I'm feeling a little better after a solid two day camp with about 30 youths at the Rawang Lutheran Church Chinese camp. Arrived last night around 1.30am. I enjoyed the late night drive. But one must be very careful because there are quite a view high-speed heavy vehicles!
I don't know how I managed with a severe sore throat at the camp. The campers were very gracious to me ... My mandarin wasn't great but somehow we could still connect. Again, a number of personal conversations were very precious and energizing - especially with those who are not Christians in the camp.
I noticed the "cultural" difference between the youth I engaged in the last 2 days and those I usually come into contact with in the more urbanized KL and PJ. The element of "respect" for example is so much stronger amongst the youth that I met in this camp- more communal as well ... less individualistic.
Had a good breakfast with Gareth today ... he had his "Big Pao" and I had my Nescafe. It was good to re-connect with my son. tonight hope to re-connect more with my daughter. She was pretty much asleep last night when i returned. I was pretty much asleep when she left with May Chin this morning. Happy to re-connect with my wife of course, let's not forget the amazing one!
But, rest I must get .... refreshing is a must ... another camp this time more intergenerational and family oriented... and also I suspect I need to swith my "cultural" lense again - to a more English speaking Malaysian setting. Ah ... before doing anything more ... i shall feed myself and sleep.
It's hard to rest "in-between" two camps (heavy speaking and interaction kind of engagements). I admit .. maybe because I don't go just as a professional speaker ... I tend to invest a significant part of myself in relationships with those in these camps (even though for some cases it's more short term then long term) - and all this needs energy. And I'm only human - limited.
and there's some other family engagements around the corner ... I'm looking forward for my kind of first family holiday for the year 2005. And looking forwards to pause, "defragment" myself and "re-organized" priorities, and relook what potentials and watch for limits.
Posted by sivinkit at May 31, 2005 01:19 PM