Have you been there?

I would have to say that my student days were colorful... which I am truly grateful for...
I believe that to really live... is to really feel... and to really feel is to really experience ... sometimes, it is necessary to take something bad you are going through and turn it into something priceless... after all, if you don't experience the bad, how can you compare and appreciate when something good comes along...

There was a moment in time when I was in college that I had some accomodation issues...
At that point in time, my sister (D) and her hubby (A) who were students as well, were living together with me in a 3 bedroom house. All was well until we realised that our landlord were becoming a nuisance(they lived next door). They had the key to the house and we suspect that they have been coming into the house without our permission... Finally D had a big fight with them and we decided to move out... They were stupid enough to suggest that A and me continue to live there without D... (Helllooooooooo!!! we are family ! d-uh!)

At that point, A's been working part time and his boss had recently purchased a house in our town... So the boss suggested that we became his tenants(he was a really nice guy)... the house was really big and really nice with a barn in the garden and plenty of spaces for our cats to play around...
We had a bunch of cats(Kecik,Gemuk,Gumbo,Comot,Grey,Mogwai,Gizmo) by that time and some birds ...

All was well and we had moved in our stuffs and pets and all in tow... when the Landlord told us that we cannot live there for a week because there were some paperwork which were not processed yet... however, we did not have to pay rent for the amount of time we don't get to live there... which sounded quite fair to me...

We decided not to bother anyone and just find a cheap motel and bunk there for a week... we would visit the cats and birds and oh yah! fishes too(we had tons of aquarium) daily to feed them and play with them...

Suddenly... a week turned to two weeks and two weeks turned to a month and on and on and on...

So from the motel, we bunked into my friend's house(we were lucky that it was summer and so ... a lot of people who had housemates were living alone)... but suddenly... my friend(K) had to move out because his landlord wanted the house back... What timing!!!

And so... my friend joined our caravan of homeless people...

And then there were 4...

We all bunked into another friend's(R) place which K was house sitting... We could only stay there for about 2 weeks because R's housemate who was supposed to have paid the rent, had skipped town without paying it and the landlord was mad! (Oh! college life)

Money was running really short by that time.... we had to really save up because we really don't know when we will get to live in that house... I was getting really pissed off... morales were low... I was beginning to feel like a fugitive...

Things got so bad that finally... we were practically living in our car... we didnt have any money to rent another place... we didnt have enough money to eat properly... we were counting pennies and dimes... we were breaking our piggy banks and tracking down lose change in the car and the pockets of our jeans and pants... The only money we had were spent on food and petrol...

There were days that we didn't even shower but just managed to go to the public restroom to wash up and go to the loo...

my hair was even turning into dredlocks...
we spent the days hanging by the park in our car...
we bought a portable stove which uses canned gas and we ate bread and eggs for daysss...and on days we could... we went fishing... we managed to get a few fishes to satisfy our hunger... we couldnt afford anything else... we had to make sure that our pets had enough food as well...
we didn't eat or drink too much for fear of having to constantly go to the yucky public loo...

Finally summer was turning into fall... and it was getting really cold... we couldnt stay in the park anymore... and we have had enough... it was getting ridiculous...

Finally we told the Landlord that we want to move in now!

And again he apologised and promised that it won't take more than a week...

We compromised and slept in the house at night but left the house early in the morning everyday... we had no choice...we had no money... whatever money we had... was coming from A's paycheck...
Sleeping in the house was better than nothing... we couldn't turn on the lights or the heater tho... and every morning about 5am... we would get up and quickly shower... after showering, we would wipe the tub dry and make sure we didn't leave any incriminating evidence which proves that somebody was living there... and then... by 6am we had to leave the house just in case somebody sees us... we would creep back in when its dark and hide the car in the barn at the back of the house...

By that time... we had some food left from the old house, and so we were eating rice and long beans and ikan masin(salted fish) every day... we also discovered how tasty it is to eat baked potato with butter and bawang goreng(fried shallots) as a topping...
This went on for a few months until we received news that my parents were coming down for a visit... we had no choice but to push him to do something about it or all hell would break loose...

Finally... we were able to live like normal people (that is if people consider us normal in the first place...)... and our friend K... moved in with us and rented the spare bedroom...

That was one experience which I could never forget...

For a moment there... I really know how it feels to be homeless and penniless... and even then... I consider myself to still be very lucky because we had a car and could move around comfortably and had some fresh and "clean" food...

When I found myself in this position... it took a lot not to break my spirit... it was one of the toughest moments in my life... From a life so full of comfort and security to a life of uncertainties with not even a roof over my head... i was humbled by circumstances... as temporary as it was and even though i knew it wasnt going to be forever, i knew that i was supposed to learn something from this because i believe that some hardship we go through in our younger days could be preparing us for something greater which we will face later on in our lives... and nowadays when i see a homeless person on the streets... i could almost (i say almost because i haven't gone thru the whole 9 yards of it)feel what they feel... but i gotta give it to them... they are stronger and more courageous than me... in a game of survival of the fittest, i would lose so dramatically next to them...But what good came out of it... in those moments... D,A and I really bonded and we survived it together... we could not do anything else but spend that time talking and joking with one another... we only had one another to hang on to... We managed to keep our humor intact and managed to calm one another down for the moments when one of us was really losing it... we were successful in making it together as a team... given a chance again... i wouldn't change that experience for anything else... as difficult as it was... :)