Robbed in Kenya, Breathe the Air...

And so my brother got robbed in Kenya while enroute to the UNICEF refugee camp near the Somalia border. Well I wouldn’t say robbed but rather… what’s the word? Bribe? Nah I can’t think of the word and it’s not the first time. Anyway I got a phone call from him yesterday that he has lost US$500, credit cards, Singapore I.C and so on, infact his entire wallet. Apparently he was in a convoy of 2 jeeps heading towards the camp when they were stopped by a group of gunmen probably guerrillas. Now as a standard safety protocol, they were to give in to whatever demands these gunmen wanted. So the UNICEF staffs in the convoy have to give up their possessions before they were allowed to continue on their journey. My brother said they were lucky that they were not shot upon unlike what happened to his colleagues and of cause none were killed. The gunshot was usually a way to give warning that they are in the guerrilla’s territory.

So now my brother is somewhat penniless apart from some cash which he kept just in case these kind of things would happened. Anyway UNICEF staffs are usually prepared for all kinds of emergency and situation so I’m rest assured that my brother is somewhat ready for all these. He will be flying down to Johannesburg in a month’s time to received fresh medication supplies and what’s not. So in the mean time, I’ve to call the bank to cancel and replace his credit card, transfer some money over (you know banks in Kenya are kinda corrupted sometimes you don’t get the full amount of money which you’re supposed to receive), make new Singapore I.C for him and blah blah blah. I’ve to quickly do all these so that I have ample time to post all his stuffs to an undisclosed address somewhere in South Africa and by the time he reached Johannesburg, he would get all his stuffs.

And the thing is that, my parents doesn’t know about his current situation apart from my sister and I. If they knew about all these, I think they would get spasm or something, my mum would probably cry on the phone to ‘beg’ him to come back home likewise for my dad.

Despite his current predicament, my brother got the cheek to tell me that I’m such chicken. Which I could more or less agree with him. He says I shouldn’t be too kiasu like most Singaporeans worrying about getting a degree and chasing all the 5Cs. He says I have all the time I want to do all those things and instead ‘run away’ from home and do something more meaningful for myself and also others. I simply thought that by deferring my studies up to a year is already good enough. I think he wants me to do more than that. But seriously when I come to think of it, I’m already 24 years old and after all these years there wasn’t a time where I could actually ‘breathe’. I’m somehow forced or stuck with something which I’ve to do just to complete the next stage of life, you know like school, career and etc; And I can tell you that 80% of the time, I don’t enjoy it. The remaining 20% is something which I truly enjoy but alas I have the least memory of it. So I guess all my angst inside me are due to the 80% of the things which I don’t enjoy doing it. Now if only I can’t switch those numerical to digits which I can truly benefit. 80% Happiness and 20% Bullshits. Sigh if only I have more guts like my brother do. You know he is the kind of person who simply comes up with an idea and implement it immediately, it doesn’t matter if the idea fails as long you know you’ve tried it. If you fail, pick up the bits and pieces and move on. If you succeed it would be an accomplishment and of cause it doesn’t end there, you obviously have to improvise the current situation or try to achieve something new. It’s like long life learning. Arrh that’s how our life goes anyway… the continuous process of learning.

Now all I need to do is … BREATHE…