A Whole New World

Last week was my residency week at Kampung Danan. We lived together with our foster family and did some health intervention program for the villagers there. Indeed, this is a fruitful trip and i don't need to describe more about what we learnt during this CFCS (Community and Family Case Study) program, as it will bore you out. Yes you need to experience it yourself before u can truly know why this ordinary community service does always give an extra-ordinary feeling and impact towards everybody involves. =)  

          However, i did learn something different from my foster brother. A story of building his own house. Which took decades of experience, 7 year-time of effort, and most importantly, the wisdom lying behind: the different philosophy of life in a whole new world to me..... 

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          He received formal education until his 13 years of age. For a urban people, we will perceive it as poorly educated, and i bet you will regret of having the same thought to him, after finish reading his story. Owh.. now, what you expect about him? A similar story line like Loh Boon Siew's or Lim Goh Tong's? A dedicated teenage who cannot perform well in academic, then bcz of his creativity, found a blue ocean of the market, earn a lot, and become a millionaire? 

          This is not his case. He leads a simple and yet awesome life. After quitting from school, he went to Singapore to work. Basically doing job like a civil labor, building house, electricity and piping work. He then moved to Klang, continued to work in a same field. One day, he was introduced to take up a building course in Politeknik. For months, he tried his best to follow, despite his limitation in English and advanced calculation. And then he survive in this course, due to his determination, talent, Or maybe fate. And then he was cheated: for some reasons, he was actually not qualified to take the exam but he has already paid for the fees. Ended up he lost about RM3K++. This was not a little sum of money during the 90's, and yet this happen to a villager. Unfortunately, he encountered the same incident twice, at different college. 

          Being optimistic, despite of the lost of more than RM6k, he was glad with the knowledge gained throughout the course. Even though he was not entitled for a cert or license. 

         After years, he came back to Kampung Bukit Danan, he built his own house, and borrowed license from his friend to register his house with government. Building the house with his only pair of hands, which sounds a bit ridiculous to modern people huh. And guess what. With the model of less than RM30k, now, he owns a house which market value is more than RM100k!! with his wife and four lil children, living happily together in it.

          Despite everything, he is only 39 now. =)   

          Owning a house in future is one of the reasons we are striving so hard now and every moment. And I bet most of us, who are receiving higher education, can't make it by his age. Oh ya. With his recognized skill in Kelantan, do you think that he actually needed 7 years to complete a 1500 square feet single storey house. This was actually because of the financial limitation. He bought the building materials and started to build his house little bit by little bit, having faith that he will, for sure, complete it in future, so that he won't lose all his money to for an incompletely build house. You might wonder, being a villager with no fixed income, why didn't him save his money until a certain amount before he started everything? So that he can minimize the risk of his house being dumped, just in case he doesn't hv enough money to continue. His answer was so logic and straight: inflation. The building material can simply increases the price every year. =)

A very simple story, give me great inspirations:

1.Things change. Start to accumulate whatever u can have it now. Don't wait until u need it next time in future. You might need to pay more for it, or you no longer afford to have it. 

2. Sometimes your knowledge doesn't need to be recognized or certified. It itself will tell the people around you that you are different, and deserve something different from the ordinary one. It is just the problem of time.

3. There is N ways lead to success. The one we choose might not fit others. And this never means that we are doing better. Be patient, we shall see it together. =)