"eXposed" in Lighthouse, Penang

It was a cloudy Monday on the 1st of December 2008 when the whole group of us comprising me, Yee Ching, Bei Wen, Zui Chin, Ying Ying, Tiong Kuan and Kok Keong made a visit to Lighthouse, a warm place which provide comfort and hot meals for the homeless. We were there by 3.20pm and were greeted courteously by Mr.Peterson and the smell of boiling curry coming from the kitchen. Through Mr.Peterson, we gathered that Lighthouse provides tea and dinner everyday from Monday to Friday to those in need. There will be approximately 100 people for each meal and since Lighthouse receives people from all walks of life, hence, no pork or beef would be serve. One could not help but to agree that this is definitely a show of respect to the different religions. Mr. Peterson also informed us that the homeless people could also have their bath, clean up and watch television there although bathing needs to be supervised sometimes to avoid the abuse of drugs. Our first ‘live’ activity was to prepare bread and coffee for our dearest brothers and sisters. Tea time is the usual 4pm so the 8 of us could be seen busy spreading jam and pouring coffee into plastic cups. I braced myself to face and see what I have not really pay deep attention into before. 4pm came and these brothers and sisters came to have their tea. Well? I expected them to crowd around but they proved me wrong by lining up properly to collect their food. I was drastically surprised when the first brother actually came up to us, collected his food and say a big “Thank you”. It was really heart warming to hear the word thanks from them. Deep inside I could feel their sense of gratitude and appreciation. I looked at my other faci mates and saw their smiles. They were indeed sharing the same feelings that I had at that time. Tea time passed and we were soon helping them to prepare for dinner. Before that, we were lucky enough to meet Brother Vincent, who cheerfully shared with us something about Lighthouse. Lighthouse which represents Let’s Inspire Give Hope Through Holistic Option Using Self- Empowerment, is run based on the aim to help those in need. A perfect analogy for comparison would be a light that is shone in the darkness. Lighthouse is currently working hard to help the homeless to secure a job besides just providing meals for them. However, after my first contact with them during tea time, I could feel that they are people who lack of confidence and social interactions. Bro. Vincent confirmed my predicament when he said that there were some who eventually ‘chickened’ out on the first day of their work, hence, going back to square one. They are always afraid of the society’s view towards them. So how does the society view them? “ Are you willing to mingle and mix around with them?” was the counter reply to my earlier question. I was not too sure about my reply. It was really heart breaking to learn that many of these homeless brothers and sisters do have their own children and family. With that statement, I could roughly rank the standard of filial piety in our society. I silently thought of my family and a meaningful portion of a statement the Tathagata once preached. The Tathagata said, even if a person is to carry his father on his left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder until his bones were ground to powder by their weight, and if that person is to circumambulate Mount Sumeru for a hundred thousands kalpas, that person would still not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents. Dinner affair was a simple one with merely rice, chicken curry, vegetables and watermelon. As they ate quietly in a corner without any fuss, once again, a wave of gratefulness and appreciation came flooding by. It was a moment of realization that there are actually so many people who are less fortunate than us out there.
We also had the opportunity to meet up with Mr. Belle, the manager of Lighthouse. He once again re-emphasized the objective of Lighthouse to us. According to him, Lighthouse is run based on generous sponsorships. They have many helpful volunteers who came by to cook and prepare meals everyday. (Coincidently there was a ‘Datuk’ who came and helped to cook for dinner today.) Lighthouse would also have street scouting from time to time to provide food for those in need. What makes all of them, from a kitchen helper to a retiree to a ‘Datuk’ continue lending a helping hand? For Mr.Belle, it would be the satisfaction and feeling of wanting to help those who are less fortunate. For, Mrs.Peterson, the desire to help has always been in her bloodline since she was a kid. She had witnessed how her mother helped other poor mothers to feed their offspring by giving out milk formula to them. As for another brother who was helping out in the kitchen, it was in line with the Catholic spirit that they help those who are less fortunate. Our visit to Lighthouse came to an end. There were many times when during the visit, we actually witnessed the true nature of our own society. We seldom appreciate things that we already have, instead kept focusing on those things that we do not possess. How many of us actually realized that there are many more less fortunate people than us out there? Today’s visit was not merely helping out and interviewing. We had the chance to get up close to those without proper homes, some even abandoned by their families. They, like us need love and concern. Three words to conclude today’s brief but meaningful visit, “ Exposed” in Lighthouse.

ThE ONe meMorABle dHAmma cAmP

Time and tide waits for no man. Time flies at an undeniably high speed. Looking back, this year’s English Dhamma Camp took place three weeks ago, on 21st November 2008 at Butterworth Buddhist Association. Since we Biotech students were always granted the opportunity to sit for the last paper of the finals on the last day, I had to check in late for the pre-camp. It was definitely already bad enough that we had to brave the heavy rain, what more, we found ourselves lost like a sheep in the city, and on the highway to Alor Star. Luckily, and at last, our car and its entire human contents reached BBA…Pre-camp started its pace the next day..All departments were supposed to complete any uncomplete tasks…Dhamma and Cultivation department happily worked about their souvenirs for lay speakers..Yee Ching, Surita (according to Bhante Buddhavamsa) and Silk Guan…I will definitely enjoy the precious moments we shared together…How we made those lanterns, draw bamboo shoot pictures…The rest of the days in camp were fun and educational too…Despite being an AJK and only little time to snooze with my red striking sleeping bag, we actually had more time to interact with one another…I even told my new found mama about our special bond which made her felt so touched..and of course my other faci mates, like that funny Ker Li who would partner with me in our attempt to copy the laughter of a banshee..It was all warm and touching..Simple word, it was simply bonding…The word ‘bond’ was first initialized and used just to entertain and irritate Lee Chien during the form up committee’s meeting.God knows, the word was later spread from one street to another..If it was a fair game in the share market, guess I would have topped Bill Gates by now..It wasn’t, but everyone seemed to be using the word during EDC..Thanks for giving me the opportunity guys…Words can’t describe my feelings everytime I heard the word ‘bond’…I found myself a new papa too..simply by the chance of the Kalyana Mitra game…Supposingly, I had to write to this particular ‘kaya bun’..instead, I kept writing to ‘potato bun’.. thinking back, this potato bun, which turned out to be Xin Hoong had even told me before the revealing of the game that this year’s Kalyana Mitra is weird because he has two children instead of one..Even then, I was not on the realization part, offering only a sarcastic grin to him…Mana tau it was me…The rest of it was lots of laughter from other people…Was a total joke…and a swarm of guiltiness to my beloved ‘kaya bun’ which turned out to be Lip Giat..All fun and no studying? Nope, not really though..We had Dhamma Talks by Bhante Buddhavamsa, Dhamma sharing, case study, sutta study and talks given by layspeakers…All these customized programmes were incharged by me, Yee Ching and Silk Guan…So we had the golden opportunity to kick off and made our own conclusion after every programme..It was sort of a training to do public speaking…Rachel gave me some compliments in her snail mail to me..not after bringing up the dancing thing during faci workshop camp2…Felt happy of course… I can dance…. J Anyway, I grew with confidence during our sharing..Trying not to be so cheong hei, I shared with my group members whatever I had understood, sharing with them life examples and my own feelings…It was all about sincerity during sharing..Derrick did sent me another snail mail saying that I know the right way to do sharing…Thank you very much…with both his feedback and Li Qun’s I had gain some confidence in being a future faci…Nevertheless the journey continues thus I would definitely work my way up…to pass down the light of dhamma..Whatelse can I say besides all the fun and exposure I had during EDC? Perhaps it was once in a lifetime experience and while we enjoyed ourselves during those ten days be it meeting, having lunch, bathing, sleeping or getting into groups for sharing, the rest remains a history…All beloved participants of EDC 2008/2009, I will always remember those special memories…with the 31 of you…