A Kid in Malaysia
The early years
I was born in the Kluang government hospital - pretty interesting, considering the fact that nowadays, most babies are under the care of a gynaecologist. Might as well, since my parents are not exactly that well-off at that point of time. During my birth, my parents are just renting a room. My dad worked as a rubber technician, as per the politically-correct term. Back then, he's just a rubber-tapper who wakes up at 4am and ride his bicycle to work. There were not many jobs for women then, so my mom stayed at home. I think that is when she perfected her cooking technique, which I still find until today to be among the best I've tasted.
Didn't really remember much until I was about 5 when I started kindergarten. Certainly no private tuition then. In fact, I don't recall even having any private tuition until 15, when I have to sit for the SRP examinations (that's one exam that we have to pass, or we have to re-take it the next year). So, my childhood years were pretty much fun and games.
fun with animals
Let's see, one of the more interesting stuff that we did were catching fish. No, it's not fishing, it's catching fish using a net. I had a few buddies of which one of them have this fish called a "toman". This 3-foot long fish is a carnivore, and we either had to feed it cockroaches, frogs, or fish. None of us dare to even touch a cockroach, frogs are a bit difficult to find, and so the decision is small fish. The best thing is that since the place we are staying in is still considered a kampung, there are still a few ponds left that has fish in them. So almost every day, we would each arm ourselves with a bucket and a net, and go catch fish. Sometimes, we are lucky that we catch fighthing fish, shrimp, a colourful ikan sepat (gourami), ikan puyu, a algae eater (looks like a cross between a toad and a fish), and even a tortoise. Obviously, the majority of the fish (mostly guppies, and tilapia) goes to that friend of ours. Whenever we get lucky, the catch of the day is usually sold to the aquarium apek and the money is used to buy ice-cream or kacang puteh.
spiders
Spiders, now these are fun. During week-ends, we would go to this spot and start looking for black leaf spiders. These creatures are about the size of the thumbnail, and they'll fight once they see another spider, which makes it cool. The best fun, other than finding and catching one is to see your pet spider win the fight. In order to sustain them, you'll need to keep them in a matchbox, or in a Tic-Tac box. For food, we feed them with flies, and about 3 times a day bring them out to drink from the water droplets on your hand. One more thing, we actually put a female spider in the same box so that they don't get bored :)
During school days, we were playing with this insect about 1-inch long, and looks like a black ant. The weird part is that it lives along in a burrow which we had to use a twig to poke it out. Once it's out and confronted by another of its own kind, it'll start to fight by clinging to the other insect. Get a few of these together, and you can make an insect ball.
singing bird
We also had a bird, a black and white magpie. This bird has an incredible voice and it eats grasshopper or crickets. No choice but to catch it. My dad build this little cage using wood and mesh wire, and after we catch the grasshopper, we'll put them in. Good places to catch the insects are in rubber plantations, especially near the Rivertex area. All we need to do is to walk around a little bit, and the grasshoppers would start jumping. Once we saw where they land, we can slowly approach and cupping our hands, pounce on the insect and catch it with our bare hands. On a good day, we get close to 30 of them which will last probably 3 days. After a while, my dad decided to ask a few boys to do it for him, and they were good. Of course, I joined in for fun as well.
days in school
School days were a lot less filled with pressure compared to now. I guess I remembered the fun times more than I did the times I spent studying. Since school was so much fun, I really felt bored when I had to stay at home due to fever or stuff like that. There was once that I had to miss school for nearly a week due to my appendicitis, and that was so boring. I didn't even know how I got it; according to my mum, I jumped around too much especially whilst watching cartoons on the TV after dinner time. The operation went without hitches and I still have the scar on my right waist until today...no big deal, really.
One of my favourite games was "Police and Thief" where 2 leaders will choose their gang of police and thief. At a count of 1,2,3 the thieves will start running and the police will go and catch them. They are caught when the police hit them 3 times on the back. The winners that day usually depends on the people they have, and so the responsiblity lies with the leader during the "scissors, paper, stone" where they decide who to make the first choice.
badminton
School is also the time that I got introduced to other friends and also "real" games. The favourite of these is badminton. Malaysia has always been among the powerhouse for this sport and I think it's probably because we started from so young. I think I was 10 when we decided among our classmates that we play every Friday morning. There is this open-air court in school that we play in - on Fridays, we actually climb across the gate to be there. That went on for a few years, even when we changed school from primary to secondary. Of course, since we are no longer students, we can't play there anymore. So we found another place, an even better one since they have a warong nearby where they sell noodles and air-batu. During our game, since there's only one court, we would wait and eat food at the same time.
cycling
Ah, the good ol' days. The badminton games continued quite a bit, and try as I might, I cannot recall why or even when we stopped playing. In the evenings however, I went cycling with another group of buddies where we'll go into the oil-palm estate near my place. And this is through the road filled with mud and the occassional cow-dung left by the wandering cows during feeding. It takes quite a bit of skill to maneuver through these big piles of shit on the ground - sometimes when we have no choice but to put our foot down, we still have watch where we land.
boy scouts
Joining the boy scouts, it was fun, especially meeting every week and doing the marching and stuff. But the most interesting part, I think, were geting the badges. Our first camping trip, we had to go through these drills just to get out tenderfoot badges. It's kinda cool because you had to sing in the rain, and memorize knots and the pledge, do a little navigation.
The more interesting tests came in the King Scout tests, where we were tested on running, rope climbing, and going through obstacles. Climbing the coconut tree for the first time was a harrowing experience, indeed. I have never climber one before the test, and the only thing I could rely on were the stuff the examiner told us, grab the tree with your arms to start. Then grip the trunk using the legs. Get a firm grip with your feet and push yourself up, releasing the armhold as you ascend. Halfway, I was telling myself, this ain't bad at all. The problem was descending. DO NOT SLIDE DOWN was the instruction given time and time again, and so we were doubly careful not to slip. No problem, I passed the test.
swimming
I learnt swimming when I was 10. Frankly, I didn't care much for the sport until my parent start saying how important it is to be able to swim - it's a life-saving sport in the case of any water accidents. Good thing I listened to them. So they got me enrolled into this community swimming program, where there were like 50 other kids in the same pool. Turned out that I was pretty good at it, the next year I was selected to represent my school, my district, and then the state in backstroke.
tae-kwon do
The problem with swimming is that you had to wear trunks and nothing else. I was real skinny and when you were with the other swimmers who happen to have really nice v-shaped figures, my parents start making plans that I should be in some other sports as well - some sport that will make me as tough-looking as them. So, I was enrolled in martial arts, which I stayed on until I got myself a blue-belt ranking.
No problems, I enjoyed the training, even the free-sparring sessions...until I got a fight with another person. During the fight, I realized that I was capable of killing him. Not just because of my size, when at that time I was already taller and bigger than most people (5'11", and 68kg - hey, Chinese people seldom get above 5'8"), but also because of the techniques I learnt in free-sparring. That really made me think, especially when I have dedicated my life to Christ. The whole philosophy of practicing the martial arts is that it is a form of self-defence, but for me, it has turned out to be something else altogether. Sure, I'm still defending myself but it gets really bad now that I am constantly wary of everybody, always picking up opportunities outside the arena so that I can practise what I have learnt. There is fear all the time that someone out there may pick a fight. I guess it's true what Yoda said, "Fear is from the Dark side." I left the sport.
how I became a Christian
Since Hokkien was the main dialect at home (it still is), I did not have any opportunities to practise verbal communication in English. True, my parents did encourage me to read lots of books, borrowed from the library, but nothing could substitute for verbal stuff. The only possible solution is to enroll me into Sunday School at the local English-speaking church. The nice thing is that the school is held not at the church in town, but at a house within walking distance from my house. I started attending at age 9, and continued going there for some time.
During one of the sessions, the teacher just asked me to stay back which I did. She then went through with me a small blue booklet that describes a step-by-step method how to receive Christ into my life. Most of the stuff, I understood, thanks to teaching at the Sunday School. No, I didn't receive Him immediately. In fact, it took me a few days to think about it before I finally went down on my knees and prayed the sinner's prayer. I am now Christian.
The thing with new Christians is that follow-up is essential - just like giving birth to a physical baby, a spiritual baby needs all the help to grow. I did not receive any, which probably is among the reasons why I sorta backslided...you can't really give a new Christian a Bible and tell him to go back and read it, and pray, and then expect him to grow into spiritual maturity. First of all, he does not even understand the Bible. Next, he does not know how to pray (come to think of it, even some older Christian does not know how to pray). And to make matters worse, none of the family members are Christians to offer any help in spiritual guidance. So, I really didn't think much of the whole thing until I was 15. That was 5 years after I accepted Christ into my life.
It was after the SRP exams, and I had a lot of time in my hands. It was, after all, a national exam and time is required for the papers to be fully marked. So, I took the opportunity to sign up for a church camp organized during that time-frame. I knew some of the friends that I made during Sunday School were going, and so I thought that it would be a good time to know them more. Didn't expect that the camp would change me.
The topic was "the 2nd coming of Christ", something I had never heard preached before in Sunday School. The book of Revelation was quite taboo at that time, didn't know why; perhaps it's because nobody took the time to really study it for what its worth. Anyway, I was constantly challenged every day by the preaching, and even the worship was fantastic (I think that was the part that I enjoy most of all). During one night, there was some sort of an altar call, which I actually went up to be prayed for. For the first time, I could not control myself and fell down (a phenomenon called "slain in the Spirit"). My vision was totally blurred and I felt as though I was floating aimlessly in space, probably an indication of what my life is at the time: there was no goal, no ambition in my life.
Prior to that meeting, I was an extremely proud person. Growing up as a child of a rubber-tapper turned succesful businessman who drives a Mercedes-Benz (the symbol of success over here in this region), I was constantly pushed to excel in everything I did. In studies, in sports, almost everything that I did, I found out that I could be among the best. And that made me puffed up. But that night was totally different. I found that I do not have any aims in life, that all the things that I have done, all the thing I have achieved, is nothing without the grace of God. I was lost and I needed a Savior, and as I cried out "help me, Jesus", I found myself on the floor lying on my back while the music is still playing on.
When the speaker gave a call on who wanted to dedicate their life to Christ that night I was the first to raise my hand. The Lord Jesus who loved me, and gave His life for me, that's about the least I could do for Him.
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most recent update: June 29, 1999
Copyright Ng Wei Kwan 1999 all rights reserved
Romans 8:28
