A different side of the same person

Lucy at Angkor Wat

I grew up watching Lucy come into the eHomemakers office. For the longest time, she always struck me as quiet and sometimes uptight. I never saw Lucy as a 'fun' person. Getting her to say something in front of a crowd or in front of a camera was like trying to get a cow to climb a tree... she just wouldn't do it. It would take Lucy a while to warm up to someone, but when it comes to selling eco-baskets, she's all over the place... which is something I still can't understand.

Her first few video journals were the hardest to film. Because she never knew what to say, we would ask her questions that she would have to answer. Since Lucy was so camera shy, she would break off in the middle of her sentence and complain "Haiyo, I cannot la! I donno what to say la!!" but she would then later ramble her answer on and on... off the camera. Slowly though, things started to change and Lucy started to talk more, and voila! Her video journals are quite enjoyable to watch now.

Early January, Ching Ching was invited to Cambodia for a Fair Trade conference. She took Lucy with her as an official delegate. Morgan and I went along as the conference documentation team.

Our trip to Cambodia was definitely a memorable one. Besides the hundreds of pictures I took, the amount of new foods I ate everyday and the thrill of riding a tuk tuk everywhere we went, I also learnt a lot of new things about Lucy.

Lucy's 'funny' angle picture

Lucy was such a sport in Cambodia, she tried everything that was put in front of her (except the fried crickets which she literally ran away from). When we visited Angkor Wat, she asked me to take pictures of her in "funny" angles, something I never thought Lucy would ask me to do, let alone let me take pictures of her instead of shying away from the camera.

During the first day of the conference all the delegates had to introduce themselves. Everyone was actually told months in advance about this but Ching Ching was smart enough NOT to tell Lucy, because if Lucy found out she had to speak for 2 minutes in a sub-regional conference, she would find all the ways to excuse herself from the task.

So 10 minutes before, Ching Ching broke the news to Lucy in the most casual way. "Lucy ah, later when its Malaysia's turn, you come up with me and just give a short intro about yourself, ok? Very easy one... no need to worry!"

But boy did Lucy worry!

She started composing a script in her head, and at the same time her legs were trembling. But in the moment, Lucy's introduction was perfect and she received a big applause. Even one of the German delegates came up to her during the tea break congratulating her on being the best speaker. Lucy just giggled.

Lucy joining Morgan and I for a candid picture 

But still being the same old Lucy, she sold more eco-baskets at the trade fair in 2 hours than the appointed volunteer did in a full day.

On our last night, Lucy went back to the trade fair to buy her souvenirs for people back home. She came back to our hotel with a huge shopping bag. She bought silk sewn butterflies for her SLE friends for about 5USD for 10, and she bought 3 silk purses and gave one to me. She proudly announced, "That day you almost bought it at 11USD. I buy today for 7USD!" Not only is Lucy only good at selling eco-baskets, she's also good at bargains!

When she walked off to her room, everyone who passed by Lucy were greeted with "Look what I bought from the trade fair at this price!"

I chuckled. All this while, I thought that Lucy was a quiet and uptight person! But after this trip to Cambodia, I will see her from a different light; she's fun, (can be very) talkative, and she's one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met. Now I know that I should never judge someone until I know them very well.

Lucy doing a jump shot

-Rhonwyn-