Project Kasih has been doing a fine job in helping rebuild Aceh after the December 26 tsunami. Its members have visited the province many times to assess the situation and provide aid donated generously by the Malaysian public. There are images and tales of survivors, the devastation and on-going reconstruction projects.

Among Project Kasih’s notable efforts, the highlights of children orphaned by the killer waves is most heartrending. Those children not only lost one or both parents. They lost their homes and all they ever possessed as well. It was difficult enough for adults to get on with their lives after the disaster. Imagine how nearly impossible it is for these little ones when practically everybody in that region is affected as well. If you have money to spare, I encourage you to donate to Project Kasih. This cause is as worthy as it can get.

While those tsunami survivors are struggling against an uphill battle to rebuild the broken pieces of their lives, here in Malaysia, we are waiting for a disaster to happen and have no contingency plan to manage it. Raja Munir who visited me and saw for himself the situation around the compound of my apartment and wrote about that in Project Kasih. We shed a tear or two when we read about the misfortune of the Acehnese. In reality, we should be shedding tears for ourselves for continuing to expose our own to known and preventable risks to disasters.

The local authorities and government are indifferent to the potential dangers. Developers and building managers could not care less about the human lives other than fattening their bank accounts at the expense of apartment owners. Access for fire engines and ambulances into high-rise apartment compounds are often hindered by haphazardly parked vehicles and illegally constructed structures. Local councils refuse to act. While we cannot avoid natural disasters, we certainly can prevent and reduce the risk of manmade tragedies, if only the people who can make a difference care enough. But they do not. We never learn. Life is cheap. It really is.

Never have I thought I would be doing the things I have been doing lately. When Mum was around, I had a good life. All my needs were well looked after. After she was gone, there was a maid to take care of all the household chores. With the maid�s impending departure next month, I have been making plans to take over the two more significant tasks - cooking and laundry.

Today marks another milestone in my life. After cooking a two-dish meal, I did the laundry as well. Those two tasks I have done before but not both on the same day. It was not as difficult as I had expected. However they were time consuming and I foresee that when I fully take over those two and other household chores, I will have little time left for leisure activities such as surfing and blogging. Still, being able to look after myself despite my severe disabilities was such a fulfilling feeling.

Wuan is an avid photographer. Many times, I have used the photos that she took for my entries. She takes nice pictures. There was one time she patiently stood under the burning sun for a very long time just to capture that perfect shot of a blooming lotus. She has taken more than three thousand images since she got her Canon Powershot A95 in January. That is about the same amount of images that my Nikon Coolpix 3100 has captured in two years, many by her too.

We have been toying with the idea of putting her digital images online. After months of procrastinating, her photoblog called Point and Shoot is finally up. For the moment, Point and Shoot will be a subdomain of petertan.com. It runs on WordPress. She is currently in the process of tweaking the template and theme. This will be developed over the next few weeks or months, depending on how much time she has to spare for this new enterprise.

This butterfly flew into the apartment at 7.45pm just now. It is bigger than my palm from wing tip to wing tip. At the time of posting this entry, the butterfly is still somewhere in the kitchen. This is one of the bigger butterflies I have seen.

Note:
Thanks to CJ who informed me that its scientific name is Lyssa zampa and mike who pointed out that it is a moth.