AH PEK TALK TOO MUCH

Yesterday morning, I went to the market to buy a packet of bee hoon for brunch. There was a long queue and behind me was a man probably around 50 years old.

He was teasing the staff for not going fast enough, told them to start bringing out more chilli and other comments. The people there ignored him with smiles on their faces.

Finally it was my turn to be served. The lady serving bee hoon had a conversation with me. She know's Jonathan's condition and asked me what standard he would be now.

When I told her Jonathan would be in primary 2, immediately the man behind me started passing a remark in Mandarin "二年级还要崇他。不要给她走路，给他坐车." What he said was I was "He's in primary 2 and you still spoil him by letting him sit on buggy and don't let him walk." It was not a question to me. It was a remark, made loud and clear for other people to hear.

His tone was loud and not gentle. There were other people behind him. So after paying for my bee hoon, without looking at him, I said Jonathan couldn't walk and left the place. He immediately apologise but I was already walking away with his voice trailing behind me.

His reaction was normal, I guess. He didn't get a glimpse of Jonathan becos Jonathan was in front of me.

I hope from this experience, this Ah Pek would learn to think first before speaking. Otherwise, he would end up being punched for what he said. He's lucky to have bumped into me instead of other parents who might be offended with his remarks.

When I got home, I thought back about what happened. I told myself should have turned to look at him, use my handphone to take a picture and post it online...haha.

But you know...I wasn't angry at all. I just felt that this man ought to learn to analyse the situation first before making remarks like that.

God is my witness. He knows what went on and He will take care of it for me.

He's grace is sufficient for me to bear the situation.

2 Corinthians 12: 9 - "..My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfet in weakness."

READY....ACTION!

A group of students from SMU came to Jonathan's school to request to shoot a short documentary on how a family takes care of a child with cerebral palsy. In the meanwhile, Mediacorp also wanted to do an awareness documentary to create more awareness for the school. So the school liaised and the two groups joined forces to produce the documentary.

The head of social workers Department approached me and I said yes.

The SMU students roped in a 3 Mass Communications Students from Ngee Ann Poly to do the filming (actually they are friends).

Filming began this week from 9 October and ended yesterday, 13 October.

Besides filming in Jonathan's class (who has photo and media consent), they also filmed me at home. From how I prepare Jonathan before leaving for school, to feeding him, and doing his homework.

Jonathan was a good boy. He cooperated although on some days he didn't want to do it. He's a natural in front of the camera...haha.

We had to retake two scenes when the first taxi driver decided to withdraw from the documentary. So the whole segment was repeated the next day (Thursday). But I felt it was another chance for me to correct what I said wrongly the day before and this second time round, I described it in more details. I believe God allowed it to happen because I wasn't happy with what I said on the first take the day before.

Here are some pix (click on pix for larger image):


The creative group with two of Jonathan's classmates.

Extreme left is Ling (student from SMU), Nadia, Joachim, Jeremiah (from Ngee Ann Poly Mass Com class) and Sean (professional photographer).

With Jonathan are Mohammed (left) and Kelvin (right).

While Jonathan, Jeremiah and I were in another taxi, doing a scene on the way to school, Joachim and Nadia were in another taxi playing with my camera.

I was surprise to see this picture when I got my camera back. It was a pleasant and good present for Jonathan. Notice the drawing on top right corner of the paper? That's Jeremiah!!

Filming done on the last day (Friday 13th...what a day!! haha). Jonathan was getting tired already. On the way home that day, he told me he didn't want them to come back with us.

It was a fun while filming although tiring. The whole team was very accommodating.

This documentary will be used by SMU and probably on TV Mobile (which hasn't been confirmed). Spastic Children Association School will receive a copy as their introductory video to new clients. This documentary will be used for 2 to 3 years.

On the whole, it was a good experience. Jonathan was really good and so were his classmates. They all had a lot of fun when attention was given to them. Teacher Lay Keong was very gracious to allow the crew and photographer to mingle in class even though she had to go on with lessons.

The group from SMU and the crew from Ngee Ann provided so much fun in school as well as while we were home filming. The Mediacorp Creative crew came to our house and bought lunch during one of the days and we had a lot of fun just sharing and throwing ideas.

I hope that this documentary will be able to touch many people and create more awareness about Singaporeans who have special needs and how their families cope.