Recording Artist, Tour Guide and White-water rafter!

White water rafting on Kiulu River

       Last weekend started with a white-water rafting expedition organised by our new Project Manager as a team spirit exercise. Not very many mentors turned up, however I really enjoyed myself and will definitely be bringing my visitors down the Kiulu River . The CD/ Songbook has started to sell in Tambunan and next week I am hoping that it will sell like hot cakes in Ranau. My only problem is that I can't find any blank CD's to copy the songs onto.( Does Adele still spend her free time copying her CD's I wonder?)  Deliveries up the mountain are very sporadic - we will be without yoghurts for two weeks and then suddenly they appear in both supermarkets; the same sarongs are seen for months and then last week all the shops had some new ones. So I'm hoping that the blank CD lorry will deliver in time or else I will have a two hour drive down the mountain to the nearest shop.

     My latest role as a mentor, since yesterday, is being a tourist guide. One of my headmistresses said as she was leaving for a meeting. "Fiona, we have some orang putihs visiting the school - could you show them round please". What?! Who? When? Why?  I asked but it was too late she had gone. I arrived at the school ahead of time and they were already there waiting in their very nice air-conditioned bus. They being  a group of ladies, over a certain age, from the UK on a Saga Holiday in Sabah and somehow through the tour guide they had expressed a wish of visiting a school in the area. I'm sure they were very disappointed to see another orang putih greeting them which I imagine ruined the charm and authenticity of a primary school in the mountains of Borneo. However, they were very interested and fascinated by the children who posed for their photographs continuously (with the V sign of course!) The school grinded to a halt and there were about thirty children following after them, ripping flowers from the flower beds and presenting them to the ladies. The ladies were charmed  and when the Year 1's spontaneously burst into 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" like it was the British National Anthem, their hearts were won forever. " Are they all your sisters?" the children asked me. "No" I replied in horror but thinking about it, the children here will have as many as fourteen brothers and sisters and according to the children, we orang putihs all look the same! Again I am amazed by the trusting, welcoming nature of the Sabahans. Would we in the West equally welcome them into a school I wonder?

My sisters!

A strappy top and micro shorts. Where did our  cultural sensitivity go to?

  Trying to get books, reading corners and  a more stimulating environment for the pupils is my main aim at the moment. The delightful Masinin ,who is the school handyman, went out to the jungle and chopped down some bamboo and has constructed a lovely, perhaps rather wobbly. reading corner for the Year 1's. We have painted it and there is going to be a carpet and now all we need is some nice books that the children have access to. I launched my appeal to the Saga ladies and they promised that they would send some books to the school and so now I'm going for a wider audience. If you have any ideas of how we could try and get some nice colourful reading books for the children I would love to hear from you. If all of you sent one book, ( it can be second hand ), that would be enough for one class. In some of the village schools, the children will have never seen a book before they go to school and have to be taught how to hold it and look inside. I think giving these young children a chance to enjoy reading could open many doors that have been closed to them before. Your ideas and generosity will be gratefully received.

 

A Day in the life of a Mentor in Ranau

Gen leaving Ranau

   "All by myself..." again. Gen is safely back in Glasgow and hopefully advising Andrew on colours to paint the walls of the flat. It was so lovely for her to share a little of my life here in Ranau and get to know some of my friends and what I do but it is rather limiting when you have no transport and waiting for your mother to come home from work! Work I hear you say - yes I do actually work! Now let me take a typical day, for example like last Tuesday. I received an email last weekend telling me about the launch of the the 100 Day  Countdown to the Olympics in London. Where might be the most likely place for it to be launched in Malaysia? - well of course Ranau! It was sponsored by the British Council (and others) and the head of the British Council of Malaysia along with the Director of Education and other VIP's were present and the mentors in the region were asked to put in an appearance. So Emily and I turned up and saw the 100 balloons going off and the Olympic torch being lit and the parades, local dancing and music and we even got to climb over the barrier and shake hands with the VIP's. The final icing on the cake is that I  now own a bright red t-shirt saying "Olympic Countdown Ranau 2012"!

Ranau Sports Komplex

Bamboo Recording Studio, Tambunan

  As soon as we had finished there we went to collect Gen and three of our teachers and headed off down the bumpy, potholed road to Tambunan, a small town about an hour's drive from Ranau. We were heading for "The Bamboo Recording Studio" (surely you've heard of it) and there we met up with two other mentors and some more teachers. The reason for the venue was to record the songs in Year 1 and 2 in order that we can sell (for a loss) the CD and songbook to the parents which in turn will hopefully encourage the children to listen and sing English at home. The one hour booked turned into three hours very quickly. None of us had ever sung together and despite the simplicity of the songs we've managed to end up with an interesting mix of Sabah/Irish accents and odd harmonies! It is certainly not the best, however we are hoping that the parents and children won't mind too much. We all had a good time together and afterwards we ate and had a hilarious drive home arriving back in Ranau about 8 pm. So there you have a typical day at work - no wonder I'm so tired la!

A note from Gen

Hello Everyone,

Mum has asked me to write her blog this week. I'm not a good writer but I have time on my hands so here it goes. As you may know I arrived in Borneo on the 24th of March, just before Mum's birthday and we had a great celebration with her teacher friends from Ranau. The next weekend we went to Kudat, which is where the Tip of Borneo is. I got sunburned - I wonder will I ever learn from my mistakes!? During that weekend we met up with other mentors of the project, and ate lots of lovely seafood. The following week, Mum had a conference in KK and the hotel room was paid for so I tagged along! Managed to have a very relaxing time, maybe too relaxing as all I had to do was have breakfast, sit by the pool, have lunch, sit by the pool and so it went on. Still I'm getting lots of reading done which is nice since I never seem to have/make time for it. After our few days in KK, we were off to the Kinabatangang Jungle Camp for 2 nights. We had 3 boat trips along the Kinabatangang River and saw many animals: 3 crocodiles, 4 orang utans, 25 or so pygmy elephants, loads of hornbills, proboscis monkeys, macaques, bearded pigs, 1 fresh-water turtle, 1 snake, 1 civet cat, 1 silverleaf monkey. After our stay at the jungle we went off to Sandakan and took a boat out to Turtle Island where we saw a Green Turtle lay her eggs and then we went to the hatchery to watch the ranger bury them. After we watched some newly hatched green turtles being let out to the sea which was very cute! We've been back in Ranau since and today we went to Mount Kinabalu Park and had a wander and a short walk but it got very cloudy and rainy, as it seems to do daily here up in Ranau! I'm leaving on Wednesday and will be back to normal life in Glasgow. Dad will actually be there so I'm going from one parent to another! He is going to be renovating/decorating our new flat that I'll be living in next year so that's exciting. It has been nice to see with my own eyes what Mum has been talking about for so long, putting names to faces and places mostly! Hopefully I will be back but in the meanwhile I'm sure all her future visitors will have a great time, just I like I have!

Gen x

Jellyfish , Beaches and Gen

Sunset driving up the mountains

 I feel like I've missed the deadline for an assignment but since Gen has arrived we've been very busy and I just haven't sat down at my computer for long enough, so excuse my tardiness this week. As you can imagine it is really lovely having Gen here and she creates whirls of excitement where ever she goes! The white skin and blonde hair are fascinating for everyone and one wonders what it must have been like for the first "white" people arriving off their boats in the nineteenth century.

 Since Gen has been here I have celebrated my birthday and had a lovely party with my friends from Ranau. We have been to the idyllic resort of Manana but both got stung by jellyfish. We then continued on to visit Kudat and the Tip of Borneo and see some more amazing beaches. I have been working too and Gen has come in to wander around the schools and look at the various rehearsals going on and cause great excitment amongst the pupils. We are now staying at a 5 star hotel in Kota Kinabalu while I attend a conference on Inclusive Education and Gen can enjoy the swimming pool. Our adventures will continue but I hope you enjoy the photos.