FUNNYACCENT

Two Decades Later

More than two decades ago when I was a Minah Kilang as we were called in those days, I had two good friends, a beautiful Indian girl named Rani and Kak Laila, anak mami from Air Itam.  We worked on rotating shifts, morning, afternoon and night shift. Each of us had our favorite shift. I enjoyed morning shift because when the shift ended at 3 p.m, I had plenty of time to go running at Bukit Dumbar. Kak Laila hated night and morning shift, but if they ever asked her to work permanent afternoon shift, she would've had accepted it. We were equally efficient, fast and skilled operators except when we worked on graveyard shift.

It was like part of our brain was left on the pillow at home. And as for Rani, a night owl, she could sit at work station from 11 pm to 7 am minus a couple of trips to a bathroom and 45 minutes meal break without yawning, not even once.

If we didn't get enough sleep, usually by 3 a.m, both Kak Laila and I looked like we'd just woke up from Sleepless Night on Elm Street. Hair was sticking out at wrong directions, an endless trips to a bathroom to splash water on our faces, and that didn't help either. While we, in complete package of red eyes and everything, moved around in slomo like characters  28 Days Later . Every object in front of us appeared to be double or multiple, Rani sat in her chair as cool as cucumber. Even our gorgeous supervisor, six footer Mr. Arumugam didn't look that attractive with our half-functining brain.

But all of us agreed during dinner break at 6:30 pm on afternoon shift was the best time of all. It was the time of the day when we sat together on the dark brown bench at the far corner of the plant having our dinner. It was the time we shared Kak Laila's rice and fish curry with eggplant, Rani's rice and mutton curry and my rice and masak lemak rebung (bamboo shoot) and prawns. I lived with my sister KN then, she did all the cooking. She was and she still is a wicked greatest cook. Kak Laila and Rani were excited to see what was in my tupperware. They had curry almost every day, so whatever I had in my tupperware, they knew it was goning to be different.

Before the end of the year, Kak Laila got married and decided to leave for good. Rani and I attended her wedding, and we teased her mercilessly. When I went to work with another company, we kept in touch for about a year. I went to Rani's open house on Raja Street (off Beach Street) during Deepavali and she told me her family was arranging a marriage for her. Her face was glowing.

"Don't forget to invite me, Ana when you get married."

"Oh....no Rani, not until I see the world."

It was the last time I spoke with Rani. Kak Laila and Rani, I miss you my wonderful friends.

When The World Is On The Sidewalk

I was twenty minutes early for my last physical therapy appointment at BodyWork on West Broadway. I got myself a cup of chai latte and sat at one of wooden table at the cafe. The seat faced the street, I could see the world map on the pillow somebody left on the low table next to a bureau.

Did somebody really sleep on that pillow until it looked more like a turtle shell? I wonder if the the trash truck was late or didn't turn up at all.

From the clear sky, the birds singing in the trees and the smile on every face I saw passed by, I knew it was going to be a wonderful day. Two toddlers wobbly in their Nike and Adidas sneakers pushing their own strollers walked passed the bureau. Less than a yard behind the toddlers were their mothers, young teenage girls walked side by side. They didn't look older than fourteen or fifteen.Their rosy cheeks, their bright eyes revealed their ages.

Each of them held a cell phone. They were literally screaming into the cell phones. The cafe door was closed, but the coffee drinkers, the blueberry scone eater, corn muffin muncher, the Boston Globe reader raised their heads and turned their heads and looked outside the cafe.

Every single sentence they uttered into the cell phones laced with f******. Both of the young mothers drowned into their own world, they didn't realized their babies shifted the interest from pushing the strollers into checking the world map on the pillow. Only after the two pairs of chubby hands landed on the pillow, one of the girls shriek, her nose twitched and her mouth squirmed.

"What the f*** are you doing? What the f*** are you doing?" She snatched the pillow with her free hand and threw it on the side walk. She wiped her hand on her denim short. Without losing the beat, she continued talking on her cell phone. The second mother, scoop her son with her free hand, put the toddler on the stroller.

The toddlers had the shocked expression on their faces for a split second when their mothers reacted to their action. Then they opened their mouths and came out..... waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.......

******************************************************************

When I read this story , all I could say was wow.........

To Blink or Not To Blink?

The weather is so unpredictable I'm afraid to blink my eyes . Two days in a row the weather were gorgeous, blue sky with patches of clouds here and there. The next day the sky turned gray and sad. There was no sign of sun by 10 a.m. Well, it was better than 50 degree weather in spring time.

Tremont Street, South End, Boston. 

Do You Still Hate Monday?

Monday is always seems longer than any other days of the week, and busier too.

I wonder if anybody still remember the late 70's song called I Don't Like Monday by Boomstown Rats . As for me, Monday is the busiest day of the week. Too many things to do, I hardly have time to hate Monday.

As soon as I step into my office on Monday morning, a handful of phone messages to be returned, referrals to make, a group meeting with clients, individual session.

Warm weather brings magical change to all of us. Somehow the warm,tingling heat on our skin, the breeze sweeps the faces,soften us down. Train riders are more forgiving when a fellow rider accidentally step on their toes or someone bend down without warning to tie down the shoe laces.

The guests are excited to take their children and newborn babies to the park, to feed the ducks and pigeons. Time of the year to wear shorts, colorful tank tops and beautiful summer dresses and matches sandals, even their destination is only five minutes walk from The House to get a pack of cigarettes.

Around noon, somebody left two shopping bags full beautiful used summer dresses. The third bag has a combination of baby boy and girl cotton shirt, skirt and pants. The note stapled onto the bag saying: All the clothes are laundered.

The bags are put away in a closet until all The Residents are in the house. The Residents will choose the clothes that fit them. Anything that left behind will be put away in label container in the attic.

Thank you very much to a kind hearted donor.

After the shower, I decide to prepare something simple for a dinner. I make spinach and baby portobello mushroom soup. When the soup is ready I add the left over rice from last night dinner.

The Heart Of Outreach

The day I received an invitation card for Annual Outreach Educator Day, I got three e-mails from three women. All of them wanted to know if I were going. The invitation card advices us to response within a week as the would free shuttle bus would be provided. Driving direction was also printed on an attached card.

"Yes, I will." I wrote back.

"Would you mind if I come with you?" One of the women asked me in her second e-mail.

When I returned to my office from a trip to a district court with one of my clients, I had two e-mails from the other two women with similar question.

I met these women at various workshops and professional development trainings I've attended at CHEC (The Community Health Education Center) since February this year. I wasn't sure these women know each other, but somehow they must've met in workshops we've attended before.  I answered and forwarded to all of them.

"I'm taking a shuttle bus, so that would be wonderful for four of us could sit together."

We meet in front of CHEC building. It turned out my new networking friends have met in previous workshops, but none of them ever talked to each other.

I try not to miss any of workshops and training provides by CHEC funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. They are and nationally recognized certificate programs.

This year theme is "Caring, Compassion and Courage: The Heart of Outreach." It is the largest annual gathering of Outreach Educators from Massachusetts. The event takes place at Andover Country Club on sunny and breezy afternoon..

In a lobby, we pick up our name tags and head into a spacious dining room. Two large monitors are set up on opposite side of the room. Beautiful flowers arrangement, gracious hostess are everywhere greeting us. We choose the third table from the podium. "We won't miss a thing." Not very often I see Outreach Educators have an opportunity to wear high heels, beautiful skirts and suits, but today is an exception.

After we're seated I ask them if they'd like to join me to mingle around and start a network. But I know, they'd rather sit and talk because as soon as we boarded on the bus, three of them click right away. I jump in now and then.

Thirty minutes later, when the DJs were testing a mike, I slide back to my table with a huge smile glue onto my face. In my hand, I'm networking with Program Coordinators/Case Managers/Directors/Advocates from Supporting Housing Alliance, Women at Risk, Psycho-Social Unit, Safer Sex Education Unit, Residential Caring Program and Clinical Services and a few more services. It is much easier and comfortable to make a connection to a person on the other side of the line when I pick up the phone to make a referral of one of my clients.

After a short welcome speech, we had buffet style lunch, plenty of good food. Billie Holiday and Nina Simone make the food tastier. As our efficient waitress go around the tables offering coffees and teas, four speakers give a speech. One of them, a keynote speaker Lura Smith, an Assistant to the President of Middlesex Community College captures us with her witty, lively energetic speech. We laugh, cheer and clap.

The highlight of the event is when twenty nine an Outstanding Outreach Educators from all over Massachusetts are call out to receive an individual award for their work. Their ability to educate hard to reach communities, connect people to needed services, navigate clients through the health and socical services systems, counsel clients about healthy lifestyle, and advocate on behalf of clients and communities.

For Team Award, eight teams come forward to receive their awards. Child Passenger Safety Team form Lawrence General Hospital, Community Liaisons from Network Health Cambridge. Community Outreach Team from  Community Outreach & Interpreter Services, Brockton, Health Department Team, from Centro Latino de Chelsea, Chelsea, Lawrence Home Visiting Team from Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Children, Lawrence, Outreach Team from Asian Center of Merrimack Valley, Inc., Lawrence, Outreach Team from Communicable Disease Boston Public Health Commission, Boston and Woburn Senior Center Outreach Team from Woburn Council on Aging.

Another oohhhss.., aahhhs...., I miss one digit, darn.. from the audiences when the DJs announce the winning numbers for raffles ticket. My number is call for manicure and pedicure gift certificate donated by La Boniche, Lowel. I'll definitely be going if La Boniche is in Boston. The event committee members have done a wonderful job. Everything goes smoothly and we are happy when we step out out of the door.

Look Mak, I have a Dwarf Banana Plant

I've been looking for a dwarf banana plant for a while and finally I got one at Home Depot. And it was on sale............$6.85. I was fascinated by my mother's dwarf banana plant she planted in a terracota pot under her kitchen window. The plant grew about three feet high and had abundance of dark green leaves. My mother told me in the old time the sea merchants grew this plant on their ships to get a fresh bananas.

"Really Mak?"

"That was what the old folks told me."

So, now I got my own dwarf banana plant.

City View

Copley Square

Art work on the wall on Washington Street

Opinion In a Hole

I almost choked on my french toast when my next stool neighbour put down his coffee mug, shoveled tons of sugar into his half full coffee mug, stirred the ocffee with his middle finger, shoved a chunk of pancakes into his toothless mouth and said: "Opinion is like an ass hole, everybody got one."

I almost choked on my french toast not because I never heard the term before, but it was the timing he chose to say it.

"Eeeyeap...........everybody got one." he nodded his head a few times, looked into an empty space as he chewed his pancake."

Frankesteina's entry and the conversation I overheard on the bus this morning prompted me to write about opinion is like an ass hole, everybody got one as the old man at Mike's Diner said it.

So, why do we get upset, angry or even offended over somebody else opinion, thought or idea?

Listen To My Sweet Potato Pie

I was catching the bus #10 to administrative office for a four-hour workshop when I stopped at farmers market on St. James Street at Copley Square to get a sweet potato pie. One of the vendors sells the most delicious home-made organic sweet potato pie I ever had. Right step.........They had plenty. I bought one and jumped onto the bus.

Every Tuesday and Thursday or Friday from spring until Thanksgiving ,farmers from different parts of Massachusetts set up their stalls to market their produce at Copley Square from 11 a.m to 6 pm. 

When I got home, I heated up the pie and made a cup of raspberry tea. I had a dessert while fixing grilled chicken caesar salad for dinner. 

                                 

Can You Read My Mind? 2

Most of the girls I've been working with do not have a high school diplomas. They drop out from high school when they were in ten, eleven or even twelve grade when they became pregnant. Some of the pregnancies were unplanned. Some of them decided to have a baby for the wrong reasons. They believe by getting pregnant they could grip their boy friends by the arms and walked with them along the way. Most of these boys fall into disappearing acts or choose to be in selective amnesia by the time the girls bellies peaking out of a tight t-shirts.

The girls have all the reasons in the world to have a baby except one:

They don't plan to become a MOTHER, not yet anyway.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Nina gave me a riddle at the end of our session.

"One of the guys at NA meeting gave us this riddle. Do you want to  it hear Ana?"

"I'm listening.........."

"There are three frogs on a log. One of them makes a decision to jumpt onto a higher log. How many frogs left on a log?"

"Hmmmm.......three."

"Ohh........Ana, you're so smart. None of us at the meeting said three."

"It's not smart."

"Yes, it is. You know the answer right away. Or have you heard it before? You heard it before right?"

"No, I never heard it before, but I listened to your question. So, tell me what does it mean?"

"You always tell me about it Ana. Sayin' is one thing, doin' is another thing. If I said I wanted to change my life, but I ain't doin' nothin', just talk, talk, talk, but no action, I will be on a log for a long time, right?"

"Now you got it, gurrll......."