Merry Christmas!

          We spent a lovely weekend in Lille visiting Lisa, Remi and Tanya and were joined by my niece Gemma, Anthony and Gen, making us a party of nine - sadly only Naomi missing. Lisa and Remi have bought a terrace house in Lille which they have been working on with the help of a builder and have completely rebuilt the inside, knocking down walls and changing staircases etc..The floor, the kitchen and the electricity, nearly forgot the wall in the bathroom, have just to be completed and they are very optimistic that they will be moved in at the end of January! On Saturday evening we toasted their house with champagne and then returned to the comfort and warmth of their flat for a fun evening. On Sunday, which was a cold but clear day, we drove to Bruges which is so charming and like something out of a Christmas card. There was ice skating in the main square surrounded by a lovely Christmas market. Horses and carriages were trotting around the cobbled streets and all the shops and restaurants were tastefully and invitingly decorated. The only downside of this beautiful town are the prices and the tourists , however we just about managed a hot chocolate in a cafe.

  Despite the rain, wind and a little snow, I am just thinking what a lovely time to return home during the Christmas season. I have been able to see all the family before we all gather again for the actual Christmas celebration at La Ferme des Vallots. I have been included in several end of term "dos"; I'm off to make wreaths and candles this afternoon and then another dinner with friends tonight; there will be Christmas Carols sung on Friday evening in a little church nearby and more mulled wine and mince pies. Despite many of us "anglais" having been in the Normandie for many years we still like to cling onto some of the traditions such as mince pies and sausage rolls in preference to oysters and foie gras! I was hoping that I might have had time to be organised for Christmas but I should know better by now - there are still more presents to be bought and much cooking to be done, not to mention the tree that has to be decorated etc... Yet somehow we'll muddle through and despite the imperfections I know that we will have a wonderful Christmas together. On that optimistic note I would like to wish you all and your families a very happy Christmas  wherever you are and thank you for all your kind words of encouragement about my blog. Joyeux Noel!

Home Sweet Home

     I actually arrived back at La Ferme des Vallots last Sunday - Andrew came to meet me at Orly airport on his way back from Madrid. No sooner had I had a night to recover from jetlag and I was off again in the train, bus and plane to Glasgow where Naomi and Gen were waiting for me . It was great to see them despite the rain, hail and snow and we had a nice wander around the shops as well as nearly being blown away in hurricane winds! Fortunately the winds had dropped for my flight on Friday morning and I flew to London and then got the bus and train to Winchester to spend the weekend with Freda. Andrew had bravely come over on the ferry during the storm to meet me and then Patrick joined us on the Saturday after he'd finished his exams. We had a nice weekend in Winchester and then last night were on a calm crossing from Portsmouth to Le Havre and now I am staying HOME until Thursday when we are going up to Lille to see Lisa and Tanya. I'm sure no one has followed all that, however it is lovely to be home and now I have a few days to prepare for Christmas, do some cooking (can I remember?), see some friends and keep warm..... I'm back to wearing many layers, socks and boots.

    Here are a few photos of my visit to KL - a huge busy city which depicts the multicultural society of "One Malaysia".

Backpacker's Paradise

        I am in the centre of Kuala Lumpur, having had my very nice breakfast of fresh fruit, fruit juice, cereal, toast and several cups of very nice "proper" coffee. This colonial style building is in Chinatown and has been restored and renovated to make this incredibly tasteful, clean and welcoming backpackers hostel. I had real HOT water for a shower with a towel big enough to wrap round me; there is a cinema; (yes, 2 films shown daily with free popcorn ) internet access; a roof top bar; a laundrette etc... and for all that I'm paying 38 myr which is less than 10 euros! There are perhaps some of us who can remember the type of places we used to stay in before they were called Backpacker's Hostels, where hot water and sit down toilets were never seen and where bed bugs and the odd mouse/rat were common. This new kind of  budget accomodation might not be exactly a real test of the adventurous explorer but the spirit is the same. This popular backpacker phenomenon is where people of all ages meet and exchange travel stories and share tips of where to visit, to eat, to avoid, to buy,etc.......and importantly make friendships, however fleetingly. I have been surprised at how welcoming and friendly everyone has been at the two hostels I've been staying at and yesterday when I arrived here within half an hour I was chatting with a group of  travellers from all over the world ranging in age from 20 to 55 (Yes I was the oldest!). We all went to Chinatown for a delicious meal and although I declined in continuing to enjoy the night life of KL,  I was made to feel one of the group. If I had decided to stay in a hotel I doubt very much that I would have had such an enjoyable evening. Vive les backpackers!

Survivor Island

      I know that I mentioned in another post that I felt like I was on a film set - well I was really staying on a film set! The TV series Survivors, which has many versions worldwide now, was orginally filmed on Pulau Tiga, a really beautiful island off the coast towards Brunei. The "resort" is what is left of the set and the accomodation is where the film crew stayed. It takes about 20 minutes by boat and it is much bigger than I first thought - apparently it takes 7-8 hours to walk around. It is the only island that was never logged so consequently it is virgin forest with huge trees and dense jungle. It has several areas of mud volcanoes and is surrounded by white sandy beaches. There are many monkeys, monitor lizards, snakes and much to our horror rats too which we were sharing our bathroom with!I went with Anne, who is a colleague, and we had a great time getting lost on a trail in the jungle, snorkelling and lying around in hammocks! The surprising thing to us was that there were just a couple of Malaysian families and no orang putihs apart from us. This is another place that I will be visiting again with visitors.
    My other news is that I successfully completed and passed my Open Water Scuba Diver Certificate. It was an intense 4 day course and my brain was overloaded and I can see why people might take longer to do it, however it was great fun. My fellow students were Jack from Wuhan and Leo from Sheffield and unfortunately Emily wasn't able to complete it as she had a cold and couldn't "equalise". Our instructor was Jason , a very experienced Sabahan diver, who was very patient with us all. I certainly could not be trusted in an emergency or in giving accurate compass readings but I'm going to dive as much as I can and hopefully will improve in the future. The temperature of the water was 31 degrees and that makes it very pleasant.

 I'm leaving KK on Friday morning and spending a day in Kuala Lumpur before I head home to the cold!

Missing Ranau

        I know that I'm being ridiculous as I sit on my balcony in the 5 star hotel but I'm already feeling a little nostalgic for my simple life in Ranau. The hotel is quite separate from the city surrounded by an 18 hole golf course and marina etc... so consequently it is full of  rich, mostly white,  tourists who fly in for a luxurious taste of Sabah or are attending a conference or business. We, all 55 of us, are kept busy until 5 ish and then we can enjoy the swimming pool, gym, jacuzzi etc.. We are all so lucky to be treated to this standard and I do often have to pinch myself to check I'm not dreaming!

    Yesterday morning I packed up my little room at the homestay and went for a final walk just to check on the progress of the padi planting. Most of it is planted but there are still a few fields in progress and it seems to be very much a family and community pastime. I'm fascinated by the regulation of the water level which I'm told is vital to the flowering of the rice plant. There mustn't be too much or too little and the older women are definitely the ones in charge who no doubt have acquired all this knowledge having been passed down for generations. The shapes of the padi fields are sometimes semi-circular, wavy or like a patchwork quilt but as to why I'm not sure. Anyway before I turn into a padi bore I will stop but I will be looking forward to seeing the growth when I return in January.
 
 

Graduations

    This week is the final week before the long school break and so far I have been to two Graduations/ Prize Givings and have another two to attend tomorrow. There seem to be several VIP's invited and they are welcomed by the gongs which is the traditional Dusun form of celebration and yesterday there were some pupils in traditional Dusun costumes dancing with the gongs. After the VIP's are seated in their sofas, there are long boring speeches from the headteacher and each VIP. The prizes for each class are presented, interspersed by a dance, which ranges from traditional to break dancing or songs from some of the classes and then finally a raffle that seemed to go on for hours. There is a lot of noise and parents and pupils talking all the time throughout the speeches which is exactly what they do in Normandie. What is different is how confident the pupils are of singing into microphones and performing on stage from an early age.

       The children are given their report cards tomorrow and on Friday there are just the teachers left to have meetings, food and karaoke! At my base school the teachers LOVE karaoke and welcome every opportunity to sing - the headmistress sings flat in front of the pupils and parents and they all seem to think it is great! I admit I have been up too but I'm at a loss as to what to sing. The only one that springs to mind is "I will survive" and I will never sing that - suggestions are greatly received! I'm already feeling sad about saying goodbye to all the lovely teachers who have been so welcoming and have made my first four months in Sabah so memorable. I have ordered a strawberry cream cake from the bakery Delicious ( rightly named) for the staff with Thank you on it. My headteacher said " No need, but if it comes from your heart.."   and it sincerely does come from my heart.

Peace and Harmony

So the Concert of Peace and Harmony , on the12 th November is over . I think it was a success because already the teachers are planning for next year and the Head of the Education Department is talking about hiring the Sport’s Complex for the event and involving more schools. I know the children enjoyed it and they all sang so well, however there were many things that we could and will do much better next year. When the idea of a concert of English Songs was suggested to me by my landlady in September, it seemed a great idea. What could be simpler than singing a few songs together at the end of the school year? The English and Music teachers all seemed in agreement and we set about deciding on the songs, date and venue. In reality they forgot to tell me that November is a month where the children are hardly in the classroom, teachers are on courses; there are sport’s days, camping and many other “programmes”- too numerous to mention. So finding children to sing and rehearse with was a major problem.

              The next problem was trying to get everyone to understand that it wasn’t a competition and that all the schools and children would sing together regardless of their ability. I found teachers often picking their best and being very reluctant to include the not so good students. The idea of a sing-a-long for enjoyment is a concept that the schools had never thought of before and singing together was even quite a frightening thought for the pupils as well. I wanted the village schools to be included but of course the transport was an issue as not that many of the parents have cars and funding for an “orang putih’s concert” was not available.

       The major disadvantage though was my ignorance of the etiquette and protocol that Malaysian life in schools must follow! I did invite all the Headteachers in the district but didn’t give a formal  invitation to all the Education Department. I hadn’t got the VIP sofas organised and they sat in quite shabby chairs like everyone else. My VIP’s were  Lungkiam and Othman the owners of the homestay and that was a faux pas because they weren’t in Education. I hadn’t got a Master of Ceremonies to make the announcements but managed to organise noodles for 600 children but failed to provide anything for the parents! I expect there were many more mistakes I made that are still making the Sabahans shake their heads in wonder. Next time there is going to be a committee with someone who knows what is supposed to  happen in charge !

         

V.I.P'S at Sport's Day

      After what seems like weeks of marching and practising, the actual day of the Sport's Day arrived and I managed to persuade Andrew to come to the Opening Ceremony. Even though I tried my best to keep our arrival low key when you are an orang putih it is difficult to hide and to Andrew's horror we were brought up to the front and seated on cane sofas with the other V.I.P's of the Education Department. We were served cups of tea and bright green cakes and then had to watch the marching and saluting but fortunately didn't have to inspect the troops with the other V.I.P's. There was then the lighting of the torch and then running around the stadium and lighting a thing in the centre and if we don't make London 2012 we will have at least had our Ranau version. Before the final relays began we watched a karate display and a pompom dance in Malaysian colours. We decided to slip out discretely during one of the races and just as we were going, the loudspeaker burst out " We would like to thank Mr Wright and Miss Fiona for attending our Sport's Day. It is such an honour......"  What must have been like in the colonial days?!

    Andrew left on Thursday evening and so I'm back to being only Fiona in Borneo. The rice planting has been progressing very quickly with almost all of them planted now. We noticed that as soon as the fields are flooded the egrets descend and we saw over 40 on a small padi field. Can any wildlife experts tell me what they are feeding on? The durion season is in full swing and the price for a durion has dropped to 4 myr instead of 30 myr a few weeks ago. This area grows the best durions apparently in the world, so I'm told, or at least in Sabah. Today is  Eid-Ul-Adha  which is the day of pilgrimage for the muslims. There were lots of men wearing their very bright silk pyjamas around town and although not such a big celebration as Hari Raya there are a few fireworks going off and quite a few visitors at the Homestay as we have yet another holiday tomorrow. The photo is of my charming landlord, Dr Othsman, who was wearing his hat today but no silk pyjamas.

Andrew in Borneo

      Andrew arrived on Friday the 21st of October and we've had quite an action packed 10 days. The first destination after the airport was this idyllic little resort that someone told me about and then later I learnt that it is in The Lonely Planet so not really a secret! However it was just perfect even though it took a long time to find and I could see Andrew wondering where on earth I was taking him! We were met at a tiny fishing village by our boatman and then brought to the Manana Resort which was about 10 minutes away. It has about six chalets on the beach and a small bar/restaurant. Electricity is on between 6-10 pm and there is no hot water but it is a great way to get over jet lag and I would highly recommend it as a get-away- from- everything destination.
     I had to do a couple of days work and then it was a holiday for Diwali and we went to visit Poring Hot Springs up in the mountains. We did the canopy walk which is a series of suspension rope bridges at the top of the huge trees in the primary forest. The views were spectacular and apart from a very heavy tourist that rocked the bridge rather suddenly when she got on, we felt very safe. On Thursday we set off again and drove 5 hours to the other side of Sabah to Lahad Datu where we spent the night with a lovely Sabahan family. We then were collected at midday and set off on a gravel road for over an hour and a half and driven to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. Our accomodation was something like a filmset for a colonial jungle adventure and I felt that Harrison Ford might suddenly appear! Anyway it was beautiful and our lodge was situated beside a river with a balcony to watch the wildlife. We had an action packed few days which included several trips in a 4 x 4 and a few treks into the jungle, a swim in a huge rockpool and a visit to a volcanic mud pool. We saw many animals and birds that we had never even heard of before and our guide was constantly  listening, smelling and looking for the tracks of animals in the mud but Andrew spotted the lesser and greater mouse deer before he did! The final evening we went out again to try and locate the pygmy elephants that were apparently seen in the vicinity. The guides were following the dung and tracks and deciding on how fresh they were and then just before dusk we got a sighting and although we have no photographs to prove it we did see a mother and baby and a young male who was being very defensive of his mother. It was all very exciting and even though our wildlife photography will not win any competitions we had a great time. Some of the animals and birds we saw were gibbons, pig tailed macaque, (no orangutan but smelt the urine of one!) deer mice, leopard cat, marble cat, civet cat, pygmy squirrels, flying squirrels, hornbills, storks, eagles, owls etc.......

    Andrew still has 5 more days left so the next episode will be published shortly.

Sergeant Majors for the Future of Sabah!

      This week at my base school it has been sports every morning from 7- 10 a.m. We all gather on the playing field and the teachers this week have been wearing tracksuits instead of the traditional Baju kurung which is compulsory for all female teachers. This morning the whole school, including the pre-school and the Special Needs Unit started with some tai chi , then aerobics and after some traditional dancing which again seems to have something to do with birds! Afterwards the children were organised into various sports or activities until 10 am. It reminded me what fun Sport’s Days are and how much I missed them in France. This however is only the training and the actual Sports Day is on 1st and 2nd November and then the school are taking 2 days off to recover. Can you do that during term time I asked innocently? Yes every school is allowed to have 4 extra days off a year to suit their timetable.

      The drilling is what amazes me though. Everywhere you go around the school there are little platoons marching around with a very severe sergeant major from the same class, shouting orders that they all seem to obey! There is going to be a contest between classes and the children who can’t keep in time are given private coaching by their classmates in a corner where they are made to march. I asked the G.B. why they did drilling and she said that it taught them discipline and obedience and that they enjoyed it! As in all “ Dad’s Armies” there are always a few stragglers that don’t keep on time  and turn the wrong way but on the whole I would say that the children do enjoy it and the 7 year old sergeant majors are definitely a force to be reckoned with!

A Walking Geography Lesson

  Most evenings I try to go for walk in an attempt to build up my fitness for the ascent of Mount Kinabalu. I have various routes now, one of which is going over a beautiful river by a rope bridge and the other is going through the padi fields surrounding the kampong. When I first arrived in August I thought it was just waste  land but for the last few weeks there has been lots of activity in clearing the fields. This evening I was really surprised to see that they had started to flood the padi fields and that an amazing system of irrigation channels exist that I previously thought were just ditches. I know we've all sat through Geography lessons of " Planting rice in South East Asia" but to actually see it in action is so much more interesting than any books! I could see the nursery rice plants ready for the planting when the fields are all flooded. Apparently three sorts of rice are grown in this area - two mountain types that do not require to be flooded and the other one that we always associate with rice. The name Ranau comes from the Dusun word ranahon meaning rice.

 The thing that I enjoy most about my walks is meeting various people - admittedly the conversations are very limited as my Malay and their English is not of a high standard but we do make some sort of connection and I feel as if they are not so wary now of this strange orang putih who wanders around their village. Some people even call me Fiona! This beautiful lady in the photo, I met yesterday and she was so friendly and talkative but what about I have no idea.

Photos and the Peace sign

Yesterday evening my peaceful homestay was invaded by a bus load of guests arriving for a wedding in the village. Apparently I am invited to the wedding although I don’t who it is but that doesn’t seem to matter as I’m discovering! It is a Muslim wedding which apparently, so I’m told, is not as interesting as a Dusun wedding which involves many interesting traditions and lots of rice wine! I’m thinking I may escape to the mountains rather than being the random orang putih who is continually asked ‘Where you from?”. It still amazes me though how friendly and welcoming people are here. I went to get my morning coffee and they insisted that they share their breakfast with me.

 So another week over and this week I had to attend the Ministry of Education’s training for the introduction of the new curriculum in the Ranau area. The official four day training was reduced to two and half days and there seemed to be fewer teachers at the end of the day than at the beginning when we signed in! However it was interesting and when the presenter started to speak in English he was asked to speak in Malay as not everyone could understand him- he did express surprise being among English teachers but I myself have only attended English training courses spoken in French, so was very grateful whenever English was actually spoken. Much of the material that we watched was from the Ministry od Education and it struck me again how distant peninsula Malaysia is from the realities of Sabah and Sarawak – one of the clips was “Are you a teacher of the 21^st century?” – do you use internet, twitter, Facebook, etc in the classroom? Well as several of the teachers pointed out they not only don’t have internet access, they don’t have computers and many of the schools don’t have electricity or running water. As the next general election approaches, the Government suddenly remembers that Sabah and Sarawak hold a high number of parliamentary seats and there is sudden activity to surface the roads and attempt to bring electricity and water to the rural districts. Didn’t the same thing happen before the last election?

             The travelling dental team came to one school this week and I was very impressed as to how an ordinary classroom was converted to a dentist’s surgery with four dentists checking and working on the children’s teeth with generators going. We were all allowed to stare and wander around and I didn’t see one child making any fuss. While in a class yesterday one of the girls jumped up as she found a big mouse in her desk! One of the boys ran over and caught the mouse, it then bit him and he dropped it and then the mouse was running around the classroom with some of us screaming hysterically. Another boy caught it again and then threw it outside after we’d all had a look at it and then we continued as if nothing had happened! Whenever anyone produces a camera everyone makes the Peace sign- it apparently means they are happy and I think I just have to accept that!

Year 6 Scouts "camping" in the school grounds last night.

Yoga weekend

I had a lovely weekend staying at another mentor's house in Kota Marudu which is along the North coast towards the tip of Borneo. It is always so interesting seeing another area and realising how diverse and varied Sabah is. It was noticeably hotter and being near the coast was obviously much flatter. We did four sessions of yoga and we were about 10 altogether - some had done lots of yoga and some were beginners like me. I enjoyed it very much and might continue to do a few sun salutations if I can remember them. In the afternoon we all went out on a wooden boat along the mangroves and eventually arrived at the sea.

There were lots of beautiful little huts along the river which apparently are for storing fish for the fisherman while they wait for the tide to turn. We ate a picnic on one of the huts and then returned at nightime with all the fireflies lighting up the trees - a magical evening,