We made it safe and sound back from Indonesia. It was a seven day journey of meeting Reverend Laura's family and the area she grew up in. Reverend Laura is our country coordinator for the year. She grew up with seven sisters and five brothers. It is a very large family! Overall, the trip was good and we were able to see some of the countryside as we drove from Jakarta to a small village of Bandung, where the reunion was held. We spent time visiting with the relatives, spending a day at the pool, and tasting the local food. It was interesting to meet all the different relatives and to see the area that is the root of Reverend Laura's childhood stories. It was a good bonding trip for myself and the other YAGMS as we once again explored a new culture and faced new challenges.

Funny/cute story from Care Haven:

As most of my camp friends may know, I have a tendency to keep a pen or pencil in my hair when it is up in a ponytail and I am writing off and on all day. Well, this is a habit I haven't lost since moving to Malaysia. I was working at Care Haven this week and was correcting their spelling words and grabbed my pen from my hair. The kids were at first surprised by this and started laughing at me. As I corrected their spelling Edward had a brilliant idea and grabbed a paperclip and his pencil. (I was doing one-on-one work at this point.) He proceeded to fasten the paperclip into his very short short hair and then somehow, still mystified how he did this, hooked his pencil in it. Once again laughter broke out as he showed off his new hairdo. It stayed in fairly well until he needed to use his pencil!

Short Story

At Care Haven we are working on the forms of "to be" and "to have" in sentence structure. To practice our listening I would read a sentence out-loud and they would have to fill in the blank. One of the sentences said "I ____ blue eyes." Idrus then looked at me really hard and in all seriousness said, "Really?!" We all then started looking at one anothers eyes and determined mine are brown, Idrus's are black, Edward's are black, and Nelwe's are light black with a hint of brown. After this short discussion Idrus and Nelwe both burst out laughing. As the rest of us looked at them in confusion Idrus managed to get out, between fits of giggles, "Teacher, I blue eye!" as he pretends to hit himself in the eye. Oh, the joy of crazy moods and crazy times!

Here are pictures from the other night at Cheshire Home! Enjoy!!!

The beginning of Chinese New Year

It is hard to believe the first month of 2010 is coming to an end. Things have been very busy and a little crazy around here. I have spent the month getting used to my new routine of working at both Cheshire and Care Haven. Both jobs keep me plenty busy and I love it. The residents are great and I am learning about their abilities more and more each day. They keep me on my toes. Care Haven has been a lot of fun as the kids and I are establishing more of a weekly schedule and are starting to dive into multiplication!!! (I feel like I am re-learning many things before I teach it!) At the end of every week we are taking a half hour to play a game or do a fun relaxing activity. This week we experimented with some fake snow. My Godmother was very kind and sent me some snow powder to celebrate Christmas and it was fun. The kids had a hard time believing that I come from a place that has snow in abundance and they couldn't believe that snow is actually made of water/ice. It was fun to play with them and our fake snow. Here are a few pics to help capture the fun: (Edward wearing some 'snow' on his face, Idrus 'eating' the snow, Nelwe and Edward kept adding water then mixing it, Idrus with the final result)

Thank you Dena for providing us with this fun adventure! They loved it and were very excited to learn the powder can be reused.

There has been a lot of talk about the Chinese New coming up and now it is fully starting to show around the KK area. Everywhere I go there are red decorations and everyone I talk with asks what I will be doing for the new year! It is fun to watch as this holiday quickly approaches and learn about all the different traditions that go along with it. The first tradition I was told about was the red packets or Hongbao. If you are single the married couples you know will give you one of these red packets and inside there will be money. In this case it really does pay to be single! The second tradition I learned is that during this holiday you will not starve. During this fifteen day festival there will be great feasts, dancing, and wishing one another good prosperity! Last night I attended my first Chinese New Year celebration with my roommate at Cheshire Home. The Cheshire staff organized a party for the residents and their families. It was such a fun time full of music (karaoke), games, dancing, and food! I loved being with the residents to meet their families. There were also a lot of past residents there along with members of the Young Voices group! I don't think I've had that much fun in Malaysia yet!!! Here are just some pictures to help explain the evening: In order: Kelinus grilling the fish (yup, eyes and all!), The grilling of the chicken (or maybe just scorching it), Faris the DJ, the traditional Chinese Lion dance.

I will post more pictures of this fun event along with a short video of the Lion dance!