Selling Like Hot Chocolate!

I'm slightly early this week as there is going to be lots going on in Ranau this weekend that I feel sure I will want to tell you about - an International (??) Buddhist festival and in the hall just beside the Chinese Temple there will be the Ka'amatan singing and beauty contest. So hold your breathe until the next post!
 Meantime I will keep this brief about the week's events. Firstly the good news is that the CD and songbook are selling like hot chocolate ( as one of my teachers said). We will go into the first reprint next week as I think we will have sold 250 copies by then. My computer is now rebelling and only agreeing to copy a few a day so I have had to ask other teachers to help.

The "homes" of my previous neighbours.

     For a few days the construction site that is close to my house has been very quiet. I learnt yesterday from my landlady that the police raided it last week and arrested all the illegal immigrant workers and families. The boss will have a hefty fine to pay but I do wonder why the police took so long to work out that they were illegal immigrants as I knew and Ranau is a small place. I feel sad for the families and although our exchanges were limited to smiles, they seemed  good, hard working people. The living conditions they were expected to live in were probably not acceptable to Malaysians and the children weren't allowed to attend school. It's the same old story the world over.

Walking through the padi fields on Sunday before the rain

   Despite the rainy season being " over" , torrential downpours happen daily and last Sunday there was a huge 50 metre long landslide across the only road down the mountain. It took them 13 hours to clear a way through and some teachers turned back to Kota Kinabalu while others waited patiently and on Monday morning the schools seemed to be working with a skeleton staff until everyone got through. Before the rain on Sunday it had been gorgeous weather and a few mentors had come up to Ranau for a yoga and walking weekend and we'd had a very enjoyable time. J'espere que tous mes amis en France sont contents avec le nouveau President?!