Busy Weekend

Penang Adventist Hospital
Penang Adventist Hospital.

Last weekend was one of the busiest I have had in a long time. On Saturday morning, Vincent picked me up to go meet someone we have met twice before at the Penang Adventist Hospital. He is a paraplegic, suffered spinal cord injury eight months ago in an accident and is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the hospital. He was asleep when we arrived. Vincent and I chatted at the lobby while waiting for him to wake up. However, we left after finding him still sound asleep the second time we went to his room.

Relay for Life
Relay for Life balloons.

I barely had time to catch my breath and catheterise when Dr. Oo picked me up again to attend the appreciation party for the participants of Relay for Life. The Relay for Life is a fund raising cum cancer awareness cum celebration of cancer survivors event that is held simultaneously worldwide. About one hundred guests attended the party at the ruman Hospice at Jalan Ayer Itam.

Relay for Life thank you party
Guests browsing photographs of Relay for Life.

There was a dance presentation by the girls from Island Hospital, a short video clip of the Relay for Life that was held in March at the Taman Perbandaran and certificate presentation. This was followed a tea break and games. I left early with Bryan because I needed to pack my luggage and prepare my presentation for the next day. Bryan is the current webmaster for the yet-to-be officially launched joint Penang Hospice Society and National Cancer Society of Malaysia (Penang Branch) website.

Cathedral of the Holy Spirit Penang preentation
Group photo after the talk at the cathedral.

Early Sunday, Vincent picked me up again to give a presentation to about ten teenagers from the Chinese-speaking cathecism class, their parents and some parishioners at the cathedral. The talk was regarding my life, my faith and how they can contribute to the Independent Living project that I am working on. The gist of my message that morning was that as Christians, we have been called upon to serve God. Assisting disabled persons with needs is one of the ways of serving God.

Penang International Airport

After a quick lunch at home, I finished packing up my luggage, cleared the fridge of the remaining perishable foodstuff and got Peter to drop me off at the airport. I was glad that I got to the airport early. At least I had some time to relax and reflect on the events of the past two days.

Clouds - somewhere between Penang and Kuala Lumpur
In flight somewhere between Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

One of the things that I realised was that I could manage a hectic schedule like that, especially if it is for the Independent Living projects if I could get help for the cooking and other household chores. It would be such a pity and a waste for me to have travelled so far and learnt so much only to be weighted down by the continuous trivialities that had rendered me unproductive in many ways.