Fireworks for Chinese New Year

For the past few evenings we've been rocketed out of sleep by the explosions of fireworks between about 11:00 pm and  2:00 am. As a matter of fact, one night the noise was so loud that we pulled open the curtains and watched a colorful display from a neighbor's yard that rivaled any small town 4th of July show we'd paid money to watch in America.

My husband, a giant boy at heart,  mentioned that he would like to light off some fireworks, too. "That'd be kind of fun. I'd like to light off some big ones." I told him I'd see what I could do and made a mental note to ask my Chinese "contacts" where I could purchase some explosive fun. Unfortunately, like most of my "mental" notes, I promptly "lost it" forgot what I was going to do.

This morning, while helping a student write vocabulary sentences with the words she'd missed on the last exam, I was startled out of my concentration by the unannounced visit of three local police officers decked out in their official looking hi-vis yellow net safety vests with the words "Polis" emblazoned on the back. These official looking guys strolled though the school building, peeking into bathrooms, opening cupboards, and scanning the perimeter of the building's interior. The primary school teacher saw this as a good opportunity to practice greetings and led her students in a "Good morning, Police Officers!" That caught them a little off-guard and they smiled back, waved a sheepish hello, and headed out the door. Again, like my "mental note" to find fireworks, I completely forgot this short interlude and my curiosity as to the purpose of their visit.

It wasn't until the end of the day when I was told about the police officers' visit. Apparently the restaurant downstairs was selling fireworks(crackers - more probably - I mean we're pretty darn close to China) and apparently selling fireworks/crackers in Malaysia is illegal. (Apparently the police are not so concerned about arresting those "lighting" the fireworks - only those "selling" them.) So the police confiscated the contraband and took the owners to jail. The police were checking out our school just in case additional fireworks were being hidden among books, students and computers.

When I expressed  my regret at having missed the ability to make good on my promise to my husband - "Darn! I missed buying them by one day" -, again I was reassured..

"No problem. The owner will probably only spend one night in jail and he probably has contacts in the police department so he will probably get his supply returned and he'll be back in business tomorrow."

Note to self - "Buy fireworks tomorrow!"

Saturday Surprises

Last evening my husband and I were talking about Saturday plans. His is always predictable: work. Mine is always different but includes some type of physical activity: gym, jogging or biking. This week's plans included new twist; five students joining me on a bike ride. And, to be quite honest,  I was a little nervous about the responsibility.

In preparation for the excursion,  I'd driven around town to plan a route with mostly village roads, very few dangerous intersections, and an interesting destination. I'd reminded the students on several occasions to bring water. I'd packed a spare tube, rubber patches and cement, a pump, and basic bike repair tools. There'd been no notes to parents, no permission slips signed, no waivers of responsibility, nothing. Instead I'd gotten a verbal "thumbs up" from the principal - "What a great idea! No problem at all!"

After relating my American-based-too-much-media-hype-teachers-liability- litigation concerns my husband smiled and said,  "I hope your day is filled with surprises. Everything will be just fine."

Still not convinced, I replied,  "I hope it's only filled with good surprises. I don't want anyone to get hurt."

As it turned out, my husband was right, and the day was filled with many good surprises. Here are three that stood out:

1. Met the Manjung Cycling Team (MCT) en-route to school. I saw a group of men decked out in tight, colorful  biker shorts assembling together with road bikes several blocks from our house. I'd heard there was a local bike club but had been unable to locate them. As a result of this morning's ride, I knew their staging location and time and got a Facebook address for future reference.

2. Enjoyed a 25 km ride - the students' longest ride ever with stops at a Chinese temple near the sea and McDonalds for breakfast and ice cream- with delightful, eager, friendly, positive, optimistic kids riding anything from older,slightly rusty mountain bikes, to newer  "fixes" and everything in between. They were respectful of riding single file, watching for cars and keeping track of each other. After few seat adjustments (I explained how they are growing and probably needed to raise their seats) and a little air in a couple of tires, we had smooth spinning. My worries had been unfounded.

3. Found the registration page for the 120 km JMFR (Jalan Manjung Friendship Ride) in April. I'd seen the billboard for this ride but couldn't read it or locate any further information, so the search for the bicycle club also yielded the April ride for which my husband and I are both now registered.

As it turned out, the surprises were all good so I have a lot to be thankful for.

Teaching NetBall

At 7:50 a.m. today, exactly 5 minutes after I walked in the door to school, I got the news every 53 year old woman who was always picked last for teams in high school PE and therefore prefers individual sports wants to hear...

"You're taking the girls today for PE. You can teach them netball and determine if we can put together a team for the All Christian Schools Sports Day in July."

Oh boy! This should be fun. First of all, I've never played netball. For that matter, I've seen a netball game. As a matter of fact, the only time I'd even heard of netball (before this morning) was at a Christmas Eve dinner about 15 years ago in Maryland when the hostess mentioned she'd been pretty good at netball in New Zealand  and I was too shy to admit that I had no idea what she was talking about. I'd pictured bouncing a basketball over a volleyball net.

"No problem," I replied. "Let me just Google that."

By now the students were streaming into class. Between "Hellos", academic questions, and papers being thrown on my desk my quick skim of some netball basics told me there are 7 players on the field and the ball can only be moved forward by passing. Finally, the person throwing the ball cannot not move. I figured this would give me enough information for one day. We'll run and pass.

We headed out to the field and I was instructed to lead the girls in a warm-up. Standing in front of me were the usual assortment of middle and high school girls who were less than enthusiastic about jumping around in the hot sun. I figured some fitness PR was in store so I gave them my #1 reason to exercise....Endorphins! I explained that I didn't LOOOVE exercise, but I really LOVE the feeling I get after I exercise - happy, energetic, focused...Even if they didn't buy my marketing campaign, at least they would learn a new English vocabulary word.  And guess what?! It worked. They performed and put forth their best effort jogging in place, stretching and even trying push-ups. They were sweating, moving, and participating without complaining.

After doing about all the warm up exercises I could think of, I sent one of the more responsible girls over to find us six balls. Several minutes later she returned with one very big, hard basketball. My face dropped.

One basketball on a grass field with 20 girls. I needed a plan B.

I asked Responsible Girl, "Remember those Spider Man plastic balls we used for the team-building activity last week? Can you find those?"

Off she trotted.

Problem solved!

The rest of the class went really well. I just pictured the thousands of soccer practices I'd watched (and paid for) over the course of about 14 years and decided to get some additional money's worth. I modified them - instead of using feet to move the ball forward, the girls had to pass the ball forward with their hands. I then moved to three players ( a game of keep-away), small-sided games and finally to a full field (minus the net - I have no idea where it is or what it looks like).

The class went well, the girls had fun and we all got some exercise. On the way back to the "changing area" the principal asked, "So, which girls do you think should be on the team?"

Are you kidding?! I was too focused on just trying to come up with enough to last 2 hours and keep the names straight. I have no idea who can do anything. And, I have no idea what will make a good netball team. Furthermore, I'm not a coach!"

I replied, "I have no idea but I think I can use ALL the girls for awhile. That way, we'll have two teams and we can play against each other. Besides, I'm not sure who even WANTS to be on a netball team. Can we play for a few weeks first before I have to create a roster?

Strike this as just another day filled with unexpected surprises...

Barefoot Basketball

A high school student came to the classroom with the following announcements:

1) Tomorrow is PE
2) Wear your PE clothes - (a t-shirt and sports pants or shorts - no jeans)
3) Wear sneakers
4) Bring an extra T-shirt to change into after PE
5) If you don't wear you PE clothes, you'll have to sit and watch.

A little later in the day, one of the teachers said to me: "Wear some sports clothes. We'll be dividing the school into groups. You'll be supervising the high school boys."

(I'll wear my PE clothes and watch the boys and speak a little English (backboard, dribble, foul, shoot, etc.) but I'm certainly not going to"teach" PE, especially to high school boys.)

The following day, the students arrived in PE attire: t-shirts printed with English slogans they didn't understand, denim short-shorts, unlaced sneakers about 4 sizes too big (a shared family pair??), flip-flops, and hoodies (remember, it's 7 degrees above the Equator here which means very hot and humid all the time - why would anyone possibly need to be any warmer?).

We lined up by class and gender in the parking lot in front of the Chinese restaurant below the school and walked single-file along a very busy one-lane road with cars whizzing by in both directions. Several students walked veeeery slowing noticing the frogs and lizards in the ditch along the roadside. Other students eagerly marched ahead quickly planting themselves in the limited shade from banana palm trees dotting the perimeter of field awaiting further instruction.

(While bringing up the rear of the line and nudging the reluctant athletes ahead, I consumed over half of my liter of water. It was going to be a long, hot two hours.)

The athletic field consisted of a half-circle shaped garden about 50 yards across and 15 yards wide with a few lovely trees and shrubs dotting the field.. An experienced teacher, retired from public school and helping out part-time here, led the lineup and instructions with her whistle and switch, a long, thin bamboo stick used to slap misbehaving students in the classroom and herd unruly athletes (mostly boys) on the field.

(I was thinking about cattle, Twitter feeds "teacher herds students with switch", Bible verses "spare the rod/spoil the child", and lawsuits.) 

My assigned group of students, the lines Under 18 and Under 15 boys, so classified because of the track meet they will compete in next July, were instructed to take two laps around the field. Off they took and I decided to jog along behind them. After seeing one particularly sporty looking fellow slip on a curve in the wet grass, I noticed he was in his bare feet. A quick survey  of the joggers showed about one third of the boys were running without shoes.

At an inconspicuous time, I quietly asked the principal if they were supposed to be participating without shoes.

 (It seemed a valid question since yesterday we'd been told they needed shoes.)

He smiled and said, "Oh, they have shoes dedicated to basketball and they'll put them on when they get to the basketball court."

(Ok, this made sense.For a country that prides itself in flip flops or bare feet, saving shoes for something special seems logical. I get it. But, I was also aware the kids are kids and forgetting shoes is common...) 

Then, he pointed one of the barefoot boys and said, "He's a great leader and he'll be able to lead the boys in a warm-up."

 (Great! That saved from trying to be a PE teacher, especially since I had neither a whistle or a switch (Thank goodness on the latter).)

We walked to the back of the school and onto the basketball court where we proceeded to warm up. Barefoot Boy never did "find" or "put on" his shoes but he did, eventually, make it to the front of the group to lead a "warm-up."

(I was getting the sense that he's a leader in the more "negative" sense e.g. class clown, antics for laughs, etc. )

The first thing he did was place in hands in a prayer position with his fingertips touching his chin (kind of yoga or Zen-like) as he began the relaxing  head stretches  to the left, right, front and back, several wrist stretches  and a couple of arm shakes. When he sat down on the concrete in the butterfly position, his classmates burst into laughter. He continued the "relaxing" stretch with his right hand and elbow pressing his knees to the ground and his just-a-tiny-bit self-conscious left hand pulling his t-shirt down between his legs.

(Seemed like enough of a warm-up to me so I was glad when he said it was time to play. Who needs sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, etc, when you can limber up your wrists for all the writing you'll do later in the day...)

One of the older boys divided the group into three teams of five for short games of basketball. Barefoot Boy remained barefoot and and was positioned on the court to play guard for team #1. 

( I love the fact that natural consequences still play a major role in life here. And the absence of laws (or lack of enforcement thereof- not exactly sure which) made me fairly confident that if Barefoot Boy played basketball and got hurt, he or his parents wouldn't sue me. Play on!! )

Sure enough, several minutes into the second game, barefoot boy's toes were crushed under the foot of a much taller and heavier boy wearing some nice, large Nike basketball shoes. Barefoot Boy yelped and hobbled off the court to the nearest bathroom stall, a ceramic hole in the ground with water splashed all over the floor from the hose that is used in place of toilet paper and washed down his sore foot. Several minutes later he hobbled back on to the court to resume his play.

(Barefoot Boy is actually quite athletic, shoes or no shoes, and that's probably why it was a good idea that he played. His leadership and skill on the court was rivaled by none and it would have been a very long morning had he not been there to "get the ball rollling.")

Bottom line...having PE in Malaysia is difficult -there are very few indoor facilities and by 9:00 am it's extremely hot outside. To top that off, we get to study together in a small room with only a dry t-shirt (notice I didn't say clean) to change into for the rest of the day...Going barefoot seems like a minor inconvenience.

Biking to Cameron Highlands

Caught up in the frenzy of  annual alcohol inspired New Year's Eve goal setting, Eric and I decided to make our first goal of 2014 a bike ride from near Ipoh, Malaysia to Cameron Highlands, the beautiful green hill region just to the south and west of town. Our goal is a lofty (pun intended)  1500 meter climb over a distance of 50 kilometers. (100 km round trip).

Reapplying sunscreen after a quick rinse from the mountain spigot

For you non math types, that's a pretty steep climb for a really long time. As a  matter of fact our Garmin navigation system estimated the trip up and back would take just over 9 hours - ( a long and painful 6-7 hours for the ride up and an exhilarating 2 for the race down.)

For you math types, that's a 3-4% grade if you do the straight math (1500/48,000 x 100) but because there were a few downhills on the way up, the grade is more like 5-6% for a long, long, long time at a very slow 9 km/hour pace.

For you non-fitness types, spending a day like this would be your worst nightmare. As a matter of fact, I'm sure it would be difficult to even comprehend why anyone would subject his or her body to the heat, humidity, and pain of a long hill climb when you could be sitting home, screaming at your favorite team for the Wildcard Football weekend, sipping a few brewskis, and snacking on cheese puffs. I often wonder myself why we make these kinds of goals.

Here's what I decided -  a goal such as this is a) an excuse to get out of bed on our one day off in a town with little opportunity for entertainment b) we're in a different time zone from Wildcard Weekend and haven't figured out how to pay for or record ESPN, c) we're a little impulsive d) all of the above.

Anyway, our enthusiasm for meeting goal #1 of 2014 was tampered only by our lack of expertise anticipating the impact of heat on our adventure. Naively enough, we figured a 9:00 am start time would be plenty early enough to summit by 2:00. It might be a little warm at the bottom but the temperature is cooler up in the Highlands...(one of the reason the British expats made this a famous retreat of theirs.) And, a good night's sleep followed by a big pancake breakfast are important to success, too...right?!

We packed 5 liters of water between the two of us and a small lunch figuring we could supplement by one of the many Malaysian vendors lining the side of the road and the many water spigots coming out of the hillside pouring fresh mountain water to keep us hydrated.

We started spinning our wheels at about 9:30, a little later than anticipated, but not really a big deal. The first 12 kilometers were kind of fun and just steep enough to limber up our legs and warm up our muscles, but not so steep to scare us off our goal. We came to the first watering hole where I filled one of my already empty bottles and topped off the other which was down to 1/4 full. Eric's Camel back seemed full enough so he actually poured the warm water out of one of his bottles and filled in with cool mountain stream water. We rinsed our head rags in cool water to try and get some air-conditioning going through our helmets.

Hoping the water is good. The truckers and the locals tend to fill up their bottles.

The next 8 kilometers became much slower and steeper making us both work up a good hunger. Stopping at a guardrail under the shade of some jungle vegetation we inhaled our sandwiches  in about 30 seconds. Based upon the speed with which we inhaled the food, I was sorry I hadn't followed Eric's advice and loaded up on Snicker bars from the gas station where we'd parked our cars. Sweat was from pouring from all part of our bodies including what seemed like Eric's eyelids. It was only 10:30 a.m. and our water supply was dwindling. Still non-plussed, we continued our journey up the hill certain we could find both water and more food.

Another hour up the road, we found some Orang Asli people selling wild honey and rambutans in their stalls at the side of the road. We bought several bunches of fruit and, after shaking off the ants and picking though the non-moldy fruit, we reveled in the juicy sweetness. Revived, we pedaled on-wards and upwards even discussing the fact that, if need-be, we could buy a bottle of honey and drink it for our natural "energy goo" and survival on the way down.

Family selling honey and rambutans (yellow and red spiky fruit)

By now, each kilometer was taking longer and longer to complete, and the water supply dwindling to sips in each bottle. The watering holes we'd noticed on previous car drives up the mountain were dry (our guess is that they only run after large rains).

I was thinking about decision making processes in the face of adversity and weighing the odds (we were 10 kilometers from the top and 20 kilometers from the watering hole below us.) On flat roads, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) is nothing - a trip to the grocery store and back, a chance to stretch our legs after work but not really work up a sweat, a walk in the park... But on this hill, 10 kilometers meant at least another hour or more of constant, slow, hard pedaling. And, we really weren't sure what was 10 miles ahead.. We could both remember a chocolate factory, but straight chocolate does nothing towards staving off thirst. Reaching our goal was so close and yet soooo far.

Reluctantly, we turned around and started the downhill ride. Within seconds, I knew why the ride uphill was so slow. Our bike odometers read 35, then 42, then 52 kilometers per hour. We were headed downhill and downhill FAST.  Jungle vegetation was a blurr at our sides, our sweat evaporated and left a salty residue, bugs slammed into our foreheads and helmuts, our hard work was rewarded with an adrenaline inducing ride. This was FUN!!!!

No, we didn't reach the top  but  yes, we had a great time. Can we check this off our New Year's Resolution list? Again, the answer is "no." Although this ride is the hardest ride we've ever done, surpassing even Mingus Mountain in Arizona which we'd always considered our barometer, we can't consider Cameron Highlands conquered.  We plan on a repeat ride next Sunday  hoping that our "lessons learned" - start earlier, bring more water containers, pack more food - will get us to the top.

N.B. Even though the ride uphill was long, slow, and painful, we were rewarded with beautiful scenery and the ability to see thing and hear things  that we don't normally notice while we're in the car. I saw many native huts on stilts (still inhabited)  hidden in the jungle with secret  paths that leading to hidden villages. I heard many kinds of birds, owls, and wild animals communicating with each other  in the jungle. If I let my imagination run wild, it was actually kind of creepy.

We bought fruit from and photographed a nice Orang Asli family.

And, we had front row seats to about 30 crazy Malaysian motorcycle riders wearing full pads and racing up the hill and taking turns with bikes at 20% angles to the road like professional racers. There were some pretty sick 200,000 RM ($70,000) BMW cycles within spitting distance of our front handle bars.