thankgsiving, part two

When we arrived to Malaysia in August, we had a potluck to meet all our supervisors for our placements. Casually we had already mentioned to Laura earlier that week how fun it would be to cook Thanksgiving for her and her husband, the Bishop, for when we would be feeling homesick. However, as things usually go here, a comment turned into an idea, and at the potluck Laura invited all the supervisors to our Thanksgiving festival that we would be hosting for them in November.

Needless to say, I was worried.

Worried because...

1) We have never cooked Thanksgiving before.

2) The people here don't normally like sweet or bland food. American food is both.

3) That is a LOT of people.

4) If the other volunteers cook like me, we are in trouble.

After much scheming and discussing, we began to slowly pan out a plan for this "festival." Doria and Michael graciously offered their house to host the celebration of over forty people. Jacob could perform his trumpet (performances are a vital component of any celebration. clearly.). We could all make our favorite recipes.

So the next obstacle was the recipes! Our first problem came quite quickly; ovens aren't really a common kitchen tool in this hot, tropical country. Luckily, one of Katherine's teachers is in Sarawak for the month, and lent us her portable oven! I plan on using this as much as possible in the next month. Wheat bread and Christmas cookies, anyone?

The second obstacle was ingredients. Overall though, we did fairly well. My favorite substitution had to be a real pumpkin (think jack-o-lantern pumpkin) for the pies, instead of canned pumpkin. Steaming, mashing, mixing... it was an intense process.

We spent all day Saturday and Sunday cooking (with Kelsey making a ton of things the week before). Who knew Thanksgiving was so much work?! Luckily, Kelsey has done a lot of cooking in the past since she's worked at a camp full time.

In the end, here was our delicious menu, pretty much everything from scratch.

Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cranberry relish, homemade buns, corn bake, green bean casserole, sweet pickles, two types of stuffing, and... wait for it... SIX pies!

I am still impressed.

The day was really great-- we had our guests come at 6:30. We shared our favorite thanksgiving prayers (yes family, I taught "Be"), taught them all about Thanksgiving (it was almost every one's first), all shared what we were thankful for, and enjoyed the food!

I think the biggest compliment came from Deborah, Doria's sister. Deborah was explaining how she had studied abroad in the UK. One time she was invited for a traditional dinner there, and they served her spaghetti. She said that she ate her plate, and then looked expectantly at the hosts. What food was to come next? Of course, that was it. There was no rice, so she was still hungry! The compliment was that even though our meal had no rice, she was full!

Another funny part of the day was as I was baking the rolls, I had many people ask me what they were stuffed with. Turkey, or maybe pork? I had to explain that no, we don't stuff the rolls, they are just plain. Just bread. I could only laugh as I watched numerous people open up their rolls later in the evening and stuff it with cranberry sauce.

Anyway, I don't think the day could have been any smoother (except for maybe the part where Doria locked the keys inside the car with the unmade turkey roasting in the hot malaysian sun with T-6 hours to go... haha). I think it was so great for all of us volunteers; not only did we enjoy sharing our traditions, but it was just a little piece of home.

The best part... leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast. :)

The apple pie making process! Erika and I were pretty much masters.

Please take note of our oven (that we made almost everything in) on the floor next to me.

We were surprised it made it.

The spread (and the happy eaters)

Mmmm, heaven!



Kelsey, Me, Erika, and Katherine with our homemade pies!!!
Note the Christmas decorations in the background.
It was like Thanksgiving/Christmas in July!

Thanksgiving, part one

As many of you are beginning to prepare for the big day with warm ovens, freshly baked pies, afternoon movies, and cards (atleast in my family!), I am about to head to bed, finished with Thanksgiving, part one.

Now I realize sometimes it requires a second thought, but no, Malaysia does not celebrate Thanksgiving. I did however, manage to have a wonderful day.

This morning (since it was NOT a public holiday) I taught for three hours. After that, I proceeded to my normal lunch with my students, which I appreciate more and more every day. Particularly when the menu does not include chicken feet. :) But that's another story!

After lunch, we had made plans to go rambutan picking, which is a local fruit that is in abundance this time of year. After being advised to put on my least nice shirt and bring a cap, five students and I piled into two cars to begin our journey. I can't quite say where we went to pick the rambutans, but it was definitely outside of the city somewhere, I'm going to say a kampung. Anyway, we trekked in a ways, stopping for snacks of manggis and langsat on the way. Finally we reached our destination-- which was basically a farm in the middle of the jungle. But there were so many rambutan trees! Think tropical apple orchard. To be honest, I mostly just enjoyed eating my fill while I watched others climb the trees like monkeys and gather large quantities of rambutan with a bamboo stick. We also managed to find lots of durian (called the king of fruits for good reason, but more because it dominates than it is delicious, sedap). Either way, the afternoon was filled with laugher and lots of fruit to eat.

After a much needed shower, I headed to my next commitment for the day. One of my student's had invited Erika and I to his pastor's house for dinner. I think they had no idea how meaningful this was to me to spend this evening in a house and with a family. It was also just great to spend the entire day with my students.

The evening was wonderful as well, with more laughter as we shared in three different languages (English, Malay, Mandarin) with no common language. It's funny because it doesn't even strike me as odd that we can't all communicate. We just bounce back and forth, with everyone in and out of the conversation at some point. I have picked up on a fair amount of Chinese this week (as my students currently only speak Mandarin, Burmese, and English), so I catch the few words I now know (things like no, delicious, come, okay, teacher... you know, the essentials, haha). The meal tonight was great too-- spicy Thai chicken, rice, tofu, pork, vegetables, fresh pineapple and papaya, and sweet bread. Oh, and soda! I don't know about you, but that's what I call a traditional Thanksgiving feast.

Part two of Thanksgiving is to come, as we begin the Western cooking on Saturday. Now that could be quite another story... :)

Photos following, Selamat Malam!

photos

Rambutan trees

A close-up shot. It really is delicious, I promise.


Durian, the king of fruits.
Now this fruit, on the other hand, tastes like it looks.

Just a portion of our pickings-- so much durian!

the daily things

For those of you that sit at home and wonder, "what is Ellen doing today?" (though maybe some of you never do...) here is your answer!

Now that STS is on holiday I have a new routine and schedule to my days. I teach English in the mornings, to students who are staying here for holiday (ones that cannot go home to China and Myanmar). Each day I teach from 9-12:15 between the six students. I really love the small group atmosphere of it, though I still am struggling with how to fill my time outside of teaching. This week I have a Malay class in the afternoon (Saya belajar bahasa melayu tengahari ini?) so I am attempting to switch my thinking into Malay a bit. Although the timing isn't great, as now the only language the students and I have in commmon is English, so I can't practice my Malay like I could when school was in session.

The students and I have created a bit of a routine where we have class in the mornings and then eat lunch together. This lunch consists of a water-based soup, rice, meat, vegetables, and fruit, and of course, eating until all the food is gone. Today they officially invited me to eat with them everyday, which I am extremely grateful for! Even when the conversation switches to all Chinese, I still enjoy the company and the cooking. To be honest, I don't think I was ever meant to cook for myself with only a stove top-- I can probably make a total of three meals. On the list of things I miss... an oven! As well as baked goods and dairy products.

In two weeks, I'll get to try my hand at cooking again for our Thanksgiving celebration! We'll see how that one turns out. I'm hoping through my lunch dates I'll be able to learn some cooking (and then I'll be the best Asian cook in the States!). I was joking with Erika that we will forever be really strange cooks since we first learned to cook for ourselves in another country. It seems perfectly normal to me to eat a fried egg over rice with a little bit of chili sauce. Hmm...

Back to my routine... evenings are quiet here, with a lot of down time. My plan for this evening includes correcting a student's thesis paper, lesson planning for tomorrow (I still find that I can only take it one day at a time), studying Malay, and maybe a little leisure reading.

Did I answer your question? :)

I'll be posting an entry about graduation soon! Sekejap lagi!

pictures first, then the entry

Temburong National Park
"One Language, One Nation, One Kingdom"

The longhouse housing 16 families

The Mosque

Kampung Air, water village

Yesterday I just got back from a six day trip to Brunei. Brunei is a small Muslim country, located on the island of Borneo, surrounded by Malaysia. A flight from KK to Brunei is... (drum roll please) a whole nineteen minutes!

In Brunei we (the four volunteers, Laura, our country coordinator, and I) took our first retreat and stayed with some of Laura's friends. Our main host was Isabel, a beyond-gracious host and a mother of three. She took much time away from her week to provide comfortable accommodations for us (in her late grandparents' apartment), and showing us around the city. We were in the capital city, Bandar Seri Begawan.

A few tidbits about Brunei... first, because it is a majority Muslim country, the entire country is alcohol free. Also, it is a monarchy, with one of the world's richest sultans. The palace itself has over 1,300 rooms. We also learned that they use golf carts to travel around within the palace, AND there is a zoo inside. Also, Michael Jackson performed for one of the princes' eighth birthday party, but you can ask me about that story another time.

Anyway, we spent most of our week in fellowship with each other and our hosts, doing Bible studies, and sight-seeing. Brunei is a small country, so I have to say that six days is more than enough time to get a feel for the city. It was funny to go to a new country and not experience any culture shock (since it is so close to Malaysia, and we are maybe finally adjusted to Asian culture); it was nice to enjoy somewhere new. Brunei was more relaxed than East Malaysia, as well as a lot cleaner and well kept. It was also much greener and spread out.

Some highlights of the trip...

We took a water taxi through the "kampung air" (water village). Brunei has an entire community on its river. Not only are there stilt houses, but stilt schools, mosques, fire departments, and hospitals. Because so much of the city population lives on the water versus the land, the government had to adapt and provide for this. Over 30,000 residents live in the kampung air. These houses have electricity, plumbing, and some even satellite television. People with cars keep them on the land, lining the sides of the roads (giving the city almost a small town feel). This housing differs from Malaysia, where most of the people living out on the water are illegal immigrants. In general, it seems like Brunei's government wasn't really a fan of this concept because they would like the people to have land for themselves. Therefore, whenever there is a house fire or something of the sort in the kampung, the people are not allowed to rebuild their houses, but have to move onto land.

Some other things we saw included the Brunei Museum, which had a lot of Islamic art, the Omar Air Saifuddien Mosque, the six star (who knew this was possible?) Empire Hotel, and the Royal Regalia Museum. The Royal Regalia had every single thing you could ever wish to know (and see) about the Sultan-- my personal favorite: the golden hand that holds up his chin when he is crowned. Second place goes to the yellow umbrella that he uses every time he goes somewhere outside.

My favorite day though, was spent at Ulu Temburong National Park. The four girls (Kelsey, Katherine, Erika, and I) took a day trip to see the rainforest! To get to Temburong from Bandar we had to take an hour boat ride (a morning commute for the business men), a 30 minute drive, a hike, and another boat ride. I have to say though, it was totally worth it. On our way to the park we stopped at a long house. A long house is traditional housing for some of the indigenous people of Brunei and Malaysia, specifically the Murut. The long house we saw provides housing for 16 families (mostly relatives). This was used to provide safety for the tribe during the head hunter days. Now it is more of a sense of community, but once families have enough money, they usually move out of the long house. During the Harvest Festival (in May to celebrate the harvest of rice), the long house sounds like quite the place to be for the festivities and the rice wine.

Anyway, back to our day in Temburong... :) We had tea at an eco village (where they do a lot of overnight trips and camps and things), then made our way over to the park in a long boat on the river. I have to say that a river in the jungle is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen (though I kept expecting to see a deer cross the water or an eagle to fly overhead). We then proceeded to "jungle trek" through the jungle, climbing uphill towards the canopy. Once reaching the end of the trek, we had the opportunity to climb up into a canopy walkway. Despite my fear of heights, and a deterring bee sting, I made it to the top of the canopy walkway! It was a great view, and worth the scary ladder climbing. After hiking around in the top layer of the canopy, we then hiked through a stream to a waterfall, which was GORGEOUS. It was so awesome to be surrounded by these huge butterflies in the air, and refreshing to swim in the cool water. We finished the day off by floating down the river in tubes. Luckily, the current was fairly strong in spots with even a few rapids, so we enjoyed the trip immensely. I think it was one of my favorite days in Southeast Asia in general!

While all the sightseeing was great, I also just enjoyed spending time in Brunei. It was so great to get to know the other volunteers better and laugh and joke around. Also, we spent some time with two families in particular, and it was so wonderful to have dinner at someone's house, or take the kids to the local pool, or teach them how to play Skip-bo and Spoons in exchange for learning how to count to ten in Chinese. It's a funny sense of home to know you have friends in other countries.

I'll finish with just a few photos of the trip, to give you a glimpse! As always, thanks for reading.

Shopping malls

I decided I am going to try and give you a glimpse into one of the many sights and attractions in Sabah.
Today's topic-- shopping malls.

For the avid shopper, you will not be disappointed in KK. There are malls pretty much everywhere, and more in the works. In walking distance alone, I can reach three malls. Maybe four. And let's not forget that KK is now home to the world's largest hypermall, available by free shuttle.

While you may feel that you have your choices of shops and malls, you may, however, not be ready to shop.

Even after shopping three or four times, I still find shopping to be a stressful experience. There are people everywhere, floors and floors of stores, flashing lights, loud music, food stands, and every shop imaginable.
Then once inside a store, it is even more overwhelming. The tiny aisles, the overflowing racks of mismatched clothes, and the random assortment of items are a store attendant's worst nightmare. To give you a perspective, maybe walk into the teen store "Forever 21" in the States, and times that by four. Atleast.

Needless to say, shopping is a very popular activity here. And quite the cultural experience. I have to say that I prefer to hit up the grocery store and the occasional market, and then make my way home.

On a more serious note, lately I have been reading an excellent book called "Beyond the White Noise: Mission in a Multicultural World." The author, Tom Montgomery-Fate, writes of his experiences as a missionary in the Philippines. He too, discusses malls in his writing. I'm not an expert on Malaysia's situation, so I cannot say how close this is to being equally true here, but I have felt these elements at times. It is hard, to say the least, to see a new mall being built next to the shack homes of numerous illegal immigrants.

He writes:
"I had been to SM Megamall and two other malls during our orientation and language study in Manila. SM City, the mall nearest our apartment, was the most interesting and disturbing, because of its location near a large squatter community. Before arriving, as I peered through the front window of the Monumento bus, through the black clouds of diesel exhaust, I would see the mall slowly materialize from a hot, wavy mirage into an imposing palace of cool, white granite: an island of wealth surrounded by sprawling poverty, by packs of street children and dogs straying in the dust, scrounging for scraps of food and hope.
Like malls in the U.S., Philippine malls are timeless, Muzak-filled escapes from the real world. Cool, controlled environments tailored to rapidly quench bodily and material thirsts without distraction. They are three times as crowded as U.S. malls. This may be because nearly two-thirds of all Filipinos live below the poverty line. There is more physical hardship, but fewer places to escape the grind of daily life-- fewer public oases.
The best part is that it's free. A free escape and free entertainment. Any who the armed entrance guards consider appropriately dressed can enjoy the air conditioning, ride the glass elevators, smell the bread in the French bakery, wander through rows and rows of imported underwear and polo shirts, and stay as long as they like."

It's been a while...
And sorry to disappoint, but this isn't going to be much of an update. More updates (and a newsletter!) to come soon.
Tonight I just wanted to post part of a blessing that a volunteer passed onto me. I think it's reassuring to remind ourselves, and truly believe, that what we do in life has a purpose, and that we can make a difference (no matter which country or community we are in).

May God bless you with discomfort... at easy answers, hard hearts, half-truths, and superficial relationships.
May God bless you so that you may live from deep within your heart where God's Spirit dwells.

May God bless you with anger... at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people.
May God bless you so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears... to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war.
May God bless you so that you comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world and in your community, so that you will courageously try what you don't think you can do, but, in Jesus Christ you'll have the strength necessary to do.