The meaning of friendship in the eye of a child.

They've known each other since they were about 2 years old. They liked to play, eat, sing, dance and do everything together. They have so many sweet memories together. They always giggling and sometimes fighting over something. But they never anticipated that they were going to have to say goodbye to each other. 

Who am I refering to? "They" in this story are actually my eldest daughter Fathini and her bestfriend "Nazlah" (yg saya dah anggap mcm anak angkat juga). We had to say goodbye to Nazlah on 25th Dec. (yup on the x-mas day) as she had to go back to Malaysia for good. Her daddy (or Nazlah calls him "Ayah") came and spent 2 weeks here before he brought Nazlah home. Her mommy (or Nazlah calls her "Ibu") has to stay here because she is still not able to finished her phd thesis. 

Here are some photos we took on the 25th Dec. 2009 morning when we bid farewell to Nazlah, Zaidi (Nazlah's daddy), Naurah (Nazlah lil. sis) and her grandpa. 

 

 

This family is among the closest family to us. This is among the first batch families that came here in 2006. We share some similarities like we both have 2 daughters at about the same ages and we ourselves are about the same age too. 

Going back to the topic, this is about the friendship of Fathini and Nazlah. Nazlah is just about three months older than Fathini. She shares the same interests with Fathini. They both like singing, dancing, drawing, colouring and using their imaginations in playing.They had spent a lot of time together especially when Nazlah's mommy asked me to babysit her during school holidays. They also had the chances to paly together when we organized Malaysian playgroup sessions. 

Almost everyday, I had to explain to Fathini why Nazlah, her bestfriend had to go back to Malaysia. Our conversation goes like this:

Tini: Mama, why Ayah Nazlah bawak Nazlah balik? (why her father brought her back home?)

Me: Nazlah kena pergi school in Malaysia, sayang. (Nazlah had to go to school in Msia)

Tini: Can we go see Nazlah when we back Malaysia?

Me: Of course Tini. 

Tini: Can I play with Nazlah?

Me: Sure when we see her again.

From my observation, Fathini has started to value her friendship even though she's only a little girl. (she'll turn to 5 next week!) For her, a good friend is a person who can play and do lots of fun things with her. At least she has one of the basic skills in socializing with other people. And I will let her experience the other important socializing skills on her own. All of us would experience the syndrome of "friends come and go" but it has never stop us to have more!