In Her Shoes

We played 2 hours of street soccer yesterday, and I'm on the verge of collapsing.

If it wasn't for chairs, I think I would be sitting on the floor for the majority of the day. Better still, lying on the floor. Despite how it only lasted for 2 hours before the rain came, those 2 hours were very intense, seeing that I haven't played any sport since coming here. So having to run so hard under the blazing sun, it took a lot out of me.

The game was such that the team who scores first wins, and then they'll play the next team. On average, 1 match would last for 5-10mins, but during my second game, we were playing for around 20-30mins because no one could score! It was terrible! I was playing striker, so I had to run so much, I was on the verge of collapsing because my feet were killing me, and on top of that, I found it so hard to breathe. Maybe it was because of the hot humid air, or the fact that I had 'puffed' myself out from all that running. Either way, I was exhausted in that match.
My shirt was literally soaked in sweat, and my legs were covered in another nice shiny layer of sweat. Also in that match, I managed to pop one of the water blisters on my left foot that formed sometime during the first or second match. I felt the blister go 'pop', spewing liquid all over my socks. Mmmm Yum!

Sometime before noon, the clouds came in, and it cooled down a bit. From then on, it was a lot more bearable. I was able to run without finding it too difficult to breathe. The only thing that stopped me from performing better was the number of water blisters on my feet. They weren't very small ones. They were pretty close to be considered large, and not just one or two, I could say there are just about half a dozen of them, scattered around both feet. Now, I struggle just to walk. But I'm guessing they'll be gone in a few days time.

Anyway, now my body is aching all over. After sleeping on it, I feel the aches and pain all over my body, especially in the abdominal region. However, if we were to play again, at the expensive of all these pains, I would do it in a second. But for now, I need time to heal. XD



Now for a totally different story.
On the way to church this morning, as I was sitting in a very silent Chinese New Year Day train with very few people on board, there was this young blind man who came onto our 'carriage'. And out of all the seats he was 'helped' to, it happened to be the one next to mine. This was a whole new experience for me, because I had never encountered this situation before in my life. I guess that was a part of realising that this world is filled with many different people in many different situations.

So this was what happened. The young blind man was helped into the carriage by these two indian guys who then directed him into the attention of another man who sat 3 seats away on my right. That man took a hold of this blind man and sat him down next to me. I was thinking, "eerrrr, thanks mate." lol. So there I was, sitting there, not knowing what I was suppose to do as this young blind man did the following.
When he came in, he was all teary and 'sniffy'. At first glance, I noticed that there was a tear that ran down his face. I'm not enirely sure why, but there was a tear running down his face. Anyway, when he sat down next to me, he was fully pressing against me with his left arm invading my 'personal space'.

Then, he started to sniff his 'mucus' (I'm assuming that was what he was sniffing in). It was ok at first, but then not long after, he started sneezing. It was the type of sneeze that could be heard throughout the train. I can still 'replay' the whole sneezing experience again. ><" It was awful because I was the closest person to him, and he was sneezing all over the place. He didn't cover his face or anything, so I couldn't help but pray for mercy from the Lord. If I happen to fall sick during the next few days, I think I can relate it to this incident. So I sat there next to him, trying to decide whether I should move seats and get away from him, or remain seated, supporting this young man. I then thought about the things he would have gone through being blind. I'm very sure he has been rejected for his disability many times in the past. Surely I couldn't leave him now. It would only add insult to injury. Plus, on many occasions, I will put myself in the other person's shoe to determine if I would like it if something I did would hurt the other person. In this case, would I like it if I was the blind man and the young gentleman sitting next to me left me because I was blind. Obviously, I made sure I stuck with the guy, even though he was invading my personal space. I tried to focus on my iPod as much as I can, but it was hard to not watch the people opposite me dissect the poor blind man apart. I mean seriously, is it so hard to mind your own business? And he was blind as well. Even if he can't see, he should be given some respect. It was very distressing watching these people stare at the blind guy. It got worse when he started to pull out his walkman which was plugged to this little redbox speaker. He was fiddling around with it, and this caused all the 'spectators' to watch even more intently. Argh! I will usually try to give people their privacy, even if they're doing something like this. But it was hard not to watch these people stare at this blind guy. There was this one guy, seated directly opposite me who leaned forward, and placed his arms in such a way that his elbows rested on his knees and his chin on his open palms, just so he could have a more 'comfortable' look. I should have done the same to the guy. I should have rested my elbow on my knees, placed my head on palms, and stared at the guy staring at the blind man. Anyway, after the blind man took out his walkman, he started to configure this cubical redbox which I assumed was his 'headphones'. He was rotating the box round and round, trying to figure out why it wasn't playing his CD. He eventually concluded that there was something wrong with the walkman itself. That was when he started to wonder if the battery had died. He turned to me and asked, "Is there battery a not?" Passing me his walkman, I took a look at the walkman and tried to turn it on, but was unable to. I replied to him in my 'still-morning' voice, "No. The battery has died." Handing back his walkman. A few seconds later he asked me again, "What time is it?" I couldn't hear him at first because he spoke in the other direction and I wasn't aware that he was in fact talking to me. I was actually listening to my iPod blasting into my ears because I didn't want to be distracted by this blind man, so music would have to distract me. I asked him again what he had said, but I was still unable to hear him. He mumbled some slang which I couldn't hear. It was kinda embarrassing to have to ask him the third time, considering all the eyes and ears attentive to our conversation. By the third and final time, I was able to reply him, "Eight fifteen" The whole experience of having to deal with very different people has taught me more about putting yourself in other people's shoes. Generally, I tend to do that a lot because I wouldn't like it if someone did something to me which wasn't really nice at all. So I'd try to treat people the way I want to be treated. But so far, my adventures on the train in Singapore has shown me that there are many people like this who you will meet because there are people like this. People who God created and loves unconditionally. Just imagining God loving this blind man shows that God favours no one but loves all, despite our disability and weaknesses.