All it takes is Love and respect.

Just returned from the Organic farm at SRI LOVELY in Lintang where i had spent five days with the intention of attending a wedding at one of the neighboring houses. I was asked by the captain to stay for a few more days so i can give a lift to a french couple who were spending sometime working at the farm. I had a good stay however and met a few more Westerners who happened to be there and new arrivals. One of them is a young man from Denmark by the name of Mads and we called him Malik his given Malay name as has been the tradition at the Farm to give a Malay name to all our visiting volunteers if they happen to have Western names. This is to make them more welcome as a member of our community of Malay Muslim community such that they will member that they were there for a brief period of their travels.
There was a young German gentleman with the given name of Hadi and he seem like he was having a time of his life working in the garden and looking after the sick Italian lady who fell ill with a fever for the few days that i was there. She was later taken to the Hospital in Sungai Petani to be taken care of. She is hopefully recovering when i visited the hospital on my way back to Penang along with the French couple who were very concerned of their fellow traveler Zuleka, her Malay given name had high fever and most probably suffered from dehydration and overwork in the the field harvesting rice.
It is harvesting time at the Farm and everyone are busy getting the rice in before the birds gets to it as there are thousands of tiny birds attacking the rice in flocks daily and there has to be a constant 'bird watch detail' whose job is to scare the birds away from the fields; it is major problem facing the farm today.Other than that there is the occasional attack from the wild boars especially at night. These animals would destroy the rice more than eat it like they have an issue with the growers for some reason. The Westerners spend most of their time in the vegetable gardens growing organic vegetables and when a couple leaves another arrives to replace them like clockwork. It is heartwarming to watch how people from all over the world are arriving to spend a few weeks or days here out of the blue and making acquaintances among themselves and and along with the locals who by now have improved their ability to speak English and their manners towards Westerners. It is a learning experience all around and the land itself gets healed by the tender loving care of sweat and energy of all who drop by as they travel the world.
If this trend continues all over the world where more and more young people are leaving their home or comfort zones and daring to take on the challenges of living the life of another culture and discovering for themselves that we are all in the same boat while looking out for each other, there might still be hope for humanity. When the younger generation have found for themselves the common ground to work from and that 'All it takes is Love and Respect to survive', the world might be able to heal itself slowly but surely. I sincerely hope that more and more young people will travel throughout the planet and find out for themselves how others live and where they fit in with the Whole and how they can contribute towards a positive growth of out Humanity and the Planet that sorely needs this at the moment.