Every weekend I don’t travel, I enjoy going to the Pasar Malam. This is one such weekend. A 15-20 minute walk down the road from my house brings me right to the Dataran. Once there, I am immediately encouraged to buy food from many of the stalls I pass. Graciously, I decline.
One of the great things about living in a small town is that everywhere I go, I typically see someone I know. Tonight was no exception. Within five minutes, I run into four of my Form 5 students. They invite me to walk with them as they purchase food with which to break their fast later that evening. As we walk, I see other students as well as the wonderful women who work at our school canteen. I engage my acquaintances in short conversations using a mixture of English and Bahasa Malaysia depending on each of our abilities.
Once these students finish buying their food, they wished to return home. I walked them to their motorcycles, passing a few more students along the way. As soon as they leave, I am greeted by Latif, the man who catered for my most recent English camp. He is a very nice man, always eager to speak with me. As he owns one of the stalls at Bazaar Ramadan, he politely “forced” me to follow him so he could give me a take-away container of biryani rice “usually eaten with goat, but for you, I give you the fruit side.” For the record, it was delicious.
As I still had not made it through the Night Market, I continue walking, only to meet more of my students. As we are greeting, one of our English teachers arrives. See why I love small towns? Anyway, they invite me to walk with them, an opportunity I will never turn down. Conversations shift from one topic to another and eventually come to a discussion about clothes. At one point I mention that I want to learn how to wrap a hijab, one of the many styles of head scarves. They link their arms in mine and together we walk to the clothes section of the market. We found a style I liked and they picked out the color, a light blue that hopefully matches my blue baju kurong. I also needed a head cap (I’m not sure what these are actually called). It’s a knit cap in which the women keep all of their hair so none of it shows if the hijab shifts. Final preparation step, we needed to buy the pins to hold the hijab in place. Since I am a simple person, I picked out simple pins, shiny gems with no bling.
“Teacher, tomorrow you bring everything to school and during break, we will teach you how to wear.” Yes ma’am. What a glorious trip to the market.
***
Today we had school. Yes, on Saturday. It was a replacement day for the day they cancelled school a few weeks ago because of the haze from the Indonesian fires. During the upper form break, about halfway through the school day, I met these four students, with another friend, at the surau, the Muslim prayer room. When it is not prayer time, non-Muslims are able to enter. In the side room, Syarizan, a teacher I really like, and a couple students were preparing a bulletin board. When they realized what was going on, they stopped and came to watch and help. Here are some photos to show the process of dressing a hijab. The tudongs, what the students are wearing, are much easier to put on as you literally only have to slip them over your head. However, I prefer the styles of the hijab.
Tying up my hair in preparation
Putting on the hair cap
Attaching the first pin
Attaching the second and third pins, one on top of my head and one on my left shoulder
Still pinning
With Syarizan
Group photo!
Can you only imagine the responses I got from the teachers and students when they saw me?! I got exclamations of disbelief, looks that lacked recognition, and once I was recognized, I received compliments on how beautiful or different I looked. Recently, we have had several new teachers come to the school, so many people thought I was just another new teacher, or even a new student. Until they looked at my face for literally 5 or more seconds. I wish I had a video camera to record the reactions of everyone when they realized it was me wearing a hijab. Malay students of all forms enjoyed helping me fix it when it shifted slightly throughout the rest of the day. Teacher becomes student, students become teachers – the beauty of cultural exchange.
Even the boys wanted to wear a hijab! Possibly my favorite picture.
With Lia, my desk mate
***
To make the day complete with more cultural exchange, Hasnul and I broke fast together again. This time, I taught her the ever desired Mexican food. Last year’s ETA wanted to teach her, but they ran out of time. We made burritos with all the vegetarian toppings – rice, black beans, sautéed green peppers and onions, home-made tomato salsa, and fresh, home-made guacamole, topped with Mexican blend shredded cheese on a wholegrain tortilla. First burrito success!
Hasnul, me, and the makings of burritos
The food
Hasnul about to wrap her first burrito!!
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