A Day of Festivities

Today was a replacement day. During Chinese New Year, we received a week off from school; however, only three days were officially school holiday. Therefore, we have to make up two of those days. Today was one; 26 April is the other. Yet today was not a regular school day at my school.

It began with a normal Thursday schedule. Morning assembly at 7:10am, followed by two classes at 7:30am and 8:10am. But then festivities began.


Morning assembly with the students in their cultural attire instead of their usual school uniforms. Everyone looked sangat cantik (very beautiful)!



With my students

Today SMK Labis celebrated Maulidur Rasul, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Preparations began Friday after school. At 3:00pm, Dorine and I returned to the canteen at my school to join the teachers and staff for Rewang, the preparation of food for the celebration. The women and a few men peeled and chopped vegetables, onion, and garlic while the rest of the men hacked and cut the meat. Two cows were slaughtered for the occasion. When we arrived, the cow parts were being hung from the cross bars of the walkway and the meat was being separated from the bone. The older form boys enjoyed helping the teachers and administrative staff in the preparation of the cows. Needless to say, I stayed with the garlic and onions.


Food preparation with the lovely ladies at my school


Meat preparations by the male teachers and staff

With so many hands working diligently, the meat and vegetables, to be served to nearly 400 people, were ready for cooking within three hours. Cooking commenced later in the evening and continued until the morning, with some people spending the night at the school to ensure the food was ready for lunch on Saturday.

As Maulidur Rasul is only celebrated by Muslims, the Indian and Chinese students had their own activities for the day. The Indian students had a motivational guest speaker and the Chinese students had a guest speaker explain the true meaning behind the Chinese festivities and the zodiacal animals. All students were provided with food – breakfast and lunch. Although each function was conducted in the students’ first language, one of the Form 6 Chinese students translated the speech about the zodiacs for me.

Not being attached to any one racial group, I was able to visit all three ceremonies. Breakfast with the Indian students, the first half of the morning with the Malays, the second half with the Chinese, back to the Malays for lunch, and finishing the day with the Indian students. As the day was an Islamic celebration, I will focus on the activities of the Malays.


Serving roti canai, a fluffy bread taken with curry, to the Indian students


The motivational speaker for the Indian students

I entered the Maulidur Rasul ceremony during the reading of the Quran. The students and teachers had already assembled and proceeded to the religious center on our school’s campus. After a few short speeches, several students performed. There was a brief drama pantomime performance narrated by a few students seated off to the side, songs sung by a group of male students with percussion instruments, followed by a chorus of female students with male accompaniment on percussion. Talents I didn’t know my students have because there is no music class at our school.


Male students' musical performance


Female students' choral performance

The guest speaker commenced after the presentations. His talk was about the Prophet Muhammed and birthdays. During the portion I stayed for, he explained how birthdays are no longer celebrated in the proper way. Now, the youths like to go to the clubs and celebrate with members of the other gender. The proper way to celebrate is to show gratitude, ask for prayers and well-being, and show appreciation and humility. He seemed to be a very entertaining speaker as the students were constantly breaking out into fits of laughter.

It was during this speech that I left to attend the Chinese speaker and thus learn about the Chinese zodiacs. As a snake, my prime hours are between 9am-11am. Each of the 12 animals has a special two hours during the day. It is during this time that the animals are most active or perform certain behaviors. Between 9-11am, the snake hunts but does not harm people. It was clear that the speaker was also very entertaining for the students.


Chinese speaker


A Thank You for Coming

At 12:30, the Malay speaker finished and the students and teachers broke for lunch. Lunch was served on large platters with a variety of dishes shared by a group of students. Family style, eaten with the hands, the traditional Malay style of eating. I ate in the teachers’ room with my colleagues. There was biryani rice, mixed vegetables, several meat dishes, each with a different sauce, fruit salad, a variety of juices, and water. Lunch marked the end of the celebration, though the cleaning of the canteen continued for quite some time.


Lunch time!


Cleaning after lunch

***
The day’s festivities were not finished this point. Dorine and I had tea with one of our new friends from yoga class and her son. The son is a very intelligent student in Standard Four at the local Chinese school. He has a collection of 50-60 trophies for competitions he has taken part in – Chess, English speaking, and English storytelling competitions, to name a few. He was very curious about the United States and where Dorine and I live, information which we gladly shared with him.

***
As for the evening, Dorine and I had been invited to an Indian Coming of Age ceremony. Traditionally, this ceremony is performed when a girl reaches puberty; however, in more modern times, it has become a smaller ceremony for family and close friends and is often held years later. In this case, the girl was 18. Unfortunately, we arrived after the ceremony, though we were able to watch the video recording of the events.

From what I could gather, the girl is seated on the floor while her elders take coconut milk in their palms and pour it on the girl’s head, along with a special type of grass, in a sort of blessing. Once everyone has done so, the girl is taken to the bathroom where, with a cloth over her head, water is poured on her head. Next there is a ceremony involving coconut, platters of food, and blessings. Regretfully, I am not sure of the specific significance of these acts. We were able to greet the family and partake in the dinner before the occasion concluded. Delicious vegetarian Indian food I may add.

This was a lovely day, full of cultural experiences and festivities.

Cross Country Running

Saturday, 9 March 2013

Student: Teacher Leslie, did you just bathe?

Me (with a perplexed expression): No, not just now. 

Student: Then why are you so wet?

Me (looking down at my completely soaked shirt): It's my sweat from running!


This morning SMK Labis had a cross country race. All 700 students were divided into four houses - red, green, blue, and yellow - and then further divided into age groups which would determine their start time. Some excited, some not, we all came to school on a Saturday as if was a week day. Mohammad Haili and I led the aerobic warm-ups much to the delight of the students. 


Preparing for the run - about to start warm-ups

The course was roughly a 5k, over half of which was through palm and rubber tree plantations. A beautiful course. As it was still early when we began, the morning mist created a serene atmosphere as we passed the young palm tree fields. And once the sun did pierce through the morning haze, the trees protected us from the heat. That is until the final 0.5km stretch which was in full sunlight. 

Many teachers were posted along the course as were the St. John's club members who were responsible for administering first aid as needed. I believe only one girl fell and scraped her knee. A good percentage considering how many students, especially the boys, I saw sprinting down the uneven dirt hills!

I was the only teacher that ran with the students. I began with the second group of girls, but did not complete the race with them. A race that would have normally taken me 25-30 minutes lasted over an hour because I kept turning back to "force" students to jog a short distance with me. This way I ended up running with every gender and age group and probably made at least 100 students jog during a time they would have otherwise been walking. As we were jogging up a hill and I was encouraging my students to maintain a steady pace rather than sprint and walk, one student said, "Teacher, with you I can do this." Yet another reason to smile everyday. BOLEH!

Once everyone finished, there were refreshments and an awards ceremony for the top finishers in each age group. I without a doubt won the wet shirt contest. Malaysians don't seem to sweat much, whereas I was compared to last year's male ETA! Well, Leslie likes to exercise and Malaysia is hot. 


Hydrating after the run

And of course many students wanted to take photos with me after. Attractive me! But at least the students were happy!

When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!


Resting after the race


Medals!

I Smile Every Day

Every day I ask myself,
Why do I do what I do? Why am I here?
And every day I answer
Because this is what I love.
Because this is what I am meant to do.

Despite the lack of sleep, the frustrating moments of being misunderstood, feeling like I’m “speaking a totally foreign language” or that others around me are speaking a foreign language, despite being half way around the world from my family, I do not wish to be doing anything other than living in Malaysia and teaching at SMK Labis.

Every day I smile. Every day there are so many things to be happy about. Yesterday I laughed with a student as he painted his toenails during recess. Two weeks ago I helped a baby kitten, taking her to the vet to get eye drops for her infected eye and to the pet store for deworming pills and milk before returning her to her mother, only to see her health improved the next time I saw her. (There are a few “school cats” that roam around our campus, including two kittens.) Whether it’s dancing Gangnam Style with my students, singing “What a Wonderful World” with the incredible women in the canteen, or celebrating with the Bahasa Malaysia debate team when they win the semi-finals competition, I smile.


Dancing Gangnam Style at the end of class

Perhaps one of my favorite daily moments is seeing the faces of the special needs students shine with happiness as I greet them. I love working with these students. They always want to talk to me and learn from me despite their minimal English skills. On Thursday, one of the students took me by the hand, led me into her classroom, followed by several of her classmates, and asked me to teach them English. With pleasure! And they didn’t want me to stop. They just wanted to keep learning.


With a couple of the Special Needs students

Sometimes I feel like I am not making much of an impact. Sometimes I wonder how I can do better. But then a student whom I do not see in class will come to me and ask me to talk with her so that she can improve her English skills. And we’ll sit and talk for an hour.

Impacts start small. You can only walk a mile by taking one step at a time. For example, the standard response for “How are you?” is “I am fine.” Not anymore. No longer are my students just “fine.” They may be “not fine” or “tired,” but more often than not, they are “excellent,” “awesome,” “happy,” and “very very very good”! My students can now find North Carolina on a map. My students now know about ultimate Frisbee. My students have celebrated diversity and have worn two different colored shoes to school to show their acceptance of differences. I cannot wait to see what we can accomplish in the next eight months.


The Bahasa Malaysia Debate team preparing for the Finals Competition!

I am blessed to be here in Malaysia. I cannot believe that two months of my ten month contact have already passed. I love every minute of it. Every moment makes me stronger. Every day there are many things that make me smile.


The wonderful women in the canteen