The interesting things about Malaysia....

MY FRIENDS ...FUTURE LEADERS AND MISSIONARIES

MEMBER FAMILY SQUATTING IN THE CITY

JUNGLE IN THE CITY...ON OUR VISITS


A GREAT MEMBER FAMILY JUST BAPTIZED 4 MONTHS AGO
WE ARE NOW THE TEACHERS FOR THE REST OF THEIR LESSONS

So, what's new in East Malaysia? Can't think of anything. We spent this last week at home which was nice. We caught up on 'paper work' and a few other things we have been wanting to do. Bill/Dad spent some time getting acquainted with this new laptop and it's program for posting photos and videos. He can do some pretty fancy things.

We both needed haircuts so went exploring to find a place to have that done. It is quite different here from in America. First of all, we don't need an appointment---just go and there is someone who isn't busy and they will do it for you. Secondly, there is this thing that sometimes is a problem called language. I don't speak much Malay and they don't speak much English. I have been told that all beauticians think western women like short hair so I went into it with that advantage. So I told her 'just a trim' and indicated taking off less than 1/2 inch. That never happens. It is always about an inch that they take off. So, she starts with the haircut. Thirdly, after the haircut she asks if I would like a shampoo. "Sure." So then she takes a flattened-out plastic shopping bag and tuck it into my back collar followed by a small towel. Then she disappears for a minute and comes back with a handful of shampoo and a squeeze bottle of water. So, sitting in the chair, dry hair, she goes to work and soon there is a mound of suds which she works for about 10 minutes; massaging scalp, neck, shoulders, and all quite pleasant, not at all drippy. Then over to the basin for a rinse and the water flies; in the ears, down the neck, spray on my face. But she is thorough and dries me up good including in my ears. Whew! Then back to the chair for styling which is quite unremarkable. Often, the one who cuts and styles the hair is different from the one who does the shampooing. And all this for 38 RM which is just less than $10 US. Fun! :)

This last week has been Hari Raya which is a week-long celebration of the end of Ramadan. School was on holiday and many businesses were closed Monday and Tuesday. So we had to make two trips to town to do our bank business.

We are learning our way around this city but we are still glad we don't have to drive and navigate at the same time. It is working out well to use a taxi for our outing's and saving a lot of money because we are not renting a car. However, it is not always very convenient. It is hard to visit the members using a taxi because there is generally a wait of about 20 minutes for each taxi---coming and going from one home to another. But it is very fun to visit the members. We are involved in teaching the follow-up lessons to newly baptized members.

The weather continues hot and humid. Guess it doesn't change much from dry to wet season. We hear from home that it has been very hot---in the 90's---so we won't say a word of complaint. However, I did buy a jacket last week because I get so cold in some of the airports where we wait.

I will let Bill/Dad finish this posting.

Well how about my haircut? We stopped in to one of the many beauty parlors and I asked for a haircut. Well she kept asking me things and I wasn't sure so I just said "ya" and she continued her work. The first surprise was she shampooed my hair and forever....like 10 minutes with a green tea shampoo. So you know I don't have much hair especially after she used a #1. Then she massaged my scalp and shoulders and then more shampoo. Finally she rinsed and then asked about oil something which I thought she was going to put oil on my hair but oh no she scrubbed my oily face and the inside of my ears!! 45 minutes latter I was finally done all for about $6 usd.

So tonight we did our first visiting in KK.

The one place was right in the jungle behind some nice homes where the family was squatting.

The other was a flat and they had just about nothing. Most all of your garages are nicer and more furnished than their flat. Oh but very nice and very warm people. And they are so happy! We love it that we are making friends again in the branch.

In the morning we fly to Lahad Datu. The other side of the north end of Borneo. We will be traveling all over the place for the week looking at about 20 schools scattered all over the jungle. We will be doing the preliminary groundwork for the water specialist visit the end of October. We will be there for the week. This area really is on the edge of civilization. However we have been there and visited these school before last July and we just love the kids and their teachers. They are so fun. We are so happy that we will probably be able to help them have enough clean water and some bathrooms which they do not have at present.

The following week we go to Singapore for our visa run and then come home and go up to Sandakan at the very northern tip of Borneo for the weekend finishing up the wheel chair project.

So I need to go pack. Thanks for all of your support and prayers and especially thanks to those that take a moment to write it is so good to hear from home.

Flying low across East Malaysia

BILL AND ELLEN WITH GRIFFINS,
VISION SPECIALIST

TRYING THE BLOW GUN WITH A PENAN GENTLEMAN

RADIANT TOWER...WHERE WE LIVE..
THIRD FLOOR DOWN FROM THE TOP 
AND ON THE LEFT CORNER

Sorry about the lapse in postings. We are home now from our trip to Kuching at the other end of East M'sia where we met up with Dr. Bob and Shirley Griffin who are vision specialists and are helping us put together a vision care project both in Kuching and here in Kota Kinabalu. We have had several days of back to back meetings with NGO's and Sarawak Society for the Blind and Sabah Society for the Blind. Both societies are doing wonderful things for the vision impaired people. And both could use help with their efforts to help people be independent with their blindness. In both facilities they are training the vision impaired to be able to support themselves with such occupations as massage therapy or reflexology, basket weaving, ITC, mushroom growing, small woodworking projects, and others.

While we were in Kuching we had a free afternoon and a friend took us out to a cultural center where many of the Sarawak ethnic groups are represented. It is similar to the Polynesian Cultural Center for those of you who have visited that. We walked around a small lake around which were constructed homes representing the different groups. At each home we learned about something unique to that group such as using sago palm for food, how bird's nest soup is made, (don't think I will try that), how to make and use a blow gun, and other things. At the end we were treated to a music and dance show. It was very interesting and well done. Some of the photos were taken there.

We are in Ramadan which is the Muslim's month of fasting when they do not eat from sunrise to sunset. At sunset they feast. There is much bustle to get special foods for breaking the fast and all the restaurants have special breaking the fast foods. We were treated to a buffet one evening and it was quite unique---very different foods from what we are used to. Sweets are a big part of their feasting. The Muslims have a diet code similar to kosher. I hope I don't get into trouble for mentioning kosher and Muslim in the same sentence. Ramadan ends on the 21st and 22nd. Then they have really big feasts and it is a national holiday. Reminds me of our Christmas celebrations in a way.

We got back to Kota Kinabalu in time to completely miss our zone conference. But we were able to get together with the Pres. Clark and his wife and the 3 other senior couples for dinner that evening. It was so good to meet the Morries from Sandakan and see the Thomas' again and the Douglas' who live here in KK who just returned from a temple trip with a group of our branch members who they had prepared for going to the temple for the first time. They go to the Manila Philipines temple. We have a wedding reception this evening for a couple who were married/sealed. So cool.

Life is good here. We are well and somehow continue to have energy to do the things we need to do. The Lord is guiding us and helping us all along the way. This truely is His work and He wants it done.

TYPICAL HOME OF THE MALAYSIA TRIBES BEFORE 1950'S

CENTER FOR TEACHING BASKET WEAVING 
SKILLS TO BLIND PEOPLE

TYPICAL MALAYSIAN TUG, THE WORKERS LIVE ON THE TUG

Looks like we will have the first vision project for Malaysia ready submit to the Area Presidency very soon. We are excited to see the poor and needy of Malaysia get the vision help they need. Many will be able to see for the first time in years. We will be donating hi tech equipment that will allow the doctors here that are passionate about eye care for the poor give the help they so desperately want to give. It will take awhile to get it all done but some time in the next four months hopefully if all goes well another doctor will come from the states bringing this new equipment with him and making sure it is all calibrated and operating correctly.

We had a wonderful tour seeing the Proboscis Monkeys on a jungle river south of here about 2 hours into the jungle. The Proboscis are only found on Borneo and there are only 500+ left. There were quite the sight. This is the first of our sightseeing adventures in the 6 months we have been in Borneo. We both feel that maybe we are working pretty hard and need to take time to enjoy the country. However there is just so much to do and so many people to help we just find joy in working I guess. We really don't feel like we are missing much because our lives our so full . We may regret not seeing more latter.

PROBOSCIS MONKEYS

PROBOSCIS MONKEY 

We will have the Frandsens here October 21st. They are the water specialist. We will be doing the same work with them however it will be much harder as we have to see all of the 50 schools that are in the jungle and all spread out over east Sabah. Then we have to travel down to Kuching with them also. They will be here 14 days and it will all be a busY.
Internet is very slow here. So I am very limited on how much we can put on. Here is a short clip.

Keeping our noses to the grindstone

OUR TESKI DRIVER, CHONG
HE IS SO FUNNY

We have been here for 2 weeks now and are feeling somewhat settled. We are learning our way around this city as we go out to a different place just about every day.

OUR NEW PLACE, MASTER BEDROOM

A REAL KITCHEN!

OUR LIVING ROOM

Yesterday we went exploring a bit to a place called One Borneo which is a newly developed area near the university. We had looked at a condo there a few weeks ago so we were aware that it was there and they have a free shuttle from downtown. It is a new housing area, shopping complex (mall) and it is NICE. We did a little shopping where I found a Corell bowl and nice heavy forks and spoons. Everywhere we go there is KFC, Pizza Hut, and McDonalds. None are my favorite but at One Borneo they had a Kenny Rogers Roaster restaurant. That was nice. They serve Malaysian food but also some American food. Normally when we eat out we eat Malaysian or Chinese food. There was a good restaurant in Bintulu that served a great fiery vegetarian dalcha that I really liked. I'll have to learn how to make dalcha---yellow lentils, potatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, garlic, and some chilies. Cook it up and serve with rice. Yum!

So we are working, as I said. We are so busy here. We can certainly see the wisdom of having us live here in the capitol. Sometimes it seems that all we have to do is get up in the morning and get out there and Heavenly Father puts us in the right place to meet the right people to make this work happen. Our prayers for guidance are answered every day.

WHEELCHAIR HANDOVER  KK

On Saturday we had another wheelchair handover ceremony to the Cheshire Homes organization here in KK. They are a home for disabled adults and have several locations throughout Sabah. I think we have one more handover for the wheelchair project that was started by our predecessors.

BILL SPEAKING AT THE WHEELCHAIR HANDOVER

We visited a home for abandoned children and they have big needs also. We will be helping there we think.

ONE OF THE CHILDREN AT THE HOME

Bill here;

Yes we have been swamped. One of the members asked us if we have "p" day. No time for P day here. We do take breaks a little here and a little there is all. We have felt very directed by the Lord. I feel like we are proxy for the Lord getting his work done. We recently met a lady at church that was visiting here from West M. She found out what kind of work we did. She was with a group of friends of her brother's and one of the discussions they had was about our work. One of the men there just happened to be the President of the Society for the Blind in Sabah and principal of the blind school. He of course wanted to talk with us. We we just happen to have an eye specialist coming next week to meet with us in the south end of the Island about a 2 hour flight from here. He is a retired Ophthalmologist from the states that will work with us in determining the vision project we can do here for this year and next. So now we will be able to include this group in his visits and possibly be one of the projects as it seems to be the one with the most needs and serves the largest population. Did we just happen to meet this man? Don't think so. We have these things happening regularly to us. In the Missionary handbook that we study each Tuesday in District meeting Ellen read the part that says that our bodies are not our own while serving. Oh how true that is. We need to stay healthy and our minds focused so the Lord can get his work done.
We were on the front page of the national newspaper again. Now of course we don't ask for the press to be there nor is this our objective when we take on a project. But it sure helps in bringing our church out of obscurity in this corner of the world.

Next month we have David Fransen coming over to look at 4 different projects for clean water we have found. We will travel with he and Lena all over East M. to look at these. Some will require travel in 4X4 over rough jungle roads and some will require a good hard hike. They come paying a good part of their own expenses. And of course give of all their time, both specialist do.

We have been gone 5 months now. One of our daughters said it felt longer than that. It is good to be missed. We miss all of you too!! We are so thankful for all of your support and prayers. We wonder many times during the week how you are doing and what you are doing. We miss being a part of your lives. But we know this is the Lord's work and are so grateful to be healthy enough and have the resources to serve. We wish we could tell you more about the cultural things here.

SHOPPING IN KK

A brand new modern huge mall here in KK and this is what you will see regularly. In the papers there is quite a bit being said about a young mother who was arrested for drinking in a local bar/dance club that will be canned for doing so.  Also in the paper we see pictures of officials giving alms to the poor. Also in the papers pictures of the Penan that are still nomadic and are having real trouble settling down to the settled life a the government wants them too. These are all things in the papers so I think it is ok to repeat here.