Ok, last episode our intrepid heroes made their way into the jungle-city of Kuala Lumpur, only barely making their flight! This time we follow them into the oily innards of Malaysia, where the training was hosted. There is too much information for me to lay everything out here without writing a small book, so I've decided to post up some of the highlights, and a few short descriptions. We'll cover the important stuff first: Food.
We all know that Malaysian food is delicious and that Malaysians, as a result, are among the world's most avid food lovers. We had all of our meals at the institute catered by two very nice south-indian-malaysian ladies. This basically means that we ate rice at breakfast lunch and dinner, and everything...everything was swimming in oil. It was super-tasty and well-spicy, but the oil was a shock to my system. To put it in perspective: the week before I left (if you remember), my dad and Shaku were in Battambang, and left the house all to me. I ended up eating a diet of fresh veggies and fruits! from that to all oil was like a battle all on its own. All that being said, the food was still wicked.
Next, Accommodations:
The girls quickly claimed the upstairs bedrooms (and maybe not so coincidentally, the hot-water showers). This left the guys (who were a majority) with one bathroom, and a cold-water shower. Elyssa planned her arrangements well...
Anyway, I snaked a bed early on, and forced the esteemed Lau to take a mattress on the floor, so I can't really criticize the girls too much. :)
General Schedule:
the first and last days were half-days with a bunch of cleaning thrown in...which was actually lots of fun...especially when you're like me, and adopt managerial roles in the janitorial department. The rest of the days we supposedly started at 8, had a tea break somewhere between then and 1:00, broke for lunch till 2:00, had another tea break between then and 5:30, then played organized games until 6:30-7, then dined until 8, then more discussion/educational-video-watching until 10-10:30...then informal discussion until 1/2AM. Everyone's schedule was like that except for the last part which was followed religiously by a few of us who were willing to entertain Lau's stories, or engage in some kind of philosophical exploration of the subject matter. I also had an unproclaimed contest with Lau to see who could sleep-in the latest, and still make it up in time for morning devotions.
Subject matter:
The actual object of our study was very interesting (especially for me). It was a combination of
FUNDAEC's "Basic Concepts", and some supplementary readings on the "
Science, Religion, and Development" discourse that some countries have been engaged in since the late-nineties. The course covered a lot of interesting topics, from the definition of the community, and development, to the role that humanities inherent appreciation of beauty, and thirst for knowledge play, or can play, in our lives. I wont go into any depth, for fear of getting distracted in the details, but the material is solid, deep, and interesting to the maximum.
Random Happenings:
On the third day, I injected the game "
Mafia" into the unsuspecting hearts of 15 of my fellow participants, under the guise of highlighting the usefulness of consultation. What I failed to mention (in true mafia fashion) was the game's reliance on deceit, trickery,emotive rhetoric, and outright lying as the only real means to victory. Needless to say, we had a great time,and much of our organized game time fell prey to artful devices of "Mafia". As a side note, one comes to discover TONS about one's peers as the narrator. Some people are very, VERY, good at acting. *cough* Rani *cough*.
We had a nice little devotional on the night of the nineteen-day feast...with one of our resident interior decorators (Avuth) transforming the little meeting room into a calming spiritual environment with a few candles and glasses of water. Pics are on my facebook.
We went on a field trip to visit a possible candidate for the Malaysian Baha'i house of worship; to visit more than 70(!) rural Asli youth engaged at various levels of the ruhi institute process, and later to a 100% Baha'i Asli village. The trip was great, but we got rained on as we neared the village, so we got less contact with the people than we'd wished...and ended up being more like a random group of tourists than interested agents of social transformation.
Reuben brought a guitar with him upon returning from a brief trip to his university to receive an academic excellence award...and though his skills were minimal, the guitar was used to great ends by many. I, myself discovered the great fun and exciting allure of plucking and strumming strings in a semi-organized way. I'm patiently awaiting the shipment of my dad's guitar to phnom penh so I can resume my musical training!
Snake, snake....Snaaaaaaake! We had a tremendously long, beautiful black cobra join us for supper one night. Luckily Arvin spotted some movement, and got everyone out of the way before it bit anyone...otherwise we would have definitely lost a member or two of the training (the closest hospital was...not close at all). So we scream at it and laugh at it and giggle like "tourists" to borrow Lau's term, while Lau and Keeliang try and contain the snake's movements. It tried, at one point, to climb up the wall to the window, but couldn't manage (much to our mutual disappointment). We tried to get it into a basket, but it was now curled up int eh corner. So, having reached an impasse, we watched it and wondered. Now, having witnessed some snake exorcisms, and participating in a few myself, I decided to offer the group my suggestions of picking it up with along stick, and either putting it in the basket, or progressively tossing it out through the kitchen. Finding no one to really nay-say an available option with a volunteer behind it, they let me proceed with my ill-fated plan. We didn't know at this point if it was a cobra or not, but by putting a stick close to it, I was politely informed by it's nervous hiss, and sudden flexing of it's king-cobra-crown. It was at this important juncture in my life that I decided that the cobra could have his corner of the dining room, and I could have my couch in the other room. Respect. The conclusion is, unfortunately, less humane than any of us would have liked, but the gardener insisted, by way of a bamboo stick, that the cobra be sacrificed for the sustained good health of all the residents in the region. oddly enough, this was a rarer cobra, and the Indian people normally see the visit of a cobra as a sign of good luck, or a blessing - and wouldn't harm one. Thus, our systems were shocked slightly more than they might have been, for the loss of our guest. At the very least, I can now check off another one of my long-term life-adventuring goals: face-to-face with dangerous, venom-spitting cobra - check.
There was lots more, but it's late, and I'm tired, and I start work tomorrow. So wish me luck, and let me know if there was something about the Malaysia trip that you want to know more about (even an explanation of one of the random facebook pics!).
Peace!
