Discrete Travel Plan

During the last MLM class, those who had come back from the EFCC Conference 2009 in Penang blessed us with a lot of refreshing sharing. I wished I had joined them but I had been scheduled to be in Japan.

Besides my coordinator and the administrative staff, I had personally told about my trip to only three colleagues and three Calvarites, who were directly related to me in my job or my duty of the ministry at CLA, before my flight. It was not my usual practice to inform my surroundings in advance when I travelled outstation or overseas, let alone this season of economic downturn and H1N1 flu pandemic.

Since the semester break had started, some colleagues had been asking me if I would spend my holidays in France again. Less than ten days before my departure, a caring elderly lady told me she had failed to dissuade another sister from flying to Hong Kong where the outbreak of the disease was in the TV news everyday. I also learned that my colleague AG had cancelled four air tickets to Europe after the nagging of her mother-in-law. To avoid these troubles of explaining why I was going to Japan by all means despite the fact that the exchange rate of the Yen to Ringgit was very high and hundreds of domestic infection cases were confirmed in the Archipelago, I preferred to remain as discrete as possible.

The reason of my trip to this country was simply because of my turn to visit Ah Yu's family. Two years ago, it was Ping who had first seen the newly born nephew with Mum and Seng. As God always chooses the right time for me to reach out to the right people, I was also carrying a mission to Japan this time.

When I was filling in the health declaration form for the Japan Ministry of Health, there was a question "Did you have such a symptom as fever or coughing within the past ten days before today?". Having just recovered from a cough about two weeks earlier, I did not have to struggle to give an honest answer and no further medical check-up was imposed to me. Since I returned to Malaysia this Sunday, I do not carry any obvious symptoms of the Influenza A. I thank God for that.

The sister who had stayed in Hong Kong for a month was having a slight flu upon her arrival at KLIA. Thus, she was quarantined at the hospital and missed to attend the same conference. Later, she was cleared of being affected by the H1N1 virus. It became a story to amuse us during the MLM class.

Next year, I will try to make myself available for the EFCC Conference 2010, and the mouth-watering food in Penang!