Being a good neighbor.

Living in this house comes with its own brand of 'excess baggages'.

Firstly, there's the woodland creatures*. We have rats (although their population has significantly dropped due to..) cats, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, lizards, not to mention a whole collection of other insects. Well, what do you expect when you live close to a forest and palm tree plantations, right?    

Then, there's also the primates which we call lutongs. They love to raid the small clusters of banana trees that grow around the area. Plus, they would sometimes rummage through the garbage pile (we don't get trash service here in the kampung areas, so we would mostly burn our trash. Except for Khairin's diapers, empty bottles, cans and other trash that should not be burnt. These would have to be thrown out at the BIG trash can  found in Bagan Serai and we usually take out these trash when we have business in town.

Finally, we have also inherited a few 'elderly' neighbors. Most of them are actually Ahmad's relatives plus a few close friends of Ahmad's foster mom.

This house is actually built on a piece of land owned by Ahmad's maternal uncle. His house sits closer to the main road while this house is a bit further down the plot. Thus, we are the closest family he and his wife has. Being senior citizens, I would say both of them should live with their children so that they can be looked after; he's blind and frail while she has arthritis and can't walk so well. Before her conditions got worse, she was the one who has to walk to the nearest shop and get all their daily essentials. Unfortunately, these few months have been hard on her since her feet started to hurt more. So, sometimes she'd come over and ask me to buy groceries for her.

   

Ahmad's uncle has had a few accidents in his house in just 2 months. He couldn't sleep well while lying down due to some complications with his lungs. So, he'd nod off quite a lot during the day, even while sitting on the bed. When this happens, he'd topple over and bash his head on the closest furniture. Last month, I drove him and his wife to the clinic to stitch up a HUGE gash on his forehead. Last Monday, a small piece of his upper right arm was torn open when he fell from the bed, again. 

Point is, I think they should live with their children rather than stay here on their own. I mean, yeah, sure I don't mind going to the shop for her once in a while or help clean his wounds every other month. BUT. They are getting older, not younger and they need better care than what I can offer. But whenever anyone suggest that they call their children to come and get them, Ahmad's aunt would say that they wouldn't want to bother their children plus her husband doesn't want to live with any of them for long. Maybe because he's already memorized the layout of his house but being in a new surrounding would be difficult for him since he's blind. 

I can only help with the little things but I believe that they deserve better than how they're living now. The other neighbors have their own problems too since most of them are senior citizens as well. So, everyone pitch in whenever they can like sending over a dish or two (except for me since, you know - I DON'T COOK hehhe) help pay the bills, etc. But I still think they need better care than what they have right now.