1 year since the passing

Keeping Me Safe, Babagon, St.Peter & St.Paul

Dawn breaks, already these ladies:Anne, Amy,and Evelyn are on their way to the village chapel, crossing the wobbly suspended bridge while scratching their mosquito bitten skin. Muddy paths, steep hills, I salute you ladies, and the view is worse at night time. The chapel was a good 15 minutes walk from their homestay, probably 20-30 minutes in the rain..

Nothing I can describe about the sceneries here, just the normal fallen piece of

heaven on earth. The morning mist, the river, the hills,

the buffaloes, the people, not to mention the riped fruits that are everywhere, I had a taste of Babagon's own pineapple, man those things are good. Babagon is one of those forgotten camping spots, that no one wants to mention anymore, paradise right on our own backyard. I sure hope people will forget about this place, so that I can have it all to myself, hehe.

Anne, Amy and Evelyn are those ordinary individuals who are doing extraordinary things for others. In this case, the young generation of Babagon, the three of them came to teach the kids

in this part of Penampang about "keeping me safe".

I won't go into details about this Camp that The Good Shepherd Sisters are organizing, for that you need to find out yourselves thru anne, look her up in facebook, its very easy. Or you can always drop by at the Youth Prep Centre, in Alamesra, the centre is just below the Sabah

Credit Corporation office. There you can get all the infos you need.

What I can say about these events: most of the participants will not go home empty handed, or how the kadazan saying "balik rumah barait penuh" with the same meaning. Barait or in some parts of Sabah Kadazans call Wakid are 'backpacks' made of fine woven rattan. abit of cultural info for you guys, just in case.

The generation of today are developing fast, whether if it towards positivity or negativity, thats another story, Truth is, our younger bros and sis are being fed with information that most of the time are misleading.

Dangerous informations that can turn their lives upside down.. Like it or not, today, it's okay to have sex before getting married, today it's okay to have abortions done. Today, raping children is 'normal'...

I hope those statement disturbed you. If they did, do something...

The kids playing some of their games...

Are you with me?

This is my Mary Anne, in front of the youths... She works in Pusat Kebajikan Good Shepherd. Many people would ask her this question when she tells them where she works "do you get paid Anne?" and they always have this "Oh, you poor thing." look on their faces. On behalf of my fiancée, YES she does get paid, it's what people call 'a job', in case anyone out there forgot.

Good Shepherd is doing sooo many good stuff for all the people some you people out there consider as 'kampungan'. By helping these people, Anne has learned many things about them, how they live, what they eat, how they move around...

After listening to Anne's stories bout the people in the rural area, I have a new found respect for these Kampung folks, and until now, I always wished I had their lives. And sometimes I wished that I work in Good Shepherd for a change, it's like a dream job that I could never get.

It's sad to know that Anne does not get the support that she needs from even the closest people around her, "Geng, buka mata sikit! She is doing the work that is needed to be done!". I personally am proud of her, I'm not saying this because this lady here is my future wife. I'm saying all this because it's true. only a handful of human beings out there cares for other people, it's good to know that Anne is one of them. Anne, if your reading this, I'm with you all the flippin way, who cares what people think!

I support the movement of the Good Shepherd Sisters, come join me...

The Bandung Proposal

Last year, me and a few friends went for a trip in Bandung, Indonesia. I'd post pictures of the trip, but most of you have probably seen the site in Bandung, so I guess one picture of us would be enough, besides you can see the pictures in my facebook account.

That's Anne by the way, she's my fiance. The picture was taken after we left the church where we went to celebrate The Eucharist that Sunday morning.

About a month before the trip to Bandung, I had this foot reflexology session with Derek Chong, the youth coordinator of Sacred Heart Cathedral. Derek loves his foot massage, and I thought it was a good idea that I got one myself. little did I know that this one hour session would be the longest, most painful, most tortured one hour of my life.

Derek was the first victim, I meant patient. He made it seemed so fun, chit-chatting with me as the blind masseuse rubbed his oily feet. Derek asked me a question

"can you imagine a life without Anne?"

That got me realizing that Anne has been always there for me. She laughs at my stupid jokes, she will always be the one who will give very good advice when I'm dealing with my daily problems. and so much more, for Derek to asked me that question, the guys gave me this revolutionary vision and that I must do something with that state of relationship that we currently have. If not, there will be no more Anne.

I'm a very visual person, for me to imagine the "Anne-less" life was easy, but when I do see the that thought, it's very lonely, and painful, so painful the foot reflexology we had would seem like a joke.

The thought remained in my head for a few weeks, and every time I get to meet Anne, I asked myself "If she's not here today, how would the day be?"
The more I think about it, there more "nuts" I became. Till one day I decided to pop the big question to Anne, but first, I had to get myself a ring.

Picking up jewelery is really not my specialty, so for that occasion I brought along with me Brenda, Mark and Jill. Jill had no idea where we were going when we picked her up from her campus, she stopped breathing for a few seconds when all of us walked into a "kedai emas" "jewelery shop", She realized I was going to pop the big question.

After a few days of searching, finally we got the perfect ring for "The Proposal".

I didn't have a clue what kind of diamond was on it, what carat, what clarity,what market value..... all that was important to me was it was the right size, and it is shiny. So with that, I came, I saw, I paid... Then I went, hoping that I will Conquer.

So the Big day came, we were celebrating mass in this cathedral called Katedral Santo Martinus, which was actually the first cathedral in Bandung, Indonesia. I want to tell you how great mass was there, but we can do that in another time.

As the priest gave the final blessings, my heart was pumping like mad, I was more nervous than anyone in the pews, I had two photographers ready to document the event: Rayner and Cynthia, both armed with their cameras.

I needed a pick-up line to start the momentum, trying to come up with a line for a chick to go out with you would be hard but pick-up lines for a proposal is impossible. no one in the right mind can come up with sweet words in a matter on minutes. It's a good thing I'm not in the right mind. And also the priest was giving a homily about the movie that was currently showing in the cinemas around town, 2012.

He asked the congregation "What would you do if you know the world was going to end?"

So, I borrowed those lines from the priest,I waited for mass to finish, I heaved a great amount of oxygen, I grabbed Anne's hands, marched to the altar, Anne thought we were going to just take pictures at the altar, she didn't have any idea what was going to happen in the next few seconds.

At last we were at the altar (at the side to be exact, there were tourist taking pictures at the front of it) The walked to the altar took a thousand years. I turned to Anne and repeated what the priest asked a few minutes ago, "Sayang, what would you do If you know the world was going to end?".

She replied "Go home lah". It wasn't the answer that I was expecting, I thought she'd say something like "I pray that we'll be together when we die." Then again any answer would do I really didn't mind what she was going to say, then came then next question, the big one.

I got down on one knee, held her hands in mind, I asked "Mary Anne K Baltazar, if I knew when the world will end, I only want to know one thing from you...." By now she knew what was I up to. So, she looked at me and whispered,

"Egn, not here, there're lotsa people around looking at us!"

Again, not the answer I was looking for, but the thing is, I haven't asked the question yet. that was it, I couldn't wait any longer.."Anne, would you marry me?"

Rayner and Cynthia were clicking cameras by then, and I was trying my best to have a good post for them, so hard, that I didn't even heard that Anne actually said "yes". Foolishly I asked the second time. she answered

"Egn, you didn't hear what I said, I said yes bah!" oops..

So there, we're now officially engaged.ever since that day, I've been appreciating every moment that I have with her.

Yes, we fight...alot. but it doesn't mean that we can't work things out, I believe that both of us are still in the process of maturing. If you asked me whether we are ready for this, I'd say we'll never ever be ready for this if we don't face it head on. We all need to be a bit crazy to live life.

Keep me in your prayers as I keep you all in mine.

Till then...