Ordinary Heroes
I have to document this - of all the humanitarian missions ive been involved, this is kinda personal. Kinda personal as it involved one of my pal Jeff which he got trapped in the flood together with his wife Nusrat and their 2 adorable monsters in Badang, Kota Bharu, Kelantan for the last 2 weeks in December 2014. ( Nawal and Umar - my god both of them are so freaking adorable ).
Jeff as usual, with his investigative reportage habits, took pictures of the water level hourly updates in Facebook, finally on the 26th December, we were cut off. I tried to call him but failed. Shit. And I was away to Ulu Kemaman, Terengganu for the first mission.
I was worried shit, Kelantan was off limits.
Together with another 23 people - they took shelter under Cikgu Zahari's place, his house turned to an ad hoc flood centre. Total darkness, where the electricity and water supply were cut off, by the fourth day - they slowly run out of food supplies, they turned to papayas and ubi kayu for food.
Cikgu Zahari honestly told me he ran out of ideas of looking for food supplies. How to feed 25 mouths? One of his heroic acts is where he rode the sampan in total darkness to get the food supplies dropped by a Red Cross chopper. Nusrat able to contact a buddy and the buddy able to send a Red Cross chopper to send food supplies. The first shipment was hijacked by other villagers, so the chopper need to return for the second time.He distributed it to all, leaving nothing to his own, keeping nothing.
Jeff and Nusrat kept a portion and force Cikgu Zahari to keep a share of his own.
Fast forward, Nusrat initiated a collective drive where she managed to collect a commendable amount of materials such as termos, rice cookers, school uniforms and such - where she intend to pass to Cikgu Zahari's care. This is where i came along, i told Nusrat, i will personally send it to Badang, Kota Bharu, Kelantan - supported with Shah - together with the awesome 4x4 belonged to another Hero of different category also named Zahari which i call him Abang Zack.
Abang Zack is a national hero. Nuff said.
So we have Zahari's 4x4 to send supplies to Cikgu Zahari. Both Zahari and both at the same age. I tell you - The Universe is full of humor la....awesome kan.....its been solid 2 months i participated in various missions. So much to tell and yet i dont know where to begin. Anyway i will find time to reflect and post more.
One thing i know is - it's time for people to realized that their life is so blessed and they should learn how to be grateful.
What is awesome in this trip is, we manage to drop by to our old base camp, our base camp actually is a restaurant. The owner gave us full permission to stay and use the space for a week for our mission. After seeing what we done as one of the owner's relative actually followed to one of the trip, they took initiative to run their own mission - which is cooking and distributing food for 1000 people. Awesome right?
When the owner told me this, i felt that im like a proud parent. All the donation items i entrusted to them was successfully distributed. We left Kuala Krai and Kelantan with high spirits. I kept on smiling and smiling .Am i tired of all this? Yes. This incident left me a huge mark in my head and heart saying that i can contribute more.
The Do Good initiative.
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| Jeff guarded by 2 angels - Nawal and Umar |
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| Nusrat, Nawal, Jeff and Umar |
Jeff as usual, with his investigative reportage habits, took pictures of the water level hourly updates in Facebook, finally on the 26th December, we were cut off. I tried to call him but failed. Shit. And I was away to Ulu Kemaman, Terengganu for the first mission.
I was worried shit, Kelantan was off limits.
Together with another 23 people - they took shelter under Cikgu Zahari's place, his house turned to an ad hoc flood centre. Total darkness, where the electricity and water supply were cut off, by the fourth day - they slowly run out of food supplies, they turned to papayas and ubi kayu for food.
Cikgu Zahari honestly told me he ran out of ideas of looking for food supplies. How to feed 25 mouths? One of his heroic acts is where he rode the sampan in total darkness to get the food supplies dropped by a Red Cross chopper. Nusrat able to contact a buddy and the buddy able to send a Red Cross chopper to send food supplies. The first shipment was hijacked by other villagers, so the chopper need to return for the second time.He distributed it to all, leaving nothing to his own, keeping nothing.
Jeff and Nusrat kept a portion and force Cikgu Zahari to keep a share of his own.
Fast forward, Nusrat initiated a collective drive where she managed to collect a commendable amount of materials such as termos, rice cookers, school uniforms and such - where she intend to pass to Cikgu Zahari's care. This is where i came along, i told Nusrat, i will personally send it to Badang, Kota Bharu, Kelantan - supported with Shah - together with the awesome 4x4 belonged to another Hero of different category also named Zahari which i call him Abang Zack.
Abang Zack is a national hero. Nuff said.
So we have Zahari's 4x4 to send supplies to Cikgu Zahari. Both Zahari and both at the same age. I tell you - The Universe is full of humor la....awesome kan.....its been solid 2 months i participated in various missions. So much to tell and yet i dont know where to begin. Anyway i will find time to reflect and post more.
One thing i know is - it's time for people to realized that their life is so blessed and they should learn how to be grateful.
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| the handsome boy belong to Abang Zack - he is one those commandos involved in the Battle of Mogadishu 1993. |
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| from left, Nusrat's parents,Mama, Papa, the guy in the red shirt is the Hero Cikgu Zabadi and Shah. |
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| Cikgu Zahari posing with Zack's handsome boy. |
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| so Nusrat, this is the least what we can do. |
When the owner told me this, i felt that im like a proud parent. All the donation items i entrusted to them was successfully distributed. We left Kuala Krai and Kelantan with high spirits. I kept on smiling and smiling .Am i tired of all this? Yes. This incident left me a huge mark in my head and heart saying that i can contribute more.
The Do Good initiative.
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