Journal Reflection 14:: Nasi Ayam Hainan::

Assalamualaikum. How are you? We hope that all of you are in pink health.

Today, i (Farah) want to share with you about eating Nasi Ayam Hainan. 
This is very interesting because before this I only eat Nasi Ayam Hainan cooked by Malay and serve with Malay ways.
For your information on 30th April i have my lunch with my friends at Ampang. My roommate Sis Safiah introduced me a place that serve Nasi Ayam Hainan originally Chinese recipe. Firstly, i asks her is the shop got its Halal Certificate. She said yes. Alhamdulillah. Besides, the workers are Muslim.

What is Nasi Ayam Hainan look like here?

There are two types of chicken that you can order
1. Steam chicken 
2. Roasted chicken
Therefore, the 4 of us chose Steam chicken. Seriously, it is different that the roasted.
 In addition, the Nasi Ayam Hainan is served with Soup, Cucumber, Bean Sprout, Ginger (blended), Soy Sauce, Chili. See the bean sprout make it different. However, i don't really like bean sprout. Hee. 
Then, i ordered Air tebu Cina (Chinese Sugar Cane) for drink. 
Hmmm....well the drink taste like Air Mata Kucing or Air Kundur. Hehe. 
Maybe it is something that is not really a  Chinese Sugar Cane...may a combination of Air Mata Kucing and Air Kundur perhaps.

Maybe i can search for the recipe and do it myself at home.
So my ladies and he-man friends can try it. 
Hehe
^_^

That's all from me
Adios! 




Taken from Mr Google (not the same with my experience)


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Journal Reflection 13 ::Treasure Hunt::

Today, 6th May 2012 I  went to Bukit Cerakah,Shah Alam. I am the participant of Treasure Hunt.This program was conducted by Personal Growth Group (PGG) which is one of the club under Counseling Services Centre. In this program there are 3 international students which are 2 brothers from Yemen and a Somalian brother.It is very  interesting when dealing with them. From my observation  during the program,I can see that the two  brothers are very cool and energetic.They were very  friendly with Malaysian students and never give up in this programs.

One brother from Yemen called Ayad, like to ask my group members about Malay culture and language.He told  us that he have learned 400 Malay words and sometimes he cannot remembered all the words that he have learned. However, he ask us to correct his spelling when speak Malay.







The other brother named Mansur  also from Yemen and he likes to mix with Malaysian people and learned about our culture. Since he became the member of PGG's club, he took this  opportunity to know Malaysian very well and he also tried to the get as much he can tor build networking with Malaysian students. He also respect Malaysian culture and  he wish to visit our house during Eidul Fitri.

However,I did not have many chance to talk  with Somalian brother because of time consuming. The Somalian brother  looks steady and cool with his group members. He is enjoying today's activity.


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Immersion Project 4 : Visiting Batu Caves Temple::

Goals:
  1. To know about Batu Caves temple
  2.  To know the activities held in the temple


Activities :
  1.        Observation
  2.        Interview

On, 2nd May 2012 our group have visited Batu Caves Temple. Firstly, Farah, Farihah, Ina and Saidah gather at Hafsa’s bus stop waiting for Nik to pick us. After that we go to the temple.  All this while we just past the temple but today we are visiting it.

All of us are very curious about the temple. This is because when we past the road we just see the big statue of Lord Murugan. Today we have discovered there are a lot of statues located at the Batu Caves Temple.

Farihah, Ina and I (Farah) take the challenge to climb up 272 steps high to the cave. While we are climbing, the monkeys also climb. Hehe. Although it is 10 o’clock we saw a lot of tourists there. We climb up until we reach the cave. We actually try to communicate with the Sami; however he refuses to give the cooperation (he seems did not fluent in Malay or English).  He asks us to go in the cave to see the officer. While we were there, the officer thinks that we want to give donation to the temple. Actually we ask for information about the temple.  Now we understand that, although we live in the same country but still there a lot of people that cannot speak Malay. After that we climb down.

While we are climbing, actually Saidah and Nik not just waiting for us but they are interviewing the tourist and also some of the visitors. They have interview one couple. From the conversation we identify the purpose of them coming to the temple.  

Firstly, they said that this is the first step for them before opening their business. Therefore they pray to be blessed from their Lord (main purpose). In addition, they go to the sacred place because they felt strong vibration between them and the temple. Besides, it is also located near to their house.

Form our observation (before we interview them), we saw that they burn candles. So, we ask the purpose of burning the candles. The interviewee said that as they are requesting blessing and etc. from their God, so they burn the candles as symbol of giving something to their God.  

In addition, they also bring flowers to the father (sami) so that the father will pray on their behalf. After that they also will get different flower from the father. The flower they get will be place in their prayer room (at their house). Significant of choosing flowers because flower is something that is soft, have good smell and also beautiful.  

Besides that, we also have interviewed a woman. We ask her about the occasion that usually held in Batu Caves Temple. She said The Thaipusam Festival is celebrated at this temple. Thaipusam Festival is a Hindu’s Festival which is celebrated every January /February. This festival is celebrated when the Hindus commemorate Parvati, a Hindu Goddess who gave Murugan a spear to conquer Soorapadam, the evil spirit.

Our feelings during the visit:
                At first, we feel awkward because just the five of us who wear hijab. In addition, other tourists also give a long glance to us. Maybe they are wondering why are we at the temple. However, we take this as a challenge. This is because our purpose of going there is to learn and get to know other religion house of worship and their activities.

For your information this is our first experience of visiting Batu Caves Temple after 4 years of studying in Kuala Lumpur. This assignment makes us go there.hehe.  We feel glad to have the opportunity o visit this sacred place for Hindu. In addition, we are happy because we are able to climb up the stairs and also get some information from the people there. 

In conclusion, as a counselor –to-be we should prepare ourselves with knowledge about other religion, races, ethnic and etc. This is to help us well-prepared whenever we have client from different background then ours. We recommended to all of you out there to grab this kind of opportunity. It is great to know more about others. 

Lets enjoy the pictures !!

p/s: This slide show is best view when the internet is 'running fastly'.  please be patience. ^_^




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Journal reflection 12 : Nasi Kerabu


On 2nd May, we have get our lunch near Batu Caves.Then,my groupmates suggested to take our lunch at Kedai Nasi Kerabu Nara.'Nasi kerabu' was most the famous food in Kelantan.Suddenly I'm shocked when it have different kind of Nasi Kerabu  which were 'nasi kerabu ayam Nara','nasi kerabu sambal tumis' and nasi kerabu merah'..I'm from Perak and before this,I did not like these 'nasi kerabu'..However,after lunch today I felt these foods was delicious..Malay culture is majority in Malaysia however,it differ in terms of dialect,food traditional,event and so on.

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Immersion Project 3 :: Journey to Herbal Shop ::

Good evening to everyone. Today I want to share with you about our immersion project entitled Journey to Herbal Shop. That place is located at Batu Caves as we want to get the nearest place to our Mahalah. Moreover we noticed that Batu Caves in most suitable place to conduct this project because of its diversity and different races that we know it is crucial and will make easy our project.

The objectives that we want to achieve in this project is

  1. To gain knowledge about chinese herbs in detail
  2. To know the importance of the herbs that they used in traditional medical setting
  3. To get information about the culture of Chinese at that place


At first  we searched for the suitable place, we got some difficulties in getting the parking lot because of it is the centre of food stall, bank and supermarket. After half an hour, finally we found the vacant car parking (in front of a supermarket) and we need to walk away for 5 minutes to reach at the herbal shop.



Our first destination is Kedai Ubat Fu Sing. Firstly, we greet the worker. The worker is a lady. We tell her the purpose of our visit. But the lady said that she not really fluent in Malay. Furthermore, she said that we should get the information  of Chinese Herb from her boss. Then we tries to convince her but she still give the same answer to us.She also did not look so friendly stances. Besides, she said that her employers was having lunch at that time and she did not know when her boss will come back. We feel very disappointed because we saw her boss at the back of the shop. However, we can't force others to cooperate if they refuse right? Maybe they have their own reason.

After waiting for several time, we decided to find another place.We move to the next shop with a new hope that they will cooperate with us.



Since Chinese population is the majority race in this place, we did not get so much difficulties in finding another shop that offering the traditional chinese herbs. When move to the next place, after introducing ourselves as IIUM students, the taukeh refused to share with us about this information. He gave excuses that he cannot speak Malay fluently and if among us can speak Mandarin, he will deal with us. We tried to persuade him and told him that this is our important project that we need to finish but he still reluctant. Again, we could not get this information.

Cooperation is not there, so it's hard for us to continue with our purpose. We can understand that it is difficult for us if we interrupt their business. Even though there is no customers at that time, yet nobody wants to entertain us...pity us!



We might  feel dissapointed, but we're can still smile  :)

What  experiences that we got  today?


Ermm,  actually  even  though  they are  not  give full  cooperation  with us, here we understand  that people  have different values and  belief  that they  may  hold  since  long time ago. We know  that  perhaps there are concrete  reasons  why they are reluctant to share with us about the information.
In our opinion,  language barrier is the primary factor of this issue.Maybe the owner of Chinese Herb refuse to give the cooperation because the language barrier. They may feel difficult if they have to translate the Chinese term to Malay or English. In addition, people from different place might have different perception of each other.

But never mind. Our journey will not stop here. It is still  long that we must walk until the end.

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Journal Reflection 11::Multiculturalism?::

Do you think that Malaysian people are engaged in different festival that are contradicting with their belief and religion?

For example, a Malay people visit Indian family during Deepavali.
Or a Chinese came to Malay family during Hari Raya.
Are this situation common in our society?

Some of us, Malay people for example, when they went to some ceremony that involving different races, they will feel weird and awkward. Why? Because they might think,

'Oh, that food must be cooked by non-muslim. They must put pork at that food'
'I feel awkward with the food that I ate just now. Is it halal or not?'
'Rather than I go to this ceremony, better I stay at home. At least I did not waste my time  at there'
'Oh  my God. What happen? Why they must worship that thing during open house? Annoying!'

Look. Some of us still have our own stigma about this. For us, it is better to befriend with the same race because we share the same value and norms rather than knowing people with different race and religion even though they live beside our house. Don't you think that it is shameful for us as Muslim?

Is there any surah that our God told us not to approach them or befriend with them?

Of course the answer is NO.

If we look at our surrounding outside, open up our mind regarding this, we will realize that actually we are too selfish and not practing 'weness' in our life. Can you imagine that in this world that there is people who will not help one person from his badly injured because of different races? Do you think that it is impossible to happen nowadays?

I can see that currently whenever I go to everywhere; shopping complex, lake or garden, I wills see the same situation; Malay only with Malay, Chinese is only with their Chinese friends, Indians with their friends as well. So, where is the cultural diversity here?

You got the answer. I am sure of that.

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Immersion Project 2- Ummatic week festival

On  12th March  2012, IUM Rector Prof. Dato' Sri Dr. Zaleha Kamaruddin launched the Ummatic Week 2012 at Cultural Activity Centre, IIUM. A week long programme displayed the diversity and uniqueness of cultures at the University. The programme highlighted the cultures of various countries represented in IIUM such as those from Africa .such as Morocco , the Middle East and Asia including Malaysia. 


Our mission  to visit this festival is 

  1. To get  know  each others  by acknowledging  various  Islamic culture throughout  the  world. 
  2. To  go deeper   the history of each country and  understand their  norms  and  values.
  3. To gain  experiences  through the interaction  with  the students representatives for each  country  (booth)
Here,  we took some  photos   with them.






We went  from  one booth to another  booth just to  gather  as  many  info  as  we  can. Each representative that  we  met  proudly  told us  about their  country including their cultures and norms  as well. They did not hesitate to give  us their traditional  clothes  to be wore as to capture it as personal memory. 

You know, if  there is  no  such  event  like this, until now we will never get this useful info that is vital for us as a future counselor. Sometimes when we listened to their explanation regarding their views and perception towards their own country, our mind would be comprehend further about this opinion. For instances, when we visit Maldives booth, we discover that all people from that country are 100 percent muslim. And the representative from the country told us that their capital city is as big as UIA only. What a surprise! It is such as a interesting fact that we knew about this!

After visiting almost all the booth, finally we discover that in this world, actually there are so so so many races that have their own unique values like Malaysia, and perhaps more than that. Exciting, happy and thankful are our recent feeling that we got on that day. We knew that through this experience we will get many information that we think are useful for our career as counselors as we will deal with so many races instead of Malay.



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Journal Reflection 10: What is LGBT?::

What  is  LGBT?

Here, we took this definition from  wikipedia.




''LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the community in question felt did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred. The initialism has become mainstream as a self-designation and has been adopted by the majority "sexuality and gender identity-based" community centers and media in the United States and some other English-speaking countries.
The term LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of "sexuality and gender identity-based cultures" and is sometimes used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or cisgender instead of exclusively to people who are homosexual, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer and are questioning their sexual identity as "LGBTQ", recorded since 1996.''





LGBT in the U.K. Military


Homosexuals in the armed forces have had a tough time for centuries, regardless of the country they have pledged to defend, whether it is the United States, China, or somewhere else. The same holds true in the United Kingdom (UK), where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) persons were prohibited from joining or serving in any branch of the armed forces until 2000.   Until that time, the UK policy was pretty direct: Allowing gays in the military would be bad for morale, making them vulnerable to blackmail or subterfuge from foreign intelligence agencies. Thus, they were banned from serving – which ignored one wee fact: that about 70 percent of the public who were polled around that time said a soldier’s sexual orientation was a non-issue. Still, the UK Ministry of Defense enforced the policy with great vigour, sacking about 60 armed services members every year. In UK military circles, transgender equality maintained the same traction it had for generations – little or none at all. But that was about to change.


SOURCES:LGBT UK

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Journal Reflection 9::Malay culture and Bumiputera::

The Malay are Malaysia's largest ethnic group, which is over half the population and the national language. With the oldest indigenous peoples they form a group called bumiputera, which translates as "sons" or "princes of the soil." Almost all Malays are Muslims, and  they practice the  same  values  although  the tradition  and  norms  are  different  due  to  their  family banckground. Traditional Malay culture centers around the kampung, or village, though today one is just as likely to find Malays in the cities.  Apart  from  Malay, we also  has  bumiputera  that we  already mentioned above.       Especially in Sabah and Sarawak,  they have their own native people who live there  long time ago.

 Here we  provide  to  you our  Malaysia  culture  that is very  unique   and  attractive.. Check  this out!







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