Hobbies

• My Hobbies  / Favourite Past Time

I am not really sure what is my exact hobby, hobbies are usually activities someone do and give extra time, energy and financial sources for it. For example stamp booking, baking, flower arranging, painting.

I, on the other hand, love so many things and do a lot of activities in my past time.

I do muay thai, boxing, outdoor sports with friends and family, I find solace in reading any books (no specific author) at this age.

I know how to swim, I can ride bikes.

However, I am so afraid of heights. Therefore, NO...I am not keen in paragliding and climbing mountains. :) 

I have taken free dive scuba diving lesson (fun water experience for me)but unfortunately have not take up scuba diving licencing as yet.

I can take sleeping as a hobby too :)...Hihi.

Sleeping is a way for me to wind up my tired mind. 

Nowadays, I like to assume that volunteering activities are my hobby too. It takes up most of my free time during weekend.

So...I may not really take all these activities as hobbies, but I am more comfortable to refer it as my extra activities for my past time.

NEW ACTIVITY WISHLIST

I am hoping to take up horse riding in 2017.

I hope I am able to find the time and financial source to fulfill this NEW ACTIVITY.

New activities means i will meet new friends (to form social networking), learn new things and appreciate new experiences.

Friends Of The Deaf Gathering 22 July 2016

Friends of The Deaf Gathering (F.O.D)

Gathering was arranged on 22 July 2016 at Sabah Society for The Deaf

• Sign Language Refresher Class
• Sign Communicating with Deaf friends
• Meeting new Volunteers
• Dinner and refreshment served

Honestly, I am finding gathering like this easier. Perhaps, I am better and comfortable with my sign now.

 Me (in red blouse) with the new intake for sign language students.

 I use to find gatherings with the Deaf nerve wrecking. But surprisingly tonight is the best gathering I've had.

Deaf Counseling Part 2

Continuing...

In a nutshell, we still have a loooonnggg way to go in terms of accommodating the Deaf.

Sign Language

Now, advancing in sign language as an 'outsider' is difficult. Intermediate and Advance Class is not readily available in Kota Kinabalu. The Association or the Organisation need to engage a suitable person to teach ( and that person's timing is another matter).

They won't go on with class if the class does not meet the minimum required participants.

Unless you take a full course to be a special education teacher in specific University or Teacher's Colleges across the country, one will not have full access to sign language programs.

No, we don't have programs like they have in Gallaudet University, the Mecca for the Deaf. 

So, what does a person like me, can do to advance in sign language? Where can I obtain the knowledge of its usage and ethics based on the diversity of  different settings? 

The experience of using sign language varies based on what field / industry you are in for example sign language in court setting, sign language in education setting, sign language in technical setting, sign language in medical setting and most importantly my aim is to use sign language in counseling setting.

Why is advancing in sign language important for me? ( specifically)?

In my opinion, because Deaf persons are everywhere, some of them were born deaf, some lost their hearing later in life and they need to be accommodated so that they can fully utilise their potential in a growing society with their own roles and also take part as a contributing human resource to the country. Their 'voices' need to be heard. They need to be mattered. They have all the rights to access whatever everyone else is enjoying, they have the rights to attain the highest education, they have the rights to be someone successful in their own field, they have the rights to enjoy this life as much as we get to enjoy it.

But because they are the minority in certain places, therefore, they are ignored.

~~~~.~~~~.~~~~~.~~~~.

Enough for tonight. Let me have my beauty sleep first :)

Deaf Counseling

Deaf Counseling?

Attending counseling sessions (in a country like mine), is not really common. 

Counseling comes with a stigma that your are 'problematic'

However, the counseling profession is slowly becoming important at this century, and people are slowly turning to professional and certified counselors to talk about issues that need to be addressed.

It is common for people to mistake counselors and psychiatrist. There are those who meet up counselors with the notion that they are able to get prescriptions.

I always educate my clients, friends and family or whoever ask me, that counselors are the first line of professionals you can reach if you need to talk about current issues. To deal with their current emotions and feelings rather than pent it up for years until it becomes a disorder.

The issues with our Counselors in Malaysia, is that few are certified with the Malaysian Board of Counselors. And this is true for most of the School Counselors. When you are certified, it means you are doing your work professionally, and you are bound to all the ethics in providing the service. Your education attainment should be in line with the service you are rendering, of course the higher the education is, the more knowledgeable one becomes. Without a certification, the service we are rendering is questionable. No one would care the mumbo jumbos of service you are giving to the clients.

Ethics is very important because Counselors are dealing with private personal issues of their clients, and this is always the line of whether people look up to you or look down on you based on your professionalism in keeping with counseling ethics.

Deaf Counseling???

What about it? I know attending counseling sessions is sometimes difficult. You will be talking about your most inner issues with a third party. Have anyone ever thought how it feels for a deaf person to attend counseling? With a counselor that does not know how to sign? And they need to hire a translator?

Isn't it frustrating to convey a message and the delay to get a reply? Even frustrating if the message relayed is not personal, no juice no emotion. Well what i mean is, it must feel different to get a direct reply from your competently certified counselor compare to an interpreter with no counseling background.

And the intrepreter is a 3rd party! 

It will be nice for the deaf to hire an interpreter because they want to,  not because they are forced to.

OK. STOP for a while! Time to hit the Gym!!

Me and my Me Time

Volunteering has never occured to me. It was never in my bucket list and was never a goal either.
However, when I started to re-think my purpose in this world and gave myself time to re-set my goals, I saw the world differently. I am not born into this world to 'Live to Work',  but rather  'Work to Live'

 Weird but true, now I find solace in volunteering works. I consider it as one of my Me Time. :)

Of course, my counseling background has helped me in so many ways now, dealing with people and also dealing with my own emotion and feelings.

Taking it another step...

A new chapter I am embarking right now is pursuing my doctorate. It is definitely not an easy quest for me. I have taken almost 2 years to find a suitable proposal. And the day I have identified a supervisor, my proposal was rejected. TWICE! I am still reading, reading, synthesizing and tweaking my proposal.

Sometimes I feel it is not worth it. Not worth the hardship. I am not getting younger. However, a voice in my head says that opportunities will eventually come, many doors will open up for me afterwards. Somehow, this is what keeps me going. To not lose focus and stay on the path. 

Me Time...

Apart from my works with the Deaf and the suicide prevention line team, I also enjoy martial arts, yoga and outdoor training beside the beach!

Here, let me share you some photos of me enjoying those activities! I am trying to get more photos with my FACE in it~ Ha ha. I am always the one who takes these photos on behalf of the gym. 

Our gym is located in Kota Kinabalu and goes by the name of  Revolution Fitness & Training Gym. 

Me, my partner and one of our friend decided to open up this fitness & training gym on April 2015. The initial idea was to rent a place just to gather up close friends and to do fun activities (all about cardio fitness), it so happen during rainy seasons when we were not able to do our activities outside. It did not occur to us to actually make it a business entity. Since, it is now a business entity, the place is taken care of and laid with proper training mats, boxing and kicking bags, boxing gloves and body pads.

I know....pink handwraps. I love 'em

Hm.....hehehe....a pose for the camera.
Notice the mats? This was us during our early stages of opening the gym, we did not have enough money to cover all the floor with this Eva Foam mat.

I hope you can see me (beside the bag)

Me infront ( the one raising the left hand)

Aha....had fun with our outdoor activities. Which afterwards we helped to clean up the beach. Rubbish were swept by the current to the beach side. A dirty sight to see!

Volunteering With Suicide Prevention Line

Volunteering With Suicide Prevention Line

IS TALKING ABOUT YOUR EMOTION A SIGN OF WEAKNESS?

Besides being actively involved with Sabah Society for the Deaf, I am also actively involved in our Community Suicide Line Prevention Not for Profit Organisation.

I am also one of the Outreach Team Member. As an Outreach Team, we are involved in organizing talks and exhibitions, an effort to let the community know where to turn to if they feel depress and need to talk to someone without being judged. 

Suicide may still be a taboo in our community, but we are trying our level best to get people to talk about it more openly. Talking about one's emotion is still perceived by some as a sign of weakness.

Talks

 This is our Get to Gether (G2G) for the month!! Yeayy

 Few of us who turn up for the G2G!. So excited to meet everyone!

Stole some precious time to meet up with few members of the outreach team. Getting updates on our upcoming Family Workshop which will be held in August 2016.

H

 Ah~ That's me...pulling our photographer's leg :)

Me (Red blouse) with a different pose. Ha ha

Speak To The Hand

Speak to the hand 

As far as I can remember, I never had a deaf acquaintance or a deaf family member. Therefore, no one in my family could understand why I chose to work with the Deaf. Obviously it is hard work. To them, learning to sign is like learning a different language and it is out of the question. Moreover to understand their culture and working on issues surrounding the Deaf community with little recognition. 

I am now in my 3rd year volunteering with the deaf. I am using American Sign Language, whilst my deaf friends uses the Malaysian Sign Language. Well, they can still comprehend my awfully crafted signs..haha...Anyway American Sign Language was first brought into Malaysia as a language for the deaf, where it has transformed to Malaysian Sign Language to better suit the culture.

Let me share some pictures ...

Deaf Family Carnival Day

Our briefing, before sending the deaf kids off for their tour on a Cruise Ship

Me and Mr Patrick from Mental Health Association

I am always the one to take the pic. huhuu

Please don't ask me which one is deaf? Or how do you know these are deaf ? A normal question I always receive from hearing is "How does the deaf looks like?"

 Urgghh..."They look human, honey"

There is so much to write about the deaf in Malaysia, generally. And those issues are reasons  why I am so Happy that I've finally came into their world. For me to make a difference no matter how small it is. They are talented and fun to be with. Opportunities is what they don't have :( ...

My Journey into the Deaf World

My Journey into the Deaf world

Hello again!

So, referring to my previous writing, I was yacking about me wanting to do something MORE.

I started to think about doing volunteering works. But when I started, it was quite difficult to choose what would be a suitable organisation for me to work with. I started off with the wrong foot, I joined an organisation that would later got entangled with so many hot wrong issues, being in a multi racial multi religious country, I decided to call it quit and went hunting again.

The Aha....moment

My collision into the deaf world started out as a prank pulled out by my husband when he intentionally sent me to the one and only Kentucky Fried Chicken food chain restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, which hires Deaf workers.

I was excitedly explaining what I wanted to the smiling and polite staff when she showed me a pen and a paper, I froze in confusion for a while until I suddenly realized the situation I am in. I remembered feeling embarrassed and I can tell the locals were staring at me. Obviously, by then they must have already known I’m from out of state. I left the building feeling sorry for myself because it could have been better. My husband was laughing because he thought he has pulled the coolest prank ever on me. Nevertheless for a moment, it seems a bit funny to me, but I thought it was just cruel because it made me felt out of place and I could have been more prepared coming in to the restaurant if only I knew. 

Few days later, looking back at the experience, it was actually the beginning of my interest to learn sign language. The fond memory of my first encounter with a deaf friend took me in the year of 2007. 

The memory was my Aha... moment. And this is where it begins. I called up the Sabah Society for the Deaf to enquire about sign language classes, and got myself enrolled. Finally...Of course YEAY!! I completed my beginner class and graduated with flying colours. 

The day I completed my beginner sign language class in 2013, was the happiest day in my LIFE! and that was also the day i penned down my name to become one of their volunteer!. I am still learning sign language until today. Unfortunately the society does not have the capacity to offer advance classes. :( So I am painstakingly learning via our regular meet up with the Deaf from the association or from deaf schools during youth deaf workshops and so on...

(The memory came into light when I was going up and down looking for a perfect place and a perfect way to serve the community).

Make Us Matter

Make Me Matter

Everyone wants to feel mattered. Everyone wants to be heard. 

Me Starting Over

After I quit my job, I started to actively get involved in whatever that matters to me.

Firstly, i started to see the family business (my other half is working on) in a different light, constantly sharing ideas and sometimes I have to do the 'job' myself.

On course,  i started joing muay thai and kickboxing..never though of this. jajaja

And then, we saw a small martial arts gym being born (an addition to the laundry and supply job we have)

I started to run counselling sessions for athletes and adults.

I did all sorts of things and ventured in all sorts of small time businesses.

Running Counseling sessions for the Juvenile boys were easy, well...at least because they can hear what I speak.

But, running a counseling session with deaf? How many Counsellors in Malaysia has the background, knowledge for this? For one, I am a registered Counsellor with the Malaysian Board of Counsellors, and I have the education background that is needed to run a counselling session. I am still not competent in signing, but at least one leg is already there. Still a very long way to go. And I am still looking for an opportunity to be a super competent signer. Gallaudet University is still in my mind.

Yes of course we can hire competent translators. But how well verse are the translators with a counselling atmosphere? We all know different situations needs different competent translators as to minimize the miscommunication by signing back the meaning to and fro. Becoming a translator in a court is not the same like someone who translates for the weather forecast..Isn't it?

And don't you think the Deaf should have their own right to choose? To choose whether or not they would like to have a translator in a counseling session? Rather than we force the choice on them?

Arghh... so much to say, so many things I've tried. I've tried till I broke down. Is it worth it? Why is this happening to me? ( I will write everything about this later on the next chapter)

It was still not enough for me...I WANT to do something ELSE, that matters to the community even on a small scale.

I am Starting All OVER again from being poor...

Till next time :)  

I am Poorer

I am Poorer

Okay...back to the picture of that empty room, It was when I decided to quit my job and continue my studies.

That empty room was my FIRST Counseling Room, dedicated to me for the duration of 8 months doing intern at an All-Male Juvenile School as a Counselor-in-training

So the treacherous journey was having to go back to do my Masters in Psychology Counseling (after a long hiatus from school, and my brain is already so rusty)

I face the risk of becoming poor because I wanted to give my all in my final year. I was already slacking during my second year, because I was still doing it part time, and it was near impossible to juggle the hours as a wife, worker and student.

After the struggle

The struggle was real for me and I triumphed until I graduated in 2012/2013. The pictures below are some of the memories i kept during my internship. I don't keep tabs on them, but I am sure if not all,,.some of them are doing good and have already continued their study

Here are some of the activities, shown here is a further study talk for the boys

Picture on the right are some of the readings the boys enjoy after completing their counselling session

Picture on the left is me ( white blouse ) with the teachers

Picture on the right...again, having a time off from the high fences of their dorm is quite a luxury for them. Reading english books. I made them a small pocket notebook for them to write down every word that they don't understand.

Where Do I Begin?

Where do I begin?

Hello and thank you for stopping by my blog.

Why...

This blog is started off to share my passion with others out there, and to find people who has the same passion that I have. The power of positive attraction is what we need to keep on going, no matter how slow we feel we are trudging.

The picture above is representing myself, to represent the starting of this treacherous journey. :)

Well, that is me exaggerating...
This journey about me finding myself, re engaging to the community and towards a better me.

Me...

I started working at the age of 21 after graduating with a Bachelor of Science. I think I started off clean, excellent school grades, even leap a year during Diploma as I achieved Dean's List every semester. I am not really proud of that though, because I believe EVERYONE can achieve the same or better with opportunity, encouragement, self motivation and money ( course you  need money to pay for tuition fees and all the extra expenses, until you graduate ).

There we go...

Since the age of 21 until about 11 years later, hogging myself to work every morning even weekends sometimes, just to prove myself to those I don't even know (no offense to other whatever coloured collar okay). Work became mundane for me to pay up bills and commitments. The ups and downs, the marriage came in-between, health issues and of course the everyday notion of "What am I doing here?..."

Some people l.o.v.e their job and career. It's okay if you are overpaid. He He...As long as you love what you do, don't look back. But this blog is about me, so everything written in here is about myself,

Wait for it...

I still don't feel that I have DONE ENOUGH for myself and for the family. I believe we always have to better THAN our parents, so that we can mould our generation to be greater than us, and only with that we can see our lineage grow and prosper. And I don't LIKE to be in the shadows of anyone. I want to be my own shadow.

Poorer...

After 11 years working to feel good, and to show that I have somehow 'achieved' something. I quit my job. And there you go! I am poorer than the rest of my friends and siblings. PooR!

.