August in Ampangan Wo

My second month in Ampangan Woh kicked off with a great weekend meet-up for the teachers in the Northern Region. The teacher in the nearby town of Malim Nawar – Margret – was holding her graduation celebration, as Ramadan had come to an end and her Malay Muslim students were more than ready for a party. On top of that, she had been offered a new position, and the graduation would be her last event as a teacher there. She has become the regional coordinator and is now responsible for making sure that my life (okay, and the lives of four or five other teachers nearby) is easy and fun (so far, she’s been doing a great job!). I traveled to Malim Nawar early Saturday morning, and Margret, Daniella (Margret’s replacement), and I spent the day cooking and preparing for other guests. We were expecting a big party – a few teachers from other Northern centers, as well as a handful from HQ in Kuala Lumpur (those guys get to go to all the parties!). Unfortunately, several of our group were unable to come, due to bus schedules and whatnot, but the rest of us had a great time eating all the Western food we’d been missing. We even made hummus (which we devoured in seconds on toasted pita bread)! Although our resident chef (a New Yorker named Joe who came to Malaysia after leaving the restaurant business, and whom we have more or less put to work at all our get-togethers) had been shut out of the only bus of the day out of his village (#JungleProblems), we managed to get the barbeque going and burn nothing but the potatoes. Margret even made an incredible peanut sauce, and we all ate as much as our stomachs could fit, before collapsing into Thanksgiving-esque food coma wherever we could find a spot on Margret’s floor.

One of the KL team brought a lemon cake. That cake never stood a chance.

Since the graduation wasn’t until the afternoon on Sunday, we spent the morning touring a cave temple near Ipoh, about forty minutes’ drive from Malim Nawar. The cave was beautiful, with gorgeous statues in every corner, decorated by vases and vases of flowers and lit candles. The view out over Perak was stunning too – it was a bright day and made the hills and land look incredibly green. We walked by a lake outside the cave as well, where flowers were growing and turtles were playing. We then drove to a second temple, not so much set in a cave as set around it, but still beautiful. The arches were painted in bright colors, and the grounds were swarming with monkeys!  We watched them for a while until the growling started, then left in a hurry. The graduation was a lot of fun – all the students brought some food to share and a few even sang karaoke for us. In the evening, everyone went home, but as there is only one bus every day to my village, and I had missed it by several hours, I stayed one more night. Margret, Daniella, and I spent the night quietly working on a few things - Daniella was preparing for her first day teaching (some 170 students in six classes!).

The following weekend, Daniella and Margret came up to Ampangan Woh. Margret had spent the month of Ramadan collecting donations from her students – clothes, food, and toys – to pass along to the community at Ampangan Woh, and we had finally found a free weekend to make the hand-off. At the last minute seven of her Malay housewife students had asked to tag along, so they rented a truck, loaded it with bags and bags of goods, packed the women into a van, and headed up into the jungle. My host sister, Jawani, her 9-year-old son, Bah Deni, and I all spent the morning watching out the window, waiting to see the van drive up (as phone service is questionable at best, this is the most convenient way to expect visitors) so we could hurry across to the road and meet them. It’s a long walk from the road to our house, and an impossible one with a truck-full of donations, especially for feet not used to trekking uphill through mud. Indeed, the seven Malay women were shocked to see where we lived, and a few of the older ones looked like they might faint when I pointed out where we were headed. Luckily, the men of my community jumped at the chance to help lug the bags up, and eventually everything made it into the house. Hearts racing, we all cooled down in the house, and we served lunch before moving to look through the bags of donations. Margret and I had planned an American-style sandwich bar (although judging from the many “Do you want to eat rice”’s that I got a few hours later I guess it didn’t seem like a meal to my Asli friends). The family I live with was very welcoming and set to work brewing tea and coffee while Margret and I spread out the sandwich makings – bread in varying darknesses, peanut butter, hazelnut spread, egg salad, jam, chocolate spread. Although the incredibly shy visitors needed some prompting to take food, eventually everyone was eating and having a good time. Although I had initially worried about bringing generally religious and conservative Malay women into the village, where there is a deep mistrust that borders on dislike of organized religion (and a conversation about the Korean missionaries building a church in the village took a turn to the somewhat dangerous topic of religion in general) I needn’t have fretted. Margret’s students were fun and chatty, and the younger Ampangan Woh women in particular took a real liking to them. One has even asked me if our class can go to visit them one day. When storm clouds threatened to turn the path back to the main road into a river, everyone said goodbye, and almost immediately tore into the bags of clothes. Margret was staying behind to spend a few days with me, so she and I watched as everyone dug through the clothes and toys. The food was equitably divided between every household – boxes were even packed for the absent families. The clothes were divided in a less orderly manner – shoes and shirts and pants were pulled out, tried on, modeled, then either added to a pile or tossed aside for someone else to find. When the women discovered the Baju Kurangs – the traditional Malay dress that Margret and I had been skeptical the villagers would wear – they were delighted. They were all tried on, and the young women especially cannot wait for a chance to wear them (“We can wear them when we go to Tapah!” “When we have a party!” “In class!”). They feel like real city women in their fancy dresses. Even the tudongs (Malay women’s head coverings) were popular, particularly among the boys who mostly thought they were funny. One of my most serious students, a dedicated man who always brings me his notes after class to ask me to check them, and who is the father or grandfather or uncle of almost all of my students, found a Santa Claus hat, which he wore all afternoon, never cracking a smile or in any way sacrificing his most dignified expression. When the children discovered the stuffed animals, I don’t think anyone has been happier. The boys who live in my house, at least, still cuddle with them while we watch movies, and carry them everywhere. Those will be favorites for a long time.

Made it to the top!

All the bags of donations

No rice at lunch?

Grandma and granddaughter, enjoying sandwiches

Norsaila, age 9, collects more stuffed animals than she can carry.

Serious Ros in his Santa hat

What a happy mess!

Last weekend we had another bimonthly training weekend in KL. As the number of teachers has grown so greatly in the last few months, and the 100+ of us can no longer fit in the HQ at the same time, they divided the training in half, so that 50 of us went last weekend, and the rest are there this weekend. While it was sad not to get to see everyone, it was nice to have a bed and a chance at a free shower, and we were enough that we still had a great time. We spent the days discussing our centers – and at six months I now feel like one of the more seasoned teachers, so had fun talking to the new ones – and the evenings out in the city. I also got to celebrate my birthday there, surrounded by lots of friends, and we spent our Sunday at the Genting Highlands Strawberry Farm. Although the strawberries were expensive to pick, we hand fun just walking through the greenhouses, and afterward went to have a picnic and a nap by a river. As always, it was nice for all of us to have a weekend in KL after two months in our villages and small towns, but I was excited to get back to Ampangan Woh.

Strawberries! We didn't get to pick them, but one coworker with unusually long arms did snatch a few...

Boot art.

Today, Sunday, I am spending the day in Tapah, using the internet to do the reporting part of my job, and to buy a few things, and, most importantly, to await Elma, a trainee from a village in Sabah – one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo – who will be working with me most likely until December. As a trainee, she will assist me in teaching classes and planning events, essentially learning to do my job.  She has been working since January with another teacher in a small town in the south, but has decided to move up to Ampangan Woh to try something new, and to get a little closer to her jungle roots. She visited the center when I first arrived and loved it, so I’m hoping this will be a lot of fun for her – and for me as well!

Bedroom all set up for two... I even hung the mosquito net!