Rainy Kuching!

The temple which was having a birthday celebration

Yes the rainy season is in full swing in Borneo and there has been flooding and landslides for several weeks now in various places. Tuaran seems to have been fine but the streets of Kudat were flooded last week as have several other places in Sabah with the rain from the mountains making the rivers burst their banks. Anyway last Wednesday I went to Kuching, a place I love, and one it seems I haven't been for ages so I was excited about the prospect of doing some Kuching shopping. That was not the real reason I was there however and before I had time to do my shopping I had two days of meetings with the Symposium committee at the Hilton. "Symposium" seems to be a slightly pretentious name for a conference which is going to be held on 4-6 March and is involving the teachers that we are working with in the schools. There are going to be keynote speakers who are well known in the EFL world and then lots of workshops run by the teachers and mentors. It is going to be a huge event which entails so many things to think of I'm glad there is a committee of 20 strong to cope with it all. I am responsible for communications which involves the media, film crew, PR company, social media etc.... most of these things I wouldn't have had a clue about last year but am just about holding my head above water and I have had a couple of meetings with film companies who are obviously trying to impress me - which I find rather odd!!

Chinatown

  Anyway, I won't bore you with all the details now as the next few weeks will be getting busier with all the organisational details. Sarong and Ko have an order for 50 "Miss World" sashes in a batik pattern for the committee and helpers to wear so I had to choose and buy enough sarongs. It looks like Sophia and I will be sewing frantically as well. Anyway back to my shopping. I came back with another bark mat for my house which are woven by the Iban tribe. Each of them are different and it is so difficult to choose but I'm pleased with the one I got. The other things I bought were cheap wall hangings and wooden holders to make my walls look more colourful. Of course I was looking longingly at the carvings, totem poles, furniture etc. but they won't fit in the suitcase. Maybe next visit I might be tempted!?

Delicious Sarawak Laksa 

  Kuching has a large Chinese community and after two days in the Hilton I moved out into a small hotel in  Chinatown which was charming if rather noisy. On Friday night it was one of the Temple God's birthday and there was a huge procession of lions, dragons, drumming, flags etc all in the pouring rain. It was such a shame for everyone but they seemed to keep going until late despite all the rain. The next night there seemed to be lots of drumming again which someone thought was just the preparation for the lion dances for Chinese New Year which is fast approaching. It continued to rain over the weekend and it seemed strange to see the river so high and brown, however Kuching is still one of my favourite places even in the rain!

The Mystery of the Banana Thief

Last year around September, I noticed that if I left my bananas in the fruit bowl that some of them looked like they had been split open but on closer examination I realised that they had been very neatly eaten along the seam of each banana. I would forget about it and then put the next bunch of bananas in the bowl again and remember about it until it was too late. I then decided to put the bananas on top of the fridge but I found them on the floor the next morning- again very neatly eaten. My next ploy was to wrap them in a plastic bag and leave them up high on top of the fridge but the bag was opened and the bananas eaten! Was it an animal living in my house or coming in from outside? My windows are slats and are often wide open so to close them each night became the new course of action to avoid midnight visitors. It wasn't a monkey as they would surely peel the banana and eat the whole thing and the slats were too small so I deduced that it must be a rodent of some sort. (I know the detective work involved is impressive!)

My lovely local beach and the horses

I then went away on holiday and came back to a house that had lots of evidence of kecko pooh but no sign of rodent activity so I thought that the thief had disappeared - if it was a rodent. I bought my bananas as usual on the first Sunday market and put them in my fruit bowl. The first day I checked and every banana was intact, the second and third day were the same and I breathed a sigh of relief that the Banana Thief had gone, then the fourth day I found that one little banana had been very neatly eaten. The Banana Thief had struck again!

Flooding at schools this week

What I need is a camera trap to identify the Banana Thief. It is most likely to be a squirrel (and there are at least 30 species of squirrels in Borneo) who just goes wild for bananas and the other possibilities are moon rats, shrews, mice, rats.There are many possibilities and I welcome any suggestions from anyone but in the meantime I am keeping my bananas inside the fridge!

ps- for some reason my photos aren't loading so these are from my phone and previous blogs

Progress Report of Two Months

A Welcome Meal for Kieta

  It is hard to believe I've only been back in Sabah for just over a week as it seems longer now. Anyway apart from losing my glasses on the last flight to Kota Kinabalu, all the flights went well and my car was waiting at the airport for me. My lovely neighbours had kept an eye on my house and even the stray dog that sleeps on my verandah seemed pleased to see me. It was straight into work though, delivering a 4 day training session to new mentors in Kota Kinabalu. However it was very relaxed and good fun despite being a full day for everyone and the fact that the other mentors were still on holiday. The whole of Malaysia had an extra week off school because of the flooding that had hit the East coast of peninsula Malaysia and everyone, except a few of us, were making the most of it!

pineapples, coconuts, crabs, prawns

   I know that anyone talking about their medical complaints/ history is an instant turn off but that is exactly what I am going to do now!  It is 2 months since I broke my arm and I went to the hospital last Thursday and the Doctor thought that my progress was "fantastic"! I then went to the physiotherapist and realised that although I have made progress I still have quite a way to go. Having never broken a limb before I think I haven't really appreciated how amazing our bodies are and what a lot of muscles are involved in achieving movement. I can raise my right arm 90 degrees but am nowhere near 180 degrees  that my left arm can do. The physio has given me lots of exercises to do which I am diligently doing each day. The most exciting news of the week is that I can still swim and even managed a front crawl. I am determined that my swimming will return to it's former standard!

Tuaran Market

  It has been a week when France has been very much in the news and I know that many of my friends and family will be attending the marches this weekend. I hope that there will be no more violence in the weeks coming. It has been good to catch up with lots of mentors returning from their holidays and the next 9 months of the project is going to fly by. A new mentor has arrived in Tuaran this weekend and she will just be settling in when it will be time to pack up and come home.