Phases Online: Homeschool Edition

Life Without Computers

2006-04-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

By Kimberly Koh, 13

Life without computers would be boring. There wouldn't be email, online games, chatting, storing pictures and files, and so on. What's more, computers are very useful. They can do all sorts of things. The computer has been with me practically my whole life! So if life was computer-less, I'd be bored out of my mind! I wouldn't know what to do with my spare time.

But there are bad things too. There are viruses, bad websites, bad influences on children, and more nonsense on the internet. That's what I hate about computers. So then again, life with out computers might just be more ok. Kids and adults, could read books more, go outdoors, play outdoor games, play football, basketball, jump rope, badminton, and so on.

They could go to the park and cycle, and have exercise. Also adults wouldn't spend so much time at work, typing this and that out. So they'd have time to be with their family more.

All right, maybe life without computers wouldn't be so bad after all.

Crushed

2006-04-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

By Alyssa Koh, 11

"Please! Tell me your name." A boy named Tomas asked. MJ sighed.

"My name is Mary Jane."

"Thank you. Where do you live?" Tomas asked.

"On Rockyville mountain. But it's very cold there…" She replied. Tomas smiled. 'He is pretty nice actually,' MJ thought to herself. "Why do you need to know?" MJ questioned.

"Ah, well. You are very pretty. When I saw you give bread to a little girl, I thought to myself, 'this girl is very pretty, inside out.'" Tomas explained.

"Oh." was all MJ could say. Tomas grinned. 'His dimples are very cute,' she thought. "Uh, how old are you?" she asked.

Tomas replied proudly, "Uh, almost 15. How about you?"

"I'm exactly 14." She replied faintly. "Where do you live?"

Tomas replied uneasily, "Alberkerry Manor."
"You must be very rich then, - " MJ started, but then noticed her father's carriage.

"Mary Jane! Come over here this instance!" her father boomed. Tomas took one look at him, and then quickly ran away. MJ frowned.

"Come on now. We haven't all day," said MJ's father in a huff. MJ sauntered into the carriage.

Back home MJ noticed her mother looking very troubled. "Mother, what is it? Why are you looking so glum?" MJ asked.

"Well dear, there's a case of clemente going round the poor people's village," her mother started.

"And," her father added, "Your little friend may have caught it, and passed it to you. But it's a big may."

"But Tomas is rich! He lives in Alberkerry Manor!" MJ said hoarsely, still thinking about Tomas.

"Tomas is NOT rich. Have you seen his clothes? Did you even notice his bare feet?" her father shouted.

"But, but, - " MJ tried to argue, and then realized she couldn't.

"So, you are not to mix with him anymore. Not until the clemente has gone from the village," her father boomed.

"Bert, please. Don't be so harsh," MJ's mother said.

"Don't 'Bert please' me, Mildred. I don't want Mary Jane to get an incurable disease,"

"But dad! He's nice and everything. He isn't poor! Please don't not let me meet him! Dad!" MJ complained.

"Go to your room now!" shouted her father. MJ ran upstairs, sobbing loudly, and then went to her room and slammed the door.

The next day MJ's parents found MJ sprawled on the bed.

MJ had died of clemente.

Wingman and Dark Monster

2006-04-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

By Grace Chin

Bikers are often regarded as a mass of loud, boisterous, hairy and sweaty men on roaring and throbbing set of wheels. They move in packs, and when not terrorising lonely stretches of highways, villages, and little children, they gather at watering holes to pour ethanol-based spirits down their oesophagus while decked in leather, denim, bandanas, as well as adoring accessories of the fairer gender hanging off their arms.

Being the Vice President of Ducati Club Malaysia and the owner of 17 motorbikes ranks him as the leader of his pack, bottomless repository of lewd jokes, and a finely tuned ability to emit bodily gasses upon command. Wingman, 37, as he calls himself, has a regular engineering consultation day job, spews five different languages, reads Lewis Carroll, quotes Shakespeare, enjoys overpriced coffee, and to top it all, knows what a bruschetta is — extra virgin olive oil and all.

This interesting specimen defies the popularised Hollywood portrayal of bikers, as reminiscent of the 1980s musicals Grease and Grease 2. "The brotherhood of bikers is as diverse as it gets," claims Dark Monster, 29, (who's really anything but dark), also a jazz aficionado, avid fan of Sheila Majid, fellow biker and member of the spitfirebikers.com forum.

"It's just a group of people who may be as different as chalk and cheese, but yet have one thing in common — the passion for bikes, biking or simply riding", he explains. On being sweaty and leather-encased men, Dark Monster tells me that bikers wear tanned animal hide to look cool, but more importantly for protection. "The general idea is safety first, fashion second," he says.

Wingman, also a regular at the Sepang racetrack, shares an interesting statistic: "There's been three broken collarbones and one fractured wrist just this year alone at the tracks," he says, while whipping out a Kevlar shoulder pad out of his riding jacket.

Dark Monster appreciates clean and pressed khakis more than anything, and claims that his fashion sense is purely based on what he thinks looks good on him. The bandana, however, is more of a necessity than a fashion statement. "For people like me who sweat like a pig, it's to stop the sweat from ruining the helmet's inner foam lining," he says grinning, if rather sheepishly. "And yes, we do colour-coordinate ... what kind of question is that anyway?"

In spite of that, both Dark Monster and Wingman defend the apparent misconception of biking as being dangerous. Dark Monster shares with me, saying, "If you wish to talk bout danger, there's risk in everything you do," while Wingman ranks casual flings with women as being more dangerous than biking.

They both do admit that regular four-wheelers are more practical at times, if rather impersonal. "Cars, or cages as we call them, make you feel disengaged from the world. On a bike, you're more in touch and closer to your surroundings and nature," says Dark Monster. Wingman favours bikes over metal-encased transportation because "there's something in the sense of freedom you get while on the bike," while his eyes focus distantly on an non-existent object and glazes over dreamily. Perhaps I shouldn't say this because he bought my friend and me coffee, but maybe it was just the passing lady we saw in a nice skirt.

(The names were changed to protect the innocent from the wrath of their spouses and family members. This also debunks the other biker myth: bikers are really cowards (read: sissies) underneath all that tough leather!)

Raising children: A Mother’s Story

2006-04-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

By Elliot Tan, 12, KL

Jessy Yeong was a little bit shocked when I asked whether I could interview her. After a day of thought, she finally said yes.

Jessy was married 12 years ago, at FGA, on the fine day of Oct 8. She likes holiday-ing, reading, and doing nothing except relaxing and chatting with her husband and friends.

She met her husband, Adrian, at a volleyball practice for the Region 5 Home fellowship of her church. “After one of the practice sessions, he ‘kidnapped’ me!” Jessy said. “Just joking. We were supposed to meet our friends at a roti canai stall for supper, but we were stuck in a jam as it was the football season. We started talking and got to know each other very well. The rest is history.”

Jessy became a Christian back in 1985, when Campus Crusade came to her school. “I came to know of the wonderful news that Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins,” she says. “I accepted His love and became a Christian, but since I came from a super strict family, I didn’t have the chance to attend church at all. I was too fearful that my dad would protest at my decision, so I kept it secret. Many years later, the Lord led me to stay in a Christian house for girls. From then on, I had the opportunity to attend church and go to Bible classes.”

She is close to 40 and has four kids. “Children are a blessing from the Lord,” Jessy says. “Children are like seeds. It takes time to nurture them, and it takes time for them to grow. You have to prune bad habits off and shower them with love and care.”

Raising children, especially four of them, can be difficult. “Everything is a challenge,’ she says. “I find attending to needs draining, especially when all of your children demand your attention at the same time. Also, their age difference means different needs for each child. Obedience is the toughest part in childhood.”
She home schools her four children and believes their whole family would benefit from it by spending time together and enjoying one another. “I teach them and train them and try to my best to impart godly values,” she says. “Of course, I also discipline my kids when they need it.”

Jessy started home schooling about five years ago. She enjoys teaching her children, although sometimes she gets very frustrated when “their brains are not working.” “We use the Sonlight Curriculum and find it very lively and entertaining.”
“I feel blessed to have four children,” she adds.

“I think it takes a lot of commitment and love and energy to raise four children,” commented Sook Ching, her neighbour.

Miraculously Healed

2006-03-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

By Janet Fernandez, 14

It was the year 1983. Twenty-seven-year-old Ronald Raymond thought it was just going to be another simple and normal day at work. After taking a sip of his cup of coffee, he kissed his pregnant wife Meena and his two-year-old daughter Rachel goodbye. Then he started driving to work.

Suddenly, he heard a young lady sobbing. He opened his eyes and saw his wife beside him. He was surprised to see himself lying on a bed in the University Hospital. Without wasting any time, he asked his wife and his father-in-law, who was standing beside him, what happened.

His wife said that when he reached his office he was acting very weirdly. One of his office colleagues was worried about him so he took him to the hospital. Ronald was shocked to hear this. He asked the doctor what happened to him that caused him to act like that and not remember any such incident. The doctor said that one of his brain vessels burst, and the chances to survive was slim.

Ronald doesn't remember any of his friends or office colleagues visited him. He was so sick that a parish priest named Father Peter Kim from the church of Saint Francis Xavier had come to give him his last rites.

Fortunately he got well after a few months. Furthermore he didn't like the atmosphere of the hospital. The doctor was surprised to see Ronald on his feet again because most of the patients who has undergone this situation did not survive. Ronald knew that he was very lucky to be alive. Unfortunately he suffered a short-term memory for a few years. After he got well, he worked as a director of a company and started doing social work, volunteering to be a Sunday school teacher in the SFX Church.

Now Ronald, who is 48 years old, is living a very happy and wonderful life with his wife and his three children — Rachel, Rebecca and Matthew. He is also a successful businessman who is working in Kuala Lumpur and lives in a beautiful house in USJ, Subang Jaya. However he still cannot forget how close he came to death and how he was miraculously healed.

A Life Renewed

2006-03-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

By Low Iishan, 13, KL

Four scores and three years ago, in the year 1921, God breathed a new life. Though she may not be familiar to all, Madam Ooi Saw Guat, my grandmother, lived the 84 years of her life persevering through trials and hardships. And by the grace of God she endured ... and still continues to live on fruitfully.

Saw Guat came from a very rich family, with her father having six wives. She was the youngest of the three born to her mother. Being able to speak three languages, we can assume that she was a reasonably educated lady for those times. But grief plunged into the early stages of her life, when she lost her mother.

Then, World War II took place. In 1941, when Japan invaded Malaysia, Saw Guat, being only 22, fought her way through the Japanese invasion with her siblings. They hid under sampans and took shelter in caves, keeping away from the Japanese Soldiers who apparently sought pleasure with unmarried women.

Enter Low Boon Chai, my grandfather. This match was made purportedly to keep her safe from the Japanese. Nowadays, she still sighs “If not for the Japanese, I probably wouldn’t have married him." And I would reply, “If you didn’t marry him, I wouldn’t have been born.”

Together, Boon Chai and Saw Guat had five children. She also raised a daughter from her husband's second marriage. Despite hardships and challenges, she persevered and raised all six children to be successful in their professions and in their respectfulness toward her. But sadly, grief again plunged into her life when she lost her youngest son to a heart attack. This incident in her life still brings her to tears. It was during this time of grief, while reading her late son’s diary, that she found her faith. And so she endured ... but there was still one challenge ahead.

Early last year, Saw Guat suddenly fell sick. She discovered she had a tumour in her body, which had almost turned malignant. The tumour was arrested in time and was immediately removed. Imagine going through a seven-hour operation at the age of 83. It was a very uncomfortable time for all, especially for her. But she believed that the grace of God powered through during that time of trial, and she is now recovering well.

Saw Guat continues to trust in the Lord today. Though she had many difficulties in the past, her efforts did not go to waste. She was hardworking and stuck to the job and even gave up an opportunity to become a nurse just to help look after her sister's kids. And now God has blessed with love through her children who continues to look after her during her old age.

The Ogress

2006-03-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

By Ethan Tan, 14

Aside from picking her nose at traffic lights and belching regularly, 25-year-old Internet addict Jessey Ding describes herself an extrovert and an ogress. “Ogres are like onions,” is one of her favourite phrases, but unlike an ogress, she's nowhere near 6 feet tall, nor does she weigh a ton. On the contrary, she's about the same size as my brother Elliot, only fatter.

Jessey became a Christian through her mom, who calls her regularly. "I didn't buy it at first, and then God became personal. And I like not burning joss sticks to menacing-looking idols and squirm around in smoky stinky temples during festivals."

She was born and bred in Perak and is currently living in KL. "I grew up in the armpit of a small town called Sitiawan in Perak. Those who visit Pangkor Island will pass by the town. Residents usually go about their business in motorbikes helmet-less and shirt-less, and conversations are shouted rather than spoken,” she says. “Don't get me wrong, though. I love my quiet little hometown."

When asked about her school, she admits she did well, but refused to reveal which school and college she went to. "Umm, I'd rather withhold this piece of info in case I get really famous next time and people want to dig up my dirty stories," Jessey replies.

She took up piano when she was 8 and took ABRSM piano exams until she failed her Grade 8 because of lack of interest. "I was being really rebellious and not practising because I've had it with learning up and practising only the four exam pieces for the entire year. I felt that it defeated the purpose of me taking up piano lessons. So I stopped practising, and after I failed, lost all interest in the piano."

"I was young as a young girl," Jessey says with a laugh. "Actually I was a clown. I was happy when I made others laugh. Laughter was sparse and rare during those hard times. So I tried very hard to tickle or bring a smile to my family members and friends. My friends love me to death, but my parents still think I'm fickle and un-serious up till now. Humph."

So where is she staying now?

"I'm staying in an armpit of a house somewhere in Setapak. It smells like an armpit most of the time. Serious. Ask Elliot. He commented that my house smells like ... sweaty students," Jessey says.

"Yah, it did smell like sweaty students," Elliot confirms with a grin.

"It was really messy, as in lots of stuff lying about the area. Oh, and their yard was, you know, was messy. Like the house."

Jessey moved in the house when she was 18 and has been living there ever since. The original batch of housemates have already moved out and moved on.

She currently works with an advertising company with unearthly work hours, and yet, she still finds time to do what she loves the most. "I love singing, reading, writing stuff and movies, in no particular order ... and since no one asks me out for movies anymore nowadays, I'll just have to survive on DVDs begged from you house," she says with a grin.

"I can do all the singing I want with the band Catalyst, can write through my blog, (and) read all the books I can get from Pay Less or YOUR house,” she adds.

She sees dying a contented person who's right with God as her ultimate ambition. When asked if she was satisfied with herself, and why, she replied by saying, "Not really ... I'm too fat. Apart from that I have no qualms ... just need to figure out how to lose some weight without having to exercise or diet."

Jessey is really like an ogress — she has many layers, which she will reveal to you if you feed her well.

A Flicker of Hope

2006-03-05T06:11:00.000-08:00

By Crystal Cha, 14, KL

On Aug 16, 1992, Foo Ai Siang and her family were returning home from Singapore. They had barely another half hour or so to go before reaching home when two-year-old Jeremy, strapped into a baby seat, started crying and fussing at the back.

Ai Siang, who was riding in the passenger seat while her husband, Lai Wei, drove, decided to ride behind with Jeremy. She buckled herself into the seat behind, pacifying Jeremy and telling him, “Mummy’s also wearing a belt." Little did she know that she made a move that might have saved her life, for they were to encounter an accident that would leave an indelible mark upon their lives.

As they were driving along, from the opposite direction on the next lane, a car came careering wildly toward them. The driver appeared to have lost control. The car had already crashed into the three cars in front of it, before finally smashing head-on into the Foos’ car and coming to a stop.

Ai Siang suffered a concussion from the impact and went into a coma, while Lai Wei, too, lost consciousness and was left with both legs broken and a gaping cut along his jaw. Jeremy, who also suffered two broken legs, was the only one who remained conscious and was crying throughout the ordeal.

The family was sent to the Kajang hospital, which didn’t have the facilities to treat Ai Siang. They were then sent to the General Hospital, but circumstances were such that the hospital was filled with people in more critical condition than them. A building had collapsed in KL, leaving many people injured. The family spent the night there, but the hospital was so full that the staff couldn’t attend to them. Then Ai Siang’s in-laws made the critical decision to transfer them to the Pantai Medical Centre. It was a decision that did not come easily, especially since the first-class rooms, the only ones available, cost RM 300 per day.

Looking back, Ai Siang felt that God’s grace was upon them as miracles happened without their realising it. In Singapore they had bought a baby seat for Ai Siang’s sister-in-law. On the way back, Jeremy, in an unfamiliar seat, cried until Ai Siang sat behind with him. Had she been sitting in front, the impact would have been much greater and she could have possibly been killed.

The second miracle was that Lai Wei was found under the engine at the scene of the accident. How he had gotten into that position with his safety belt on was a puzzle, but Ai Siang believes it was the hand of God.

The third, as they were to discover later from Ai Siang’s neurosurgeon, was that had her in-laws delayed their decision a mere hour, Ai Siang would have suffered brain damage without the oxygen she received at the Pantai Medical Centre.

Ai Siang’s neurosurgeon was faced with the decision on whether to perform an operation that might risk her life. But after a few days, her pupils started responding to light, indicating that she was coming out of the coma, and giving her family a flicker of hope. After five days at the hospital, she had come out of her coma. However, to the dismay of her family, she had amnesia. She couldn’t even recognise her son and her husband, and forgot how to speak.

After a month in the hospital, she returned home, accompanied by her mother who looked after her. Two days after returning home, Ai Siang woke up in the middle of the night, surprised to find her mother sleeping next to her. "What are you doing here?" she asked. Her memory had suddenly returned!

However, due to her amnesia, the last two months of her life were a blank to her. That night, she didn’t let her mother return to sleep. She asked many questions, wanting to know what had happened to her.

The months that would follow were perhaps the most trying times as she struggled to pick up the pieces of her life. She remembers how often Jeremy would wake up crying, traumatised. "I didn’t know what to do," she recalls. "I couldn’t comfort him — during my stay in the hospital I wasn’t myself and behaved funnily, so even after I regained my memory he didn’t want me.”

She also struggled with feelings of depression and hopelessness, and was not able to communicate to others how she felt. In the mornings she would wake up and everything would look dark and dreary. "I didn’t know how to tell my doctor I was depressed," she says, "I thought maybe it was just me." Only much later her sister discovered through an article that people who came out of comas usually suffered from depression.

It was frustrating when she wasn’t able to recall friends who were not very close to her but had come to visit her. "Please, help me reconnect my life to your life," she would beg.

The coma also had left her with short-term memory lapses. She’d ask Lai Wei a question and after he replied, she’d say, "Why haven’t you answered me?" It was during this period of time that she turned to God in desperation. "Even he (Lai Wei) couldn’t help me, so I would turn to God," she says.

Then came the turning point. One night, frustrated and exhausted, Ai Siang poured her heart out to God. "God, I cannot go on anymore," she cried. Then, she says, "I felt His arms around me - physically, and I heard Him say, ‘My child, I am here’." She audibly heard Jesus comforting her with her favorite verses. That gave her the hope she needed to carry on. About seven months later since she regained her memory, she pulled through and came out of her depression. But it would take a further two years for her to get well completely.

Today, having overcome the many obstacles in her way, Ai Siang has recovered and put the ordeal behind her. When asked what she had learnt from her experience, she replies excitedly, "If I could go through that, I can go through anything with God’s help!"

The Musical Sabapathy Family

2006-02-26T23:35:00.000-08:00

By Low Iiern, 11, KL

Many Malaysians suffered and died at the hands of the cruel Japanese during the Second World War, yet many of them survived through hiding in jungles or by migrating out of the country. But I have a friend who survived the war through a most unusual way. She survived through music.

While other families were struggling to get food, money and other supplies during the Second World War, Miss Day Sabapathy's family had no such problems.

Daisy Sabapathy entered this world on the July 25, 1925. She just turned 80 years old a few months ago. Miss Day can play up to 11 instruments — the piano, the piano accordion, the keyboard, violin, cello, acoustic bass, xylophone, vibraphone, saxophone, guitar and the harmonica. She can still play all of them today. Miss Day, who is only a little taller than 4 feet, plays jazzy piano standing up and dances with the saxophone.

Miss Day's father was a very wealthy man. This wealth came from many many different industries such as rubber, tin, paddy, quarry. Through this wealth, Mr Sabapathy was able to import qualified musicians from other countries, such as Austria, to come and teach his children (including Miss Day). Because of her father's encouragement and effort, Miss Day was able to play all of the instruments above by the age of 12!

During the year 1941, the Japanese invaded Malaysia. Through the locals, they found out about a gentleman called Mr. Sabapathy. At that time Mr. Sabapathy was the Justice of Peace of Parit Buntar. The Japanese also found out that Mr. Sabapathy had four sons and four daughters, including Miss Day. They were all musicians and had their own orchestra called the Sabapathy Family Orchestra.

The Japanese therefore requested the Sabapathy Family Orchestra to entertain their battalion three times a week in a club in Parit Buntar. In return, they would give the Sabapathy family the supplies they needed. So the Sabapathy family played all kinds of music for the Japanese battalion, even Japanese music.

You must be wondering how the Japanese treated Miss Day. Her answer surprised me. "Exceptionally wonderful," she says, because her father had a good relationship with the Japanese. Miss Day was 16 years old at that time, and her family played music for the Japanese soldiers for five years.

Imagine being in Miss Day's shoes, entertaining a mean Japanese battalion three times a week. But when asked if she was afraid, Miss Day replied, “No, because I knew that Jesus was by my side.”

I find it interesting that the Japanese, known for their cruelty during the Second World War, would spare Miss Day and her family just because of music. Perhaps as Miss Day says, hers was a God-fearing family, and God protected them through music.

Today, Miss Day lives happily with her nephew, Leslie Sabapathy, in a house in Subang Jaya. And what are her plans for the upcoming years, she said, “I don't know lah! I just leave the planning in God's hands."

The Austin 7

2006-02-19T04:20:00.000-08:00

By Wong Jian Eu, 12, KL

Charles Perera knows how it feels to rebuild an antique car. After all, he himself has brought back to life an Austin 7. Looking back he half boasts, “It is my greatest achievement in life.”

Charles Perera is married with three children. He works overseas in Nigeria, but comes back on alternate months. His hobby is to rebuild or create things that are needed. Of the many things he has done, his greatest pride is the Austin 7 he rebuilt for his neighbour’s uncle, who used to go to school in a car like that.

The Austin 7 was released in England around 1927. Production has stopped; those that still exist are considered very rare, and many car enthusiasts would happily pay a good sum of money for. The Austin 7s, and many of the other cars that were made in the same period, were transported to and sold in Malaysia when the Brits ruled.

When Uncle Charles’ neighbour’s uncle wanted his old, neglected Austin 7 rebuilt, Uncle Charles bought a book on the Austin 7. The book told Uncle Charles and his friends — Ganesh, who helped in doing jobs that needed more than one person; Edmund, who put together the engine; and another close friend, a professional wireman, who did the wiring and whose name Uncle Charles could not recall — all about the parts that were needed and how to arrange them. With the book open and Uncle Charles ready to give instructions to his friends, the rebuilding started.

How did they manage to get the parts for a car that was made in 1927? “I got the parts from everywhere — some from London, others from Malaysia and the rest from other countries,” said Uncle Charles. Can you imagine getting parts for an ancient car from all around the world? It’s just like what Captain Nemo did in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea — ordering parts from around the world so that his submarine, the Nautilus, would remain a secret.
Buying the car parts cost a whopping RM35, 000! That is a gob-smacking amount of money to kid like me.

Anyway, after two years of hard work ( actually one year because Uncle Charles was only home on alternate months), the Austin 7 was finally reconstructed to its original specifications. It had a 998cc engine. It had spoke wheels, which looked very much like motorcycle wheels. The brand of the wheels was Harley Davidson. The car had a nice sporty red body with black to cover the bottom area. The inside was beige in colour.

Well, with the car done, how did he feel? “I felt very proud! I drove it to Bangsar, and it felt great. Ron, Dashel and Sonya (my two sons and daughters) came along with me,” Uncle Charles said, beaming. “The Austin 7 is a real eye catcher.”

So after the Austin 7 was reconstructed, it was returned to Uncle Charles’ neighbour’s uncle. Well, Uncle Charles’ neighbour’s uncle drove it to work for a while until he got a mild heart attack. It is now understood that the car is for sale at a price of around RM65,000.

“I think that many car collectors would buy it,’ Uncle Charles said. “If I had the money I would definitely buy it.”

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