Akak! Akak!

'Akak' (pronounced 'ah-kah') is what I'm greeted with every morning upon arrival to work. 'Akak' means 'sister' and since we're not old enough to be 'auntie,' we're referred to by that title (adult males are 'uncle'). It's really endearing and I'm going to miss it so much.

Most of the kids at CCC have siblings that are also living there (I think there are three that don't) and I'm pretty sure that all of them have other siblings that are living outside of CCC and who they don't get to see very often. The moms are "required" (as in, supposed to) visit at least once a month, if not more, and call every week. The sad thing is, this doesn't always happen. There's one boy whose mom has only come once in his six months at CCC and that was because the staff tracked her down by calling all the family members that they had numbers for. He is also the eldest of eight siblings and is such a loving kid, it's really sad to see how much he misses his mom. However, some moms come all the time and bring treats for everyone and it's just wonderful to see them interacting with their kids.

Everyday, different trucks come delivering food donations. CCC gets loaves of bread and buckets of kaya (the coconut flavored egg spread that's popular over here) and big boxes of individual packages of nasi goreng (fried rice) with tofu. The aunties (child-minders that run the CCC household including cooking and cleaning, lice/illness management, aka surrogate mothers that the kids love/are afraid of) usually cook a vegetable or a curry or something to supplement the rice. All the kids are required to finish everything on their plate, even though they were not the ones to choose the amount. The tadikas all have perpetual cheeks full of rice (they're fed massive spoon/handfuls) and don't even seem to taste it anymore since they all just swallow it down. For tea time, they're usually served some kind of sweet - cookie, candy, porridge, cake, biscuit, etc. with their drink - tea, juice concentrate, or one time even black coffee when they were out of everything else (talk about NIGHTMARE - already wild kids as young as 3 hyped up on entire mugs of coffee that they were supposed to finish...uh...yeah...).

Michaela and I have tried a couple of times to introduce a new snack to the kids and include the older kids in making it. We did 'ants on a log' one time which was a hit for making it and both a hit and a miss depending on the kid for eating it. They were completely unfamiliar with eating celery raw and didn't even recognize it until we explained that they sometimes eat it in soup. One kid thought we'd flown it in from London (they're all really into the Manchester United soccer team so they associate most things western with London) - he didn't even see it as something possible to find in Malaysia. When we made smoothies all the tadikas choked down the first swallow, told us they loved it with cringing faces and then turned to the aunties and asked for more sugar. When we tried to explain how a smoothie was a sweet treat for us as kids, the aunties just told us that children only eat sweets. That's certainly true if they've only ever eaten sweets. It was pretty funny to see them try to drink it and please us. Such sweeties (pun intended).

The thing that's hard about working with these kids and why I totally feel for the aunties is that they're so over-the-top with feelings and behavior, it's really hard to control them. If you do something that offends them (which could be putting your arm around another kid to say hello), they might end up pouting for hours with no way or will to communicate with you why they're already upset. When there's a conflict, they're all so used to all getting in trouble that they don't try to explain what happened, they just get mad or hit or storm off or refuse to talk to you no matter how many times you say that they're not in trouble. Violence is such a part of their life that when they get hit, they just fight back and never say anything to any authority figure like other kids might have learned to do as preschoolers (hitting is bad therefore, tell on the hitter). This makes it really difficult to judge what's going on or try to fix anything.

After working with these kids for so long, I wish I could see what their schools are like. Public school doesn't have enough money or space or resources for a full day of class so half the students go to school in the mornings until early afternoon and then the other half go in the afternoon until evening (we have one girl that goes for the second half of the day). From what I’ve gathered, most of the curriculum is based on memorization and if a kid can’t keep up, they’re left behind. All of our kids are at different levels of understanding even though many of them are in the same grade. We have one boy who is really good at reading and writing English and understanding abstract concepts, while another boy the same age doesn’t really know how to read and just guesses what a word is based on it’s first letter (e.g. I was reading with him once and the word he didn’t know was “countries” and he guessed “children,” “chocolate,” and “capital letters” just because he knew those words started with “c”). The main problem is that they’re not learning how to sound out a word or what sounds letters make. The letters “L” and “r” are really difficult, not to mention vowels and any combination of letters with “h” (ch, th, sh, etc.). And even when I do try to explain how to sound out words, what happens when English throws a curve ball and all of a sudden you don’t pronounce the “k” or “e” or there’s a “u” that you can’t hear when you’re trying to spell? Again, I don’t think it’s my calling to be a teacher.

Another thing about their school system that I’ve found really interesting is that religion classes are required and differ depending upon which religion the kid is registered as. This causes religion to be quite a personal issue at a young age and also brings out a lot of the racism that’s prevalent in Malaysia. We have quite a few Indian children at CCC and some of them are Indian Muslim. All Malay people (different from “Malaysian,” which refers to nationality, not ethnicity) born are automatically Muslim, but people of other descent must convert. In the case of one boy in particular, his mother registered him and his siblings as Muslim a few years ago (even though she is Hindu) and yet still brings him to Hindu celebrations, etc. Because of this, he deals with a lot of confusion surrounding his religion; he wants to be Hindu but his records show that he’s Muslim and he is therefore placed into classes that he doesn’t want to take. The racism regarding religion among our kids is really sad. They’re all like family since they live so closely (meaning they love each other so much but also get in awful fights) but when it comes to being Muslim, those children are teased and picked on. One boy beat up his younger sister because she was pretending to pray like a Muslim and he didn’t want her to think that was okay. It’s been so ingrained in him to negatively regard that religion, even when it includes his friends.

One activity that Michaela and I have been trying to be pretty consistent about is what we call their scrapbooks. Each kid has a sketchbook pad for drawing and writing in on the topics we give them. Some of the questions we’ve asked are: “what do you want to be when you grow up?” “if you could go anywhere, where would you go?” and “what do you think the world will be like in 100 years?” The point of this project is to make sure that the kids have something to leave CCC with that will remind them of their positive experiences. We don’t want them to look back on this as an entirely horrible time when they had to live in a home away from most of their friends and family. It’s also a tool to help them think outside the box. They really struggle with abstract thinking and creativity. No one ever encourages them to use their imagination. We always have to work really hard to get them to focus and consider the question and even when they do, they sometimes refuse to write more than a sentence or two. And yet, they ask to use their scrapbooks regularly, so I take that as a good sign.

Working with these kids has been really difficult but also incredibly rewarding. I’m learning everyday.
And I’m really, really going to miss them.

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)

Oh heeeey I'm 21

My birthday was pretty good, especially for a nontraditional (meaning, in Malaysia) 21ster. My supervisor bought me delicious Indian take-out for lunch and my co-workers joined in for that. One had had her sister (a baker) make me a delicious cake (first of three for the day) that had a frosting key on it. When I asked about the choice of decoration, the Malaysians and Australians were astonished to hear that the Americans, Canadians, and Belgium didn't know about the tradition of getting a key for your 21st birthday. When asked to explain why a key, no one really knew but someone wittily claimed that for Americans, it's the "key to alcohol."

Michaela and I helped the kids make me a cake and we ate it for snack. They sang and a bunch of them had made me really cute cards the night before. When I got home, my landlord had gotten me a chocolate cake with banana slices in the layers. He thinks it's really weird/funny that Michaela and I like bananas with chocolate (or nutella, more specifically), so was really proud of himself for picking out that cake. It was delicious.

The other interns and some of my co-workers (as well as a Singaporean friend who came to visit for the weekend) went out for drinks with me and made a big deal about my first legal one (according to the states) even though 18 is the legal drinking age in Malaysia. The bar we went to was called 'Friends' and used the same font for the sign as the show does, which we found pretty comical and worth trying. Michaela got random people to buy me drinks (safe ones, don't worry) and a rose and the DJ played a couple of songs in my honor.

All in all, a pretty good/eclectic 21st birthday!

Tropical Oregon

My 21st birthday present to myself was a trip to Bali with Michaela and Audrey, my close friend of ten years from home (she was in Singapore for a conference and extended her trip to visit). Basically, it was just what I needed and an all around blast. We got different kinds of massages everyday (it was a goal we set for the trip) including foot reflexology (Audrey got us excited about figuring out which parts of her feet corresponded to the different areas of her body) and a full body jasmine oil massage and scrub, as well as other drop-in ones. We even convinced each other to stick our feet in the pools of little fish that eat your dead skin (a huge accomplishment for Michaela who is petrified of fish), something I've been seeing and meaning to do this whole time. It tickled like no other but our feet were so soft afterwards. Besides that, we went shopping and walking and eating a lot (dessert and cocktails before dinner, anyone? oh yes).

I even went diving one day, my last time before coming home, I think, and it was really fun. I went with Jo (from Singapore who I learned to dive with and who is kicking it in Bali for a while) and we dived in the shipwreck called the US Liberty which sunk during WWII. It wasn't very deep and you couldn't really tell which parts of the ship you swam through but there was incredibly beautiful corral growing all over it and the first time we swam towards it it came looming out of the darkness, just like a movie. Man, I love diving.

For the six days we were there, we stayed in Ubud, the little inland town that Elizabeth Gilbert writes about in Eat, Pray, Love. Lonely Planet has a little blurb about "That Damn Book" and how it's totally turned Ubud into more of tourist center than it was before and how people are knocking down the doors of Liz's healer friends. I actually didn't realize that Ubud was the town from the book until we went there but it had been recommended by several friends because of it's art scene and peaceful atmosphere. Here's the thing: it's just like Oregon. I kid you not. All three of us go to UO and grew up in the Northwest (Michaela is from Seattle) and we couldn't get over how exactly Ubud is like Oregon (it reminded me of Ashland a lot). There are tons of hippie ex-pats there and everyone wears tie-dye. People eat organic and local and certain restaurants only give out straws by request and will refill your water bottles so that you don't have to buy a whole new one when you run out. There are pottery stores that carry tons of stuff that I've seen in friends' homes and that my mom obsesses over. There are independent jewelry stores with peace sign earrings (I bought some) and sand dollar pendants (ps those animals don't exist in SE Asia so who gave them that idea?). They have good coffee with fresh milk and scarves and hippie pants that everyone in Eugene would buy. There's a place called the Yogabarn that has yoga classes all day and potluck dinners and movie nights that feature films such as "Conversations with God" where you go and eat a healthy fish and veggie buffet. If you're not convinced, trust me and go to Bali. You'll feel right at home.

Like everyone says, Bali is super overrun with tourists (I was startled to come back to KL and get stared at again) but it doesn't feel as if the culture of the locals has been compromised. We stayed in a homestay that had a beautiful statue/shrine outside our room and part of the morning chores for the family was to replace the flowers. There are little flowers in banana leaf offerings outside of every door and people are constantly tripping over them and kicking them around but they're always replaced. Most of the locals dress in traditional dress for their own purposes, not to impress visitors. However, the streets and areas that the tourists roam are certainly not the only parts of Bali. They're just the only ones that people write about. During our cooking class, we were taken down some back alleys to a market that looked just like the rest of the ones in SE Asia. It almost made me feel better to see something so familiar in this clean, safe, tourist-center; dirty, sewage-y water being swept up by a stooped-back man, lots of fruit and veggie and meat stands covered in flies, crowded corners with cheap clothes and curry seasonings. The poverty spoiled the illusion of the rest of the little town but it's the reality of the place and I'd rather know that than be [entirely] blinded by all the cheap massages and silk dresses. However, I can't pretend that the trip to the market changed my behavior.

In any case, I loved Ubud, Bali for exactly what it was and my time there with banana pancakes and fruit plates for breakfast in my pajamas, eating pesto pasta and drinking mojitos, doing free yoga while looking out at rice paddies (ps yoga is hard), and enjoying the mild climate - it felt like summer in the Willamette Valley (current one excluded - I feel for you, Northwesters) and was absolutely amazing. Great trip.

Also, I turn 21 tomorrow (or in two days, Pacific Standard Time). uh what?

Recent Trips

So I did go to Singapore over 4th of July weekend as I mentioned I was going to. Linda came down with me from KL and then stayed after I left and while we were there, we stayed with Gerrit who was getting ready to fly back to Canada. It was almost relieving to be back in Singapore, just a familiar place where I can wear tank-tops and not get stared at too much and we can easily and efficiently get anywhere in the city that we want to in record time. In fact, one of the new MRT (train) lines had literally just starting operating and Gerrit and I arranged one trip home in such a way just so we could ride it and marvel at the new stations. Singapore is always changing and growing (the casino they’re building even had about fifteen more floors than the last time I saw it) - I wonder if I’ll recognize it if I ever come back someday.

In any case, it was fun to catch up with Gerrit and a few other Singapore friends that were around and we went back to our old apartments to eat at our favorite places (the 24-hour prata place guys remembered us and were glad to see us) and reminisce/explain Singapore to Linda. It was really fun.

Saturday was 4th of July and I kept insisting that we do or eat something American (although both Linda and Gerrit claimed that apple pie is Dutch/Canadian respectively – but come on, we all know that true apple pie is American) but it seemed as if the day was going to pass without recognition except by maybe singing the National Anthem to myself. HOWEVER, when exiting an MRT station with a friend, she pointed out to me a sign saying something about a shuttle to a 4th of July party hosted by the American Association of Singapore. I found a guy with a “Committee” badge and asked about the party and if I had to pay or RSVP or what and he goes, “No, no, it’s free and you’re invited! There’s music and fireworks and food. You are going to love it. It’ll make you homesick, though!” It ended up being so much fun. It felt just like the countless carnivals I’d gone to as a kid during an Oregon summer. There were hotdogs and face-paint and an embarrassingly stereotypically-Southern band that had flown in for the event. You could take your picture with an Obama cutout or the American flag. There were little kids running around in red, white, and blue clothing and adults sporting cowboy boots and hats. And there were indeed fireworks. This is something to consider since fireworks are illegal in Singapore except for Chinese New Year (and apparently 4th of July). There was even apple pie. I don’t know if I’d ever felt so American. And here I was a whole ocean away. Basically, it was just a really good night.

The next day, I left Singapore for the last time during a huge thunderstorm. Exiting during my favorite weather was a pretty epic way to get closure with a city that I really loved for a while.

Trip number two was two weekends ago when Michaela and I took off to Terrenganu to visit Becky, an American who is teaching English out there but had spent her school break working with WAO (she’d been staying at my place during that time). Terrenganu is the second most conservative state in Malaysia. Malaysia is a Muslim country and everything but the area that I am in has a split population of Malay, Chinese, and Indian people. Terrenganu, however, is almost exclusively Malay, therefore Muslim, people. Not entirely, but almost. We went to visit Becky and see her school but we were also lucky enough to be able to go to Pulau Kapas (an island) with her on a recreational school trip.

This is where it gets tricky. The islands on the east coast of Malaysia are beautiful (Tioman, where I learned to dive, is also on that side but more south) and attract many bikini/speedo-clad western tourists. However, a traveler that has done research will uncover that the area is still very conservative and out of respect (and/or sometimes concern for safety from radical groups), will think twice about what they wear (or what they expose). Since we were with Becky’s school, Michaela and I were told to pack only long-sleeved shirts and long pants and even a t-shirt and workout pants for swimming in. Upon arrival, however, we discovered that most of Becky’s students were breaking the rules for the weekend and wearing t-shirts with their tudungs (headscarves) and that the island was packed with locals and westerners hardly wearing anything at all. There was no way that I wanted to join the ranks of stereotypical tourists since we were with a group of rowdy and impressionable Muslim teenagers, but it would’ve been a lot nicer (and cooler) if we’d been aware that t-shirts were allowed. As it was, we ended up in a weird limbo of trying to cover-up when around the students and get a little more breeze-flow when around the other tourists. We still swam in our t-shirts and pants and admired the young Muslim women and their ability to snorkel in long-sleeves/pants and tudungs.

The weekend was a good learning experience, to say the least. I enjoyed talking to the students and singing along to Jason Mraz songs with them. One girl was willing to answer all my questions about how girls and boys are allowed to interact (as friends and in romantic situations). She had a very liberal (all things considered) outlook on the matter, but warned me that other people may not agree with everything she said (she thinks it’s okay to hold hands as long as both parties are comfortable and understand the wishes of the other person – however, she does not hold hands or touch any of her boyfriends – romantic or otherwise, but she respects other girls’ right to choose). We also got to take part in a BBQ and open-mic night with the students. The BBQ chicken we had was so good and tasted just like my Dad’s (except without the sauce) and the open-mic night was entertaining but also another indication of what’s becoming my mantra after all these months in SE Asia: people are people everywhere. This may seem obvious, but it was just so interesting to see all these teenagers behaving in the same way that teenagers back home do (and how I did) and yet, these kids have so many religious and, therefore, societal demands of them – even in how they dress. But they’re still curious and nervous and excited by the opposite sex and they rebel in whatever ways they can (some girls who wear shirt-less sleeves under their t-shirts will pull the sleeves down so that a thin line of skin will show between where their t-shirt ends and the extra sleeve begins). It was hard to see this and compromise it with the fact that in school, they’re taught that HIV/AIDS happens by magic because no one who has it has ever used drugs or had pre-marital sex and that sleep is bad for them so they should go to school from dawn (after morning prayer) until 11pm when they’re allowed to go to bed (naps are never permitted). If they break the rules, they’re caned in front of the other students – or worse – and from birth, because they’re Malay, they are automatically Muslim and have prayer everyday, five times a day. It’s not that I think there's anything wrong with praying. What I struggle with is that you get punished if you don’t pray (for example: on Fridays, men have a special, extra prayer. If any Muslim man is seen on the street during the prayer time, he is automatically arrested).
The fun fact that Michaela and I learned, though, is that the Muslim men that wear little flat hats are the ones that have been to Mecca. Now, whenever we see someone wearing one, we point him out to each other and secretly celebrate for him that he has completed the ultimate journey of his faith and now gets to wear the hat proudly.

The weekend ended with us getting to spend some time shopping around for batik (Terrenganu is known for having beautiful batik in plenty) and we certainly had to sift through a lot. Batik is cloth with patterns and colors that are recognizable and clearly batik, once you know what it is. I'd write all about how you make it but this post is a bit long for that. Google! Anyway, I’m excited to bring some home.

Oh! It’s official! I finally have a ticket home! I’m leaving KL on Thursday night, August 27th, and I’ll make it back to Portland (via Tokyo) in the morning on Friday. So I’ll have the whole day to try and stay awake and beat the jetlag…wish me luck!

Still Out Here...

Seeing as I’m a bit behind (as usual) in keeping this updated, I’m going to use this entry as an account of some of the interesting/fun/notable things I’ve done since being in KL and then another entry on my internship and what exactly I’ve been doing in regards to that. So. Here goes:

Since I last wrote, my friend, Linda, from Holland (who I met while traveling) came to visit for a while and spent a few days at WAO helping out. It was incredibly nice to have someone to talk to and spend evenings with and I was not looking forward to her leaving. Fortunately for me, another intern from UO, Michaela, showed up and happened to be from FHS (my studies) as well! We’d never met, but I recognized her and after some complications with her first landlord, she moved in with me. It’s been great having her here because we basically do everything together all day from start to finish and it’s just really nice to have someone else who’s dealing with the same stuff and who is completely aware of what I do back home as well. I really don’t know how I would be surviving all of this without her.

Michaela and I have started to explore the city a bit and by that, I mean check out all the malls. But we’ve also been to the tourism center to see what kinds of things are available (we’re hoping to do a city tour next week) and we’ve compiled a list of really cool things to do, including some local events. I’ve been to two plays already (both before Michaela got here), one called The Good Body, whose proceeds were going to WAO the evening I went and the other was The Cuckoo Birds, which was a pretty bizarre, abstract piece written by a Singaporean that was really well done and that I really enjoyed.

I’ve also been climbing a few times. Some people I met in Thailand were here for a day and we tried climbing at Batu Caves (so yeah, I got to see those, too – definitely not as good as the ones in Mulu but on the list of things you “have” to do in KL) but it was too hot so then we relocated to the indoor gym called Camp5. I kid you not people; this is the coolest gym in the ENTIRE world. It’s in a mall (go figure) and has big windows surrounding the walls so you can look outside while you climb. There is lead climbing routes (but you need your own ropes), lots of bouldering, a really cool imitation-rock section (as opposed to holds) with cracks and (the best part) automatic belay walls. That means that you clip into a rope that’s attached to the top and will automatically start lowering you if you lean on the rope or let go of the wall. It also means you can climb by yourself! I went that first day with my friends, once by myself, and then once last week with a girl I met there that I really liked but who is unfortunately in the UK now and won’t be coming back. Hopefully, I’ll find the nerve to keep climbing by myself but that’s hard to do and the mall is complicated to get to.

I’ve been trying to exercise more (Linda had me waking up early to go swimming before work and I am so far doing okay with self-motivation) while still trying all the local foods. This last weekend, Michaela and I met up with Hasnah, the woman who studied at UO and took me to the Malay wedding, and she took us to a kenduri, which is like the equivalent of a family BBQ in the states except waaaaay more people and waaaaay fancier (they had a catering service and gift bags). Everything was delicious. We tried sticky rice with durian porridge and it’s the first time I’ve ever enjoyed durian*. My two favorite desserts are 1) sweet banana steamed in banana leaf (that’s my second favorite) and 2) this sticky ball of steamed black rice flour (it looks purple) with shredded coconut in the middle and coconut cream coating the outside. Mmmmmm. Later, we went to a pasar malam (night market) and I tried a bunch of coconut desserts (Dad, you’d go crazy). That, curry puffs, and all the fresh tropical fruits (including whole coconuts) are some of the things I’m really going to miss when I get home. Plus, everything’s super cheap here and I’m getting really good at eating with my hands.

Other than that, I’ve just been working really hard, watching the first couple seasons of Friends (oh em geez Ross and Rachel) and the occasional movie, reading, and facebook stalking. You know, the usual. It’s hard to do much else when you work long days and it takes forever to get home. Maybe I’ll write a day-in-the-life entry sometime. I was considering writing another epic one about Life In Malaysia, but the truth is, it’s hard to distinguish what exactly is different here than Singapore. Don’t get me wrong, it’s waaaaay different, but my whole experience and reason for being here is different too, so I’m not exactly sure how to describe it all. Plus, I’ve been over in this area of the world for so long now that I sometimes forget that little details are not what it’s like back home (like, don’t point with your finger, it’s rude; gesture by making the letter ‘e’ in sign language with your fist and then pointing with your thumb – that’s kind of a weird description but all I could come up with). I guess one major thing that’s different is that I’m in Muslim country, so there’s a lot of women covered up and I can hear the calling for prayer from the mosques around the city (one is happening right now outside my window). One time, Michaela and I saw a woman that was covered in black from head to toe with only her eyes showing (there was even a strip of fabric between her eyes and she was wearing gloves). Of course, not all Muslim women dress like, in fact, some don’t wear headscarves at all. It’s interesting to see the different degrees of it.

It’s still hot, still muggy, even more hazier because of the really bad fires in Indonesia, and I’m dreaming about wearing scarves and coats and boots when I get home. ooooo and my carhart overalls.

Looking forward to seeing all of you [Americans] state-side soon!

*I can’t remember if I wrote about durian but it’s the fruit over here that’s spiky and smells AWFUL but every SE Asian person – except my landlord – loves it. The flesh is yellow and has the consistency of an avocado, kind of, surrounding a pit and it tastes sort of sweet but sort of like rotten garlic. Try googling “what durian tastes like.” Some guy in the early 1900s, I think, wrote a pretty good description of it. Anyway, it’s in season right now, so it’s everywhere. Also, it turns out that there’s tons of different kinds and apparently some are better than others, or at least different, so be careful when you tell someone you don’t like it. You may not have the correct experience to back-up that statement.

Half-Year Mark

So yesterday was my 6-month anniversary of leaving the states and starting on this whole epic adventure! Actually, I'm not really sure how to measure time over here. Today might actually be my anniversary because it's July 1st at home or maybe I should say that tomorrow is my anniversary of arriving (I left PDX on January 1st and arrived in Singapore on January 3rd). In any case, the beginning of July means I've been gone quite a while and only have two months left, 1/4 of my total time abroad.

Tonight, I am headed to Singapore to say goodbye to Gerrit who has been traveling around SE Asia and is flying back to Canada from Sing-a-sing. It'll be really nice to see him and be in that city again (less pollution/haze, stares, faster trains, more air-con) but it will probably be my last time. Weird.

Upon my return next week, I will write more about what I'm doing and how work is going, etc. etc. but here is what I consider a funny and somewhat strange story to hold you over:

I have now had three people, two of them pre-teens, the other my supervisor at the Refuge, on separate occasions ask me why I "walk so funny." The first girl told me that my legs are very far apart, the second (her younger sister) said I walk like a robot and my supervisor said that "only people with piles walk like that!" Upon further interviewing of my colleagues, I've found out that I do walk strangely to them. Apparently, standing/walking with my feet at shoulder-width apart is noticeably different (and considered weird) than stepping with one foot in front of the other like "the women on TV." Also, I walk too quickly for a woman. Other comments I got were: I do this "kicky" thing with my feet when I take a step and my back is angled backwards so I lead with my middle. Never in twenty years has anyone ever mentioned these things to me and after interrogating my two Oregon and Holland girlfriends, they said they had never noticed (they also match me stride for stride). Hmmmm, something to ponder, eh? I might have to start leaving the house earlier to make sure I get places on time if I'm expected to walk slow and with sway!