The Malaysian in Me :)

بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم

Hi world. 

You ok? – that’s how the British greet you.

Hey how's it going?  - that’s the American way.

Apa khabar? – now that’s Malaysian :)

Alhamdulilllah guess what? I was woken up by nature this morning. Ayam berkokok, anjing mengonggong (quite impressed by my wording there. hee) dan kanak2 mengaji pagi2…indicating saya dan family dah selamat sampai di Malaysia!

I had the best sleep in kampong ever. We were quite tired after arrival last night and decided to succumb ourselves to the nyamuk as need be. Redha je lah kalau kena ketip. It’s called blood donation ok. For once tak guna ubat nyamuk and alhamdulillah takde nyamuk gigit. Darah kelat kot. Or that we smelled so bad from sweating that the odor served as a natural repellant. Just kidding :) That is one nikmat that I remember to be really grateful for upon coming back – not the odor part but the tak-kena-gigit-by-nyamuk part.

Guess what? I’m also wearing kain batik now. Nenek saya punya of course because I don’t own any. Mamat complimented that I look like “Melayu sejati, tak celup2 punya.” Wah…tiba2 saya pon mula syok sendiri sampai jadi cik siti wan kembang mengembang :)

Pagi2 lagi mama dah mintak mamat belikan barang dapur dan plastik sampah. Along berkerut2 dahi sbb tak ketahuan apa jenis sayur yang mama mintakkan. Jadi beliau minta saya utk turut serta ke pasar pagi.

Me: Eh takpe ke keluar pakai kain batik?

Mamat: Ayu kot. Pakai je lah. Tak payah tukar2. Kan dah lawa macam ni.

Me: Hmm. Ok. Biase je kan orang keluar pakai kain batik…orait then.

Senario dlm kereta.

Me: Eh bro, kobis tu macam mana rupanya?

Mamat: Dude, so brought you for nothing? (somewhat irritated). Takkan tu pun tak tahu. It’s cauliflower la.

Me: Ye ke…I thought I knew what it was. Just wanted to make sure. Okay then.

Sambil saya tgh pilih sayur, datang seorang makcik Indian ni.

Me: Wah..comelnya anak makcik. Apa namanya (warm up question) ?

Makcik: Sanggat (something like that~)

Me: Ohh Sanggat…baiklah. Makcik, nak mintak tolong, yang mana satu ya sayur kobis?

Makcik: Yang ini la. Awak ambil yang ini besar sikit.

Me: Ok. Terima kasih. Er lagi satu, sayur sawi pulak yang mana?

Makcik: Ha ini dia sayur sawi (semua sayur2 ni ada kat bawah batang hidung)

Me: (ever so grateful. Terharu makcik ni sgt baik) Terima kasih banyak2 makcik…

…..awkward silence.

Makcik: Awak ni baru lepas beranak ka?

Me: (mata terbeliak) Eh, belum. Kenapa, makcik?

Makcik: Makcik nampak orang yang pakai ini macam, semuanya yg baru lepas beranak.

Me: …Oh..hah ha (ketawa kelat. I’m going to get mamat for this. Dah la kobis tu bkn cauliflower).

Dlm rumah, sambil mop lantai mama tanya.

Mama: Kat mana sayur kobis tadi?

Me: Kat tempat sayur dlm fridge la.

Mama: Kat mana letak plastik sampah?

Me: Somewhere in the kitchen.

Mama: That somewhere tu dlm fridge dengan sayur kobis. Eloklah tu bekukan pastik sampah.

Along: (geleng2 kepala) Hahaha. Haish angah2. Nasib baik jumpa mak mertua tu interview je bukan praktikal.

hmm. memang la. epic fail. i blame the jetlag.

Moral of the storynya, alhamdulillah...Allah masih beri saya dan famili rezqi utk balik ke kampung asal dan berjumpa (especially) dengan my baby, Wan dan warga Malaysia. Culture shocknya, tipu lah kalau kata tak ada. It's partly on my side to get adjusted with the culture here but at the same time keeping the positive values that I adapted dari negara orang (not to forget to relearn some vocabs. hm!). Baru la boleh jadi agen perubahan, kan, inshallah. Nasihat ini saya nak seru kat (especially) semua sahabat2 yang balik dari overseas. 

Culture ini macam fashion. One day it's in, another day it's out. Kat France once upon a time ago, ladies were prohibited to wear trousers. But now the culture and society says it's ok to wear trousers. Adat kita dulu guna telur rebus sebagai hadiah kepada tetamu yg bertandang ke kenduri perkahwinan. Tapi sekarang jarang sekali. Kalau 20 000 budak2 lepasan SPM yang dpt sponsor di hantar ke luar negara terapkan nilai2 murni yang mereka dapat dari budaya lain, sudah tentu kita boleh bawak "trend" baru yang lebih segak dan mantop dalam "season fashion" di tanah air sendiri kali ini. ahaks ;) Bukan ke kita ni suatu gelombang? 

Orang2 di America generally are friendly. But so are the people in Malaysia, actually. Tinggal lagi, it's just a question of who's going to start the initiative to extract the honey out of whom. Malaysia ni tak kurang melting potnya berbanding US. The experience I've had mixing around with people back in the States, made me appreciate more of the diversity in Malaysia. It's such a rainbow-ful world we have here in Malaysia. It's just a matter of tapping into the potential that sometimes get overlooked because nobody wants to start it.