and this is what they said..

Well, just now, I was about to do something really bizarre with the rough skin under my toes ( ok, gross!).
Seeing that my 3 heroes surrounded me, with Hafiz closing his eyes AND covering them with his finger. (ngeri sangat lah tu konon!). Lutfil and Umar seemed a bit calmer and waited...
"No, don't do that! You are going to die..!" Hafiz said out very loudly. Worried..
"What happened after I die?", I asked.
"Emm..you are going to see the dentist?!", he said, unsure. It was more like a question than a statement :-D
"No, we solat first", Umar added,  dengan berhikmah sekali. ( I guessed he meant 'solat jenazah'.)
Lutfil melopong..

PS: I wonder if we follow the sequence, it then becomes: solat jenazah and then see the dentist, next? ;-)

No-butter Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe. Kacang Je! Peanuts!!

Do you have the chocolate cake recipe that you can always, always make that instant ; the moments your little ones screaming for some good, yummy, chocolaty cake? Last night , Hafiz was a bit gloomy, ( he always have world-problems to solve) and Lutfil was not helping with his babbling that made Hafiz thinks that the world is really a NOT good place to live in . Hafiz wouldn't eat anything and you could see that he was really cross! I was thinking all day yesterday to make the butter-cream cheesecake for today's Halaqah.
Knowing that the moment I pull-out my magic mixer will get the kids excited, I resorted to make THEIR chocolate cake first. I knew THAT would make Hafiz happy. Oh boy! Happy he was. He was delighted.


He was so pleased that he eventually ate all 3 roti jala and kuah kari that everybody had left for him.!! My magic worked.


He finished his roti jala very quickly, and was already besides me in less than 5 minutes after that.
"Do you need help, Mommy?". "Yup, I sure do! Thanks Hafiz for being very helpful". He helped me pouring the oil, sugar into the mixer, throwing the egg shells into the trashcan,  and help me holding the sieve for me. We prepared the ingredients in less than 10 minutes or so, and after that is baking time which usually take around one hour @ 160 degC , using MY oven here. We have a bit problems with the oven here. It is never at the temperature as indicated, and I can never get the other knob to turn at the exact baking method I wanted it to be. The cake turn out good. Although it doesn't use butter and other fancy ingredients, it always produce the kind of chocolate cake I like. It doesn't require that powerful arm to rise the egg or sugar and butter, etc. A simple mixing and a light whisk will do. It is the simplest recipe I know for chocolate cake.


Oh, by the way, this recipe was given to me by Zira, a petite lady I knew in Block B, Riyadh. That's before we moved to the current complex. Zira left in February 2008.
Here's the recipe:


Zira's Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe.

Ingredients A : (mix and sieve)

2 Cups flour ( all-purpose)

1 Cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon soda bicarbonate

1 teaspoon baking powder

Ingredients B (stir to mix)

1 Cup oil ( corn, sunflower,whatever; I use cooking oil)

2 eggs

2 Cup sugar ( I always reduce to 1 1/2 Cups)

1 can of evaporated milk. ( I use full-cream milk, abt 400 - 450ml)

Method:

Ingredients A mixed and sieved in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir Ingredients B so they mix well.

Pour A into B. Stir to mix. No need to use that powerful mixer. The mixture is quite light and can be easily mixed with a big spoon or a hand whisk. Grease a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 baking tray (or use baking sheet),

My oven needs a lot of monitoring and I need to bake more than 60 minutes for a good 150-160degC  . But that's MY oven! Normal oven can be set to 160-170degC fo 60-70 minutes. Or do the normal "inspection". Insert a knife/fork ( eh?!) or tooth-pick , it comes out clean if the cake is ready.

There goes my "kacang je" recipe. Peanuts!!

(If I can do it, YOU can do it!)

Lutfil Oh Lutfil

In the bus going to school this morning:
Lutfil: But Mommy, I want you to come with me to the school.
Ibunya ni: Yelah, I am going to school with you lah ni..
Lutfil: But I want you to stay.
Ibunya ni: How can I stay with you at school. I am already big (jawapan sempoi je lah kan)
Lutfil: Noo, you are not biggg...you are MEDIUM...( !!?? apa punya jawapan ni..??!!)


hahaha..but of course he managed to make me laugh ..

Visit to the Late Dafullah's house

This morning, my friends and I went to see the late Dafullah's family. His house is somewhere in Mayo, about 30 minutes drive from the complex. The paved road made it easier to reach the neighbourhood which is also not too far from the main road. His family is staying with his parents, since he lost his job in August 2011. I was told that he was renting a house somewhere for SDG (sudanese pound)150 per month. I wonder how much left he had for his family after the rental paid?! 

Just one of the houses in the neighbourhood.

There were other people in the house when we arrived there; his brothers and sisters, and their children.
His wife (Habsah) looked very devastated, and his mother was wailing, and calling out his name a few times.
It was very touching when we saw his small children. They all resemble him very much. His 3 boys are Muhammad (7 yo), Muhanad (5 yo), and Abu Saufi (1.2yo).  His wife looked very young, and to think that she has to endure such a difficult life when her husband died, and she has 3 children to support..*sigh*..poor Habsah. His family live next to his parents house. Here, it is so typical for a house without a roof, there's no need for cemented/tiled floor, too. It is very arid here, so the dry climate makes it possible for them to have a roof-less and floor-less house. No or very little rain , and the hot weather; so I guess it suits them well.
But now it is winter, I wonder how they cover themselves and their children from the chill at night? It can get very cold at night, and in the morning, too. I hope the long-sleeved clothes and a few blankets given may warm them a little bit. I also noticed that his parents' house next-door has a proper roof. Perhaps that's where they stay if it rains?!? May Allah has mercy on them.

We were accompanied by Saha, a lady from the Country Office who is a local and was also our translator that morning. Some new informations gained :

1. Dafullah was al-Hafiz, MasyaAllah..
2. He was working on the ground floor, when a cement container hit his shoulder and ripped his chest,
    tearing his heart. He died on the spot.
3. Due to the condition of the body, doctors didn't let his wife to see it.
4. He called his wife in the afternoon, saying that he passed some amount of money through a friend for his
   wife. But he won't be back that afternoon, because the site was far from home. Instead, he will be back  
   that night, and he promised to bring his sick wife to the clinic that night when he comes back. He never   
   made it, as we all know..
5. When he was working in the complex, he also did other jobs after the working hours in the 
    complex.
6. He was supposed to report duty in the complex. The new management finaly called back some of the
    previous workers from the former company. He just had to finish a few more days in the site, before 
    coming back to the complex.
7. He was paid SDG20 daily for the work in the construction site. That's about USD7.50 per day :(

We passed her some amount of money collected amongst our community members, and some of us also brought biscuits, cakes, drinks, and gently used clothes for the wife and the children.

 Muhammad, Dafullah's eldest son (7yo)

 The hostesses and their guests. The guy in jalabiya is Dafullah's father and his mom is the one in black/white stting down, next to the lady in green. All the other ladies sitting on the mat are Dafullah's sisters. 

 Seen here is Dafullah's brother, Mustapha (looking to his right) and Hameed, a general worker in the complex who is also Dafullah's friend.

The entrance gate to Dafullah's parents house.

Habsah, the late Dafullah's wife.

We had the opportunity to talk to his brother Mustapha, who despite hasn't finished his high school education, speaks very good english. One lady member added, "American slang lagi" :-)
Apparently, he loves reading and reads a lot! He also used to attend seminars and workshop for creative writings, English courses offered by some institution around Khartoum, and he is inspired to be a good writer himself. That also explains why Dafullah's English was also good ,despite him being a general worker. If you remember well, I also mentioned that he speaks a bit of Bahasa Malaysia , too! I guess, if you are a learned person, it really shows. Perhaps, Dafullah himself is someone who likes to learn. There are people who let lessons of their life pass them by and do nothing. There are people like Dafullah and his brother who learn from things happening around them, take every chances to grasp knowledge and let experiences enrich their lives.
I hope his children would be like their Dad and Uncle Mustapha. I hope their wisdoms are passed along in the family. I alsohpe whtever small contribution we made that day would help them in whatever ways possible. I pray that Allah makes it easier for them to live their life and that Allah guides them ( and us) always. May Allah bless us all.

In remembrance of Dafullah...

This post is especially dedicated to Mr Dafullah, a man I knew for only 3 years , or so.

You see, if you have not known him, or you have never met him, that's it. You'll never meet him, you'll never get to know him. He's dead. He passed away last Thursday (10th Nov 2011). He fell off a building on which he was working on. It was a sad news, indeed.
I just got the news through our warden this morning, saying that Dafullah passed away ,and that the Welfare Committee would go to his house this Sunday. I cried really really hard reading the mesage. Called my DH and cried again. The images of him kept pouring in, and I could still see his smiling and his sense of relief, a great relief whenever he got his payment after he's done doing something for us. I knew he really needed that money, he had a family; a wife and 3 children. I remembered him telling me his wife delivered a baby last year. That baby must be around 1 year old by now. I feel sad for his family. For his wife. To hear that you husband died falling off a building, when he just said good-bye that morning; maybe with a kiss and a warm hug, promising to return that afternoon. I cried again when I tried to imagine how she'd reacted to the shocking news. How heavy and heartbreaking she must have felt when she looked into her childrens' eyes. How did she tell the children?

Dafullah was nobody special. He's just a general worker, a position that nobody really care if it hadn't existed in our residence complex. You would just need him to do all the 'general' thing. You know, helped carry the tables, chairs, help with all the not-so-important stuffs around the complex. His position and the things he did didn't need any special skills or certification. Maybe that's why he lost his job. The company who hired him needed to cut cost, and Dafullah and several others were simply terminated. They didn't need him anymore. I knew about him losing his job after I came back from my summer vacation in July 2011.
I bumped into him, and he said that he's been terminated, meaning he's no longer working in our complex. He told me that he's looking for a job,and that if I ever needed him to do work around the house, I could still call him. I knew that he was desperately needed some money to support his family. I was thinking of what chores around the house that I could offer him to do. Unfortunately, we were quite mobile this time around  and I didn't really have time to sort out things. Although DH kept telling me to call Dafullah to help sort the stuffs we have in the store, I didn't manage to call him. I procrastinated. I bumped into him several time in Khartoum though. Once, I was in the van coming back from school at noon, and the driver said that he wanted to stop to say 'Hi' to 2 friends he saw on the street. When the van stopped I saw the 2 guys, and one of them was Dafullah. He was looking for a job. He must have found a job in a construction site somewhere. Yeah, it would be easier to get a job there. They don't need qualification. They just need your gut and your willingness. And Dafullah needed money. Desperately..


You see, Dafullah always gave his brightest smile when he sees you. I also think that's he's brilliant. He could speak a little bit Bahasa Malaysia, and he kept learning new words day by day. That's cool for someone who hadn't had a formal education ,not even in his own language. I remembered asking him to help with our store, rearranging the bottle, cans and what nots, washed carpets. I knew of other madams who asked him to hang the curtains, deliver food to the office, bring in the chairs and tables for the bazaar, etc. He'd do anything you asked him to. Besides money, I used to give him clothes, cutleries, diapers, all the dry food/canned food. Also electrical appliances;-). He accepted them generously. You know, with a wide smile, and a very happy look. The next day, he would tell you that his wife was overjoyed with all the gifts. To know that you are a part of someone's happiness, is a joy, too.


Now, Allahyarham Dafullah, may Allah has mercy on your soul. May Allah rewards you for all the good things you have done for us. Semoga Allah merahmati kamu. Semoga Allah melimpahkan rahmatNya ke atas keluarga kamu,dan melindungi mereka. Semoga Allah melimpahkan belas dan meringankan bebanan yang ditanggung oleh mereka. Amin.


Selamat jalan Dafullah, semoga kita ketemu lagi..