With love from Beijing China

The water Engineer went to Beijing for a conference. He bought this matching silk bags for me.

On my late father's 81st birthday, I danced away while holding onto the little bag. My aunts told me to put the bag down, " Do you have gold bars in it?" I didn't have gold bars, but I did have a HONG BAO aka a cash gift given to me by a relative and I had yet to pass it to Sister Elizabeth who was the treasurer of the occasion.

Power substation

This is a power substation near my home. Again, there is no barb wire. The notice is more for your protection.

One day, a lady from the power station came to school to talk to the kids to tell them about the danger of playing near the substations.

The Power didn't have a good reputation. It was tarnished by a stupid act of one of it's contractors who cut off the power supply to a very sick woman who depended on oxyzgen supply. The poor woman died, and this became a very controversial issue.

I was teaching ESOL to adult students, and we had very good discussion. You see, the poor woman was an immigrant, and my students who are immigrants were very passionate about this issue.

Folole Muliaga had just recently been released from the hospital, and was dependant on a respirator for oxygen. Folole’s energy bill was $299.

Trade unionists and community activists from South Auckland will join forces tomorrow at an angry picket at the headquarters of Mercury Energy, 602 Great South Road in Green Lane, tomorrow Thurs 31 May at 4pm, to protest the death of Folole Muliaga.

Mercury Energy - Murder Energy!

From http://www.solidarityunion.com/

Muliaga's death on May 29, 2007, outraged New Zealanders and saw Prime Minister Helen Clark denounce the company's actions as heartless and intolerable.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20080519/coroner-new-zealand-woman-died-after-electricity-cut-off.htm

Houses

The water engineer was not always a water engineer. He was jack of all trades. We were walking and I had the camera. These two houses captured our eyes. His engineering must have rubbed off to me.

The greenish house is very big. I wonder how many maids or cleaners the lady of the house has. I imagine the British TV series, "Upstairs and Downstairs, Yes, Mam, No, Mam." People of a by-gone era. Perched high up the hill, the view must be beautiful.

The curved roof must be a challenge to the engineer to design.

The Walking School Bus

To be precise, this is the route of a walking school bus. Schools encourage children to walk to school. Parents volunteer to walk with the kids. The parents wear reflective vest and some of them hold flags.

One Wednesday, the schools were encouraged to get the children to walk to school. My school participated and was given a commendation by the council.

Sarawak Beads

These are beautiful Sarawak Beads I bought on my trips to Sarawak. They are very intricate and I had a young admirer when I was wearing it. I was worried he might break the chains.

Child labour

In New Zealand, the youngest age you can be a paper runner is eleven. Sam, my money minded son couldn't wait to turn eleven so he could join the ranks of hundreds of little children delivering newspapers.

His was a free paper which some household would consider as junk mail. The week he turned eleven, there was a vacany for a paper runner for a loop for three roads couple of roads away. He was all excited and feeling like an entreprenuer, and emailed his application. The agent rang back to confirm his age and gave him his job.

On the first day, by seven am, three big stacks of paper arrived at the letter box. Each stack was too heavy for me to heave. But as a doting mum, I did it for him, I folded the paper into three folds so that they would fit into the letter boxes. And looking at the pile, I told him, I would help him do his run by driving him there, and deliver on the other side of the road for him.

It was a cold wet winter afternoon. It took us more than one and half hour each to finish the run. We were shouted at by those who didn't want this free paper. There were signs at some letter boxes which say, "No circular", but the news paper agent told us that his news paper were not circulars. We were barked at by dogs. At the end of the day, he got less than US$2.

I thought it was child exploitation. I told Sam, he had his go at business venture. That was the first and last time he was going to be a paper boy. He was very happy, he would rather play with his friends or at the computer.

These kids were considered contract workers, and not protected by the union. In another paper run, the company decided to use adult workers, depriving what little money the kids can earn.

Swimming in a river

Sarawak is a country of heavy tropical rain and rivers. Sibu, my home town is situated along Rejang River some ninety miles from the South China Sea. Rejang River is 350 miles long and is the longest in Malaysia. I learned to swim in that river.

Dwas two when she visited Sarawak. Her Aunt Elizabeth took her swimming in one of the tributaries of Rejang River. We all had fun.