Illusion of Words

Street Sellers

I’m not sure how you term those people who either professionally or pitifully ask you to buy things/food they carry about them. They’re always around in busy places - bus stations, markets, food stalls - and even not-so-busy places, like offices.

Some call them con-men/women and look upon them in disdain. Others melt and just can’t say no - which is where most of their income are from.

No doubt, I believe most of their stories are not entirely truthful, and the goods they sell are just not all that great. After all, if their products are wonderful, why are they romping about trying to force people to buy things?

There are a few ‘famous’ sellers, if you go around enough, you’d be bound to bump into one or two. Sitting in the office, a guy came selling burgers. He tried to sell me three. I took two. And still felt kind of cheated. Oh well, at least it looks quite eatable - I think.

What are you supposed to do when you meet this sort of people? Do you frown and pull a long face and snap at them? Do you smile and nod and encourage them? Do you pull out your wallet and start paying for the goods?

Lies, lies. What makes them go out to the streets, so thick skinned? I picked up the business card the guy handed to me. Hardly a card. More like paper - the kind of paper used on calendars except even thinner. No respectable business person would use such a flimsy piece of paper, would they?

But I bet some earn quite a few bucks through all this cajoling and persuading.

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Little Kids

I volunteered myself to teach some kids at the children’s home. Wasn’t really my idea, to tell the truth, and I wasn’t that excited about it. Anyway, I was given 2 kids, one boy who is 6, another girl who is 7.

Cute children, despite being very shy in the beginning, their true colours began to show soon after. Let’s just say putting them together is like pitting a cat against a dog in the ring. Sparks fly along with fists. I spent a couple of weeks acting as the ‘referee’, holding one of them back.

You can’t go on like this - it’ll ruin their study time and your precious hour. To make the long story short, I had them separated.

I asked the little boy (who did not speak very good Chinese, and was therefore intelligible most of the time), “What are you going to do when you grow up?” I thought, perhaps I shall find some aspiring doctor or engineer or lawyer in the making, and feel better after all.

The boy never hesitated. Looking ahead and rambling on in his matter-of-fact, sincere voice, he said, “I’m going to go home when I grow up.”

He continued rambling about something to do with that topic, of which I must say I couldn’t quite understand. Was that all he wanted - to go home?

I changed my question slightly, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Still oblivious and sincere, he made tooting sounds and told me he wanted to be a bus driver. He told me about brakes (at least something about the feet) and the steering wheel in baby descriptions.

Going home and driving a bus. It’s not contempt - really, forgive me if I’ve given such an impression, but well, I feel sorry for him.

The boy only mentioned his father, so I asked about his mother, knowing the answer, but wanting to see his expression. Very matter-of-fact and normal, as before. He is far too young. To all kids from broken families, to all kids who cannot really go ‘home’, may the good Lord watch over you and keep you, and bless you abundantly…

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Back to the Longhouse

I joined my mom’s cell group for the trip to the longhouse, which is normally once in two weeks. If you remember, I was at the longhouses for the short term missions trip. So anyway, we went to Rumah Tuan. I, because I wanted to see those folks again, and to look at the place where I spent two nights in.

The highlight probably isn’t the visit. It’s the bus and the road. Now, I’m sure I don’t mind the bus that is practically falling apart, and that the windows rattle like there’s an earthquake. No, I don’t mind. But add to that bad roads, and it’s nearly unforgivable. The road between Siba and Tuan used to be good, taking only about 15 minutes. But now, without proper maintenance and loads of heavy trucks passing, the road is kind of torn up. The bus jerks and puffs along for nearly 40 minutes. What time wasted!

So there I sat in the bus, lurching along with it, until we reached RH Tuan. Nice to see the folks and kids - the kids were there for the service’ p&w, which was something missing from the previous trip. They did the action songs most cutely. Anyway, I was of some use, playing the keyboard.

When the service was over, we walked 200-300 metres in the dark, guided only by torchlights, to the side of the road. It had begun to rain. We waited 20 minutes for the bus to pick us up, each time we saw headlights from afar, everyone began dissecting and speculating whether that could be a bus or not. Twice we were disappointed. But in the end, the bus came, and we began the lurching and jerking home. This time, since it was so late, it is hard not to fall asleep. And since the bus’ seats are the ‘half-backs’, you can’t really lean back to sleep.

Some experienced people brought pillows, so they could sleep against the windows. I had to be content with dozing off every now and then and knocking my head against the window (which was wet) or the metal rod behind me.

Eventually, at exactly 1.28 am, the bus jerks to a stop within the Wesley compound. And finally I can rush home to my bed for a few hours of sleep before church early the next morning. The entire trip, while kind of torturing, is actually worth it. But I probably can’t stand going every two weeks.

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DIY Wallets

I have a wallet - thick and bulky. It’s almost like carrying a giant pouch of stuff around, which means it definitely isn’t an optimum situation when going somewhere. So anyway, since I enjoy making stuff sometimes, I looked up instructables.com and discovered a few simple tutorials, needing not much more than paper or shopping bags.

So I did them, and one for my mom’s birthday, since hers is almost as bulky as mine, but since her birthday isn’t up yet, so I can’t post any pics of it. Meanwhile, satisfy yourself by looking up these pages and folding yourself a wallet.

I used some old calendar for this paper wallet, since it isn’t as easy to rot as paper.
Paper Wallet

Sigh, I made a wrong cut in the beginning. But it didn’t really mattered, and though the plastic was kind of noisier than the paper wallet, it makes you feel more accomplished at the end.
Shopping Bag Wallet (Takes a lot more time.. but as you can imagine, more durable)

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