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.