Kuching – Day 2: October 22, 2012

The room was very cold. Turning up the thermostat did not make any difference. Victor had to wrap me up to keep me warm. I did not sleep very well. The unfamiliar mattress and pillows exacerbated the situation. The room also reeked of stale cigarette smoke odour. Why the hotel allowed guests to smoke in the room and stink it up is beyond my comprehension.

Toasts, butter, baked beans and sunny side up
My favourite breakfast.
Photo taken with Samsung Galaxy S III.

At first light, I got up to get ready for breakfast. I am not a breakfast person but I needed the energy and also to ensure that my blood glucose level is maintained. My favourite is a sandwich of toasted bread with a generous spread of butter, scrambled eggs and baked beans. The scrambled eggs did not look appetising. Victor recommended the sunny side up instead which was not a bad choice actually.

By the time I arrived at the seminar room, it was already teeming with participants. I went to check on my slides. Everything was in order. With half an hour more to go, I went back to my room which was on the same floor to catheterise and to put on a jacket. Good thing I decided to don a jacket for this event. Even with that many people, it was still freezing cold in the seminar room.

Peter Tan conducting a Disability Equality Training in Kuching, Sarawak
Peter Tan conducting Disability Equality Training (DET) at the Sarawak Supported Employment Seminar in Kuching.
Photo by Victor Chin.

The session went well with active involvement from the participants. The topic of “What is disability?” focused on the causes of disability, the difference between impairment and disability, the Medical Model of Disability and Social Model of Disability. The 150 participants were from Community-Based Rehabilitation centres and Non-Governmental Organisation all over Sarawak.

Peter Tan conducting a Disability Equality Training session in Kuching, Sarawak
View from the back of the seminar room.
Photo by Victor Chin.

When I was about to conclude, to my horror, the LCD projector lost video signal. My heart skipped several beats as the climax of the entire session hung on the few slides that I had yet to show. I did not realise that the laptop was being powered by battery. It was plugged back to the main power supply and rebooted. Fortunately, everything went on smoothly after that for me to wrap the session up.

Meeting Pierce for the first time
Pierce and I have known each other online for 9 years but this was the first time we met face to face.
Photo by Victor Chin.

The highlight of the day was meeting Pierce. We got acquainted from our blogging days about 9 years ago. He was very vocal in supporting disability rights that I was advocating for. Then Facebook came along and we got better connected via social media. When I had problems with Streamyx, he put me through to the proper channels to resolve those issues. He is one of those angels that is always looking out for me. Thank you, Pierce!

Joanna, who was there to cover the seminar, had a few more interview questions for me. Together with Pierce, we found a quieter spot in the Secretariat Room to continue with our conversation. After Joanna left to follow the other session of the seminar, Pierce and I continued with our conversations right through lunch. And then he offered to drop Victor and I off at the airport as we wanted to get there earlier than the pre-arranged time.

Cemetery along the way to the Kuching International Airport
There were several of such cemeteries along the way to the Kuching International Airport.

Pierce took a longer than usual route to the airport to avoid the traffic jam. It was scenic as it was macabre. There were several cemeteries by the road along the journey. The graves were well maintained though unlike those in Penang that were usually overgrown with lalang. We reached the airport with two hours to spare before boarding. While Pierce went to park the car, Victor and I went to check in my luggage.

We had problem using the the self check-in terminal as my ticket was tagged with special service request. A very helpful Malaysia Airlines counter staff helped check us in and put in a note for an aisle chair at the boarding gate.

With some time to kill still, Pierce, Victor and I lounged at Starbucks for a while. Pierce is a veritable tome of good Kuching food. I hope he will be our guide when I return to the city the next time. I appreciate the fact that he spent his entire day with us, from my early morning session at the seminar, then sending us to the airport and hanging out with us again until we had to get to the boarding lounge. That surely must be Sarawak hospitality at its best!

Waiting to board at the Kuching International Airport
Our ride home at the Kuching International Airport.

The journey back was uneventful. I tried to catch forty winks in the plane but the thought of being able to see Wuan and the cats again kept me awake. My fear of the wheelchair being mishandled was unfounded. The ground crew were very professional in managing it.

Victor must be credited for making this trip possible for me. Without his support, I would have to reject the invitation. He had made it easy for me to do what I was there for while he managed the rest.

I would also like to thank the team from JICA, especially Terumi for the travel arrangements, Swee Lan for the support during the seminar and the officers from the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Negeri Sarawak, namely Puan Hadiah, Penolong Pengarah Seksyen Orang Kurang Upaya, for the hospitality. I will definitely make a trip back to Kuching to enjoy the sights and sounds and savour the food that this city has to offer.

Journey To Kuching – The Preparation

The Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (JKM), through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), invited me to conduct a Disability Equality Training (DET) session titled “What is Disability?” in Kuching, Sarawak. This was in conjunction with the Sarawak State Level 2012 Seminar on Supported Employment for Disabled People.

Knowing that I would need to be accompanied on overnight trips, JICA arranged to cover the return flight tickets and hotel accommodation for Wuan and I. It was a busy period at work for Wuan and she could not take leave to go with me.

Coincidentally, I met Victor Chin during the Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival 2012 at the time when I was looking for someone to accompany me. Victor, a renowned artist and photographer, is a good friend who had roped us in to hold a joint photography exhibition with him in 2009. I asked and he agreed to accompany me to Sarawak for the seminar.

Still, I was hesitant because that would be the first time I would be travelling with an expensive rigid wheelchair. I was afraid the wheelchair could be damaged by mishandling of the cargo handlers. I checked around but could not get insurance specifically to cover damage or loss of the wheelchair for the duration of the trip.

Having already committed to the seminar, I steeled my nerves and prayed nothing untoward would happen to the wheelchair; else I would be stranded in a land far away from home. Then, there was the uncertainty of whether I needed a passport.

There was virtually no information on the documents required of Malaysians from the peninsular entering Sarawak in official government websites. Friends in the know informed me that all that was needed is my identity card. I should have asked JKM or JICA regarding this in the first place.

I have not been to Kuching before but I have a few friends who are from there. We got acquainted online through our blogs. We agreed to meet but since I had no idea of my schedule yet, we could not arrange for a specific time to meet up. Nevertheless, I was excited at being able to finally meet them face to face after so many years of communication through our blogs and then Facebook.

28th Anniversary Of My Spinal Cord Injury

Every year this day, I spend some quite time reflecting. I no longer think so much about how my life could have turned out had I not made that fateful dive into the pool. I could have become an engineer like what my father wanted me to be to take after him. I could have become a politician. I could have turned to crime. I could be very dead by now. I will never know. That is not important any more. I cannot turn back the clock and change that any way.

Instead, I reflect on what I have done so far with what I have and what I can be. Life is too short to be wondering about what could have been. Searching for a purpose in life was difficult in the beginning. It took a lot of hits and misses for me to discover what I wanted to do and one that I could do well in. Blogging was the first step. Then I had the fortuity to make friends with people who nudged me in the right direction. Kuan Aw and Christine deserves all the credit for being the wind that filled my sails when I first set out from the harbour.

Dr. Kenji Kuno of the Japan International Agency (JICA) gave me every opportunity available in his collaborative projects with the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat since 2005 to learn about Independent Living Programme (ILP) and Disability Equality Training (DET). My perspective on disability and rights of disabled people are shaped by the philosophies and principles propounded in these courses. I am now a senior trainer for DET and resource person on ILP because he gave me many opportunities to learn and put them into practice.

Wuan is instrumental in encouraging and supporting my work in disability advocacy. Without her, I would not be able to do so much. I may be independent but I still need assistance with my activities of daily living. Wuan helps me with that and that makes it convenient for me when I am out and about. Even at home, my life is easier because she makes sure that my needs are well looked after before she goes to work and after. She is always there for me. Indeed, she has been my pillar of strength since the beginning of our relationship.

On this anniversary, I want to celebrate these wonderful people who have come into my life and made a difference in so many ways. I am who I have become today because they have been generous with their kindness. They have proven that disabled people, given the opportunity and support, can achieve much more than we are made to believe. I am that irrefutable proof.

The road ahead may still be long but because of the foundation that they have helped me build, I am now doing work that is not only personally fulfilling but one that has the potential to change society for the better. To them, I want to say a big thank you from the bottom of my heart. My life is all the better because of you.