A New Year and a New Job

The new year is starting out with a big new adventure: A new JOB!!! This year I will now be working half days at a place called Cheshire home. It is a home for mentally or physically disabled persons. For this past week I spent time getting to know the residents and what their days consist of. It was a great and a little tiring time but I am very excited to continue working their throughout the year and how to see what tasks my position will take on. The residents are amazing individuals and are opening my eyes to a world I only had a glimpse at before. They are all unique with different challenges and blessings in their lives. One resident loves to show me where the swings are at least two or three times a day and another resident will start to giggle every time I see her. For this year I think there are going to be challenges in learning what my abilities are and what their abilities are. We will learn from and with one another through games, baking, and talking. Here are just a few facts about Cheshire home: There are 24 live in residents and 3 day care residents. The residents have a variety of disabilities from paralysis, downs syndrome, blind, and mentally retardation. The are currently constructing better living quarters for the residents and also a work building. If you want to learn more about Cheshire Home I would recommend checking out their website (http://www.sabahcheshirehome.org/online/)

In the afternoons I am continuing my work at Care Haven and am amazed each day at the four kids there. They have energy, spunk, sass, and an eagerness to learn! Spending time with them is a blessing and challenge each time. I am also continuing my work each Sunday afternoon with the 2nd KK Girls Brigade! Always a fun time and I never really know what they will be doing.

Christmas and New Years have both come and passed by in this new home. It is so hard to believe that there is snow at home as I am taking strolls under a hot sweaty sun. But, alas it is now January and the Malaysian adventure has been a roller coaster these past four months. There have been both challenges and highlights to this time so far and my outlook for this new year is so far so good as the close to last year ended on a great note and this one starts with vigor. However, before I get into the new year here is how last year came to a close. For Christmas the other YAGM volunteers and I accompanied Reverend Laura and Bishop Thomas to an kampung in Sabah called Sapulut or Sepulut. It was a wonderful time to see a different side of Malaysia, experience another way of celebrating Christmas. We attended a neighboring church service on Christmas Eve and then attended the BCCM Sepulut service on Christmas. Both services averaged three hours and consisted of Christmas songs (very much the same as the states but in Mandarin or Bahasa Malay), a sermon, a little scripture, and then a performance. The majority of each service was spent on the performances where a few groups would present a song or two to the congregation. We were asked to perform and so we sang some all time favorite Christmas songs! Overall it was a great time visiting the kampung and seeing another way of life. I think my favorite part was when we went to for a hike one evening to the school. We started at the church we were staying at and walked through a part of the village, past the market (a long building consisting of a few rooms that are open once or twice a week), and over the river on a hanging bridge. Once across the river we started hiking up the hill on a small path that would defiantly be a small creek when it rains. The following pictures are of the bridge and the school. This school is all grades for the surrounding kampungs. There are also dormitories (not shown in this photo) because it isn't possible for the children to go home each night. This Christmas was great and opened my eyes to new ways of celebration!

After Christmas it was time to get back to teaching at Care Haven, move apartments (I now live with Ellen at Sabah Theological Seminary), and get ready for the new year and new job. To bring in the new year the Erika, Ellen, Katherine, and I attended a BBQ and a live band with our new friend Kevin and his friends. It was a fun night and interesting to see how the New Year was celebrated on the other side of the world. Also, it was like a time warp because as we were entering the year 2010 our family and friends back home were still living in 2009. Crazy to think about! The night was fun but it is still hard to believe the year 2010 is already here. I'm excited for it to begin as with the new year comes a new job and new adventures!

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.