When a person drops from heaven...

Wednesday, 7th September.

I remember. I felt horrible. I was about to go to Sri Lanka the next week. Things were not sure at that point and Tekwani said we might be going to the South and not the East, or we might just go to India if the ceasefire was breached. I was waiting for 5pm to come, so that Tekwani might pass us our flight details.

I was sitting at an area called the benches struggling to do an After Effects tutorial. Didn't want to waste time.

I was worried sick about my FYP because I had to write a proposal that would get my group funding by the first week of October. The Sri Lanka trip made it terribly difficult to make another trip to Batam for my FYP. We had no content that would ensure the Singapore Film Commission would give us money to do such a documentary. I had nothing. No translators. The only one we thought we had in Batam turned to be quite a dodgy person. I felt stuck. Horrible.

I had to have something by October 1st. All I saw was a brick wall. My contacts led me to nothing.

Then somebody came and sat on the same table as me. I heard him speak. His voice had an Indonesian accent.

To cut the long story short, he loved to help my group, would make phonecalls for us, find out about ferry timings, offer his valuable suggestions, and he is familiar with Sundanese, Javanese and Bahasa Indonesia.

Because of him, he could also recommend us his network of Indonesian friends. We had a transcript of an interview for SFC. I believe it got us the money, on top of our well-planned proposal... heh. (And thanks to Norman too).

He is amazingly trustworthy and responsible. I cannot imagine ever meeting a better candidate.

Now that I have my funding and can pay him a token sum, he says he wants to do it for free so that I can save the money and hire a translator in January when he can't help us due to his internship and other commitments.

I don't know what I have done to deserve this and I really think he dropped from heaven on the bench where I was sitting. He does what he says, and more than what I expect, which is cool.

I will still pay him at the end of it all. Anyway, my group is so blessed to have met him. I am happy. Oh happy day.