Wrath of Mother Nature....

Speedometer reading:- 1,099km - that was my travel statistics for the past one week during my work assignment in Temerloh, Kuantan, Mentakab and Kemaman. Looking back at the work at these flooded areas, I was really greatly moved by what I saw during my work assignments. However, I take heart seeing the brave, valiant and resilient men and women of Temerloh, Kuantan and Kemaman picking up the pieces of the lives and re-building it from scratch. All along the way and in the course of my work, I see lives restored and faith put in order while living becomes the order of the day. The tenacity to work together in cohesion and in our spirit of goodness helped healed lots of lives thought few incidences of the rearing of the ugly head of racism, nepotism and distasteful remarks do exist.

My work travels started from Melaka to Temerloh. It was a last minute change of plans that made me land up in Temerloh. Initially, my colleague and I was asked to go to Kuantan, which was to be our HQ for the next few days, but somehow, last minute changes in plans made up travel to Temerloh as much work awaited us there. All along the travel, I was worried of the Triang road to Temerloh which was rumoured to be unsafe at that time. A quick call to Temerloh Police Station and Triang Police Station eased my worries as the roads were said to be open to vehicles but caution was advised. So, I slowly threaded my way to Temerloh and along the way, I saw the utter disbelieved devastation left by the floods. Water level were about 8 -10 feet especially those along the river and at every left and right, all I could see was a titan coverings of light chocolate reddish coloured level markings at all buildings, houses, marsh grass lands and even the plains as one drives to Temerloh. The road was slippery, muddy and covered with at least 4-6 inches of mud silt and I had to maneuver the car carefully.

After much driving , finally I arrived in Temerloh and it was as bad as I had anticipated. Water and electricity supply had been restored but food and petrol stations were still down. Only some brave souls opened their shop to recover form the devastation. After checking into U Design Hotel, my colleague and I went straight to work. Being in a new place, it was so comforting to know that Waze application works! You can never imagine how wonderful this application works when you are in a flood hit area! With this in hand, I managed to locate my work site and carried out my work. I actually used Waze applications for all my work assignments and it was great. From here onwards, it was just work after work after work. As I travel to Kemaman to do my other work assignments, I was pleasantly surprised to see the reception I received from the people of Kemaman. They are truly fine and  good people while there are some rather hostile ones but generally, Kemaman folks are really friendly and spoke with one Terengganu slang indeed. After a while of listening to them, you get the hang of it and you will start to talk like them if you pick up speaking languages fast enough. I managed to work easily with the people and helping them out wherever I could but generally, I had to stick to the list and mandate given and ensured that I was fair when it comes to discussing the right compensation to them. I must honestly say that it wasn't all grim and depressing as you make the best of of any situations you are in , right? For me, I just made myself at "home" with the situation of my surroundings and make the best out of everything that comes my way. But I must admit that I wasn't able to sleep well, tired but I had great colleagues working alongside me. That made a lot of difference, actually. If you are working with a negative person or a whiner or a pompous little ass, your life at work will be miserable. But luckily, I just had the right working people and we were able to achieve a whole lot more and be of service to the Kemaman people.

With great colleagues in Sathiya, Harid and Tye, we managed to get some fun together despite our grim surroundings. We had some fun in our food hunting quest, drinks and even getting something to eat in Kemaman wet market. It was quite an experience for some of my colleagues who wasn't up to having food at markets and so on. Generally, they get the drift and enjoyed the meals. I particularly remembered the food we had under a pedestrian overhead bridge in Kemaman town. Surprisingly the food was quite good. The Siakap Goreng Tiga Rasa ( fried barramundi with sweet, sour and spicy sauce) , Puyuh goreng ( fried quail ) with long beans and onions, Tomyam kuning ayam kampung ( tomyam kampong chicken ) and Kai Lan with salted fish tasted exquisite despite sitting under a pedestrian overhead bridge. Quite classic , actually! I guess, I enjoyed my morning breakfast of nasi kuning with daging ( glutinuos yellow rice with special savory curry beef ) while Harid enjoyed the nasi dagang and Sathy enjoyed the fish curry puffs and some rounded fish kuih.

I was told by the locals that Pak Hassan Nasi Dagang stall wasn't open that day and his stall was the best. Just our luck then....

I guess, the tiring part was actually locating and waiting for the claimants to get to their homes and so on plus the travelling time from Kuantan-Kemaman and vice-versa. I must admit the negotiations with the claimants were rather pleasant with the exception of a few , of course. I must admit that the tendency to be greedy and arrogant are always prevalent but at the end of the day a fair compensation is what we would seek.I am so thankful and grateful for the Lord has enabled me in doing my negotiations without much problem. I guess, being honest with your own limitations and being honest with everyone is the beat way to go forward in such situations. I believe, I have been able to get the work done by the grace of God.

I also recalled some funny moments or rather "anxious" moments during my work there. There was once when I slipped and fell in a store which was not only smelly but filled with brackish drain water plus urine smell from the nearby monsoon drains. It wasn't a pretty site and sight for me. One of the workers had to wash me with the use of the high power water jet and causing half of my body to be dripping wet. Luckily, I had kept some spare clothes in my car booth and managed to get a change. Yeah, my bums and back hurt a bit but it did not hamper me from doing my work but it was one smelly experience indeed.  The other incident was the encounter with the slithery critters in one of the store I went into to do my work. The furniture in the store office had collapsed and there were loads of rubbish from the flood in the store. As I took my step in to the office store, I could hear hissing sounds; stopped dead in my tracks and froze for a moment. I saw two black menacing looking snakes at the collapsed table and I quickly took my foot off some rubbish and retreated very  very slowly. When I was safely out of the store,  I informed the owner of the situation and his workers killed the two snakes after flushing it out from their hideout. Like I said, it was His divine mercy that I am saved! What a relief!

One powerful lesson I learned from all these experience is that if you screw up Mother Nature big time, you would face the wrath of Mother Nature BIG TIME too. I guess, some greedy people ( including the government, politicians, government officials, local authorities, local leaders, powerful & greedy contractors and the general public ) just don't learn their lesson well enough or purposely refused to learn or too arrogant to learn their lesson. Messed up big time and be prepared to be messed up BIG TIME by good ol' Mother Nature! Be forewarned........