So, Maddy, what are doing in Malaysia?

Well, since this is my blog about what I'm doing in SE Asia and since I'm leaving SE Asia in two weeks and two days, I figured I should probably fill in the gaps about what I've actually been doing on a day-to-day basis at my internship for the past two months.

Basically, I've been at the childcare center (CCC). That means that I run around with 17 kids all day that may or may not understand/speak English, range in age from 2-13, are very aggressive/violent (sometimes for fun), don't understand boundaries (personal, physical, or otherwise), eat tons of sugar, create a lot of trouble, laugh, love, and care a lot. It's really, really hard and really, really great.

Until recently, in the mornings (starting around 9-9:30, depending on when the bus decided to show up) Michaela and I would teach English to three Burmese kids that aren't allowed to go to school because they are not Malaysian citizens (even though they were born here). Now, those kids have been moved to a boarding school for Burmese children who don't have the correct papers to go to public school. I really miss them. We used basic English workbooks that weren't very organized or had useless information (why would a kid who doesn't know what a 'foot' is need to know the difference between a 'blouse' and a 'shirt?') or were totally filled out already, which required us to erase someone else's work in order to do an exercise. The kids work hard, though, and did improve. But I'm pretty sure I don't want to be a teacher. It's frustrating trying to figure out ways to explain something that comes naturally to you (after years of learning it yourself, of course).

Around lunch time, all the little tadikas (kindergarteners) come screaming home from school and create massive mayhem and way too many cute faces for about an hour and a half until they crash for nap time. We usually help them eat lunch and make sure they don't get into too much trouble during that time. While this is going on, the older kids that go to school trickle in, shower, eat, and basically look really tired. After the tadikas pass out, Michaela and I work with the older kids on homework (if they have any) and/or another project we've come up with for the afternoon (examples to come). Around 4-4:30, the tadikas stumble out of bed and all the kids have tea time and Michaela and I stick around until about 5pm.

Then we make the trek home, which involves a bit of a walk that would be nothing in Oregon but is daunting in the Malaysian heat (or rain), a train ride, a long wait, and then a pushing and shoving rat race to get on an overstuffed bus (we've been left behind in the past when we kept our elbows to ourselves), a climb up a hill, and then a wave to the security guards as we enter our gated community. Whew. We get creative somedays and will sit at an air-conned coffee shop so that we don't have to take the bus and then our landlord picks us up on his way to dinner. Or we do our own thing after work. But it makes for a loooooong day. And by the time I'm home and settled and have eaten, it's almost time for bed and for the whole thing to start over.

Next up, [more] details about working at CCC! (this post was getting too long)