa bus will be coming soon and that lady doesn't know. As I was waiting for the same bus and I know that it'll be coming soon, I told her so. And then we started chatting....the usual conversation about buses not coming on time and yaddi yadda.... she turned out to be a nice & very frenly lady.

It's funny. God certainly has a sense of humour. I think He's teaching me something here. Instead of "Do not judge a book by it's cover" the lesson here is " Do not judge a person by the colour of their lipstick"!! Her name is Laura. So, "Laura, please forgive me. Who am I to judge what colour of lipstick you should put on. You can put on whatever colour, green, blue, purple, whatever as long as you feel comfortable with it. Dun care about what other people think about you. I do not have the right to make a judgement on your character just loosely based on the colour of your lipstick. I am truly ashamed of myself. I do not practise what I preach. I'm sorry". This is indeed a very humbling experience.

Cutie

2006-05-15T12:43:00.000+08:00

What do u know? I'm feeling much better today... not so moody.

This must be one of the reasons:

Isn't she such a cutie?? *GRIN*

Penang Outer Ring Road

2006-05-15T12:28:00.000+08:00

"April 8, 2006 (Bernama) -- Construction works on the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) costing RM1.02 billion will start soon when the contracting company, Peninsular Metro-Works, has concluded talks with its bankers. Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the company had requested from the government to be given some time to start construction works on the PORR. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recently said the PORR project would be implemented during the Ninth Malaysia Plan beginning this year.

The PORR concessionaire, Peninsular Metro-Works Sdn Bhd, would be given a 30-year toll concession, 31 ha of prime State land and 202 ha of reclaimed land off Gurney Drive, estimated to be worth some RM5 billion!

Yes, that is what PORR is worth, RM5 billion. And who are the ultimate owners or beneficiaries of PORR? Why, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of course. But his hand is hidden from public view and not many know he is the ultimate beneficiary to this RM5 billion concession -- that is not until Malaysia Today revealed his role in this whole thing."

Chickenhawks

2006-05-15T11:59:00.000+08:00

http://www.nhgazette.com/news/chickenhawks/chickenhawk_headquarters/

Chickenhawk n. A person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it; particularly when that enthusiasm is undimmed by personal experience with war; most emphatically when that lack of experience came in spite of ample opportunity in that person’s youth.

What Exactly is a Chickenhawk?

A "chickenhawk" is a very particular creature. The name comes from combining the word "chicken" (coward) with "hawk" (war hawk). To be a chickenhawk, you need to meet three criteria:

A chickenhawk is A) a famous person who B) supports the CURRENT wars but C) never served in the military.

In other words, a hypocrite who advocates sending children to die in a war, but who refused to go themself when given the chance.