Making Easter Special in Malaysia

Each activity over the past few days deserves a post of it's own, but time dictates a brief summary instead...Hopefully, one day I'll be able to remember enough to recreate the memories in more detail.

Elizabeth O'Connor

Thursday night - We are "Warmshower" hosts - couch surfing for bicycles riders - and we hosted Elizabeth, a really interesting English cyclist who has been on the road solo for one year. I so enjoyed her company that we stayed up until almost midnight chatting about her adventures. (And, if you're wondering if she's had any troubles being solo female rider, the answer is "not really." But she did have a similar Lumut pervert experience - like mine and I was NOT alone but with Eric - just minutes before arriving at our house.) So...solo or accompanied, there are just some stupid male perverts out there.

Brunch group

Friday - I invited some friends to "Hop on Over for an Easter Brunch". We enjoyed lots of spring type foods including yummy egg dishes, blueberry muffins and fresh berry salad (amazing that we could find them over here.) Then we decorated Easter baskets and filled them with jelly beans (another surprising find). It's amazing what some dried flowers, ribbon, tissue paper and tiny baskets can become.

Looking from the ferry to Pangkor Island

Saturday - Eric and I took a two-loop bike ride around hilly Pankgor Island. If you want the definition of "hilly", at least 4 of the road signs say 10% grade. And, if you want to understand just how "hilly" 10% is, I fell going up one of the hills because I couldn't shift into a low enough gear and un-clip from my pedals fast enough to avoid a slow speed fall onto the pavement still attached to my bike. (This was my first hill ride on my new road bike and I'm definitely more accustomed to my low geared mountain bike.)

On the bright side, we ended the day trying a new restaurant on the beach and enjoying a beautiful sunset.

Riders - rev your engines!

Sunday - Eric and I attended our first church service in Sitiawan, a village near Lumut. The service was in Chinese but we understood "A-men" (accent on the second syllable) and Je Su (put them together and you'll understand, too.) Luckily, the principal of the school where I teach, sat behind us and translated.

 The title of the sermon "Man - Complete only by Woman."  I learned that Eric is not a "complete" man without me and I should "build his confidence" and "not criticize him in public". ( I think this is a fairly literal translation of the Bible from a Chinese cultural perspective.)  So, to improve my wifely skills, I told Eric that he was a "great motorcycle driver" on the ensuing church-sponsored 100km motorcyle ride. I was "so relaxed and enjoying all the scenery" while he was "working so hard to avoid potholes and other obsticles." I even gave him neck and shoulder messages at the intersections near the end because 150 cc's of power for 100 km at 100 degrees with 100% humidity is very exhausting.

bean farming between palm trees

sorting the fish

Shrimp cracker

Before I close, I should mention the cool sites on the ride: meeting the young farmer of a temporary (2 year) farm planted between rows of palm trees before the trees get too big, block the sun and are harvested for palm oil; watching the dock workers unload a deep sea fishing boat that had just returned full of fish; tasting my first shrimp crackers - a fried concoction filled with tiny shrimp (shells still on) and munching happily on this crunchy, fattening, but addicting like potato chips, treat.

All in all , it was a great Easter and one that won't easily be forgotten.

How Much We Don't Know

Recently,  I was helping a 17 year old student "get into" the book The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. In other words,we were reading the first chapter together. This student's native language is Chinese so the vocabulary, sentence structure, and long descriptions make the first chapter of this extremely difficult.

I was asking her some questions about Hitler, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust and was was met with blank stares. At first I thought we were having vocabulary issues for words like "camps", Jews, "kill", but as I continued with questions, I realized she understood the words, but had no knowledge of the actual history regarding WWII and the Holocaust. I was surprised. I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank in 8th grade, and from today's research, just learned has been translated into 70 languages and published in more than 60 countries including places like Thailand, Malaysia's neighbor to the north,  China, ancestral home of many of my students, and Turkey, also predominately Muslim and, as such, discounting my idea that maybe Muslim countries did not read about the Holocaust.

Her innocence regarding the Holocaust got me wondering...

Is this a taboo topic because it demonstrates the worst evil in mankind and parents want to shelter their children from these horrors for as long as possible?

Are these students so focused on math and science that they do not have time for the subjects of history or social studies?

Are there other world atrocities of more relevance to them of which I have no knowledge? 

After a night's pondering about this student's lack of background on the Holocaust, I asked the principal if I'd understood her correctly or if maybe there was a word (or words) in Chinese that would help clarify the subject. He said "no" and that I'd understood the situation correctly. Nazi Germany and anything about the extermination of Jews is not taught in the public school Malaysian curriculum. Students have little knowledge of WWII besides the Japanese Occupation of Malaya. He suggested the reason is because of the establishment of Israel and Muslim hatred of the Israels for "stealing land from the Palestinians" and, because this is a predominately Muslim country, the Holocaust is not taught.

His statement "stealing land from the Palestinians" got my attention and made me delve deeper. I'm the first to admit that I know very little about the establishment of Israel after WWII.  A quick "Google" search yielded far more information that I could digest in a couple of  hours (that's how long I got side-tracked)..I tried to discount sites that appeared biased with hidden agendas and hoped to just find just facts...much easier said than done. Words and themes like Zionist Movement, establishment of a Jewish State, British setting up the government, displaced Palestinians, Israel as largest recipient of US foreign aid, sanctions, wars, power, and money (aren't the last two always at the root of all evil??) In other words, many wrongs don't lead up to many rights...

What my brief research did was reinforce my love of and hunger for reading books like The Hiding Place and The Diary of Anne Frank  because they teach hope and courage and bravery in the face of evil and despair. Reading gives the freedom and flexibility to broaden and deepen an understanding of the world in order, one would hope, to make good/moral decisions.

Most importantly, this little detour into "why" has made me less shocked by what my student did not know and even more shocked by what I don't.

I guess that's what we call "learning from our students."

Signs of Sewing and Quilting in Malaysia

3D Quilt on Display at Mall Quilt Show

Yesterday, I was stuck at a traffic light for a long time (8 changes of the light.)While glancing out the side window  I noticed a sewing machine repair shop.

This particular shop lot -  a row of old Chinese shops on the ground floor with storage or the owner living upstairs - caught my attention not because of bright displays of gleaming, new computerized sewing machines, or beautiful fabrics lining the walls, or posters displaying all the creative possibilities a machine can create. On the contrary, this old repair shop probably hasn't seen a coat of paint since the 1930's. There were no lights turned on. And there was not an ounce of fabric nor a single customer to be seen.  As a matter of fact, it was hard to distinguish this sewing machine repair shop from the motorcycle repair shop next door. Both shared the same dirt, grime, grease and darkness so typical of these old rows of shop.

What this shop did have, on the other hand, was about 10 Singer treadle sewing machines. The black, elegant American-made machines with the distinctive gold letters, standing proudly in their original, hardwood sewing tables, were scattered in front of this dingy shop. In various states of repair, I couldn't tell if  these machines had been tossed outside to show customers the shop was open, or waiting for a visit from "Antiques Roadshow".  How these machines made their way to Malaysia is beyond me, but if I were a decorator or a collector, this shop had some "good deals."

The Singer machines made me think of my mom. She still has her Singer machine which still works.  I learned to sew on her Singer: pulling the wheel with my right hand, pedaling the treadle with both feet, guiding the fabric with my left.

A green light and honking traffic startled me out of my reminiscing. I drove on to the grocery store at our new and  modern mall. Walking through the center court of the mall, I was greeting by a huge surprise to me - a quilt show. I was shocked having never seen quilt fabric, women sewing or  crafts. As a matter of fact, the one fabric store in town that I've been to has a football-field full of rolls of polyester and a couple of Japanese cottons thrown in - No notions. No scissors. No thread. As a matter of fact,  I've been trying to figure out how anyone sews over here. The best thing I could gather was that they just wrap the cloth around them about 20 times and then sling the end of their shoulder like a sari. Or, they take the fabric to a tailor. (2 suits for RM50.)

Christmas Tree Quilt complete with blinking lights.

But, back to the quilt show. Not only were there quilts for all seasons, including a blinking Christmas tree quilt, Halloween pumpkins and Chinese calligraphy, there were women demonstrating machine quilting techniques on their new Janome sewing machines. One friendly women  invited me to sit down and have a lesson.

The lesson was more to demonstrate the features of her electronic sewing machine,  but I was more interested in her supplies.


"Where do you buy your fabric? Where do you buy your thread, mats and cutters?" I gushed.
She smiled and said, "At our shop. You can come take a class."

I wish I could read the Chinese!

"Do you have a business card? Where are you located? Are you open on Sunday?"
"No business card. But here's our web site."
(A website? Amazing. Very few businesses in our town - I've found none actually- have a web site!)

Unfortunately, the shop is located in Ipoh about 1 1/2 hours from here. Fortunately, Ipoh is where Eric and I go to the movie and enjoy a meal. No reason he can't learn to enjoy quilt shops with me, too.

Seeing the Singer teadle machine and the quilt show inspired me. When I got home,  I took a piece of Malaysian batik fabric from my "stash" and made a table cloth for tonight's dinner party.

There were friendship squares from around the world.

 I was surprised to learn about quilting in Turkey, too.

Visiting Thailand - Moviestar Style

I've felt like an actress in an action film or a writer getting inspiration for a fantasy book during our recent tour of Thailand. I've pretended to be James Bond and sat on the same steps as the Wolfpack Gang. I've wondered if Frank Baum based "The Wizard of Oz" on the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddah.  If you want to have a Hollywood style escape from reality here are sights that are sure to please.

1) The Temple of the Emerald Buddah and The Grand Palace - This "must see" of Bangkok felt and looked like the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz. The statures of white monkeys, the emerald colored glass and gold plate adorning the sides of the temple is to the somewhat grimy and dirty Bangkok as the transformation  from black and white to color is to the movie. (The picture on the left is the Temple of the Emerald Buddah at the Grand Palace. Unfortunately my photo of the Emerald Buddah did not turn out so I substituted my photo of the Golden Buddah who is easier to photograph.)

2) The Tiger Temple - The song "Lions, and tigers, and bears, Oh my..." kept running in my head as I walked with tigers and past bears to the Tiger Temple. All I needed were some red slippers and a blue and white checkered dress. Posing for photographs with tigers - including one who starred in "The Hangover II" -  all while trying to appear calm was hard knowing that tigers have and do still attack their tamers.I did not want to die in this hot, dry, rocky, dusty Thai canyon.

3) The Elephant Village - Riding an elephant was fun. As a matter of fact it made me laugh out loud. From "Horton Hears a Who" to "The Jungle Book", I've always enjoyed reading about elephants and, more recently watching books about elephants be made into films. There are plenty of movies including one of my recent favorites: "Like Water for Elephants." The elephant I rode was named Long John Silver (a Hollywood icon even though Long John is not an elephant)  He liked being tickled behind the ears with my toes. The owner could make the elephant walk, stop, and pose for pictures, all by what seemed to be his toes. 

4) Riding Long Boats through Bangkok and to the Floating Market - We pretended we were (or would have pretended if we didn't have to wear the not-so-Hollywoodesque life jackets) James Bond from "Golden Eye" racing through the canals of Bangkok. The ride was pretty thrilling especially when our boat nearly capsized from the large wake of another boat and then rammed into the concrete edge of the canal as the long boat driver maneuvered to keep the boat upright.I didn't want to imagine swimming in the canal although some people were fishing...)

5) Evening cocktails at the Lebua Sky Bar - Exiting the hotel at the 64th floor of the Lebua Hotel, walking out to the rooftop deck,  and walking down the steps where the  hungover Wolfpack tried to remember what had happened, was MUCH better than watching the movie. The  Sky Bar appears to be suspended in mid-air among  twinkling stars, wispy clouds and blinking lights of Bangkok. 

6) The Fast Boat Ferry to Phi Phi Island -  Although we did not go to Phang Nga Bay where the 1974 James Bond film 'The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed, we did see many islands that could have substituted for the evil lair of Scaramanga, Bond's nemesis, on our day boat trip around Ko Phi Phi. Snorkeling among the brightly colored coral and tropical fish made it easy to imagine being lulled into a life of tropical leisure while at the same time remaining vigilant to evil lurking around the next cave.

Writing this blog post from the function but not luxury (compared to what we just left) of our Bangkok Airport hotel and waiting for a return flight to reality is like the curtain going up after a great film. Although it's back to reality for us, the memories of this great "action film" will energize us until the next time.