Hello!

Saturday, January 19, 2008 ⋆.

Alright. Just came back from Peace Centre where Jason and I met up after such a long time. Before that, I shall talk about the AIDS exhibition at SMU. To put it in a short and sweet manner, it was good.. really good.. I mean, it is not like any other exhibiton whereby you will go and check things out on your own with all the photos hang up on the walls. They will give you an MP3 and tell you everything about the AIDS. But, it was not boring as in each of the MP3 you will follow the instructions given and be given a role. Mine was beatrice.

Her story:
Beatrice is a teen living in Zambodia(something like that). It was a place whereby almost everyone was living in poverty. They live on less that US$1.50 per day. 90% of the population is HIV positive. Beatrice sis is pregnant. She is also in her teenage years. Her baby is about to be born into this cold and harsh world. One day, Beatrice niece is born. But, no one was celebrating. Beatrice sister has died while giving birth. It is common for mothers to die while giving birth in Zambodia. Beatrice grandmother was not able to take care of one more child. So, she have no choice but to assume the role of being the mother of her niece. Many people in that country are orphans and they survive by having "Survival Sex"- it was to provide sex for men in exchange for food and water. Beatrice and her niece are suffering from Malnutrition. Diseases caught up with her niece and it was a miracle that both of them manage to survive for 2 weeks already. Everytime Beatrice give a bath to her niece in the muddy water, she will cry out loud as the dirty water soak through the cracked skin. It was time.. the time for beatrice to go for a check-up.. She was afraid that she would be HIV positive after the blood and pus of her niece made contact with her cracked skin not once but serveral times. Fortunately for her, she is HIV negative...

The rest are self reflection. Will talk about my reflection later. For now, all I want to say is it was really touching and reflective. So I urge you people out there to go and view the exhibition. It is free. It is beside the 2 SMU building and opposite the SAM. You cannot miss it.

Reflection: Are we really taking things for granted? Do we even think about tomorrow? Do we even care about the money that we spend on? $1 can be used to buy a drink, but to those in Zambodia, it means a lot. Will we step out of our own comfort zone and commit ourselves to helping these people? For me, I think it is time to do that, not only for me, but to all of you out there especially the volunteers and the Lasallians. Continue working hard!

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I wished at 4:35 PM