Pulau Omadal and About

MR TORBEN NEXT TO ELLEN, HEAD OF HUMANA SCHOOLS
NESTOR IN RED, OUR DRIVER & INTERPRETER AND
ISMAEL, OUR CONTRACTOR  ON THE RIGHT IS
THE OWNER OF THE BOAT.

   BILL AND ELLEN ON OMADAL ISLAND

HOMES AT OMADAL ISLAND

 This is such an interesting place to be serving the Lord and His children.  Last week we accompanied Torben Venning, the director of the Humana schools, to visit the island of Omadal which, for you who like maps, is in the Celebes Sea off the East coast of Sabah; GPS coordinates for Pulau (that means 'island' in Malay)  Omadal are: 4˚25’39.53”N   118˚45’11.12”E with elevation 0 to 4 meters.  The island is approximately 10 to 12 km in circumference surrounded by coral reefs.  It has sparse vegetation on most of the island.   It is about a 45 minute boat ride---small boat, big engine so we moved right along---and it is BEAUTIFUL.  These islands are surrounded by coral reefs and are some of the most popular in the world for diving.   The water is so clear and we were told that it is very clean.  (Hard to believe since they all use 'hanging toilets' which flush twice a day with the tide change.)  The islands are surrounded with coral reefs so the water is very shallow as you will see if you look at google earth.  

HER FUTURE?

THIS IS THIER HOME--SEA GYPSIES
THEY ARE POLEING THE BOAT BECAUSE THE
WATER IS SO SHALLOW

     Torben is interested in establishing a school---perhaps a floating school---for the bajau luat children who live in the area.  The bajau luat are the sea gypsies, a group of people who continue to live as they have for generations as fishermen, following the fish.  They live on their boats which are about 30 feet long and no more than 5 or 6 feet wide at the most.  They have a canopy which gives them some protection from the sun.  They use a box of sand in which to build a little fire for cooking.  There is a hammock for the baby.  Sometimes there are more than 2 generations living on the boat---the grandma sits in the back and bails because there is less than a foot of freeboard.  We have heard that they experience 'motion sickness' when they come ashore.  They are very poor and stateless having lived in these islands between Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia for so long.  Some of them have very small and humble homes built on the water, of course, near the islands.      

THE FAMILY VEHICLE

BAJAU LAUT CHILDREN---NOT A CARE

     And we went to the island because they have no fresh water.  Besides the bajau luat there are Malaysian citizens who also are located at the island.  No one actually lives ON the island.  Rather they build their homes on poles or ironwood piling over the water.  The population is about 1500 plus people and there is no fresh water on the island.  They depend on rain water collection and use it only for drinking and cooking. They bathe and wash clothing in sea water.  Only the more affluent have corrugated metal roofs and water tanks to collect it in and they sell it to the others.  They can bring water from Semporna or Bum Bum Island but it is expensive.  There are some buildings on the island---a primary school for the Malaysian children, a community center and a police post.  

HOME FROM SCHOOL. "MOM.....ANY COOKIES AND MILK?"

THE DARK SHAPES ARE FRUIT BATS

NEW TANKS AT A  HUMANA SCHOOL

     As we were walking around the island with the headman, he pointed out the flying foxes up in the coconut palms.  These are actually fruit bats and they were all over in the trees, hiding during the day from predators.  There were no other animals on the island except their goats and chickens.  My souvenir from the island is a beautiful little 2 inch abalone shell.

                                           ONE OF THE NEW TOILETS  FOR A HUMANA SCHOOL


     While we were over there in eastern Sabah, we also checked out the last 4 schools that were completed with their water collection tanks.  And the tanks are FULL because they have had some rain.  The work has been completed very well by Ismael, our contractor.  His work has improved remarkably since he began doing this work for us.  Instead of using string to support the pipe from the gutter to the tank, he is now using metal straps.  He told us that he had to get rid of some of his crew (one was his brother) because they wouldn't or couldn't do the work up to our standards.  The work is still quite primitive---no finished carpentry as he just builds an ironwood stand to support the 1600 liter water tanks outside the school and a small counter with a sink and water cooler inside the classroom.  At some of the schools he has built what you would recognize as an outhouse only with a squat pan.  Ismael is doing great work.  

                                    INSIDE THE CLASSROOM THEY HAVE CLEAN DRINKING WATER

THE DIET OF CHOICE HERE

WE COULDN'T BELIEVE OUR EYES BUT HE WAS 

GOING ABOUT 50 KM/H DOWN THE ROAD

TALKING ON HIS HAND PHONE!!

     Back at home. . . we had training with our area president, Elder Perkins  and an area 70, Elder Subandrio, on Saturday and then joined them and the mission president for dinner at the local Hyatt.  Had a baptism Saturday evening.  CES training at the same time so we split up---me on one side of the hallway and Bill on the other side.  We do a 5 or 6 hour block on Sundays with our meetings and training with the branch leaders.   The leaders in our branch want to do things the right way.  They are so willing and they try so hard.  They are wonderful people.  We surely do love them.  Yeah, I think we would love them even if they weren't so compliant and willing.   

UNDER-COVER SEA COP, NOT AT ALL OBVIOUS
IN SEMPORNA HARBOR

     Tuesday evening we meet with the 3 young men who are preparing to go out on their missions very soon.  We encourage them to get ready.  They have to get their clothing, vaccinations, and haircuts.  They have a hard time spending money on themselves because they have never done that, so we went with them last night to visit the clinic and get their vaccinations started and get the process of having 2 suits made for Kelven (going to London).  David is going to Washington DC so will go to the MTC in Provo.  He has a missionary couple there who will help him get the suits he needs.  The third young man, Edre (going to Perth), has two older brothers who are RM's and he is nearly ready to go out the door with their assistance.   They are all getting a little nervous about leaving as the time gets closer.  It will be a huge change in culture for all of them.  Kelven told us last night that he has never been out of East Malaysia.  He probably has not been more than 100 miles from Kota Kinabalu.  Wow! and he is going to London!  We fed the dinner at Kenny Rogers Roaster and, of course, they had chicken---the national food.  It was interesting watching them use a knife and fork to eat their chicken rather than pick it up with their fingers.  Their mothers have been working on their manners, I see. :)

HAPPY HUMANA STUDENTS

We have been well.  Bill has some trouble with his back if we spend too much time walking on concrete but his Chinese doctor has helped him a little with that.  She walks on his back and has made his legs both the same length.  How did she do that?  

MOM'S FLIGHT FROM BOISE TO KITSAP COUNTY

We hear that my niece, Megan is doing well and out of the hospital following brain surgery.  Also, my Mother is now at Keith and Patty's home in their care.  I talked to her this morning and she sounded good. Mother suffered a fall and has been in the hospital in Boise for 3 weeks. She wanted to get out of there badly. It was decided finally that she could be in a home care situation with a nurse. Being as how I am here half way around the world, Patty who is also an RN offered to take care of her in their home in Silverdale. So the hospital arranged for a private plane to fly her directly there and 2 parameds came with her and all the equipment needed for the trip. We are so thankful that she made it out of the hospital and is in good hands.

DENIS AND ROD (AND OTHERS) HELPING

WITH THE TRANSFER OF MOM

FROM PLANE TO CAR.

    We are excited to have our oldest coming on Monday. She will sacrifice one day but will get it back on the way home. It will be fun again to see where we work through new eyes from the states. We can remember when it was all so foreign to us and some of the stuff even shocking. Now it is just part of our lives. Having her here will remind us !!


We love your notes that catch us up on your lives and what is happening at home. We still miss all of you and our lives back there. It is hard to believe we have only 5 months left, We have so much to do. We hope to get two wheel chair projects going, along with another water project and one more vision project. Plus finish up what is on the books. So it is a tall order.


Please write when you can.

BAJAU LAUT WOMAN BEGGING

MEETING WITH THE HEADMAN ON OMADAL ISLAND

A DAY AT THE MARKET

2ND KAMPONG ON OMADAL ISLAND

THIRD KAMPUNG 'ON' OMADAL ISLAND

THIS IS WHERE THE SEA GYPSIES OR 

BAJU LAUT LIVE

Bill & Ellen on the other side of the world..................

The Rains Came Down. . .

      We think the rainy season is upon us.  We have had showers nearly every day for the past few weeks.  It is nice to have things not so DRY in the tropics.  We have seen a great reduction in the number of fires---it used to be 5 or 6 every evening and that is just what we could see from our condo.
      We continue with the branch members.  Teaching them leadership and just general Church stuff.  Saturday and today we had the General Conference broadcasts---two sessions both days.  They are broadcast in Malay, Chinese, and English each in a different room with a different group.  We had one in the morning and then an hour break for lunch.  Saturday lunch was 2 pieces of white bread with a smear of jam, bananas, and a banana cake that I took.  Today there were many more members able to attend and so everyone brought food.
     We are also working with these young men who have received mission calls to get them ready.  One who is going to the Washington DC mission will go to Utah about a week early before entering the MTC and he has friends (a couple who served here a while back) who will help him get his 2 suits with 2 pair of pants each.  It has been quite a funny thing telling them about how they will need wool suits so that they can be warm enough in the winter time.  Do we wear wool shirts, too?  Do I have to wear a sweater?  In the summer?  Are you sure I will need an overcoat?  They have never been out of Kota Kinabalu and have no idea that there can be a different climate.

QUOIN HILL WATER SUPPLY

The Project was just done this past October

     We flew to Tawau for overnight last week.  We met with some members of a Rotary Club who could use some help with various projects---clean water, vision care, and we met a doctor who is very interested in having some neonatal resuscitation training at the Tawau hospital.  They took us to a really nice village, Quoin Hill, of over 2 thousand people who have school, churches, clinic, and a police station but no water other than rain.  They have a really great spring very near to the kampung and we will try to help them get the water to the homes.  We walked down to the spring and as we left the sunshine the mosquitos found us.  And then I discovered that there were big brown ants crawling all over Bill.  I brushed them off and then they were on me.  As I brushed at them they grabbed on to me.  They didn't bite but they held on with very strong pincers.  I practically had to kill them to get them off.  He had walked through their 'ant freeway' we discovered on our way back up the trail.  That night I dreamed about our little grand-daughter, Sadie, and that she had the brown ants on her and they were her pets---she liked them and fed them and didn't like it that I was brushing them off her.  It gives me a crawly feeling just to think about them.
     We heard good news about my niece, Megan Shumaker McCormick, who had brain surgery for a cavernoma last week.  She is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery.   We actually had a little conversation with Megan on facebook this morning.  She misses her 5 little children.  And then not so good news about my mother.  She fell a few weeks ago and broke her pelvis and they have now found that her sacrum is fractured.  She is in a great deal of pain unless she is heavily medicated and then she just sleeps.  She has been staying in Boise, Idaho, with my sister whose husband is CFO for a large hospital there so she is getting the best care both from Irene and from the medical staff but we are afraid she will not get better.  Her bones are 91 years old, after all, and they are quite brittle.  About all we can do is pray for them.

THIS YOUNG LADY PERFORMED FOR US AT THE NATIONAL 

BLIND SCHOOL.  SHE HAS A LOVELY SINGING VOICE.  

We attended the handover for the equipment we bought the National Blind School.

LATTER-DAY SAINT CHARITIES DONATED

THESE BRAILERS TO THE NATIONAL

SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.

THese are very important to the students as they really learn everything by the use of the braillers. They have one student that sings very well and she probably will be professional one day.

 This is what is going on at the base of our condo building. They tore down the jungle and are planting palm oil tress. So it was full of squatters or illegals. And now they had to move out of the way.  Here is how they live.

THESE ARE THE HOMES OF OUR 

NEARBY NEIGHBORS.  THEY ARE SQUATTERS

AND HAVE NO ACCESS TO WATER OR ELECTRICITY.

We feel so bad for them. Apparently it is better than how they were living where they came from in the Philippines or Indonesia. They get all their water from a very muddy stream that drains down from the condos on the hill.  Often we see them carrying water up the hill to their new homes.

We are heading back to the east side of the country to inspect some of the new water systems that are being put in. We will be traveling out to some more islands to see if we can provide water for the nomadic fishermen and the boat people.

Take care...we love you and all your notes.

HERE WE GO A' TOURISTING...... SINGAPORE

Off to Singapore to renew our visas. Every three months we and all other Americans serving here make the trip to Singapore. We have to leave the country entriely and stay away for awhile and then we can come back and get new visas again. We don't mind, it is a nice break and we get to see civilization for a few days again. Some couple get to live in this type of place! Imagine that. Their whole expeereince is so very different from our's. I guess that is what makes it all so very interesting. A couple that served in our position two couples ago now serve in a temple mission in South America in a big city. Other friends of our's from the MTC are in Katmandou, Nepal. And you think we were in the outer reaches of the world.  They don't always even have heat or electricity.

 We took a river cruise one evening which ran right through the middle of the city. We took some beautiful pictures. These are the type of boats we were in.

 We got to see an Egyptian Mummy exhibit. 

This little 2"  ivory lady is over 6000 years old. 

Amazing that we are able to see something that old.

                                                Egyptian exhibit at the National Museum of Singapore.

                                                  Bill and Ellen on an evening Singapore River Cruise.

 China Town was very colorful. It did pour down rain on us. We just stopped along with everyone else in a little cafe and had a soft drink and waited it out.

                                  Close up of the top of the new hotel/casino/event center.

          The hotel on the left with the funny shape is where we stayed several of our trips. 

It is the Oriental Mandarin. 

                                  Singapore is noted for it's tremendous archetecture designs.

                                  This is the Merlion in the harbour that greets all the ships.

This is the Chinese Herb shop or medical shop. There are alot of these and are very popular.

 In front of the oldest hotel in town.

                                                                   Singapore at dusk

 One crazy building. We hope we get to see theis completed. Looks right now like a submarine on top. They are planting palm trees and gardens up there!

One Big City!

This next week we head over to Tawau to meet with a Rotary Club to investigate their ongoing health projects. They have had it in place for over 15 years and serve over 2000 people a year in the jungles. They have approached us about helping them. They flew over just to meet us and we are now returning the visit.

The following week we fly back over to east Malaysia to visit some islands and nomadic fisherman. There are about 50,000 of these fisherman and their families that follow the schools of fish alll over the ocean. They base themselves on some islands and are doing without very much water a t all. We are looking to partner with them and the World Wide Wild animal federation. We will travel about one hour to these islands and investigate the possibilites of providing help for them.

  

     It is Dad's birthday today.  He would been 94 years old.  Right?  I often think about him and wonder what he would have thought about this place and the things we see and do here in Malaysia.  I think he would have loved it.  He had a curiosity about natural sciences and the world he lived in and there are certainly many interesting things to see here.  But it would have been too far from home for him to feel comfortable for very long.

     

     We  had a good weekend.  Friday evening was a baptism for a woman of about 35 to 40.  It is difficult to tell the age of women here.  Sometimes I just ask them how old they are.  That is not considered a sensitive question here.  Everyone has asked me how old I am (and they are amazed at how old I am).  Anyway, Rosnani is the mother of 5, the oldest about 18.  In February her husband, Mojindul, and 3 teenage daughters were baptized.  Their daughters are named Becky, Betsy, and Betty.  Their son is not yet 8 and they have another teenage son.  Last week we visited this family at their home so that Bill could do the interview for baptism.  They live on the 4th floor of a large cement apartment building in a tiny 3 room apartment.   It is remarkable to work with these investigators and new members because the gospel means so much to them.  They feel the Holy Ghost in their lives and they are so happy.  

      Saturday was Branch Fellow-shipping night.  Each auxiliary or quorum takes a turn hosting and planning the fellow shipping.  This one was the Elders' Quorum and so it was geared for the young adults.  They had 2 of the young missionaries speak---the two who were transfered out today (one went home)---and then they played some games.  They did the limbo and you have never seen young people have so much fun with some music and a broom stick!  Then they played charades.  Bill and I held a broom stick and then we set up the food while they continued playing.  They have such fun together---the Chinese, Kaduzandunsun, Indian, Philippino, Iban, and whatever blend they are.  It was a potluck so there was quite a variety of food.  Always rice and noodles, then some chicken, vegetables, my largest soup kettle of spaghetti with meatballs and cakes.  They love cakes but most do not have ovens.  Most of the women here cook just with propane cook top with 1 or 2 burners.  Most don't have an oven or a microwave.  They usually have a refrigerator but they are quite small because they shop for fresh things nearly every day and small is adequate.  Until recently, electrical service has been sporadic with regular 'shut down' of electricity.  Electricity is also very expensive.  

     Sunday was our regular branch meetings which start at 8:30 am for us.  We both attend presidency meetings before the block which begins at 10 am.  Just before Sacrament meeting the RS secretary let me know that none of the presidency would be there and so what should she do?  So I taught the lesson and one of the counselors did come so it was OK.  It amuses me to think about how we work on a RS lesson at home in America.  It takes us weeks to do it right.  Here, we had a great discussion about the Fall of Adam and Eve.  They are not used to participating in a classroom discussion.  In their school system it is all lecture and recitation.  But we managed to have quite a lively discussion.  Most of the members belonged to the RC or Anglican church before baptism and they were taught quite a different thing about 'original sin'.  

     Also, on Sunday, someone from the branch was sustained as the branch librarian and to be in charge of curriculum and ordering magazines and materials.  The ordering had became my responsibility when the other couple left.  In our effort to make them independent they need to do that, so now they do.  One more little step.  

     We are also working with 3 young men who have received mission calls.  I believe I have mentioned them before now.  One of the young men has 2 older brothers who have served missions.  Another is quite smart with good English and family to help him.  The third. . . Kelven is going to London, England, to the MTC and that mission.  His English is marginal.  His family are reluctant to let him go and are not supporting him financially.  He lives in the kampung with his family during the week and works on his family's rubber farm.  He does not know how to DO something on his own initiative.  He has to purchase clothing and he doesn't know how to do that.  He has to obtain records, get vaccinations, etc. and he just doesn't know how to do it.  We plan to make a list of what he needs to do each week and help him know how to do it.  We can't do it for him.  He was here the other day working on a letter to the British Consulate.  I helped him with the grammar and spelling, typed it up and then asked him to sign his name.  He signed only his first name.  He didn't know how to write his family name.  I wrote it out for him and he practiced for a while and did it.  In a few months he won't have a senior couple helping him, rather he will have a companion who we hope is compassionate and kind to him but makes him do things for himself.