Blessing in Disguise

Honestly, this is a long self reflection. :)

It's Eid Adha today. Yeay, although I am not in Malaysia, today is a day celebrated by Muslim all over the world, of course in Czech as well. I am not sure if this is my last Eid Adha here, so, lets record memories on it. 

Flying over Brno, Czech.

Sacrifices. 

That's what Eid Adha is about. Bukan sekadar korbankan binatang ternakan dan makan atau sedekah pada orang lain, it's way beyond that. Sacrifices within ourselves.

I still remember a good point in the book The Other Side of The Coin. The preface itself carries many reflections to me. The coin has 2 sides and usually different values of coins have different sides. It means, there at least 2 ways to view the coin, let along the rest of coins with other values. The point is, we need to view life in variety of perspectives. That's what Aiman Azlan is saying.

Alhamdulillah, I told you before that I've learned so much during last summer break. About life. Everything was far beyond my expectation of how my summer break would be. It was totally not going as what I planned. But, there was something in it.

Hospitals

My brother was admitted to the hospital for 33 days. At least 3 different hospitals, transferred in between. Even though I am a medical student, haha I know it's not a good value for me, but I had no idea that I would be in the hospitals for at least half of holidays. Seriously. But, Allah's plan was beautiful enough to be grateful with.

1. I was playing (maybe) an important role not only as a medical student, but as a daughter, a younger sister, a cousin, a niece, an aunt etc. Basically, I spent most of the time with my family.

Before the incident, I was already checking few flight tickets for Asia trips, have a schedule everyday here and there, plans everywhere. I just could not ignore the adventure inside of me. But, since the hospitalization, I realised I was not being a good daughter. I was not at home for at least half of my age. I was just not with them, physically, for most of my life. I just feel like, the incident was the moment Allah wanted me to cover up all the time that I should have spent with them. 

I am actually relieved this happened when I was at home. Like, I could not imagine my mum need to drive at midnight to Ipoh, alone. She can do it, I believe. But, parents are getting older, they are getting tired and sleepy easily.

Had chance to watch football match with my cousins, aunt, uncle. 

Guess what, within the 33 days, I had many chances to meet family members whom I haven't meet for ages!

2. I learned more about hospitals in Malaysia, the system, the working experience.

Maybe not much from health workers' points of view, but this time as a family member.

I do love how the doctors, nurses care so much for the patients. It is a bit different than in Czech. Both are good, no worries. A scenario that is not common in Czech but yes in Malaysia, at least one family member is allowed to stay with the patient - which is good as long as the family member do not interrupt the doctors' and nurses' work (in a bad way).

There are many big wards in hospitals in Malaysia - you can simply see a lot of patients with basically different stories. But, in Czech, there are en suite rooms (room with a bathroom + toilet) with 2-4 patients in each of them. So, the patient's room is the only place where family members can linger around. And I have never seen so many visitors in Czech compared to Malaysia - in which this has the pros and cons. Haha.

I'm not sure if Czech hospitals have this system. :) Will find out soon.

Maybe I should stop here, the systems are a bit different, working life is different as well. Maybe I will describe more when I start to work later. I will keep the points I have now as draft for a while. 

3. I did my revision.

Haha, studying during the holidays is a hard thing to do. Maybe that was my style when I was younger. But, I am not sure it's a good change or not, but growing up, I feel like I have more things to think and care about other than academic books. Not to say education is not important, but it is how we see the education itself.

Friendship, relationship, human beings.

To see the world and watch people, these activities can educate ourselves as well, I'm telling you.

Back to the revision. So, I basically need to recall, check my notes online and offline to figure out why the doctors do like this and that. Why this medications and why not that. I read again about few procedures to understand better and try to simplify into Malay words to explain to my family. Explaining medical terms are not easy unless we understand it. I found that to give examples from life were helpful. For example, in high blood pressure, most of the time it is because cholesterol plaque has built up within the wall of vessels. This makes the lumen becomes smaller and the pressure of blood flowing increases.

Same goes to the water rubber pipe that we use to wash cars. People tend to close half of the pipe with their thumbs, right? Because they want a faster flow of water. That's it - smaller area, higher pressure. 

4. I had memorable days with many new people in my life.

Still remember how many times I've shared about an aunt whom I met at the mosque beside Hospital Ipoh? You can check the post HERE. She always share something with me and my mum. We were like regular people at the mosque during that time. Sometimes, we eat together, listen to tazkirah together, take wudu'  as well. She is a very nice lady.

I didn't have the chance to properly say goodbye to her. InsyAllah I will keep praying she will be in good condition.

Meanwhile, I've met 2 awesome Instagrammers, Kak Mulan and Ramadhan. We have contacting each other for a while. For Eid Fitri, we even planned for an 'open house'. And I was the one who cancel it. I don't realise when actually we get closer (maybe not yet close haha). But other than my family and good friends (I'm sure you know who you are :D), these guys were taking a good part within the stressful moments. They were not there with me physically, but sudden Whatsapp messages sometimes, made my day. With good advice, good comfort, good lame jokes. Thanks guys.

And the funny thing was, our first meeting was at Hospital Serdang. Haha. I am glad that the meeting was not awkward, alhamdulillah. I am a quiet person, actually. :D

Ramadhan, Kak Mulan and me. 

5. It's true that when you are busy, you manage your time better.

Since our life rotated between the hospital and the house, quite few tasks get postponed and delayed. There were few things I need to do within the working hours - to renew my license, to replace old Maybank ATM card, bank transaction yada yada. It was hard to find time to do alone, but alhamdulillah everything went well. I can't burden my parents with these small things.

I'm thankful that at least my parents believe I can survived on my own. I really understand they have many things to think about especially school (UPSR was just around the corner at that time). I respect them for how hard they tried to work in their best conditions despite being tired travelling back and forth.

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Okayy, that's all about my reflection on this day. :D

We encounter something new everyday. Each day will never be the same. And that makes our life more beautiful and meaningful :) All in all, my summer break was beautiful, in a different way. Alhamdulillah.

Salam Eid Adha, everyone.

September 2016 Photo A Day Challenge #12 - Pretty

Hradec Kralove, Czech

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