and so a month has gone by, time flies so fast that before we know it, ramadhan has come knocking on our doors. ramadhan mubarak!! may this be my ramadhan insya Allah.. anyways, for the past weeks, i’ve indulged myself in endless work…which i’ve begin to embrace and appreciate that busy-ness is somehow healthy and giving you a sense of fulfillment. i cannot imagine work without work so let’s not fret or be stress about it ok 🙂

an opportunity to join in the very first basbeliamabims project, a gathering of four delegates from singapore, indonesia, malaysia and brunei. admittedly having not prepared mentally for the event and physically as i found out later, i think i’ve breezed through pretty well. for one thing, it’s really been quite some time since i joined a 1-week programme which involved much conversation and activities, i was wondering where my energy went, recalling that during my iiu years, i was running around like there’s no tomorrow. and so the whole trip was an enriching one with some good friends made along the way. although there’s about 8 of us ladies in the group.

2 and a half days in singapore and 5 days around selangor. pretty much the host while in singapore and two night stay at NACLI, which is a very nice place beside the Kent Ridge Park, except for the winding flight of stairs we had to go up and down from our room to the main carpark! luckily i didn’t bring the whole luggage, or else, i might just throw the luggage down the hill!

so in singapore, the delegates had a very focused schedule on new media as an outreach tool, going to mosques such as Sultan, Ghufran and Istighfar to share experiences and ways to outreach. i know the other delegates are pretty much amazed by aLive and honestly, i’ve the ambition that mwdh will be THE next centre. (need to maintain this momentum always, dont slack!)

we left for Malaysia on national day and the rest is history…hehe. A lot of visits to some interesting institutions, and am especially awed with Darul Quran and its beautiful majestic surroundings. we visited universiti sains islam malaysia, hub halal, and grand mosques such as al-azim @ melaka and masjid wilayah @ selangor. also, institut profesional baitulmal whoese director motivated us as well in his taklimat about the institute. interesting, students who get free education and become successful…from zero to hero, the tagline. if only we can have something like this back here in sg. especially in islamic education. that would be the ideal, really!

accomodation at ilim or institut latihan islam malaysia, which is a nice and comfortable place for me and roomie ustzh izzah. felt just like the mahallah days @ iiu.

apart from visits, we also had an outdoor activity of trekking a hill at Hutan Lipur, sungai Gabai, Ulu langat. i thought the many many walks i had had here must have been some form of practice for me, thank god for that!! 😉 although it was quite scary since, we’re going up a steep and slippery hill! some almost gave up but we all go through it fine and well. thought of taking pictures, but looking at the difficulty i thought i might dropped either the camera or my self, instead kept everything valuable in a friend’s bag…we eventually reached the waterfall, cuma tak dapat nak really mandi sungai~ although i wasnt planning on it anyway. You must have been proud of me, hehe.

and oh yeah, we had fruits galore at an orang asli community. a portrayal of how islamic mission there is outreaching to them people.

also the opportunity of attending the musabaqah tilawah al-quran 2009, which was a nice coincidence and two of our young singaporean qari and qariah, won 4th place at an international level. hopefully, more attention will be given to this event here back home. overall, it is a nice experience and some new friends made and being away from work, i can tolerate, but away from family, hmmmm, not so much…it worsened because i don’t really get much chance to update at real time, and only short periods for status updates and checking emails…

and i love it that i see you first thing. it’s an imagination come true. 😛