Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Road Less Travelled..

For me..its the road less travelled.  Its the road with a mission to visit the less fortunate.  Actually there are many such mission conducted by my company's charity group.  I hardly follow because hubby don't really like time like weekends is spent outside so much, after full weekdays spent at the office.  Being treasurer to the charity group to me is already a contribution, although it is very small compare to those who tirelessly goes on the charity mission under our company's banner.  This time the destination is Kedah - to give some assistance for back to school.  We started the journey after office on Wednesday 23/12 and arrive Alor Setar at around midnite.  First thing in the morning, after we had our breakfast near Stadium Alor Star, we begun our mission - target to visit around 20 poor mostly single mothers.  

Baju terpakai donated by staff
We headed to Kuala Kedah and I would say the place we visited although not too far from Alor Star is rather deplorable.  This is what we call miskin bandar.  The first family really torn my heart.  Single mother of ten, whose husband died when  she was pregnant to a twins.  She earns a paltry RM4 per day for cleaning the fish to make salted fish.  She did received assistance from JKM, which barely enough to support the whole family.  The second family is a young family with two kids renting a place they call house, which only few of us can fit in.  We move on to the next few families most of which are single mom, or woman whose husband can't work.  Its heart wrenching to see how hard they have to work just to put the food on the table. The short visit to every house is really a humble journey to the life of the less fortunate and it is really good for keeping your feet stick to the ground.  How much Allah has given and bless us with the life that we have... Compare yourself not to one better than you, but to those less fortunate than you then you realised how blessed you are.  Alhamdulillah to the life I have and I ended the houses visit with doa that Allah will provide a better life for them...

Mom of 10 who still can smile despite the RM4 per day income
Only few of us can go in - a mall shack rented at RM70 pre month by this family

Single mother - strong will I see in her - work multiple jobs at restaurent, sewing, fish processing..you name it..
Our last destination is Maahad Derang located in Pokok Sena.  Its one of the worst affected religous school in Kedah due to flood with RM180K needed to restore the damage.

Maahad Derang in Pokok Sena lost significantly..only this building on the higher ground is safe from the disaster
On the way back, our local counterpart treated us for delicous lunch at a kampung called Hutan Kampung. The restaurant serves all things daging and it surely delicious.  There are kari daging, daging kicap, sup daging, fresfly fried ikan caru and kari ikan.
All dish daging at Hutan Kampung
In the afternoon, we attended the event of distributing money to staffs who were affected by the flood at TM Kedah.  Before we came back we took a quick shopping at Pekan Rabu.  Most items are almost similar to those found in KB.  But there's two favorite  local traditional kuih that I love so much.  They are kuih karas and kuih telinga keling also known as peniaram.  And the best thing is it is cooked on site...

Pekan Rabu - Deram, peneram, peniaram, telinga keling among the name this kuih is famous for

My favorite kuih karas - I borong a lot of them

Crispy yummy - thats how you describe this humble kuih
We left Pekan Rabu at around 5pm.  Before heading back to KL, someone wanted to test best laksa in Kedah, so we endup to this place that is full of crowd.


Kak Huda waiting to slam dunk - wait, picture first..
They say its the best laksa in AS, and judging from the crowd, I think it is.  Not being  great fan of laksa asam, I am in no position to provide a just view.. All laksa utara taste about the same to me...It does filled my hunger for the afternoon snack though..

After the laksa treat we headed back to KL in a rainy journey all the way.  I left this road which I less travelled on a high note.  Hopefully the little gestures goes a long way... 

5 comments:

Telipuk Kuala said...

Syukur alhamdulillah dengan segala rezeki yang telah Allah kurniakan, betapa kita terlalu beruntung dibandingkan dengan mereka.(itupun masih tak sedar2 diri jugak...huhuhu...).

Itu laksa kedah laaa...bukan laksa asam. Laksa kedah biasa je rasa dia, macam laksa kat pasar2 malam tu...

Rosebud said...

he..he..he..asal masam jer aku panggil laksa asam or laksa utara, kena menuntut dengan hangpa ni terminologi yang betul..

nadrah said...

Baguihnye aktiviti nie.. good for self reflection and muhasabah.

Rosebud said...

Nad, if you are interested boleh join kita org..

Anonymous said...

It's a good thing that you're sharing these wonderful experience with us.
Ternyata banyaknya rahmat Allah yang telah dikurnaikan pada kita.