Gift of life: Have you donated blood before?

Gift of life: Have you donated blood before?

blood bags on white background
Photo by Charlie-Helen Robinson on Pexels.com

That year, I took a group of nursing students to a blood bank as part of haematology clinical experience. Most of them decided to donate blood that morning. I did, too, upon their persuasion.

I was ashamed to admit that it was my first time. But it was a satisfying experience to have contributed to a gift of life!

Have you donated blood before? Do you even know what blood group you belong to, in case of an emergency?

hand holding cardboard sign at protest
Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding on Pexels.com

Quote:-

Donating one unit of blood may save the lives of up to three people. – the American Red Cross.

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Merging cultures, the beauty in diversity

Merging cultures, the beauty in diversity

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“I want four packets ‘nasi lemak’.

More ‘chilli and sambal please’!”

“It’s very, very ‘hot’, boy! Lu boleh tahan chilli? (you can stand the chilli?)”

“Bolih, Mak Cik, no problem!”

***

Some pick with chopsticks

some with fork and spoon

or better still, with fingers

Oh, a versatile tool at hand,

only that, the food would slip

through my fingers

before they reach my mouth!

*****

Some are good in arts,

some in workman skills,

some have head for figures

some for business and economy.

*****

Over time, with adaptation

and enculturation

leading to a new cultural synthesis

in languages, pronounciations,

fashions, lifestyles, and food.

*****

Such is a beautiful melting pot

of differing elements

each has its own beauty and strengths

that one should respect and be respected.

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Quotes:

1. Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization. ~Mahatma Gandhi

2. When everyone is included, everyone wins. ~Jesse Jackson

  • Nasi Lemak, please!

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I had a dream

I had a dream (Poem)

Last night I had a dream. I went bowling. I had many strikes and spares! Then the first thing I read this morning was ‘no dream‘! Here is my poem that echoes the song by Westlife : “I have a dream “!

I had a dream (Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com)

I had a dream, a series of ‘things’,
to carry on in blishful blinks.
If you see the wonders, of a fairy tale,
if you see the devils, in the darkness spell.
I believe in angels, that protect us in the realm of a dream,
‘cos in a dream, a dream’s a dream…

-Serena Chen@TPTan, 23 June 2021

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Students and their emotional baggage.

Students and their emotional baggage.

group of people wearing face mask
Young students and their emotional baggage (Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com)

I have taught diploma nursing students as well as degree and working nurses. The former group seems to have more unresolved issues than the latter. I got them to write an essay about their family and discovered the amount of emotional baggage some of them carried!

“I hate my lecturer parents! They are so strict! I have to go back home before 10.00 pm, and I can’t stay overnight at my friends’ house!” Some of the classmates agreed. But some explained that her parents were strict because they loved her! Now she is a successful entrepreneur and has teenaged children herself!

“My father used to beat us at home. He died of cancer when we were young. If God can give me my father back, I don’t mind being beaten a thousand times every day!” This girl got the whole class crying, including me! Now she is a nurse manager. She has two young boys.

Quote:

  1. “Emotional baggage is like the dead skin of a snake. If you don’t shed it, how can you grow emotionally?” ― Khang Kijarro Nguyen
  2. “…anger helps us repel forces that are detrimental to our survival and well-being.”- Dalai Lama

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Writing on an almost-deserted Covid-19 morning

Writing on an almost-deserted Covid-19 morning

I hung the clothes at the balcony. My family had reminded me to take my daily dose of vitamin D. But the sun was just rising. And the street lights were still on. So I stood and watched on.

joyful asian woman near rope with painted fabrics
Hanging clothes (Photo by Teona Swift on Pexels.com)

A lonely bus passed by. A lonely masked passenger slept against the window. She probably could not work from home.

I heard an approaching conversation blocked by the top of a tree. It seemed loud on a silent morning. Three men and a woman walked by leisurely as if they owned the whole width of the road! They skewered to the roadside at the sound of oncoming vehicle.

I was distracted by something darting about below. Two squirrels were chasing each other playfully around the pots of plants, while the morning birds criss-crossed up above. A lonely basketball stood at a corner of the garden, untouched for many moons already!

Where are the noisy school buses and the many parent- chauffeured school children? Where are the masked traffic-minders?

And I started to write on my mobile on this Covid-19 morning.

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Covid-19 continues and the sky is crying.

Covid-19 continues and the sky is crying. (poem- a haiku)

thoughtful androgynous black woman standing near window at rainy day
the sky is crying (Photo by Klaus Nielsen on Pexels.com)

I sit in my room
the sky thunders and rumbles
as rain lashes down.

Covid-19 news
updates global statistics
of fatalities.

The sky is crying
for the sudden departures
of many loved ones.

Covid-19, the garbage truck and the reassuring smell

Covid-19, the garbage truck and the reassuring smell (poem)

*****

It’s the garbage truck

overloading garbage spills

where comes these rubbish!

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Market and food wastes

Smell of decomposing loads

yet reassuring!

photo of a dump truck across buildings
Decomposing garbage (Photo by Kelly Lacy on Pexels.com)

Humans seem to spew more rubbish than any other living beings on Earth!

Walking past a garbage truck or driving behind one, used to be an annoying experience.

Ironically, with Covid-19 around us, the smell seems tolerable and reassuring!

This is reassuring because loss of smell (anosmia) is one of the symptoms in diagnosing Covid-19!

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I will give you the moon!

I will give you the moon!

woman holding a moon
I will give you the moon! (Photo by Ruvim on Pexels.com)

Who would go

to the end of earth

to ‘get you the moon’?

Your answer:-

  1. A sweetheart
  2. A spouse
  3. A parent
  4. A child

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When ‘papa’ toilet-trains a puppy!

When ‘papa’ toilet-trains a puppy!

One day, Tommy excitedly

brought back a little puppy.

He fed him using a milk bottle.

The other siblings were equally excited

squatting around

the puppy’s lined basket.

Puppies (Photo by sergio souza on Pexels.com)

Then…

We heard him running

to the back of the house.

And he sat there,

waiting, waiting…

This went on the next few weeks.

He was toilet training the puppy.

*****

Papa was very annoyed.

“Very noisy, very noisy!

Yelping the whole night!”

Tommy had to close the store room

for the lessen the din.

Very active dog (Photo by Helena Lopes on Pexels.com)

As Max grew bigger.

He was very active.

He would go round and round

and between our legs

as soon as we entered

the gate from work.

” Move, move away,

you are such a nuisance”

Papa was so irritated!

Grown up dog (Photo by Adam Kontor on Pexels.com)

The following fifteen years

saw papa feeding Max

because Tommy often forgot!

Papa would religiously

wash down those poops

at the back of the house, too!

*****

Both Max and incidentally papa

were very well trained indeed!

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Four years degree course is not effective to provide productive workforce in manufacturing and economic development — Learnography

Four years degree course is not effective to provide productive workforce in manufacturing and economic development — Learnography

Primary school system deals with the development of the motor cortex of human brain known as motor learnography.

Secondary school system is designed to develop the proficiency of object language in the basal ganglia regions of brain known as basal learnography.

High level learning transfer occurs in university knowledge transfer system known as cerebellar learnography.

Students make brainpage in the learning process of classroom, instead of listening to teaching performance.

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Four years degree course is not effective to provide productive workforce in manufacturing and economic development — Learnography