The Urban Poor - Another Side of Kuala Lumpur

We are all capable of running into a routine that we are so rooted to that we do not want to change it at all after a while. I am guilty of this, having rooted myself into my daily work routine, taking a day off for my organization's Global Impact Day. The question of whether it is going to be fun, will I learn something, will I be penalized for not ensuring that the work is done and so on filled my selfish mind.

Fortunately, I decided, whatever the outcome it would be, I would just sign up and offer up myself to do my bit whether it is lending a hand or spending some time for a cause. And I must say that I am handsomely rewarded, much more than I could have imagined.

The mission that I took was to distribute food to the urban poor. The other three choices was to offer donation, offer to help up in an office fund raising event or to take the children for a visit at the National Science Center.

Somehow the 'urban poor' captured my attention and I decided that is what I want to be part of and that is what I really want to see with my own eye. We went into the heart of KL, Jalan Imbi if I can remember correctly for a place called Kechara Soup Kitchen (KSK), a place that distribute free food to the needy as well as the urban poor. From the shoplot itself, we can see people dropping by for a meal. We loaded the food required to be brought to the village, and waited for every participant to get ready. Some of us travelled in cars while others travelled with the KSK van.

As we arrived, the folks, mainly old folks from the area starts to line up for their food. We distributed food, biscuits and fruits. After we are done with the folks that has waited for us, we then carry the ration in boxes to distribute them to who were not able to come forward. We went though several houses, spent some time interacting as well as took some photos. To me, it is really a mixed feeling as I would not have imagined somewhere in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, we have a village area, with mainly older folks and are classified as urban poor. They are friendly and are open to us.

What can we do more for this folks? I'll probably not dwell too much into that, but if any of you are into giving time and resources back to the society, there are plenty and it is time for us to take action if we have not done so.

On mission accomplishment, not to be outdone by our colleagues who is having an extended makan time at the all famous Yut Kee Restaurant. All the blogs and recommendation on the Internet seems to be true. It is pretty good. And I just managed to capture one shot of my colleague who happen to be sitting between me and the menu board behind her. She is an awesome driver!! And here is the photo of us on the way back as well. Thanks Team.

P/S: After I have given a few thoughts, I purposely removed the name of the place that I visited along with those photos so that no one feels hurt for classifying a certain area as 'urban poor'. People who is in need are everywhere actually, and as much as this folks that I visited needed food, they need as much attention and friendship as well. Have a good day :)



~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Tony Robbin's Unleash The Power Within (UPW) - An Interpretation of a Participant

The Top 10 Secrets of Success from Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within. I have the great honor to have someone share it with me. In any case, it does sound interesting, so I am going to post it up here to share with everyone.

1. YOUR POTENTIAL IS DETERMINED (OR LIMITED) BY YOUR SELF-BELIEF.

As the promotional material says the event was 'about creating breakthroughs, moving beyond fears and limiting beliefs, accomplishing goals and realizing true desires, turning dreams into reality, creating fulfilling relationships, and modeling the strategies of peak performers to produce a quantum difference in your life.'

If you cut out the hype, the simple message is if you believe in yourself enough you can achieve anything. A memorable one-liner was "the only thing that's keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself".

2. MOST PEOPLE HAVE SELF-DOUBT AROUND UNIVERSAL THEMES.

Ask anyone and most people will admit they lack confidence in some areas of their life. The interesting thing I learn from this seminar is that this self-doubt is around universal themes. These themes cross age, gender, religious, cultural and language barriers.

Common doubts include 'I am not good enough', 'I am lazy' and 'No-one loves me'.

3. YOU CAN LEARN MECHANISMS TO ELIMINATE SELF-DOUBT.

Robbins calls it 'immersion' where you break old patterns and build new ones by repetition. He uses a lot of Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques to achieve this with his audiences.

He says "progress is not automatic". A memorable moment in the seminar was when we had to visualize ourselves inside a bubble and inside that bubble was a series of videotapes neatly arranged in a time-line that represented all our memories in our lives so far. We had to pull out the negative videotapes and destroy them. This was followed by time spent visualizing the future and how your life will look 10 and 20 years from now.

4. BELIEF IMPACTS ON MANY LEVELS.

The Robbins message was that 3 things shape our self-belief. He calls them the Triad. These are our patterns of physiology, focus and language or meaning.

He highlighted this with the quote: "where focus goes energy flows".

5. OUR VALUES AND BELIEFS SHAPE OUR ACTIONS.

Robbins believes you can "vanquish whatever is holding you back from taking action".

Walking barefoot across a bed of glowing coals is the physical metaphor he uses in his seminars to prove this point to the skeptics. Eliminate negative self-belief and take massive action are his keys to success.

6. TO CREATE POSITIVE OUTCOMES YOU MUST TAKE MASSIVE ACTION.

"Where focus goes energy flows" is a quote used by Robbins in his presentation to highlight why you need to know your outcome and why achieving this is a must.

But many people fail to take the next step. They delay, put off and find many reasons or excuses not to act. Robbins believes "progress is not automatic" and "action is power". Take action, even if it is the wrong action. He says it is "never a failure if you learn something".

7. MATCHING & MIRRORING CREATES CONNECTION, TRUST & EMPATHY.

Robbins spent a fair amount of time in the seminar talking about and demonstrating interpersonal communication skills.

He used people from the audience to show how the process of "matching and mirroring" the non-verbal communication and body language of others can be a very powerful way to connect with people. In essence, you create rapport by adopting the body language of the person you are communicating with.

He believes "rapport is power" and "total responsiveness is created by a feeling of commonality". If you have learn these techniques before and haven't used them for a while, I suggest it is time to dust them off and put them into action next time you are communicating with someone on a one-to-one basis.

8. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IF YOU FOCUS ON PASSION AND PURPOSE.

Robbins believes that "to have an extraordinary quality of life you need two skills: the science of achievement (the ability to take anything you envision and make it real) and the art of fulfillment (this allows you to enjoy every moment of it)."

He says "success without fulfillment is failure". Find your passion and purpose in life. My purpose is to make a difference in people's lives and use my gift as a speaker.

9. MODEL YOURSELF ON OTHER ACHIEVERS.

To gain improvements quickly and step up to a new level of achievement, Robbins believes learning from others who are the best in their field is the fastest way to achieve success.

He told the story of how he wanted to improve his tennis game and so employed Andre Agassi, the then number one ranked player to help him achieve this. Who could you model yourself on? "People's lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group," according to Robbins.

10. SUCCESS IS BUILT ON A HEALTHY, HIGH ENERGY BODY, HEART AND MIND

If you are not healthy - all of the above points are a waste of time.

Your health is determined and influenced by your lifestyle. One major change I've made since the seminar is to eat a healthier diet and exercise more regularly.

As a speaker, my whole business depends on my ability to perform at a peak state. Like any professional athlete, the success of business is directly linked to my diet and health. Take care of yourself, your body is ultimately your most important asset.


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Reason we stop reading local newspaper...

This may be the reason some of us stop reading local newspaper and go online for something more 'authentic'. Compare and contrast the below and let me know what you think

NST: Manufacturing sector continues to draw FDIs

MALAYSIA continues to attract significant foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the manufacturing sector, with projects worth RM3.3 billion approved in the first three months of this year. International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said total foreign investments approved in Malaysia's manufacturing sector in 2008 increased to RM46.4 billion in 480 projects.

Bloomberg: Malaysia’s First-Quarter Foreign Investment Drops 79%

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s approved foreign direct investment in the manufacturing industry plunged 79 percent in the first quarter amid slumping global demand for the country’s products, a minister said. The Southeast Asian nation approved 3.3 billion ringgit ($931 million) in foreign direct manufacturing investment from January to March, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today. That compares with about 16 billion ringgit a year earlier.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome

Resolution 2009

From young, I have been setting targets and goals and it has been a few fruitful years. Though some of the years, the target was over-set, which causes me to few a bit down for not achieving it. There were also times, that it was fruitful and able to push me forward very well. I remember there were time that I didn't even know where I kept my resolution. Whatever it is, resolution is a tradition to me and I would go around asking people what their resolution is. Funny but interestingly, most people do not have one or a very vague one.

Here is how you can do it most effectively as far as I am concern. I am no expert but I must say that I have enough experience of it over the past 10 years to know what to do to setup your yearly resolution

1. FOLLOW what your heart tells you. Take time to meditate, think, think and think. Talk to yourself on what really makes you happy and what really propels you forward and make you feel good. Your heart must buy what your head says. Think with the very end in mind. I know this is tough, but when you set this year resolution, think as far as possible what would the end result be from your goals and actions this year. Begin with the end in mind, says Covey

2. THINK big, start small, walk persistently...

3. WRITE it down... anything you do, the one thing you MUST do is write it down. Somehow it helps your brain to stick the info in better.

4. Get an accountability partner to help ensure you follow up

5. Work on it, don't drift. Stick to the wall and look at it everyday. Ensure you move inch by inch towards it. At least millimeters.

There is a lot of good expert out there that have written great books about it, but if you are really serious about it, get excited and go for your goals that you have set out to do :)

In the pic: Still thinking of this vacation place. Forgot the name though.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Orang Asli Mission Trip (Day 4 - LAST DAY)

Happens to be the last day of the trip. We have not scheduled much for today, it will just be the regular Sunday church celebration at Kampung Bukit Serok. Morning, we prepared ourselves, bathed and ready to go. We went off first to the same place for breakfast. And roti has never tasted that good before. We took our fair share of roti telur over the last 2 days, but we did not want to miss this for the 3rd day and I myself ordered exactly the same thing as 2 previous days. Only later, I found out that their Roti Sardin is nice as well. We'll see whether I would have the chance to come back here for breakfast :)

We reached back the church after our sumptuous breakfast. Cleaned up the church hall for the service and I went off to pick up the kids. It was an enjoyable ride on the old little van. It felt totally different from driving car. It is really heavy and the feel is just different. Noticeably, the reverse gear needs to engage in a little pull before moving to reverse. How weird.. Luckily I was told how to engage reverse gear by a team mate. Although it is just a stretch of road divided by a trunk road, I went around back and forth 2 rounds AND it took me 1 and half hour. The weather was hot and we just keep encouraging children playing by the road side, near their house to come right up the van and join us. Of course they recognize the van and as the van passes, they keep looking at us.

Back at the church, the kids gathered and they decide to have an adult fellowship session. So the kids (making up 80 - 85% of the crowd) has to be taken aside for children's activity. As we have ran out of our previous days material, because we have been here for 2 days of activities, we have to resolve to last minute ideas. Finally we had some question and answering session and then moved on to the story of creation. It was tough handling the kids, and I think we had 4 adults trying to do that. It was still not easy. At the end they could be faster, louder and their volume could easily have drowned anyone of us.

At the same time, the adults were doing their own fellowship which I hope will be a good beginning to grow the number of faithful Christian here.

All done, we packed up, sent the kids and adult back, did a debrief, bid farewell to our Pastor there and we were on our way a little bit after lunch our. We decided to stop in a town called Bahau to get ourselves lunch at about 4pm. Yes 4pm, and that is the time we had lunch. We went for Chinese food, and as we circled the town for this restaurant, it gave me a great chance to come back to this town that I have a lot of memory when I was younger. I have friends here. But I think they have all left town now or I don't know, probably not staying around anymore as most of them I have not contacted for years. Anyway it was great to come to this town again after more than 14 years. I could recognize the town and some part of it, but it has grown much more.

Hitting the road after the meal, I saw a dead python on the road, and it looks really big. On our way back, it rained, and rather heavily at certain stretch, reminding us the goodness of God for all our days that we had activity, we didn't have to go through the rain at all, not once. But things are done now, and rain can come. We reached back to our starting point at about 8pm +. It was a journey well remembered, one that God moves before us and prepared the place for us. One that God lead us and not by our strength...

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Orang Asli Mission Trip (Day 3)

Time to continue to write the 3rd day of the trip. Here goes... The night before, it was raining quite heavily. We had a good rest on the hard flooring of the church building. Though I found that in the morning for the 2nd day consecutive, the space I had to sleep on is much smaller because my team mate tends to lean towards my side. Anyway over here, the 'cock' helps by giving us morning call come 6-6.30am. The cock will make a comeback tonight, which I will detail towards the end of the 3rd day :)

We woke up and pack our stuff into the van. This is because we are on a mission to 2 more villages or Kampung. We went to the same place as Day 2 for breakfast and then off we go to Kampung Inoi, which is the furthest from the church location. The journey was long and we have to take the Oil Palm Plantation roads to get into this village. We have to travel through the oil palm estate that the road is far from being good, was hard for the van to go through. After about 20 minutes of this road, we arrived into the village. The Orang Asli here is very shy, small sized and skinny. They also do not have electricity and they were using old water pump, like those I saw in Tom and Jerry. Being a town folk, I am a little bit surprised at the condition that they are living in.

We wasted no time in kicking off with our activity. We started to sing and dance to our song to attract children and adult alike. And the kids start to come and see what is happening, though they are very shy. We have to ask them a few times and give them balloons to get their attention. After what seem to be a long singing session, we finally got together a bunch of kids (10 - 15 range) and taught them the 'Fruit of the Spirit'. They are somewhat shy, quiet but some of them are quite intelligent kids. To our surprise some of them are much older but the body size still is very small and their hair brownish, probably a sign of mal-nutrition.

Given all the Fruit of the Spirit training, balloon, jelly and stuff as present, our other members starts to arrange and disseminate clothing to them. Most of them, the cloths seem worn, some even bare their top (guys / boys I meant) and seem to walk around like that under the hot sun. Most of them seem happy grabbing those clothing running back home. Also the pastor had a little session playing 'doctor' by providing medical aid to some of them who requires them, especially those with skin problem. We decided to visit the Tok Batin (village head) to give him a present and have a chat with him. On the way, we saw a small black snake crossing the road while we are in the van. The pastor told us that it was poisonous. I am quite surprised to see a cobra crossing the road literally in the middle of the town!!

We reach the Kampung Inoi Tok Batin's house and notice the simplicity of it. it was plain and without anything special. He is an easy going man and nice man. We gave him the gift and then had a few chat with him on what is happening in town, then went off to gather up the rest of the team member to move on to the next town. Next stop is Kampung Gadak.

Gadak is a much nicer town, with electricity and water supply. Houses are arranged nicely and there seemed to be a lot of land. People here is nice and friendly. As we reach this Kampung, I think we skipped lunch and started to prepare for the telematch and movie in the evening , much like the 2nd day schedule. Before that, we went around to hand out flyers and we even had a chance to visit the Tok Batin of Gadak. All is well, he is very supportive of our work here and gave us a resounding support for our activity there in his village. We left soon after a nice chat and we asked him to join us later on in the evening.

Back to our church member's house, we prepare for the activity to come. The food is prepared by one of the local Orang Asli church member there. Again, we repeated of what happened on Day 2, the only thing is that the crowd is different, the kids is different and the crowd here is much more easier to control then in Day 2.

We did all those with the presence of the Tok Batin for most part of the movie and we enjoyed dinner together. The food was great and every one of us, the kids and adult alike all join in for the great feast of nasi lemak and ayam.

The evening and darkness soon sets in. We started to clean things up and move on our way home towards the church. Along the way, our van got lost after we sped of with pastor's van right behind. We turned into a wrong turning and was frantically waiting for pastor's van to pass us, only that he is in front of us. We waited for a long while before we were able to communicate via the mobile phone. All is well, we reached back to church, cleaned up, debrief and falling asleep. As I remembered, while I was bathing, a 'cock' was sitting right at the corner of the bathroom watching me bath. I didn't realize at first but was told by someone who went to the bathroom before me. So I did see that cock, sitting comfortably at a corner, peeking at each of us taking bath. This is the same day I saw the longest centipede in my life. My blood was already cold looking at the 20cm odd poisonous creature. It went off as fast as I could take a closer look at it.

The night was suppose to be short but was lengthen by our team mate in charge of journal. They were having a meeting after debrief to put down the facts and points throughout our adventure for the last 3 days. Myself and team lead was fast asleep when we were woke up again with the sound of laughter. I am not sure, I sat up and was offered noodles. Why not, right. I had it, done with, drink water, brush teeth and ZZZzzzZZZzzz. Look out for Day 4 (Last day)

Learning of the day: Life is already very good where we are, cherish and thank God for it. A lot of people live with much less, so don't complain.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Orang Asli Mission Trip (Day 2)

Day 2 starts with the 'not enough sleep' symptom. My eye could barely open and I have to force myself up to clean myself up and bring myself to do devotion in BM. It is not easy. I have to think of how to say it after having not spoken BM for a very long time. Well, fortunately it went quite OK with the topic being James 1: 2-4, talking about 'Suffering is Good'. Indeed. Having remembered from the 1st day that it would be working non-stop from sunrise to sunset, it motivates me to have everything prepared and ready early on in the day.

The day started well with we traveling to a place our team lead call Karatong. It was a small little nice township complete with buildings, mini-market, several rows of shops, some government building, a MARA bus-stop and a field. Overall it looks like a small little township area just like you see it in town. We went to one of this Malay store that serves normal Malay and Mamak food. I ordered the famed Roti Telur. The Roti Telur here is different because it not only has egg, but also some other mixed spices and also onion. Tasted good actually. The drink here taste OK as well. I think I drank teh tarik for this first morning of OA.

Soon after breakfast we went back to church, prepared and set out again to hand out flyers from house to house of our activity in the afternoon and night. We found that shape-able balloons is a very attractive tool for kids. The afternoon activity was Sukaneka (what we meant was telematch - targeting the kids) and evening time event is the Jesus Story movie. We went around on our old faithful van to pick up the kids and adults alike. The kids are very excited every time the van passes and they wouldn't miss the opportunity to jump up the van. Some kids are shy though, which requires a little bit of persuasion by their friends.

The afternoon under a little shade, we played telematch such as 3 legged race, racing with ping pong ball balanced on a spoon, pair crab walk with balloon between them etc, all played as a team game. We permutated the games as it fits to keep the kids' attention. All is well, no injuries or sort, but a lot of fun and the kids were given regular breaks because the weather is very hot. Still we have to thank God because there is no rain, so that all this can be carried out. After what we believe to be a joyous outing for the kids, we cool things down with some individual games, and also a station prepared to teach children how to sing.

We kick start the evangelistic event with prayer, singing of songs and then when straight for the Jesus movie. Then we went for John 3:16 and prayed together with the kids. It was an event to highlight I must say. Kids was the most responsive and although they were a little bit restless during the Jesus movie which lasted for an hour, the rest was quite cool and accordingly done. We finished early, cleaned up and then send the kids home. No dinner for the night, we decided to visit one of the houses, which is going through a wedding ceremony. Apparently some of our team mates know her. We went and witness some sort of wedding ceremony. It was nice, and it was very joyous occasion. They were 'food', dance and music. It was very much like Malay wedding, only it is not. And we got to learn that Malay wedding and Orang Asli wedding has some similarity.

We had our late dinner there at the wedding and took some photos. We went back shortly cleaned up and prepared for bed time. It was a good night except that our room (the church floor), was visited by 'water ant', bees and similar small insects. Prior to resting, we had a debriefing with the pastor to discuss the day and to highlight the activities tomorrow. Without proper break in between, for the entire day, my body starts to become very tired and I fall asleep shortly with the rest of the team.

Learning: Kids are really hard to control especially when they come as a big bunch. God is good to each and everyone of us, as he has given us a gift of life and a gift or happiness. Human heart though always wanted more and part of our human is always looking for more. I believe I would like to challenge myself parallel that is, to have a better relationship with God and to expand my human wanting that is of more positive and useful for people around me. Shape-able balloon is very attractive for kids, they make sword out of it and start to chase each other for a fencing sword fight.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Orang Asli Mission Trip (Day 1)

The journey starts from church where we travel first to Seremban -> Senawang -> Kuala Pilah -> Kampung Bukit Serok. The journey was somewhat weird. As I have motion sickness, I couldn't or wouldn't want to remember too much about the trip prior to me driving. I just closed my eyes so that I wouldn't fall sick of my motion sickness which I have been having since I was a kid. I was driving my teammate's car (Camry) and I do think that it was much more comfortable then the van, which we decided to use 2 vehicles instead of one because of the amount of load we are transporting. 7 person + loads of stuff including food, stuff and bags.

The van were not so lucky because it wasn't filled with enough water causing it to have to make a half an hour stop at Perhentian Nilai. My teammate meanwhile already drove the Camry all the way to the next stop, having missed the Perhentian Nilai, where we were suppose to meet up. We then met up again at the exit of toll where I became the Camry driver. I am then able to open my eyes and not fall sick, though I have to put a lot of concentration on the road.

We made a stop at Senawang for brunch. It was great, and our team lead seems to know the owner of the shop. They were chatting a bit while plates of food being served. The food is not extraordinary but it was nice and tasty. Enjoyed and happy, I was quite amazed with the ticketing system in Senawang. It seems that we will only pay the parking when someone put a ticket on your windscreen. So if they don't, you don't have to pay. I didn't get one.

Continuing the journey, we went through the windy and hilly roads to Kuala Pilah and then from there we went on our way to Kampung Bukit Serok where the Church is. The journey was OK, coupled with my teammates chatting. It really make time flies. So without knowing, by about 1230pm we arrived already at the Kampung. There is a left and right side to turn in for the Kampung. The church was located on the right, so off we went through. We arrived at the Church and were greeted by Pastor Joham and family.

We have no lunch and since we were scheduled to arrive earlier, straight away, we unpacked, refreshed and set out to prepare for children ministry in the afternoon. Part of the team stayed back to prepare the material for 'Pinochio' while myself and team leader went on to fetch children. The turn out wasn't that fruitful and we have found only handful of kids for the children ministry. Not that it is a bad thing, we were able to teach better, communicate better with a smaller crowd.

Pinocchio mask making

Scrambling for their project

Children sitting in a row

Boy does the kid have fun listening to the story of Pinochio getting a long nose and so on. After learning the values, we top it up with Pinochio mask and chompers making.

Group photo with the kids put on their 'mask'

After that, we cleaned up ourselves and had dinner. Dinner was nothing great, just something pre-prepared and heat up type. Yeah, we did not want to waste too much time on this. After the dinner, we will have to go over one of the houses for Cell Group Meeting. The night turn out was great. We fit in 30 odd people in a house, 80% kids again. So we did a great round of worship and as the adults view a short story on Addiction issue, we brought the kids behind the house for a session of 'Fruit of the Spirit'. It was again very challenging with the kids and some of them are very good boys and girls BUT others were terribly hard to handle.

Singing Praise

Fruits of the Spirit

Kids at Cell Group Night

There we concluded our activities with a lot of fun and had some time for a small supper. Along the way actually we prayed a lot of which I did not mention above. Also the weather was very good, contrary to the weather which is rain every evening back in town. Also we heard from them the weather was raining most of the time, until we came with a lot of prayer for good weather. And God is good indeed for an opportunity for us to conduct activity in good weather.

Learning for the day, at least for myself on the first day is ONE goodness of God in my life TWO God miracles is more apparent here in mission work THREE this trip has a lot to do with kids.... In spite of the need to control this kids really scares me, I had peace in my mind despite my body being very tired. Will talk more about the trip, wait for my posting about Day 2

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.