The wisdom of 'kuroyon poh' (acceptance)

I guess in many culture there is a concept that is equivalent to the Dusun's kuroyon poh (acceptance). Although it sounds lame, I learned yesterday that there is a wisdom in it.

Well, being pick-pocketed isn't something anyone would want to happen to them. But when it happened, it happened. And of all the time, it happened to me on 23.12.2011, two days before christmas, just as I was in the high spirit of completing my christmas shopping. I can blame myself for being careless if I want to actually, because after all the years living in KL, I should know that it is a bad idea to carry so much cash and put all the cards in one place, but I did anyway. So all my cards and christmas shopping money were gone :(.

Somehow, the concept kuroyon poh surfaced and kept me sane. I guess underlying that is the knowing that there are things that you just cannot change, thus the best thing you could do is to accept them. By doing that, you feel better, knowing that there was nothing you could do to change it now. (and in my case, it would be once bitten twice shy!) Of course the situation is not fun at all but at least I'm not making it worst by whining and regretting. And I still intend to have a good christmas despite that. Who knows next year I might get better luck?

Wherever you are, have yourselves a very merry holiday, whether or not you celebrate christmas :)

A session with Langkawit

Langkawit is a household name in Sabah, at least among the Kadazan/Dusun people. A delightful cartoonist, his cartoons are loved by many including yours truly.

Yesterday I had the chance to finally meet him in person, and it was extra special because he came as a guest teacher in the Kadazandusun class we offer to UMS staff. It was my turn to teach yesterday, so I took the chance to promote his coming to my colleagues, the Langkawit fan clubbers.

So Langkawit came and we had him draw cartoons on the white board for 30 minutes. In line with our theme, 'emotion words', he cleverly drew scenes that involved emotional outbursts and that led to the learning of some very good verbs. The cartoons were just wonderful I didn't have the heart to rub them off the board after the session was over. Next week someone is going to have a pleasant surprise (hopefully!) when they walk in the classroom...

At the end of the session, we had an autograph session. And I am now a proud owner of two latest Langkawit comic books, autographed, naturally!