Malaysia, sentiasa di hatiku..

We had the "Hari memperingati Hari Kemerdekaan dan Hari Malaysia" at the Malaysian Embassy near Garden City.

I had this discussion with Nelson the other day - about this spirit of patriotism and unity.

It's amazing really.. how when you are so far away from your homeland (read: Malaysia), you feel so blessed to be a Malaysian.

Betul kata orang... biarpun hujan batu di negara sendiri, nothing beats your own country. And only when you are so far away from home, you will feel so proud to see the Malaysian flag flying high.

And bila kita di negara orang, it really doesn't matter if you are Malay or Indian or Chinese.. when we see each other on the streets and tegur "Malaysian?" and bila the other person kata "Ye", suddenly we will be smiling and we will be talking in Malay. And then we would be asking mana ada Malaysian food around the area.

And of course... "Dok sini sampai bila? Bila nak balik Malaysia?" will be our other favorite questions.

Makes you feel happy being a Malaysian.. the solidarity.. the spirit of unity.

And so, all of us Malaysians felt very proud as we headed off to the Malaysian Embassy this morning..

This picture was taken just before we left the Complex. Don't ask me why I took the picture. I guess, I felt so proud looking at our Company logo and Malaysian flag.. Betapa hebat kita ini, hingga dapat menapak di bumi Afrika. Betapa besarnya nikmat Allah pada kita.. Alhamdulillah..

Yeah.. I'm proud. To have a Malaysian company and building (complete with the Malaysian flag) di bumi Sudan ini. Moga sentiasa diberkati Allah.. amin..

And then, as we arrived at the Malaysian Embassy, we were greeted by little Malaysian flags.. cantiknyaaaa....

Matahari di belakang.. but the flag masih berkibar megah. Alhamdulillah.. Rasa sebak bila bendera dinaikkan tadi. It's our pride and joy kan. Bila bendera berkibar megah di negara asing, rasa bangga yang tak terhingga.

The flag flying high in an African continent that is Sudan.. Alhamdulillah.

And this is the compound of our Embassy.. Malaysian flags galore.. woohoo!

And kami semua sedang bersiap sedia untuk menyanyikan Negaraku. It was scorching hot.. but we were all smiles.. :)

And here are the awesome Malaysian ladies.. Walaupun pun panas (and at the risk of makeup cair), we still nyanyi ngan penuh semangat.. (tapi when the picture below was taken, we all belum start nyanyi lagi.. hehe)

And.. here we are.. singing our hearts out... wooohoooooo...

There was also a coloring contest for the kids..

So nice to see kids waving the Jalur Gemilang. They know that wherever they are, they are still Anak Malaysia.. kan? :)

We even had a kek bendera Malaysia.. :)

And that's us.. the ladies.. the Malaysian ladies yang sanggup teman their husbands who had to come and work in Sudan..

Oh.. and what is a visit to the Embassy kalau takde gambar kat their plate kan? Again, I feel proud bila tengok our Jata Negara. So proud to see the two tigers guarding our emblem. We are an amazing country.. despite being so much smaller than Sudan, we are still highly regarded by the Sudanese, thanks to Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Wahai generasi mudaku.. Biarpun ijazah bergulung dari luar negara.. Biarpun betapa hebat kamu rasa diri kamu itu kerana dapat belajar di luar negara, jangan lah kamu lupa jasa pemimpin-pemimpin kita yang dahulu.

Kalau takde Dr Mahathir, takkan negara menjadi maju. Takkan Malaysia terkenal di bumi Sudan.

Sedangkan kamu yang ada ijazah luar negara, belum tentu lagi dapat mengharumkan nama Malaysia.

Generasi mudaku. Percayalah. Walaupun kamu rasa Malaysia ini penuh dengan rasuah.. pembahagian ekonomi tidak sama rata.. hak asasi manusia tak dipelihara.. Namun, Malaysia tetap antara negara yang terhebat di dunia.

Kita tidak rasa gentar bila di KLIA kerana kita tahu, tiada pihak polis atau immigration yang akan mengugut kita sesuka hati. Lelaki atau perempuan masih dapat memandu kereta ke sana sini.  Kalau sakit, masih dapat rawatan percuma di hospital kerajaan.

Please don't throw away all the glory that we have. Stay united, my fellow Malaysians..

So yeah.. I had an awesome time at the Malaysian Embassy tadi. Because I felt so at home. So at ease, amongst my fellow Malaysians. Alhamdulillah..

Now nak rehat and enjoy the rest of the weekend..

xoxo

Rest well, little boy

It's a sad Friday. I woke up very early in the morning (at around 3am) to the sound of the phone ringing. 

Bad news. A good friend's son just passed away after being in the ICU for a week. 

And my heart went out to her. She's such a good friend. One of the bestest I've had. She would drive all the way to my house just to see me. She would drop by the hotel because I was too tired to even have tea with her outside, after the meetings. 

And those times I so wanted to talk, she would rush to my floor and dragged me to the smoking room just so she can hear me out in private. 

And now, I can't even hug her when she needs it the most. 

I'm feeling like such a lousy friend. And for the second time since I came to Sudan, I wish I wasn't so far away to attend a funeral. :(

But alas, kena redha kan. Ini ketentuan Allah. 

Sigh. I just wish she knows how much I miss her and how much I really want to be with her. 

So tadi, bila Dodi asked me to bake a cake for their little boys party, I almost choked to tears. 

Dodi is hosting a party (at his apartment) for the small boys at the Complex today and some of the boys are about my friend's boy's age. 

And tetiba I rasa sedih sangat. 

But I couldn't say no to the boys, so baked a cake, I did. And it was awesome to see them happily eating the spaghetti that Dodi made and the chocolate cake that I baked. 

One even said "thank you, aunty baby", although for the life of me, I don't know why he called me "aunty baby". Heheh. 

It's nice being surrounded by kids kan.. Life seems so simple and happy. Alhamdulillah for the reminder..

Happy weekend semua! Xoxo

And al-fatihah to my dearest Syamil.. Yang pasti menanti ibunya di pintu syurga. Amin. 

Suka pandang pertama

Dods and I went out for quick dinner at Solitaire tadi.. And lepas makan, we passed by this shop. 

And... I saw this nice "buaian" kat depan kedai tu. 

The swing was soooo cantik and cam best. I can so imagine me sitting on the swing and reading my book. 

And so, tanpa fikir panjang, I kinda booked the swing. It costs SDG2,400 (about USD250), and ni harga belum diskaun lagi. 

So far, I have paid SDG100 untuk ala ala deposit and I promised to go back to the shop to pay the rest of the amount either esok or on Saturday. 

Ooohh can't wait for the shop to send the swing to my apartment this weekend. 

Awesomest! I'm a happy, happy girl!

Anyway, some weird dude just called me. Konon nak I ajar dia English. Ntah sapa yang bagi my number. Tapi I taknak layan..

Weird!

Rain.. And being in the dark..

I woke up this morning and panic jap. The room was dark.

Which is weird. I don't sleep in the dark. Well not in Khartoum anyway. There's always some sort of light sebab I will either be reading before I go to bed, or I would leave the toilet lights on, with the door slightly ajar.

I just hate sleeping in the dark.

Tapi this morning, when I woke up, it was total darkness. Apart from the glimmer of light from outside peeping through the curtains, and the aircond lights coming from its buttons, the room was totally dark.

So I panic kejap. So many things ran through my head.

"Takde electricity ke? But tu tak mungkin.. sebab ada aircond. Takkan ada aircond and takde electricity kot?"

"Errr.. some 'beings' playing tricks on me, perhaps?"
"Did I sleep walk and switched off the lights in the middle of the night?"
"Am I dreaming? Have I lost my mind?"

Questions that were running through my head as I panicked.

Just a glimmer of light penetrating from the windows and the aircond lights greeted me this morning

I checked my phone and tengok-tengok dah kul 7pm. Phewwww... Nasib lah.

Imagine if I bangun at 3am and takde electricity... sure I dah menjerit. Heheh.

Well anyway, I took my torchlight on the table beside the bed and showered etc. And then called the maintenance guy and rupanya, it's just a power trip. Phewwwwwwwww..

Tapi drama lah kejap pagi tadi kan? Heheh.

And that's the thing with Khartoum. Bila hujan je, there will be power interruption. And now is the rainy season, still. (When I first came to Khartoum in 2012, it only rained like 4 or 5 times a year, but this year, Khartoum has been getting quite a bit of rain since July.)

Anyway, it rained really heavily yesterday morning (at around 4am), which lasted for about two hours.

So maybe sebab tu, the electricity macam tak stable kot..

Hmm.. I took these pictures when we were going out for lunch semalam. Hifzi was flying back to Malaysia semalam petang, and we wanted to just have lunch with him. And to welcome Daud back to Khartoum, of course.

The streets in Khartoum

Water everywhere

Oh Khartoum. How I love the smell of the air after the rain..

Me and the boys..

Say "bullyyyyyyy"

Heh. Lama tak ambil gambar of my life in Khartoum. Actually, we all cam biasa je. Although Ezlin, Izman, Rosli and Qis dah balik Malaysia for good, life in Khartoum macam dulu gak.

Me and the boys still go out for dinner together.. or masak-masak.. and watch movies together. Cuma now, there are no kids running around in the living room and errr.. I'm the only girl lah.

But thank God, the boys are spoiling me rotten. Heheh. Sometimes they cook for me.. cam malam ni, Dodi nak masak for us. Semalam Hifzi made maggi soup chili tuna for lunch and that was soooo sedap.

Oh. But I get bullied too. Like semalam, after dinner at Barcelos (which is like Nandos), we went to the server room sebab the boys nak tukar-tukar channel tv kat rumah. And I was tired. So I fell asleep on the chair while waiting for them. And they almost wanted to leave me in the room ok.

I woke up just in time to see them trying to sneak out while nak tutup lampu lagi! Pfffffftttttttttttt.

Sigh. Yeah, boys will always be boys. Dah jadi bapak orang pun, masih nak bully bully lagi.

But I'm thankful that I have them. Life would be so skema and proper if not for the boys. Heheh.

Nelson gave me this poster via whatsapp semalam:

How true..

So itu lah. Life in Khartoum. I've learned so many things.. and experimented on so many new recipes. I can now cook kari ayam, creamy butter chicken, ayam masak merah, nasi goreng biasa (tanpa guna perencah-perencah tu), nasi lemak sambal udang, soup ayam, goreng sayur guna oyster sauce, maggi kari cili tuna, cheese pancake.. and I can even bake easy-to-make Nutella chocolate cake.

I am now gonna try the nasi ayam with ayam madu goreng (resipi Isba) and maybe one or two Sudanese recipes.

Tapikan.. ni I musykil jugak. Sejak we all semua tengok citer Rindu Awak 200%, the boys kata my perangai ngada and degil tu, macam Armel (the girl in the drama). Ish. Mana ada, kan? Sighhhh. But they said I kuat melawan and ada je nak jawab balik. But how can I keep quiet when they kept bullying me? Like.. camna tak gaduh and felt like punching them when they tried sneaking out of the room last night, and scheming to tinggalkan I dalam bilik tu sorang sorang?

And takkan nak diam je when they marah I for not finishing up my food or ordering too much?

Ayo.

Tapi I need to be more lemah lembut lah. Sigh. Camna lah nak cari lelaki yang nak kawen ngan I if my perangai is so loud and ngada?

How can I not pout???

Arghhhhh.. I taknak jadi ngada macam Armel.... Pfffffttttttttt. (OK. I baru habis Episod 10 and she's still so snappish and ngada in the drama...)

Tak aci laaaaaa....

Living on borrowed time

Death is inevitable

A good friend's youngest son is now battling for his life in the ICU. A friend just lost her dad last Friday. Another friend lost her dad the week before.


We are all living on borrowed time kan?


Such morbid thoughts on a Sunday, but that is, the facts of life. People come and go in your life. Family members die. We all die. Someday.


Made me realize how we are all like a ticking bomb, waiting to detonate.


But that's not the important bit.


The important thing is for us to live and be thankful for the "borrowed time" that we got from God.


I have been blessed to be able to be with my parents for almost 40 years now. We have traveled the world together and have gone through pain, tears and laughter. When the time for them (or me) to leave the world, we should redha. We have had almost 40 years of amazing time together, as a family. Alhamdulillah.


And that is the real reason why celebrate birthdays. To be thankful that we have lived another year. God could have taken us anytime (since we will return to Him someday), yet He gave us a chance to spend another year on earth.


Tapi tu lah. I know it's tough.. but everyone will have to go through death. Everyone.


It's just sooner or later je.. kan..


And that was what I told my friend. Redha kan je lah. She's spent more than 10 years, being his mother and nagging after him etc. She's taken him on holidays, watched him play football and hugged and kissed him. She has seen him throw tantrums and cry and pout.


Allah has given her so many years to share her love and hear him laugh. Kena bersyukur kan. Dan doa moga ketemu lagi nanti di jannah, in shaa Allah. For the little boy will definitely be waiting for his mummy in heaven.


And so I told her to read Surah Al-Ra'ad (the thunder). My dad dulu pernah pesan.. if anything happens to him and if he's in a coma, untuk I bacakan Surah Al-Ra'ad and yakin bahawa Allah akan permudahkan segalanya.


Apparently if it's time, Allah akan permudahkan. And if it's not the time yet, pun Allah akan sembuhkan secepat mungkin.


Sigh.


I still cannot imagine life without my parents.. sebab they are all that I have now. But it will happen someday kan. Either me or my parents.. at least one of us will definitely leave the world first.


Kena redha dan sabar. Moga kasih sayang ini dibawa hingga ke jannah, in shaa Allah.


xoxo

Puisi - Hai Melayu

Hai Melayu!
rumahmu semua dibina Indonesia
ekonomi pula dikuasai Cina
golongan professional semuanya India
warung makan pun, mamak dan Siam yang berkuasa
warga bangla pula menjadi jaga
orang Nepal yang menabur Baja
orang Pakistan usung karpet jaja merata
lalu Melayu ada apa?
harapkan ustaz, saling menyesat
harapkan hiburan, lagi best filem barat
harapkan bahasa, banyak telah bertukar kesat
harapkan tulisan, jawi pun mereka hambat
harapkan Tanah, banyak digadai kepada korporat


Hai Melayu!
masih mendabik menjadi tuan?
sibuk mahu menjadi tuan?
rupanya kerja kelas bawahan
ditipu mentah orang atasan
konon perjuangan ini untuk kalian!
kerja sikit, sembang kencang
banyak rungut, sikit rancang
siapa tegur, dituduh lancing
duduk warung, gigit kacang!


Hai Melayu!
konon kau pantang dicabar
konon kau tangkas menyambar
tapi cuma indah khabar
rentakmu makin lama makin hambar
kau Melayu, aku pun Melayu
aku menulis bukan cemburu
aku mahu engkau tahu
kenapa Melayu tak macam dulu...


Hai Melayu!
jarimu hebat bertutur di facebook alam maya
bila berdepan ekonomi semasa kau tak berdaya
kau cuma tahu bergaya


Hai Melayu!
kau melaung-laung di jalanraya
bagi tahu kepada dunia ini bumi aku yang punya
pada hakikat ia digadai kepada sepet yang kaya!


Hai Melayu!
kerana hendak bergaya kau gadai pusaka
bila dah kaya kau jadi puaka
ini tandanya kau sudah derhaka!


Hai Melayu!
sedarlah bangsaku
bukalah mindamu
bersatulah bangsaku
kerana Malaya bukan lagi milikmu!
aku pun Melayu
engkau pun Melayu
bodoh sombong harus ditepis
riak, bongkak dan hasad dengki
sesama bangsa harus guris
bersatulah Melayu kerana
agama, bangsa, moyang-moyang yang telah berjasa
kerana ini mungkin peluang
akhir bangsaku untuk Negara
berjasa dan berkuasa...


- A Samad Said