Happy Year of the Snake!

Happy Chinese New Year! It is pouring so I'm not sure if the festivities will have to wait until tomorrow although last night there were lots of fireworks being set off and there was music and dancing beside my house. I woke up with a real start about 12.30 am as hundreds of firecrackers were set off , which seemed to be outside my window! There is quite a large community of Chinese in Ranau and traditionally they are the ones who run the businesses and shops. The Chinese Primary school that I work at has huge classes (42) but with only half being Chinese and the rest local children with ambitious parents who believe to speak Chinese is the key to their children's success in the future. The school is funded half by the government and  half by the Chinese community so the parents are very influential in the running of the school and English has a much lower priority that Chinese. I have found that it is a very different atmosphere in the Chinese School than my other schools and the teachers tend to be more reserved and not as friendly. I have one lovely Chinese teacher friend who was talking to me about the discrimination of the Chinese in Malaysia and how threatened the Muslim Malays often feel. Many of the Chinese  in Malaysia emigrate to Singapore or Canada where they feel they are treated more fairly. The very ambitious Chinese often convert to become Muslims and they are the ones to watch out for. The ex Education Officer for Ranau is such a person and he has recently announced that he will be running against the government in the General election in March .This seems to have shocked many people as he is known to have "gained" a lot of money by corruption when he was in office. However perhaps he realises that the tide is turning and he needs to change his alliance!
Another very lovely Chinese family I know, run a restaurant and a betting shop and between the 10 brothers and sisters who nearly all have other jobs, they take turns to help their parents who are quite elderly now. I have just said hello to Mr Foo who is usually a Maths teacher but was in the middle of cooking and told me he was suffering from a hangover! His sister is head of a department in the Education Office but she pitches in too. I have very little school time this week as we have two days of public holiday and most of the schools have decided to take the other 3 days off. It was a very last minute decision with some schools deciding on Friday, however I have lots to be getting on with in preparation for the Symposium.  (More on that later.....) Meantime Andrew has arrived in Bangkok so we are at least in the same time zone now. We will be meeting up soon either in KL or Sabah - what a strange life we lead these days!