The End of the Celebrations

          Silly me of course it was not the end of the Chinese New Year until last night! The fireworks and crackers were still going last night and on Friday we finished school early and enjoyed a professional  lion dance being performed. It was very well done and there was a lot of interaction with the pupils and I was very impressed how clever and agile the lions were. There was a”fight” between the two lions as to who was going to win the money in red envelopes dangling from the ceiling and then there was lots of jumping up and down the steps. The pre-school performed their own lion dance which was equally entertaining and as always I’m impressed by the musicality and rhythm of these young children.

  The children’s names are beginning to seem slightly easier to say now although I do have problems with some of the very long Muslim ones. In the Chinese school they seem relatively easy for me as they are predominantly Christian but yesterday in Year 1 when they were saying their names I had to keep getting them to repeat their names as I thought I hadn’t heard correctly. There was Rapunzel, Mcandream, Nickles (pronounced Nicolas), Lighturn, Rayckley and a girl called Brainy - just to name a few!

Rafflesia keithii

There is a fly inside ready to be dissolved!

  Last weekend we had a fellow mentor visiting the Ranau district for the first time so Emily and I showed her around and went on a guided walk in the Kinabalu National Park. We also went to Poring Hot Springs and on the way we saw a little sign by the roadside " Rafflesia Blooming". We of course had to stop and we paid a ridiculous amount of money to be brought to where a rafflesia was indeed blooming. A rafflesia keithii is endemic to Sabah and is a parasitic insectivorous plant which has the largest flower in the world. The flowers can be nearly 1 metre in diameter but the one we saw was probably about 40 cm in diameter. The blooms last for about 3 days but there were two more buds ready to bloom so the villagers will still be able to rip the tourists off for a few more days! In Kinabalu National Park we saw many nepenthes, also known as monkey's drinking cups, which are again endemic and insectivorous. We saw many sizes and the most amazing colours.

Nepenthes raja (Sorry about me in it but just to show you the size!)