Memories From Bethany Home

Warning...really long post ahead!!!And I Mean REALLY LONG!!!

May 23rd,

Up we go the bus from Pudu Raya and on to Teluk Intan, Perak! The 14 of us (Ms Khoo, Me, Krystal, Wen Jo, Xin Ying, Yoong Jie, Andrew, Kumaran, Dennis, Eunice, Jessica, Tze Kang, Jia Hui & Pon) gathered at Pudu Raya to board the 4 pm bus. But the bus decided to arrive only at 4:15 or so and did I mention that the platform is freaking HOT!? We're all sweating so much that we literally bathed in our sweat.Haha..ew?Yea,not like we could do much about it.


The ride was about 3 hours plus and we got on a bus that was old and it made this stupid cranky engine sound but it was bearable. We played cards along the way and managed to get an hour's sleep before we got down at Simpang 4. The stupid driver dropped us some where before Bethany Home and we had to walk with our all so 'small' luggage.

Bethany Home is a school for disabled children and it was actually quite big. So we got two classrooms, one for the guys and one for us gals. We went for dinner at some mamak across the road cause there's prctically nothing else we can eat and the area seems stranded so what to do?

After dinner,we all took turns to bathe, while we wait for our turn we all talked and played more poker. So guess what time we all slept??? HAhaha....I think we really pissed Ms Khoo cause we all only got into bed at 2 plus though she already asked us to sleep at 12 but we pushed it further and further cause we're too occupied with playing truth or dare. =p Sorry Ms Khoo.. XD


May 24,

We got up at 6 something and went out for breakfast at 7 something. Guess what we had?? YUP! Mamak again! There's seriously no other food to choose from and we're running late too. I think at about 8:45 we got back and Mr Jayasingh gave an intro and we each had to pick at random from this basket for our groups and our kid. We had to take care one kid each and mind you most of us had no idea what was installed for us!

Me >> Hooi Bor (11 year old kid with down syndrome and is mentally retarded but is the cutest though he's off and on like Mr Hyde when he's disturbed or throwing tantrum on me and like Dr Jekyll when he's not throwing tantrum..)

Krystal >> Yugendra (can't remember what was his prob but he's really 'sick' in the mind!read krystal's blog for more info when she updates..btw, he really hates me!)

Wen Jo >> Shi Ying (4 yr old with autism, super active and this kid was the worst to handle!She likes to bite and she bit Jo real hard and she even bit me..Sob sob..I can still she the outline of her jaw on my arm!)

Xin Ying >> Tian Chang (down syndrome, kind of possessive of Ying)

Yoong Jie >> Yi Bin (Hyper active and autism I think...he loves to play with phones!You'll be surprized how well he can handle the phone.. )

Andrew >> I don't know the name of his kid cause I never heard Andrew calling him by the name but he's one seems the most normal and easy to handle though he does have some problems which freaked most of us..

Kumaran >> Isamuddin (ISA!!He's really cute but he is one of the hardest to handle cause he has CP which is kinda like he can't control he's body well.This is my fav kid next to mine!kumaran really turned father mode with Isa,from feeding to changing dypers! )

Dennis >> Logeswary (dunno her prob but she loves to argue with krystal's kid..)

Eunice >> Kwan Ming (hahaha...can't really recall the prob again but I think it's autism. He's the tallest kid we got and he really, really was hard to handle.Eunice was on the verge of dying..hahaa..)

Jessica >> The name escapes me, haha..but according to Jessica, her's was ok.

Jia Hui >> Nam Seng (Down Syndrome...he seems like a sweet kid)

Pon >> Can't remember the name but Pon seemed to have not much prob with his kid.

We had to handle our kid the moment we met them and it wasn't easy!! Mine and Kumaran's doesn't like to eat and thinks that water is enough to make them full! They are very very slow eaters and most of the time we're the last ones at the dinning area. haizz.. Kumaran had to feed his and mine only needs feeding when his care taker is not around. Damn smart of him actually...

After lunch my kid decided to throw a tantrum on me and it took me 45 min to get him out of the door! We went for an outing and there was a colouring competition held for the kids at the Clock Tower. Whee..joy! it's more like we were the ones doing the colouring! Mine decided to colour his in yellow only..I shall not blame him for his lack of taste in colour. Then we had games which I shall not go into detail as it soooo exciting.. Dinner was on our own so we agreed to treat our kids to KFC.

As we were walking to KFC, Kumaran said he needs to change Isa's dyper so I went with him to help. We were deciding either to go into the gals or the guys toilet so we decided to go into the guys..yes,I went into the guys toilet! Kumaran did all the work and I was just telling him what to do. While changing, plenty of Malay guys came in and when they saw me they were like, "OOH..perempuan.." They immediately checked the sign on the door and looked at me with a raised eye brow. Some even came in half way unzipping their pants! ARH...my mind is scared for life!! So we had to say "tukar pampers" over and over again whenever anyone came in. Glad that was the first and last time I'm ever gonna go into the guys toilet!!!

After all the dyper change we made our way to KFC and we got our kids whipped potato. Mine doesn't like to eat but when I got him the whipped potato..he doesn't need feeding anymore! He was scooping mouthfuls himself!!! Never look down on the disabled, for all you know they are just as smart! We nearly occupied half of the space in KFC and I pity the other customers there cause we were making a lot noise and off and on you'll hear us screaming at our kids..Haizz..It's like we all came to camp for a parenting course.

By night time after all the other sha-bangs..we had to bathe our kids. I envy people like Krystal and Andrew cause they're kids can bathe themselves, where as mine needs me to bathe him. After bathing, we brought them to the dining area and gave them supper and then they went for some session in the Pysio room while the volunteers (aka us) went for a really long and boring talk by Mr Jayasingh. By the time, the talk finished, it was bed time for the kids and when I went to collect my kid, he was already sound asleep. So I had to carry him back to our room which explains all the muscle ache I'm having now..

After putting them to bed it was our turn to bathe and after that all the MCKL students had a 'bitching' session like Tze Kang calls it. All of us were complaining about our own kid and it suddenly occured to us that it was only day 1!ONLY DAY 1!? OMG!!!!That session lasted till 1 and we had to sleep cause we need to wake up at 6 something to get ready before we wake the little 'angels'.


May 25,

My alarm went off at 6:15 and when I got up I felt my entire body aching from yesterday. Most of the volunteers were up at the same time and all of us have the same tired looks and some of us even have really heavy eye bags. Thank God that my kid was easy to wake but he has a problem with brushing his teeth,so I had to brush it for him. GREAT..

Everything was fine in the morning, breakfast was easily dealt with, my kid was really an angel today. We went for a community project right after breakfast to help a family of disabled adults and to cut the long story short, we had to clean the entire house, the garden and every where and we even painted the house! My group and Krystals group was in charge of painting whcih was not a bad job but it stinks and it was messy. Krystal's kid was giving her some problem while painting and he got little splats of paint all over her. Glad mine wasn't painting.

We got back for lunch and we had group practice for the party at night, my group was the lamest cause we're all too tired to think and we decided to just go on stage and sing some nursery ryhmes. Games was next and we played messy games aka water ballon. After all the throwing and stuff, we brought our kids to swim in the pool. I nearly had to jump into the pool to get my kid out but luckily Andrew helped.

I was really tired and since my kid was being a real angel the entire day, I left him with my room mate and went to look for Krystal in the Pysio room. hahaha...I needed a break la. Hmm..this is the interesting part, during games, I leaned on Krystal cause I was freaking exhausted and when Yugendra (her kid) saw he immediately pointed at me and said, "U jangan peluk sama dia,saya tak suka!!" which made the both of us burst out with laughter. So when I was chatting with Krystal in the Pysio room he was glaring at me and the two of us and Jia Hui decided to video him scolding me.

I shall upload it one day, when I get the video from Jia Hui. It was really funny,her kid was telling us all his wonderful plans of how to murder me. The 3 of us were really enjoying bullying him. Yugendra was actually very dirty and he was freaking Krystal out. He held Krystal's face during games yesterday, he kept asking Krytsal to bathe him and even asked her to sleep right next to him. So it's obvious this kid is getting very attached to her and shall I say he 'fell in love' with her???HAHAHAHAHA...I pity you Krystal!

During dinner Krystal didn't want to sit with Yugendra so she shifted to sit with me and my kid. The whole time Yugendra was glaring at me and Yoong Jie was sitting next to me, so we filled him in on the details. Yoong Jie was keeping an eye on him and we kept laughing everytime Yugendra turned to glare at me. Yoong Jie said it was as though he was ready to pounce on me and punch me or something. Me and Yoong Jie were joking that we should show the videos that Jia Hui took during next year's OB nite and the background music would be "Accidentally In Love".HAHAHAHAHA...Tze Kang was standing while eating behind Yugendra during dinner so he kept telling Tze Kang to 'JAGA' me and so call keep me away from Krystal. *sweat* Damn paranoid la this kid....

After the party, we had another 'bitching' session, by 1 most of us went to bed. I think at about 2 something in the morning Yoong Jie called me sounding a little worried..

"Carmen, hey sorry to disturb you. Is Krystal with you?"

'No,why?"

"Cause she is missing. We looked every where but we can't find her."

"Don't worry maybe she went to get ready leh.."


"Get ready for what??"

Then I sat up on my bed and only had the brains to ask this..

"What time is it?"

"It's 2 something"

"Oh,she should be sleeping in the Pysio room wad."

'She's not there. We all searched twice di."

"She's in the Pysio room la. She should be sleeping with another kid. Cause she doesn't wanna sleep with her's ma..Wait,I'll coming now."

I was actually worried by this time and I went out of the room immediately. Yoong Jie met up with me near the play ground, we were approaching the Pysio room and the first thing I noticed outside was Krystal's slippers and as I was about to open the door I saw Ying and Jo coming out. I asked if Krystal was in there and the two smiled and said yes. Haiyoo....See Krystal, we're all so worried bout you. Yoong Jie kept apologizing for waking me and I immediately marched back to my room to sleep cause I was practically half awake only and I was afraid if I had walked any slower I would faint before reaching my room!


May 26,

YEAY!!!!!!Last day!LAST DAY! We're going to Sunway Lagoon today so we all packed our bags and went for breakfast. Again during breakfast Yugendra was going on and on bout his threats and he was standing bout just 3 meters away from the two of us. When Krystal saw him standing closer and closer, she immediately hugged me in front of him to ward him off..(it didn't really work...) Yugendra grabbed Kumaran and started ranting stuff to him in Tamil. Guess what he told Kumaran???? He told Kumaran to tell me that Krystal is his wife and he told Kumaran to tell Krystal that he loves her. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

At that point Krystal was really freaked out. I think she was glad that Kumaran agreed to trade kids with her for today so she didn't have to dread going to Sunway. Before getting up the bus Yugendra glared at me and said, "U jangan ikut dia!" Unfortunately Kumaran was in a different bus so Isa (his kid) had to follow him first. Me and Krystal sat together and my kid sat on my lap. The nearest seat to us which was empty was the one behind me so her kid took that seat and while Krystal was talking to me he was whispering threats to me on the other end. He was like, "kenapa u dua duduk sama-sama?U jangan peluk dia,kalau tak saya kena kau nanti". Damn psycho...

The entire ride was 3 hours and thank God, Yugendra shifted to sit with an Indian teacher in front or else I would not have any peace at all from that guy. Once we reached Sunway, Krystal immediately switched kids with Kumaran. Kumaran's kid had to use a wheel chair cause it would be easier to move him around. We actually started walking with everyone then after a while everyone went in different directions. So me and Krystal were left to handle the wheel chair alone. I'm amazed at the two of us cause we managed to push the wheel chair up and down the escalator without anyone's help! We brought the 2 kids for dry rides till 2 something near 3 then we decided to bring the two kids for swimming.

We managed them well and we didn't even have any problems with the two kids. Krystal didn't want to get all wet so I took care of Isa while she took mine during swimming cause Isa needs someone to constantly hold him and carry him in and out of the pool. But Krystal still got all wet in the end..hahahaha, cause she stood directly under the big bucket of water that tilts every 5 minutes. So much for staying dry eh??By 5,we all were heading back for the bus to send the kids off. For a moment it didn't occured to us that we were now free from handling the kids but we do miss them la. Ok,fine..I miss mine la,I miss Isa too, I definitely won't miss Krystal's devil though.

We didn't go home immediately, instead we (me,Krystal,Wen Jo,Xin Ying,Yoong Jie,Andrew & Kumaran) went for food at Kim Gary's. For 4 days we deprived from Chinese food and we were all very tired and hungry so we had to feed our growling stomachs first. After our meal, me, Krystal,Andrew and Kumaran took a cab to Kelana Jaya station.



It was fun when we were recalling all the memories we just made and laughed madly at most of them. Though we have much to complain and there's much we were unsatisfied with, we most definitely had fun and it was truely an eye openining experience! I think I wouldn't mind going again for this camp. After this experience I think most of us have changed the way we look at disabled people and I think most of us are no longer afraid of them like we used to be. More importantly I think most of us have learnt to embrace their disability and tried to get to know them like a normal people. Though I'm now down with fever, having sore throat, coughing my lungs out and having loads of muscle pain, I didn't regret going for this camp. In fact, I keep dreaming and thinking of Bethany Home since Monday night. I guess somethings does stay in your heart forever....