Of Death and Regrets

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

Just received a news, a DIC classmate died due to road accident. I just said Hi to him via FB few months back. Its a shocker. He's the second one in our class that has passed away. With every death, we'll be pushed to reflect. But somehow this particular one left an impact to me. No, I was not close to him, but that kind of sudden death is hard to ignore.

What if it happens to me? I know that asking what if is not good. If I know that I will die tomorrow. This would be one of my regret. Kim. No, nothing is going on between us. We rarely talked though we are on the same bus every day. Its just that off and on when he did small things like this, it hard to forget him, and hard to not feel anything for him. When this email came in, I was dumbfounded. I left at his last email. I don't know how to feel. He is being nice by asking about it. Its his concern that worries me? What is it that he is not telling me? Other people knew but don't really care to ask unless I tell.

He's on different level, he may well be just keeping up with the current news but I wish he stop doing things like this, concern about things that is close to my heart. Making its hard for me to see him as just another colleague. I wanted to confront him, but I am scared that I will loose him, what if he avoid me? How am I going to face that for the next 2 years? I wanted to ask him, 'So how would you feel if I have to leave before my assignment ends?' I so badly want to ask, but I am scared of the answer, be it his verbal or non verbal ones. Gosh, its tough!

And he will be definitely a regret, if I don't make up my mind soon.

Till next time,

Wassalam.

Day1: Trip to Obama-land

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...


While it is still fresh in my mind (well..sort of..), let me share the journey late last year. I made my way from Port Harcourt on the 23rd December. The route is PHC-Paris-Houston. Total flight time is 24 hours. Flight took off 2130H on the 23rd, but we have a 1 hour taxi in Abuja. The flight arrived in CDG Paris at 0600H and I have to wait ~4.5 hours for my next flight to Houston. The transit time is decent, I had time to freshen up, perform my solat and just not rushing things. CDG does not have a dedicated prayer room, but the waiting hall is quite spacious and at the early hours there were not many people around. This is my second time transit in CDG and I'm fine with it.

I arrived in Houston the same day 1430H, but that doesn't mean the flight time is only 4 hours..haha. Houston is behind 7 hours from Paris. That means the flight time is ~11 hours..hahaha.. I slept, I ate, I watched movies and finally I made it!

Getting through immigration in the US airport was not as bad as I imagined. Apart from being annoyed at the Immigration officer who keeps on chatting with each and everyone that on his lane and basically caused delays, the screening was actually just fine. My bag wasn't even opened, and he just asked 2-3 questions to me. I guess my hijab scares him off, so much that he don't have the appetite to interrogate me.. hahaha..

Sakina picked me up half past 5. We went right to a local fast food joint where she treats me to this big portion of middle eastern dish. Rice with meat, salad and what nots. Kenyang weh, have to take away half of it. When we get to her place, that's when the real fun begins. I have been wanting to upgrade my DSLR for the past 2 years, but always too busy to buy it back home. And since I am going for another adventure in Feb, I've been buying things from Amazon and have the delivered to Sakina's place. She was partly my warehouse manager :) receiving goods on my behalf..haha..

I bought a GoPro too! Just realized that I did not took the picture of the whole lot of boxes, it was just piling up in her apartment..haha.. Sorry!

I'll continue the story in the next post. Gosh, am not used to write a long post anymore. The muscle needs to be trained. Haha.. till next post, wassalam. 

Malas tapi mahu.

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I just came back from a close to 3 weeks holiday in Obama-land. Few years ago, I would be busy penning down my thoughts, my adventure and loading buck loads of photos here. I would love to do that, but somehow, no drive. I know for sure if I did not write it down, I will surely forget it. Like how I am forgetting most of the details from Brazil trip. Sayang kan?

Nak habis satu posting ni pon seksa..haha. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Yesterday somebody jokingly asked me to run along together. And it made me smile for the rest of my walk. Saja nak bagitau, in case I forget about it later in life. Its those small moments that I cherished, I look forward to, but I don't hope for it. Its that small insignificant things to others that helps me smile once in a while. The other person might not remembers it anymore, but I hope I won't forget. I am collecting this small moments, because I am almost sure that I will never get the big one. Still hoping for miracles though......

Ok, before I merepek any further, I better sign off. Till next time peeps. Sapa ja peeps yang baca ni..hahaha..

Wassalam.

Perspective

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

It was almost 2 weeks ago, the security forces started their strike. They had problems with the allowance that was paid to them, and not happy with how things turns up, they decided to stop doing their work. What that means to us is that, without security, there will be no movement. Hence, we were asked to work from home.

Last week, Corporate Security issued an email saying that they have managed to secure a trip to the IA, the bus will leave together with the airport transport. On normal day, we would have 3 buses leaving IA every day, not full though, but tentatively close to 50 expats that commutes using these buses. For this special arrangement, they were only managed to secure 1 bus. Occupancy is on first come first serve basis.

I was doing something that needs me to be in the office, hence I decided to go to the office. In the end, only 7 expats turns up. The rest decided to continue working from home.

During that week's fun run, we saw each other again after being coup up in the house for almost a week. The normal conversation revolves around our survival in the camp, this definitely the hot topic of the week. From this and few other occasions, here is what I gather on the whole 1 bus ride thing (I would not call it an issue though, maybe more of an opportunity). So let's call it 1 bus ride opportunity.

Person 1 (me) : Since its on first come first serve basis, I figured if I go there early enough, I will get a seat. The bus was said to be there at 7AM, but I showed up 10 minutes before,and I got a seat. Simple.

Person 2 (Anton) : When he saw the email, he roughly counted how many peoples are left in the camp. It was second week of December and no doubt some has started their leaves. Anton came into conclusion that if everyone that is in the camp shows up, we will still have ample seats for everybody. Calculative, and practical.

Person 3 (Yvonne): He simply chose to work from home, as he does not want to be fighting for seats in the bus, since it is only one bus vs the normal trip of 3 buses. Simple as well.

From this simple opportunity window, we get to see how people react to a simple situation, what influences their judgement and how different each and everyone of us thinks. Subhanallah...

Lesson learnt? Human minds are diverse, things get misinterpreted all the time. So before making any decision or jumping to any conclusion, see how other people think about it. You'll definitely gets a new perspective. 

Single and Married : Not a Competition

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

I am now onsite. In Bonny Terminal to be exact. I came in yesterday and primary scope is to conduct a training. My colleague is here as well. She is here to attend familiarization session (induction sort of) for a week. She has not conducted the training that I am doing, and we were taking this opportunity for me to do some coaching for her and for her to pick up and do the rest of the training for all other facilities next year.

I shared with her that I traveled 1 week ++ to the Swamp locations in December last year, just to carry out this training. She was so gung-ho to do the same. The reason I did not include her in my plan, is she has a toddler, a 1-year old boy, and I know that it's going to limit her movement. She was adamant that she can do it for this year.

Today, she has to go back home, she was supposed to be here till Friday. Her son is sick, and I don't blame her. I know what a mother can and cannot do. And never once I expected her to do what I did, and I am no better than her for being able to travel 1-week straight. That's not the point. She was so adamant initially because I think she does not want to loose to me. I have that reputation now, when it comes to flexibility to travel on site, you ask me to jump, I'll ask back how high. Simply because I don't have commitment here. My families are all back home. If I have a small child, I would not be doing as much travel as I am doing now. Trust me, I won't do that. Even if I have a husband with no kids, I would still go easy on the travelling bit as my priority has shifted.

This is not a competition, if it is a married me, I would not want to compete with a single me as well. Its not a competition. There is so many other ways to perform at work, and for the time being, I do what I do best, which is willingness to travel to all these locations. When I am married (which I don't know when) things may change. Oh how much I hope I can get married soon. Doakanlah..

Till next time, wassalam...

Travel back in style. Haha

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Yesterday adds on the the interesting working event in Nigeria. We had to be evacuated from the office by helicopter! So here's the story. There is this one group of people that call themselves Biafran.

Biafra was a loose territory of ethnic groups in pre-colonial Africa prior to the coming of the colonialists.Pre-colonial maps of Africa show the location of Biafra and the Bight of Biafra was renamed to Bight of Bonny by the Nigerian Government.^[2] An attempt was made in 1967 to restore the old Biafran territory as an Independent state from Nigeria which caused the civil war. Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south).[2] The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. The creation of the new state that was pushing for recognition was among the causes of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War. - Wikipedia

So for the past years, we've heard of movement  by these Biafran to claim their independence. They have many things going on, they even have their own radio, which is now banned and recently the director was detained by the Nigerian government. Then there was a court order for him to be release, but apparently it did not happened. So his supporters took it to the streets. They hold protest in few places, and yesterday it was done in Port Harcourt. So happened that the location of the protest is near RA. People in the RA can actually heard gunshots that was fired by the police to disperse the protesters. They even smelled the teargas that was released. The road heading to RA was closed.

We received series of text messages keeping us updated and one that came quater to 4PM says that bus from IA to RA has been canceled. We are asked to wait for the next update. By 5PM we were notified to make way to helipad, we are going home in style bebeh! In chopper :)

They have to make the decision very quickly, because by 6.15 PM it gets dark, and risk levels are elevated for night operations. We were loaded to 3 choppers on 1 trip and I cant remember how many trips they made, but everybody is back in camp by 8PM. Not even 2 years, yet I've experienced many interesting things, and most importantly, I can laugh about it. Yes, security is a big issue here, but so far it has been managed well, and I am fine. Alhamdulillah.

Till next time, wassalam.

  

Wordless Sunday.. apakah?

This was 2 Sundays ago. This Sunday (today) am housebound sebab semalam dah attend a housewarming party. Last night at the party somebody complimented my dress saying I look nice. Hakak tido dengan senyum... :)