(1258) His mysterious way

The first stint of my stay in Sabah lasted two and a half years. When landlord no 1 wanted to increase rental from $550 to $700, I gave notice.

One of my son's student's parents offered him a suite of two connected rooms on top of their restaurant. It took me a week to shrink from a double storey three room three baths to two small rooms.

My neighbour's maid agreed to take anything I decided could not fit into the said two rooms. Every morning for that week I waited to see my neighbours (a couple with grown children away) left for work before moving things to the maid. When she could, she came over to make multiple trips of moving small items in baskets and boxes.

Much later she told me her mistress had had no idea I gave her loads of things. I was very surprised! I know the master would not mind . But to maintain the peace of this neighbour's household I was discreet. There were shelves in the maid's room. She cleverly covered them with old discarded sheets fixed with clothes clips. When her mistress pointed to the sheets, the maid explained that climbing up chairs to wipe the shelves daily caused knee pain. After all, she was sixty two years old although she was fit and spry.

During that week, three times friends and relatives came in vehicles to move things to her son's house in the plantation. The plantation house is rather big with many rooms. When the son borrowed his father-in-law's double cab truck to transport things to the mother's house, they timed the arrival to after dark. The son would back the truck close to the main door of the wooden house before unloading. None of her neighbours even saw what she had acquired. Through the years, another son's father-in-law built recycled cupboards for her. Of course she paid him whatever she could afford out of her meagre pay. When she first started to work for the present couple twenty three years ago, her monthly pay was $230. At the time I was living next to her master she was earning $600. On such low pay she could not have savings. But she remembered how her master and mistress allowed her three boys to spend their holidays in their house. They also undertook to pay for the boys' education, the first boy actually completed his pre-university. As foreigners, education is not free. She was mindful of kind deeds and was not calculating about pay.

As far as she was concerned, it was God who ordained me staying a few doors away. In her wildest dream she never imagine she would be given such a range of household items. Most of them I have freighted them over in boxes paying Air Asia $20 for 25 kilograms. During the many trips, each member of my family would bring them as luggage. I am also touched that she cried with joy. My loss of a low price rental house resulted in a great blessing in her old age. We parted with a tight hug, knowing that nothing happened by chance. It is the mysterious hand of God.

(1257) A stubborn daughter

When I first met my present landlady, she was selling economy rice as lunch. My son and I often turned up lunch time hoping to see shell fish fried in eggs. After two months, she sent her daughter to learn English from my son. At that point of time the girl was twelve years old. As the mother confessed that she married a stubborn man, it was therefore not unusual that she begot a stubborn child. While exasperated with the difficult daughter, she said once that it (all the effort, money, time ...) could all be in vain that the girl may not make it through university. I begged to differ at that point of time, saying that things often were better than they seemed to a parent in distress.

Now is exactly five years later. Her girl just restarted school after three and a half months of enforced holidays due to COVID-19 shut down. Her class of 38 was split into three portions to comply with the rule of social distancing. Lower Forms were pushed to the afternoon to make room for smaller classes. Prior to the social lock down, the girl's last monthly test of Accounting was 38%. In November and December 2019 she opted to spend 8 hours a day co-writing a novel to win a prize instead of getting help in learning Accounting. (She did win tablets with four other friends.) SPM, GCE O-Level equivalent, was to be held in March 2021 thanks to COVID-19. She talks about going into Business Studies majoring in Finance. While one does not need to keep Accounts for that line, the understanding, the ability to grasp at the figures in general are essential. The girl could consistently score A or A+ in Mathematics, why is it that she could fail Accounts? One reason could be she refused to memorise terms and concepts.

The problem then is attitude and not aptitude. Plus lately she turned up one morning to wake my son and me at 5:30 am to ask for four colour photos to attach to her Moral Folio. A month ago she came to print pages of text for her Accounts Folio, at that time my son said why not print what she needed for the Moral Folio. Her reply was that it was quite a long while to the dead line. Interestingly she was sure she said am and not pm. Still, for 5:30 it would only be logical to say pm. It is customary not to inconvenience those who do one a favour.

Looking into the future, I wonder if her dad would blow a couple of hundred thousand ringgit over her pre-university in Finance and later fork out more to change her major once she found out that Accounts is part of business studies. Suppose if he refuses to waste money over a change in major, would she make it through the degree?

I am finally forced to agree with her parents that an education degree would make more sense to this girl. I think of my youngest child's good friend Sharon who holds an educational diploma but is doing very well in telemarketing.