Seriously?! Christmas?

It is hard to believe Christmas has already come and gone. I keep thinking it is July with this warm, no make that hot, weather. This year may pass as being a perpetual July. To celebrate this years Christmas season the other volunteers and I attended a large celebration held by the residents of Kota Kinabalu! This is a huge event held every evening for three days on Jalan Gaya (Gaya Street). Along the street there are booths set up by different organizations/families that either promote or raise money. It was fun to go explore these booths and see what was available for purchase. Both of my placements were their hosting tables and raising money for their organizations. It was so much fun to see the kids from Care Haven outside of the classroom manning their table of jewelry. They all seemed to enjoy their time Gaya Christmas Festival. My other placement with the 2nd KK Girls Brigade group also had a few tables set up and were selling numerous items. There were some delicious homemade pastries , fun holiday capes, and some homemade crafts. Every time I went to visit their table I was met with happy greetings and enthusiasm. Visiting Gaya Christmas Festival was an interesting and here are just a few of the highlights:

1- visiting with Care Haven and Girls Brigade

2- watching the music performances and street carolers

3- being out in the community

4- running into random people we know

5- experiencing another cultures christmas

It was eye opening to participate in the events leading up to Christmas on Gaya street. For Christmas Eve and Christmas day the other volunteers and I traveled with Reverend Laura and Bishop Thomas to an interior village in Sabah. I'll discuss this adventure in my next blog!

I pray that you all had a wonderful Christmas and were able to celebrate the birth of the savior with family and friends.

Good week and a great weekend

A great weekend started with a good week. This past week a fellow volunteer, Katherine, and I worked with a few of the teachers children on their English skills. We met with them for three morning seasons of three hours to read stories, play games, sing a few songs, and learn from one another. I had a great time with my class of six and their enthusiasm for playing hangman and 20 questions was uplifting. As time goes on, I'm learning more and more what and how things are taught in the school systems here. My impression so far is: there are similarities in what they are learning to the states but big differences in how and when things are taught. I will blog about this latter once I observe a little more. So, for these few days I tried to make the learning process into a game and a more hands on approach! We spent time each day reading a story, discussing the story, and then creating the characters out of play-dough and acting it out. The play-dough is something they loved to do and we could have spent all our time together just creating things out of it. My six students were a quiet energy group until they had the opportunity to 'be the teacher' and each one was put in charge of the different games played!

Other highlights of the week:

Watching the crabs at the beach! They have their own little world that is hypnotizing to watch as they dig out and defend their holes.

Exploring downtown: Ellen, another volunteer, and I went downtown Kota Kinabalu (KK) and found some local markets of food and souvenirs. Then we thought we would try a Malaysia past time event and go to the mall. We spent time at one of the 9? 10? malls that they have and enjoyed walking around and seeing all the Christmas decorations.

This picture show four of the levels in Center Point Mall. Each mall has a unique layout and to me it seems like they built the main building then decided to just add on here and there around the outside. It is very easy to get lost a little inside this mall.

Then to top of the week Ellen and I baked some Christmas sugar cookies, homemade bread, and even experiment to make homemade pizza. It was great fun and the food actually turned out great! Hopefully, we will be able to learn some traditional Malay food before returning.

Thanksgiving part 2

This Thanksgiving was very different from all my previous ones. It was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. However, they weren't to far away thanks to a lovely invention called skype. With the video conference I was able to join them Friday morning my time and Thursday evening their time as dinner was coming to a close. While they had their turkey feast I enjoyed my morning oatmeal! Yup, a very different Thanksgiving. Being so far away from the states and many people here not knowing about this holiday last Thursday was simply just last Thursday. Nothing special really happened. The turkeys over here weren't hiding for their lives and everyone still got up and went to work. It was like any other day and it was very difficult to believe it was Thanksgiving without Turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. But, alas we did get our fill of a Thanksgiving feast surrounded by friends. It just ended up being on Sunday instead of Thursday.

In honor of Thanksgiving the other four volunteers and myself put together a feast of food for our supervisors and some of the amazing people that have helped us these past few months. My previous post tells the different dishes that were present and along with those we said a few prayers, shared what we typically do on Thanksgiving, and had fellowship. Here are a few of the highlights from the evening/prep:

• Car loaded and ready to head over to Doria and Michael's house. Where are the keys???? Why won't the trunk open??? All the food (including the uncooked turkey) are locked in with the keys in the back of the truck! I jimmy a window open and Erika climbs/falls halfway in looking for the keys.
• So, who's cooking the turkey? Oh yeah, the vegetarian is! (Gotta say my first Turkey ever didn't turn out that bad. Or so they said!) I'll try and add a whole picture of the done product as soon as I get it.
• Cooking all the dishes in oven 1/3 the size of an average on in the states.
• Trying to find all the ingredients and then having to improve or make things from scratch.
• "I was worried if they could cook!" said by one of our friends when she received our invitation and then saw us buying the ingredients
• "Only one meat dish!" Said by our host when we sent her our menu (almost every dish here has some sort of meat or fish in it.)
• Some expressed afterwards they were afraid they would still be hungry. That was not the case!
• The many thank yous for sharing this American holiday.

Overall, the Thanksgiving wasn't the same as past ones but it wasn't a bad one. It was fun to meet the people in the other volunteers lives and share a little of our American tradition and food with our new friends and family here.

A Malaysian Thanksgiving part 1

Here are a bunch of pictures from the Thanksgiving dinner we hosted and cooked for last night. The week went a little like this-

Monday: oven arrives

Tuesday: Ginny takes us on a massive shopping spree to get all the ingredients

Wednesday: Make Cranberry Relish and Sweet Pickles

Thursday: Prepare the corn bake

Friday: Prepare the Stuffing

Saturday: Pie day- 4 Apple and 2 Pumpkin all from scratch (seriously ALL from scratch from the dough to the pumpkin), prepare as much as we can for tomorrow

Saturday: Green beans, another stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, Ellen's homemade buns, and the Turkey

From Wednesday to Saturday all this is made in a small little oven lent to us from one of the teachers. Once we got to Doria and Michael's house (they hosted for us) we had two more ovens at our use!

Oh, it was a crazy week with a wonderful Thanksgiving to end it! The food was a success with very full bellies. There was a lot of fellowship of new friendships being made and old ones building up.

Mosque/DQ/Museum

There are two major Mosques in Brunei known for their architecture and we were able to go and visit one of them. Super exciting because I love to observe other religions and learn about their practices (don't worry, I'm still very much attached to my Lutheran roots!). We were dropped off near the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque which opened in September 1958 by the 28th Sultan of Brunei, whom it is named after. It is built on a 5 acre plot and the structure is 225 feet long and 86 feet wide. This mosque can accommodate around 3,000 people at once. In other words it is huge! We first walked around the building and found what we thought were the front doors so we slipped off our shoes and went in. As soon as all five of us were through the door we realized that it wasn't the front but was the side door. Oops! Big mistake, we all bolted out (you aren't supposed to be on the carpeted area if you aren't Muslim) and scurried around the building to the real front door. There we were meet by some of the gentlemen and apologized. They laughed it off, said we were fine, and invited us in. Each of us girls was given a robe to wear and we were asked to stay on the rolled out carpet and not to take pictures. The structure was amazing to see in all its mass. There was so much detail in all the walls, ceiling, windows, and just about everything you could see. It was great to see and witness. I would have liked to observe one of the services but those are not open to the public.

So to end this excursion on our own in Brunei we found a DQ. Yup, that's right! They have Dairy Queen in Brunei!!! Crazy to think about how small our world actually is sometimes. It was fun to have something familiar to snack on and felt good in the heat. On the way back to the apartment we were staying in there was the Royal Regalia Building open and it was recommended by our hosts to stop in and look around. So we did. It was interesting and full of the history of the Sultan, his upbringing, marriage, and all the gifts that were given. We searched for the gift from the US but I don't think any of us actually found it. There were just so many. However, we did find the gift from Canada! It is a statue of a Walrus!!!!

Jungle Trek

I love being outside and just walk. There is so much to see and observe. While in Brunei the three other YAGM ladies and I took an adventure into the Jungle to walk, visit, and see. Now, don't worry, we were safe and went through a travel agent who was a friend of our host and made sure we were always traveling together with a guide. The day started early with an hour boat taxi ride to Bangar, Temburong. This is a small town where everyone knows everyone else. From there we meet our main tour guide for the day, Zaidi, and drove to a long house. We were able to go inside and have a small tour of this one house that has 16 families living in it. Fascinating to see and hard to imagine living with so many others all the time. There is a common space shared with all the families then each family has their own set of rooms. After this small tour we headed out for the Sumbiling Eco Village to have breakfast and pile into the long boat. We took the longboat up the Temburong River to our point of entry for hiking. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and lots of adventure. We hiked up to the catwalk for a canopy walk and saw many treetops and mountains. It was a great workout hike full of laughter, adventure, and lots of sweat! After our hike we started to travel back down the river and stopped at a waterfall to swim and cool off. We then tubbed down the majority of the way back to the Sumbiling Eco Village for lunch. It was a wonderful trip and it felt so good to be out in the jungle to explore!

Ayer Kampung

One of my favorite tours we went on while in Brunei was to the Ayer Kampung or Water Village. For this tour we went down the waterfront and located a water taxi driver. From there we loaded up and headed out to enjoy a ride on the river and see the amazing structures of houses, school, a hospital, business built on the water. I couldn't find an exact number one how many people live there but from what I've gathered it is near or over 30,000. At one point (when it was only houses) the government tried to get the people to move on land but they didn't want to leave their homes. So, the government said they could stay if they established schools and a hospital. They did and are still living there today. However, to my understanding, if something happens to a house now they aren't allowed to rebuild on the river and are basically forced to live on land. Words can't fully describe what these structures are so here are just a few pictures for you to see a glimpse of what I saw. Enjoy!

Top things in Brunei

My fellow Malaysia YAGMS and our country coordinator recently (as in last week) took a trip to our neighboring country of Brunei. While we were there we participated in Bible study/devotions, toured the local area, and much more. It was a fun trip that gave us the opportunity to learn more about one another and the amazing diverse land we are currently living in. Here are some of the highlights with a few pics. I will explain each highlight even more in my next few blogs.

1) Taking a water taxi tour of Ayer Kampung (water village). According to our taxi driver there are roughly 30,000 people living, working, going to school, and attending mosque on these villages.

2) Trek to the Jungle. Ellen, Erika, Katherine and I all took a journey into the Temburong National Park to hike, tube on the Mutong river, do a canopy walk, and visit with our guide.

3) Visiting the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. We stopped in to see the structure of one of the most beautiful mosques in South East Asia. It was first opened in September 1958.

4) Visiting with and getting to know our host families! We had two amazing host families during our stay. One provided us with an apartment for the week and both kept us very well feed. Throughout the week they drove us around and showed all the sites in Brunei!

A view from the roof of our apartment. I loved to go here and just sit or read!!! Very peaceful with a great view of the town.

5) Museums: We went to two museums and both were very fascinating in their own way. The first was the Brunei museum and focused on the history of the area. The second was the Royal Regalia museum and shows the history of the Brunei government/Sultan.

dogs and graduation

So every morning I have a glorious wake-up call from all the neighborhood dogs! It usually starts with one until the whole slew of them are in a chorus. The first time I heard this I thought it was a form of beautiful music. However, this beautiful music comes every morning around 5:30 am and after a few days it isn't so beautiful anymore. The plus side of waking up every morning at 5:30 is that a lot can be accomplished early in the morning and it is always nice to see more of the sun each day. Ok, enough about dogs, onto what has been happening this week.

This week I had the opportunity to attened the Sabah Theological Seminary Graduation. The event was two parts, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The Friday portion of this event consisted of a dinner and program. Now, this dinner was Malaysian style with an eight course meal. Here is what was served: 1- cream corn and chicken 2-a glazed chicken 3-fish (this was the full fish: head and all) 4-lamb 5-prawns and vegetables 6-vegetables 7-garlic rice 8-white fungus and coconut milk. The vegetarian that I am joined in the meal during course five and simply picked around the prawns. It was a fun event as the graduating students shared stories and some of their traditions with us. The music was great to listen to and there were instruments being played I have never seen. Overall, it was a great first portion to this two portion event.

The Saturday half of the graduation was fun to listen to and observe. The service was a combination of Bahasa Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and a little English. I didn't understand the majority of what was being said but I did enjoy listening. The graduates looked great as they each went up to receive their diplomas in different parts of the church missions. After the ceremony there were gatherings and fellowships outside to meet with family and friends. It was fun to talk to some of the graduates and share in their joy.

Shout out to my two favorite sisters back in the cold lands of Iowa and Minnesota!!!!

Rugby!!!!!!!

This sabtu (saturday) was a fun day in the sun full of cheering and laughter. At the sports complex stadium there was a rugby tournament happening all weekend with free admittance! So, what do you think we (the other YAGM volunteers and I) did? Yup, that's right, we headed on over to enjoy the show. It was so much fun to watch one game after another. There were teams from all over including: China, Indonesia, Japan, Guam, Brunei, Malaysia, and many more. As soon as one game ended another one would begin. Both men and women teams were playing. I got there around 10:30 and stayed until 4 just watching and observing. During this time there were three injuries, many slaughtering wins, and a few good matches. What made this day even more special was when the kids from Care Haven came to join us. I'm not sure if I have blogged about working at Care Haven so here is some background info:

Care Haven is an orphanage established in 2008. It is a branch off of an orphanage in West Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. There are currently five children ranging from seven to sixteen years and four mentally disabled women living in this home. Three afternoons a week I teach English to four of the children! I love visiting with them and am learning as much, if not more, from them as I am teaching. Now, back to the game:

Katherine, a fellow YAGM, and I asked Mr. Chin, Care Haven Supervisor, if the kids would and could come and join us for a few hours at the game. We said we would go first and see what the schedule was and then call him to make arrangements. Once there we knew that we needed to get the kids there to enjoy the show so we called Mr. Chin and asked for him to drop them off. To this they were very excited and you could see their enthusiasm once they arrived. We sat up in the bleachers watching the games together trying to communicate in our two different languages (Malay and English) about what was happening in the game. It was a joy to see them outside the home and seeing them open up a little more in their vibrate personalities. I hope and plan to do more activities with them outside the classroom setting. Overall, this saturday was great in building friendships, experiencing a game, and witnessing the joy in small gestures.

Pics from left to right: Katherine, Edward, Nelwe, Vivian, and Idrus

Penampang Yuk Yu Concert take 2

Last night we had the concert and in retrospect I believe it went very well. It is hard to believe that these kids are only 4, 5, and 6 years old. They are expected to do a lot and perform like a professional and to an extent they do. However, those moments that the kid in them came out were priceless! It was fun to see the final performance it it looked like the parents enjoyed it also. There was a full house and the only visible empty seats were reserved for the students! It was a long evening full of laughter, smiles, breaking up the occasional roughhousing kids, and overall fun. So, as promised here are two video clips from the dress rehearsal at the school auditorium. Hope they play for you and enjoy. The video with the kids in yellow are six year olds and the other clip is of all the students (about 200) during the final song. Sorry if the sound is hard to hear just please bear with it!

Penampang Yuk Yu Concert take 1

The concerts are underway and the big one is tomorrow night! The bummer is that we aren't allowed to take pictures during the performance but, never you fear, here are some pics from our dress rehearsal. Enjoy and I'll write after the actual concert to let you know how it went!

About these pics: Top Left- A four year old dressed as a chicken (?) for the

old McDonald song.

Bottom Left- five year old musical instrumen

ts with their 'director'

Top Right- Hey look! It's Old McDonald!!! (I love this costume) Bottom Right- Final song that all the kids and staff to sign language and sing.

Concerts and more Concerts

School is basically over for the kindergarten I am at and the children are now practicing every day for their end of the year program. Let's just say this is nothing like in the states. The kindergarten goes all out and every child will perform at least once or twice during the show. They will be dancing, singing, playing instruments, and much more. Every child will be dressed-up in matching costumes with make-up to complete it. I find this very interesting and entertaining to see the kids up on stage. The rehearsals are long and sometimes give me a headache when 200 kids are in one auditorium for three hours running wild until it is there time to be on stage. Oh, the crazyness of it all. The concert isn't until the 29th so until then we will be rehearsing and playing then perform and graduation! Also, this saturday the teachers and I will be performing at the Penampang BCCM church. It is a song the kids are doing for their concert. So, we will be singing and doing the sign language. Or I suppose the teachers will be singing and I'll only be signing because it is in Chinese and I don't know what the words are or mean! Maybe by the end of the year I will know and be able to sing it.

Ace rocks my socks!!!

This weekend has been long as one of our volunteers has decided to travel back to the states. Our number of six is now down to five for Malaysia YAGMS. It is crazy to think about and that volunteer will be missed. So, the weekend has now consisted of thinking about changes that may be coming and trying to relax. Today was the perfect day for both.

A little background first: For the past month and a half five of us have been attending a church service within the BCCM (Basel Christian Church of Malaysia). The BCCM church has been interesting and very different from any church service I have ever been to. Their service mostly consist of singing four or five songs to start and there are prayers intermixed. Then the Reverend or a guest will get up and give a sermon. After the sermon we sing at least one or two more songs and then are dismissed. Overall, I haven't felt like this church was complete and I have been missing hearing the doctrine each Sunday and having, more or less, of a traditional service. Dang, am I Lutheran?! So, with those feelings I have wanted to go out and explore the other churches in KK and this morning provided that opportunity.

This morning Katherine (my roommate) and I left our house at 6:15 to walk over to meet the other volunteers and then continue on our way with a professor from Sabah Theological Seminary to church. We arrived at our destination at 7:30 just in time for the service at All Saints' Cathedral. It was a nice worship service and just what I really needed to experience. There was scripture, hymns, communion, and a nicely delivered sermon. Afterwards I felt rejuvenated in a sense and it felt like I actually went to church! The congregation was welcoming towards us and I hope to go back at least once every month or so.

After church we had been invited to join the Boy Brigade to go the one of the five Islands. (Of course we said we would love to!) The island was great and the day couldn't have been more beautiful. We, the volunteers and boys brigade members, played icebreakers and then had fun in the water. There wasn't a lot of snorkeling happening in our group but we did enjoy throwing a frisbee around and then gathering for a lunch one of the boys brought. It was a peaceful day full of new experiences and building friendships.

Side note: The title of this post is in honor of one of my dear friends back in the states who really does rock my socks off when I actually wear socks.

Cars and Transport

Here in Malaysia there is a bus system but it is nothing like what we have in say: Chicago or New York. From my understanding each bus has a certain route and the number and color stripe of the bus defines where it is going. We all have yet to master the knowledge of which bus goes where and approximately what time it will go by a stop. There aren't any set times or a list available for this. It seems that most people have their own car and prefer to drive everywhere. Very few people that we have met walk and when they hear we walk places they ask: "Why?" Seriously, I love to walk and going on a 20 min walk/hike to the store is peaceful. Ok, so onto the cars.

From what I have seen and asked about the main car used throughout Malaysia is Toyota. Youth here can get their license at the age of 17 and the process for that is similar to the US. They take a course in class, practice behind the wheel and then take a drivers test. The main differences I have spotted in cars here to the US are:

1) Most cars are stick shift and you have to specially order an automatic if you want it. (That is what I was told)

2) The steering is on the right side of the car (so confusing at first)

3) They drive on the left side of the road. Basically it is the opposite of what we do in the US.

4) The kids aren't required to be buckled up here. Most of the time I see them standing up in the back-seat staring out the window.

5) Parking is crazy and a lot of the time cars are double parked. (I'm still not sure how the person in front navigates their car out when they are ready to leave.)

6) One of the main road features when driving are turnarounds and U-turn spots.

7) SUV are the preferred vehicle

8) The driving style is very different and I'm not sure how to describe.

That is all I can think of at the moment but I may update this post as time goes on. The pictures above show how they transport horses here. These pics are of the same truck, they were hauling four horses. I've seen this numerous times so far and every time these trucks go by it makes me laugh.

A Malaysian Farmer's Market

One place I always enjoy going to is a Farmer's Market. You are outside buying products from the people who worked hard to produce them. You can talk to the farmers, ask them questions about their products, and learn what goes into the food we sometimes take for granted. Well, in Malaysia there always seems to be a Farmer's Market going on. However, it isn't called a Farmer's market here but is simply the way the fruit, meat, and vegetables are sold on a daily basis. After teaching English to the teachers at my school today my principle, Sylvia, needed to run to the market. We have swung by there before but she was hurried so I waited in the car. Not this time. I went and took a look around and was fascinated by what I saw and kicked myself for not having my camera charged and handy. (Next time!) There were numerous stands full of fruit and veggies. I don't know what half of the items where but they all looked delicious. There was one called long bean (looks like a string bean) that was at least 12 inches long. I asked Evelyn, a fellow teacher who came along, what some of the names were. She didn't know what a lot of them were and the ones she did know where the Chinese names. (I have no idea how to spell them.) Walking around this market showed how similar and also how different the Malaysian and Mid-West crops are from one another. There were a few things I recognized: cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, beans, and more. But also there are some fruits only grown in this part of the world. (I have had the opportunity to try a bunch of them and they are delicious!) After spending time and the fruit/veggie market we went and enjoyed fried bananas, fried potatoes, and tea. The fried items reminded me of the Minnesota State Fair. All you would need to do is throw them on a stick and you are set. However, the real treat of this outing was yet to come.

After eating and drinking we walked over to the fish and meat market. Let me just say you can smell this market a block away. It was crazy to see piles of fish and meat just laying out on counters. Some of them looked like they might start flopping around if you poked them. I don't think I have ever seen so much raw fish laying on slabs of counter in my life. Looking around I realized that it wasn't just fish but also squids (they look like jelly and I was tempted to poke one), prawns, and crabs too! Sylvia bought some fish and they gutted for her right there and then. It was interesting to see this process. They scrape off all the scales, cut the at the bottom of the head, slice underneath the belly, and gut out the innards. This process is completed in mere seconds and then the fish is bagged and handed to the buyer for supper. Now, the meat section is another story all together. There were some large slabs of meat and some smaller ones depending on what you are looking for. Honestly, this part was both fascinating and sickening to me. Many of the legs still had the hoof or claw still attached and on some tables there were heads. I'm not going to go into to much detail. Let's just say you probably could have reassembled the whole animal if you were their early enough or even see it whole before they slice and dice.

Overall, the Malaysia market is an adventure and the next time I go back there will have to be a camera involved!

Mooncake Festival

Last night Lauren, Katherine, Ellen and I were invited to join Doria and Michael's family for a traditional Chinese holiday called: Mooncake Festival. There are two stories that go along with this festival and I encourage you to google them if you have time. However, from my observation the main highlight of the festival is being together with family and friends. When we arrived at Doria and Michael's house it was filling with family members, both old and young. They all greeted us warmly and chatter quickly started. The whole night was a great experience and in many ways felt like a family reunion. The kids were running around playing games only they understood, the adults sat at tables and chatted away, and everyone was enjoying the feast prepared. (Ok, the food was not the same as at one of my family reunions but it was good.) After eating all the kids and adults gathered together and lit their lanterns to then join in on the Mooncake walk. The above picture is of us before the walk. The family made sure we each were able to walk with a lantern too! It was a fun time and ended with a few American tunes around the piano. (Katherine and I singing with Michael playing away.)

Girls Brigade

On Sunday afternoons I am spending time with the 2nd Kota Kinabalu Girls Brigade. This is very similar to Girl Scouts in the States. It is an international organization and has bases in England, Malaysia, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, etc. Here is a little more information taken from the Girls Brigade Malaysia web-site:

Alm: The Alm of The Girls' Brigade, being a Christian organization, International and Interdenominational, shall be: To help girls to become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through self-control, reverence and a sense of responsibility, to find true enrichment of life.
Motto: Seek, serve and follow Christ
Principles: The Girl's Brigade acknowledges Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord according to the Scriptures and seeks to fulfill its aim to the glory of one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Brigade witnesses to the standard set by Jesus Christ and gives positive teaching on the Christian attitude to life. The Brigade promotes a just society where all people are equally valued.

It has been a lot of fun working with and learning from this group of girls so far. We are now in a special training time for the Pioneer group (oldest ages 16-21). This is a smaller group of girls and we have met twice so far. Today's meeting consisted of learning how to make Homemade Pau, learning new songs, and celebrating two birthdays! The Pau was interesting to learn and the best way I can describe it is Pizza crust acting as a bun with different fillings inside. This item is steamed for 15-17 min and then eaten. It was a tasty treat, mine was full of peanut butter! After singing some songs we then moved into the birthday celebration which consisted of two cakes. A chocolate and a Durian flavored cake. Skim down to my previous post on the "stinky fruit". It has been a fun filled day full of building friendships and new adventures.

Earthquakes and Care Haven

This morning I woke up to my phone beeping because I had a message. It went like this: "Did u have an earthquake?" My first response was: "What!? We had an earthquake and I slept through it??? Oh dang, I really wanted to at least be semi conscious during my first earthquake ever!." Then reality sunk in as the grogginess of sleep slipped away and I realized if there was an earthquake I would have woken up on my own or by my roommates. So, in answer to that question we didn't have an earthquake in Kota Kinabalu last night. There was one very close to us but we didn't feel the shocks at all in my house. If I do experience an earthquake I will be sure to write about it! (Don't worry Sugar Creek Family - I have my life jacket/rice bags ready if there is a Tsunami!)

Katherine, Lauren, and I have begun a new adventure here is KK. We are now all currently working at Care Haven, each a couple days a week in the afternoons. Care Haven is a orphanage branched from West Malaysia and was established in KK in 2008. The information I have been able to gather so far is very limited but I hope to find out more as time goes on. I will be working there on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons with three boys and a girl on their English skills. These four kids are amazing and very eager to learn. Today we had a great time running around the house putting English labels on items and naming colors. They had a great time doing this and would tell me the Bahasa Malay word for each item as we went. Care Haven is a blessing to these four and as time goes on and this home becomes more established I'm sure it will be a blessing to even more children. It is also a home to a few other residents that have mental disabilities. They are always a joy to see when I go and love to smile and say 'hello' and 'goodbye' in English. One of the main focuses Care Haven has for the kids is to help them learn skills to make them more independent. They are responsible for cooking, laundry, washing clothing, and cleaning the house. Along with those chores they are learning Chinese, math, and now English! I'm very excited to be volunteering here and Wednesday and Thursday evenings are something I will look forward to each week!

Thank you all for your support in this mission adventure. I think about all of you often and just thank you for allowing this opportunity to serve. It really wouldn't have been possible without you. You are all in my prayers. Please let me know how you are and what you are doing. (k2mackereth@gmail.com)

Peace,
Kelsey

Birthday Bash

Well, what would you all like to hear about?! I guess I'll just go with the top thing on my mind and that is Birthdays!!! Today we had another birthday celebration in school (there seems to be at least one a week). For their Birthdays the children will hand out an invitation card a week or so in advance to their closer friends. If you receive an invitation then you buy them a present. (I think that is a good plan. Be prepared for a piece of paper with my name and an address in June;)) Then on their day the birthday girl/boy will bring in a cake for their class and also a goody bag for all their classmates. (These goody bags are huge and consist of many different snacks, toys, and in the traditional Chinese way a red egg.) Everyone will sing to them in both English and Malay then there will be time for lots of pictures. After the singing and pictures the class will sit down and have their normal 'meal' of the day. Once they finish that food item they can get their slice of cake and any other food goodies the birthday person may have brought in. The birthday person will also bring a piece of the cake to each of the staff in the school. It is a special day for this person and it is made know throughout the school to wish them a 'Happy Birthday'. I enjoy the celebration of these days and being able to see how each student celebrates.

The picture is of me and some of the teachers at Tadika Yuk Yu Penampang. We are dressed in our Wednesday Sportswear.

Rain Rain Go Away... bring in the coffee

Just kidding about the title. The rain is very refreshing here in the heat. Things are going well in KK. There are many friendships growing and challenges being faced. The kindergarten I am working at is getting ready for their end of the year program and final exams. It is fun watching the kids dance, sing, and study hard. They have a great deal of energy which really shows once they are on stage. Today the other volunteers and I were invited to a teachers appreciation day with the Sabah Theological Seminary. This took place at a beach on a day just perfect for such an event. It was overcast and the rain held off until the very end. It was fun to see and catch up with many of the students we meet during orientation. The morning was full of games as we all competed in our 'family' groups for the best time or most points. The games consisted of bowling with coconuts, gathering ocean water with our hands, passing rubber-bands with straws, and the final event of Sabah Frisbee! The event ended with a light rain drizzle and lunch. The rest of this day has been a peaceful off and on rain accompanied by a good book and a cup of coffee! (Gene it is the only good coffee I have discovered thus far.)

A little about the coffee here in Malaysia from my experience in honor of Gene:

The coffee here is nothing like it is in the states. Many peop

le have given me a look of horror when I say that I like my coffee black or, as they call it 'empty'. The coffee served here usually comes with sugar and/or creamer already in it and it is typically instant. Oh, how I miss the 'hidden stash' of the Sugar Creek kitchen. But, have no fear, there has been spotted a Americanized coffee shop were a coffee addict can get a decent brew once in a while. Don't fear this is not a daily event but just a special treat once in a while to ease into the decreased amount! So a little more on this instant coffee: It comes in single serving packs and you can get it as three-in-one or two-in-one. (this is the sugar and creamer) This is not horrible coffee but it is not the greatest. A teacher recently gave me some instant coffee packs that are 'empty' and they aren't to bad. However, nothing beats the aroma of freshly ground beans and the taste of it right after it cools to drinking temp. This is just my experience with the Malaysia coffee so far. Please understand that I am not trying to degrade their coffee in anyway it is just, as Shelia would say, my 'coffee snob' coming out! I do have some leads on fresh beans in the surrounding area and hope to witness them soon. I will let you know when this location becomes a success!

(The pics in this post were taken at the Cannanland Church retreat)

A fun game

So the other five volunteers and I went on a retreat this past weekend and had fun visiting with people, exploring the outdoors, playing with kids, and playing a game. Here are some pics of Mt. Kinabalu (we could see this from our balcony) and the weekend. Also here is a puzzle they gave everyone to do:

Can you find the names of 25 books of the Bible in this paragraph? This is a most remarkable puzzle. Someone found it in the seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping himself occupied for hours. One man from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Roy Clark studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Victs mentioned it in her column once. One woman judges the job to be so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help calm her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot... that's a fact. Some people will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. The truth is, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation may help, books like! Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. And punctuation or spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete. Remember, there are 25 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph.

The Stinky Fruit

So being in KK has given me the opportunity to experience a ton of new food from a variety of cultures. We have all tried things on this trip we never though we would ever eat or ever like. One of the main things the locals love to have new people try is the Durian fruit. I'm not sure if there are really words to describe this fruit. It could be in a food category all by itself. It is a hard spiky fruit that grows on large trees. The durian farmers climb up in the trees and tie rope from the fruit to the branch. Once the fruit falls off on its own then you can eat it. The part you eat is inside the hard exterior and looks like a seed pod. The texture of this seed is like raw chicken, instant turnoff to my vegetarian ways, and has a hard nut inside. The smell is, well it is, umm, potent. You can tell when someone has had or handled Durian because you can smell it for a while. I think it may be worse than Lutefisk in that manner! Well, I got past the smell and the texture and gave it a try... twice! It isn't so bad, however I think the best part about this fruit is you get to use a machete to open it. I would give it another shot just to try and figure out what the taste is like. I have yet to pin it down to a comparison. The other fruit her has been amazing and delicious. It is all very fresh and I like being able to see where it is grown and who some of the gatherers are. Going out to eat here has been an adventure and we are never sure what we will be getting. There are so many different types food. I think my favorite so far has been homemade fried noodles and bread in a small family run shop. (I'm looking for the ma and pa shops for you Gene!) Overall, the food has been great and different. A few of us hope to learn some recipes to make when we get back to the states.