Thursday 10 June 2010

PLANTS FOR THE 'PONDOK" (RELIGIOUS SCHOOL)

Last week, the religious teacher in my school, Ustaz Syed Sharim asked me to help him buy some Pokok Bidara (Indian Jujube) as he wanted to plant them in the Pondok that he serves as a committee member. For your information, besides being a place to study religion, the Pondok doubles up as an Orphanage and also a home for Senior Citizens.
The teachers and staff of my school would usually refer to me to if they wanted to buy herbal plants as I am the one responsible for the school Herb Garden and know where to source for herbal plants.  The ustaz had tried to get the Indian Jujube plant in Manjung but couldn't, so he turned to me for help.   
I called my friend, Chun, the trader at the Kampung Cina Thursday Market to bring a few of the plants today and I told him that I wanted to present them to the Pondok. Actually I called Chun yesterday to remind him, he informed me that of the new plants that came, only three were okay.  He said he wouldn't be bringing those that were not in good condition. So, I said okay. When I went to collect the plants from him this morning, he did not want to charge me money for them.  He told me that it was his contribution.  When I insisted, he asked me for a token sum of RM10.00 and said that the rest was from him.  So nice of him.
In the afternoon, I got my former student, Sharveen to go with me to the Pondok in Lekir to present the plants to the warden there. 
I noticed that whenever I ask people to help me get things for the orphans or the senior citizens at the Pondok, they would usually end up contributing the things.  This is regardless of whether they are Chinese, Indians or Malays. This is what we say, "Charity knows no colour".

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