LOST AND FOUND IN DUBLIN

The Irish Daily Mail reported that a humbolt penguin was stolen from the Dublin
zoo.
The flightless 10-year-old Kelli suffered the stress of the kidnap ordeal and disgusted zookeepers swore that the delicate bird could have died from the trauma and her other half could have wasted his life pining away for her as well.

Penguin team leader Eddie O’ Brien said: “These birds get stressed very easily when taken out of their environment. They don’t react well and it could easily have caused a heart attack.” The penguin was traumatised after it was stuffed into a bag and abandoned on a busy street. In human terms, that spells what culture shock is.

I was reading my daughter’s journal and saw first-hand what culture shock is. Everything here in Ireland is so different from Subang Jaya .
The active and socially independent teen who jumped from the commuter train to the bus, suddenly finding that she has lost her “wheels”, is a dramatic change.

When before she could go with friends to watch Knight and Day, now she has to beg her parents to bring her for Eclipse. Not only that, a cinema ticket for Tw il ig ht in Malaysia would cost RM6 while a ticket here would cost E10 (RM41) .

So she penned the following lines in her journal: “I miss Malaysia. I miss going out for walks not worrying how cold it is. I miss taking a cold bath on a hot day. I miss enjoying a nice bowl of cendol with friends. I miss saying, ‘photos will be on Facebook! Will tag you soon’. I miss calling anyone whenever I like. But then... I guess this is what God has planned for me.” And that was for the first week.
By the second week, things looked perkier. She registered for a drama workshop and youth activities at the local church.

A significant turning point was when we visited the Saturday farmer s’ market and the whiff of spicy Malaysian food changed all pers p e c t i ve .

What is a Malaysian without spicy food? Where we stay, finding a Malaysian is as scarce as hen’s teeth and when we saw the fishmonger at the market who bore some resemblance to a Malaysian, I asked, “Are you Malaysian?” He smiled and said coyly: “No, I’m Filipino, but we are near each othe r. ” After a whole week of mashed potatoes and chips, we were starting to worry about maintaining our f igures.
So a visit to the Asian supermarket was in line and there they were — rows and rows of Asian products ranging from jackfruit chips from Vietnam to Brahim’s sambal tumis paste from Malaysia.

At the vegetable section under a huge display tag “Chinese vegetab le s”, we saw ladies’ finger s, k a il a n , siew pak choy, angled loofah and bean sprouts.

My favourite Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce and Popo dark soya sauce were all there. We screamed in delight as we had finally found the centre of our being. Small things m at t e r.

Audrey will start school in September. I think of the hundreds of Malaysian students who will be coming to Dublin to study for the first time in September. Away from home and from loved ones, how will they fare? The first challenge will be the weather. Then comes the people and the food. The Irish are friendly people but then again it would certainly take a lot of resolve to get started, adapt and mingle. I fear many will cry buckets of tears as they think of home 10, 880 km aw ay.

So back to the humbolt penguin that was found and returned safely to the zoo. It was bundled up from a safe and familiar environment and thrust into the strange unknown.

But the beauty of it is that it sur vived.