The work was great; didn't feel so much like work, although it was exhausting in its way. We conducted a 3-day workshop for special needs teachers. I lectured my parts entirely in Bahasa Indonesia and translated for my colleagues half the time. By the end of the third day, I sounded so much like an Indonesian, the locals started thinking I was one of them. (Hooray -- I am so not-so-secretly proud of my language skills, hehe.) Thinking about it now, actually, I would be mortified if I had to lecture anything entirely in Malay in Singapore. But when you're forced into a situation, you kinda just do it, you know.
A group picture at the end of the workshop:
I could keep doing things like this, I could. And it makes me think about my obligations here in SG -- I've been meaning to do things but I haven't gathered the guts to finally put my mind to it. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. If I keep saying it like a mantra, haha, maybe it'll help, insya Allah.
I keep wishing I'd have people to do things with. It's much easier, always, to do things together, in big groups or even in small ones. It takes the load off; the work, the accountability, the pressure. But then, while in Medan, and meeting these generous, big-hearted people -- I'd learnt something: though in the long run big projects are sustained through the efforts of many, it is usually a single person who had the guts to start. God, make me brave.
On a rather separate note, I have been re-watching bits of Downton Abbey, and fangirling over Dame Maggie Smith. She is crazy, adorable, hilarious and secretly smarter than all the rest of us put together.
