I came back from Borneo on Saturday a little
depressed.
After a week of fresh air, the rainforests and some
truly beautiful people, somehow highways,
air conditioning and the Internet
all feel a little bit alien right now.
I know I’m going to get right back into it …
but maybe I don’t want to?
With Penan children in Long Lamai, Sarawak. This picture was taken by
Langkau Fiction, whom I am now pleased and honored to call my friend.
More on this coming up.
xo
I realised today that every little bit counts
when it comes to the young ones.
Prasanth, who is 8, I think, was one of the
Agathian orphans today that asked me
to give him Math questions.
Can you even believe how my little heart swelled up to
hear him say “Teacher teacher, can you give me
plus questions please?”
(The kids call most people Teacher, it’s really cute)
Moments later Siddha comes to me and says
‘Teacher can you give me a puzzle?”.
I didn’t know what he meant until he showed
me an example – he wanted a simple crossword
puzzle. So I made my own crossword with 10 simple words
(Siddha’s about 8 too) for them to find.
Later he would be asking if I could do ‘match the drawing
and word’ quizzes for him.
These beautiful kids – I swear, they just make me so
happy and grateful to be alive and smiling.
How much do they want to learn? A LOT, you will find.
Prasanth then looks at me and goes,
“Teacher Ling, I finish my plus-es. Can I have some more?”
as I gave him 10 out of 10 and a star to boot.
[Yes, they have given up trying to remember my name,
since it's too confusing, and some have given me the nickname
Ling. Hmmm.]
“Why not I give you some minus questions?”, I ask.
He looks at me with those super long eyelashes and goes
“Okay.”
And then as he goes on I realise he can’t subtract as well as
he can add.
“9 minus 4 is ……” he says, and looks at me for help.
We have to do finger counting several times before he
gets it.
And then even when he gets it … sometimes he still falters
on some questions, because he forgets that his other hand
still has fingers he forgot to count. Things like that.
But after a while, he gets it. Slowly … he gets it.
And then I realise. These young boys, whose *ahem* mother tongue
(I hate the word mother tongue, it sounds so crude) is Tamil
don’t really have a problem with what language you
teach them in (They pick things up quite fast, and are super
eager). They just need extra care and attention, just like
any young primary school kid.
Looking at Prasanth struggling with his subtraction
just now really took my breath away a bit.
And he’s a bright kid.
It just brought a thousand thoughts and worries into my head,
things about their future, of our nation’s children’s future …
I’m sorry but one big thought just now in my head was
F*ck all this politicking, grandstanding and related nonsense.
It’s just luxury for some folks.
Beautiful people with the beautiful kids
Pix taken at the Agathians Shelter on Sunday, by my darling Buddha
Received several funny, cute as hell Youtube videos
recently which made me smile a bit, you know, the ones
I’m sure you have been receiving and forwarding like
the wedding entrance one (how wonderful is that?),
but this one …. was just too ridiculously cute I had to post
it up.
I mean, come on … a 5 yr old doing a gritty Johnny Cash tune?
Awesome.
This kid had me at “Twain a-comin…”
I seriously think you should forward this or
show this to your moms – they’ll freak out with delight.
Fwee me fwom this pwison!
I think those who commented on the video
have said what needs to be said, and here I pick
three which echo my thoughts exactly.
The last one especially, is a cracker.
This is all kinds of amazing that my head is going to
explode. I have no idea how to cope with this cuteness.
and
This video = the moment humanity finally collapsed under the
sheer weight of cuteness.
and…wait for it…
I think my ovaries just exploded.
LOL!
xo
