The new building from my apartment windowSTS has been in the process of building a new education center, and the big day is finally here. This Saturday is the opening celebration for the building. I'm grateful for this for a variety of reasons, but mostly so I can sleep at night and have a limited amount of dust to clean up in my apartment.
Somehow, I'm not quite sure how, the building is almost ready. It's a huge building, including an auditorium, two floors of classrooms, a sports court, a two-floor library, and a whole floor of apartments to my knowledge.
Gotong Royong is a Malaysian concept, roughly translated into "mutual assistance." More directly, it often refers to the idea of "many hands make light work." These last two days have been a big gotong royong for the new building, so all the students, faculty, and staff have been cleaning.
Malaysians are thorough cleaners. I don't quite know how else to put it. We cleaned anything and everything. I've swept out parking garages, wiped down auditorium chairs, scraped cement off window frames, dug out sewers, and, my personal favorite, washed out the parking ramp. I felt pretty Malaysian yesterday with my face mask on and a towel draped over my head-- a look I hope to pull off when I clean in the States. Though I don't think I'll ever be so adjusted that I also wear long sleeves, pants, and socks to avoid the sun.
Through it all, the concept of gotong royong shown true. I've been loving every minute of community as we cleaned, and the laid back personalities led to lots of singing and practical jokes.
The rest of this week is filled with late-night choir rehearsals and cleaning my own apartment as we gear up for this weekend. Maybe I can convince everyone to do a gotong royong for me!
Hope you were able to convince everyone to do a gotong royong for your apartment, Ellen! I smiled as I pictured you cleaning here on a Spring Clean Up Day (which is May 8th) when you return wearing the towel over your head and a face mask over your mouth! It also reminded me of Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might" and Colossians 3:22-24, "Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ."
ReplyDeleteHave a fantastic week!
Kim
HI Ellen,
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I should mention is that when you're finished with your apartment, if you want to convince your friends to do a gotong royong in the states, I live at W5632 S.... ! :)
Jambo Ellen!
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