LIE's Heart OuT: ARK

Today I experienced myself the meaning of A.R.K (Act of Random Kindness).

I made a new friend today. A PhD student from Iraq. He came to get a little tutoring and guidance on Gas Chromatography for his analysis. I have to admit, his timing was a bit off as I need to focus on my analysis and do a lot of reading but turning him down seems to be very harsh as I always try my best to help anyone in every way I can even to those I barely knew.

The truth is, I have always been nice to international students.

First, I know how hard it was for them to blend in with the local students with all the differences. Even I myself, as a local Malaysian from Borneo found it very hard to be in the same frequency as they are just because of few redundant differences.

Secondly, I like to get to know new people and talk to them, not just for empty talks but for a real conversation. For example, like today, after we finished the ‘teaching’ session, this guy shared lot about peace he did not get from his country with me. He told me his experience when he was still back home where he has to be awake all night sitting at the front yard with a gun in his hand just so he can protect his family from any invasion. Though I don’t have a first-hand experience on that kind of situation, listening from his stories gave me goose bumps.

Plus, It’s always good to know their perspectives of culture and stuff. It helps to understand a bit why some Middle East students acted the way they did. This guy had been very open-minded in answering some of my sensitive questions. You wouldn’t believe if I say, he can speak Bahasa Malaysia very fluently, maybe better than me since my semenanjung slang is like a cat barking for food.

I was a bit worried, of course, because this ‘getting-to-know-you’ stuff seems to be a little bit extended to a stage where he insisted to buy me lunch. I said no initially, but he said he must since I was very helpful. Actually, I was more than helpful to him for a first-time meeting. I’ve had experience where people called me ‘stupid’ right to my face just because I don’t know stuff. But here I am teaching somebody the same thing I did not know about a year ago. Yes, this Iraqi fella doesn’t know a DAMN LOT of stuff about gas analysis. However, it does not qualify you to call him stupid just because you know a lot. I went through stages of learning to get to where I am now.

I know how it was in the past and because of those bitter experiences, I don’t think it’s nice to know another person facing the same humiliation as I did. So to celebrate my kindness to that person, I said yes to lunch. We weren’t alone of course, my brother’s friend joined us for lunch too.

Here are some pictures i took from Instrumental lab in Chemistry where I temporarily work.