Tuesday 4th OCT 05 1230am
HUMBLED
I was humbled today. But that story will have to wait. First, recieved a call from my Instructor and he informed me that my appointment as my Dojo AstLdr has been confirmed. I went over to HQ at Toa Payoh to pay for my "Pink Card". I was also given an "appointment" letter in which the rules and duties of an AstLdr are spelt out. Then the next thing to do? Go home lor. then what? wait there till my belt changes colour meh?
I was supposed to give tuition today. But i decided to go for one training at Tampines West CC since i already have my Multi-Dojo card. And i can't train on Thursday at my OWN Dojo anyway.... So Tuition will have to be tomorrow.
Now for the Humbling story. My maid came over to my home to pass me some stuff from my mom. And also to help me clean up abit at home. When she came over, i could at once feel her pain and sadness. (One of the many gifts that comes with being an Empath). Anyway she was in alot of pain and suffering. I did not want to ask her much because i had to go down for my Lunch.... Anyway when i came back home, she was hard at work cleaning my room from top to bottom. Something that she has never done before, not that she is lazy or what... it's just not Like her to be so particular about scratching everything from top to bottom. I could not stand it anymore. I asked her why she "appears" so sad. I can't tell her i can actually FEEL her pain now can i? And she just told me.... fighting back the tears of hers. "I homesick, I work here so long, Why i cannot even use Handphone?".
Apparently my mom has forbid her to use the handphone anymore and has even gotten a new maid to "fight" with her ricebowl. I mean, people are a long way away from home. And she HAS been with us for such a long time. Why can't she be treated like family? Like one of us? She only uses the Handphone to contact her family back home. Is that even a crime?
And then it hit me. It really dosen't matter what i say. My maid is working for people who only thinks/eat/sleeps money and status. Why would they EVER treat her like a person? She is nothing more then a person who can be deported back to her home country at their whim and fancy. And yet here we have, my maid, a mother, a wife and a daughter to someone else. Working in a far off country just to earn enough money so her family have food on the table to feed themselves with every month. My maid has the courage to do this. And has done so for so many years. The courage to work for another, the courage to belittle her OWN status to that of a maid. So that her family lives and survives.
You throw the same situation to my mother and put her in the maid's shoe.... even the old man she is with? Please. It will be the joke of the century if they survive an hour.
At the end of it all...... i realised that my maid is such a brave women. A person who really loves her family. And you know what? My mother just cut off her only form of holding on to her family. Just like that. There is a chinese saying. "Ying Guo Bao Ying". I believe that my mother may be enjoying life now at the expense of others, one day..... she might just learn a lesson or two about humanity.
But even i, i don't think i can bring myself to work far away in an unknown country for a family. I just..... don't think i can.
For that matter....
CAN YOU?
EarlGrey
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