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