The World's Indigenous People Day 9th August

Bajau

Murut

A Dusun Bobohizan

   As I board my fifth flight of this week , stay in my second  5 star hotel in a week , I feel a total fraud and that someone is going to find me out! I know that it is not going to last and I am going to crash down to reality very soon but yesterday really did seem like an out of body experience. I was invited by a bookshop in Kuala Lumpur to give a talk on the Storybook  Initiative. They paid my flight and expenses so I just had to come and do it! I arrived in KL early afternoon and discovered that my hotel was on the route of the first City Grand Prix and it was very crowded and difficult to reach not to mention the noise level being very high but it was my first experience of being so near cars going at that speed. After managing to shout to check in I set off to find the book shop where there was a board outside saying “Fiona Wright talks on the Storybook Initiative to celebrate the World’s Indigenous People Day” ! So this was the place in the lovely Silverfish bookshop and now I just hoped that not many people would turn up. It started with about ten people and ended up with over thirty as people arrived late or just drifted in from the shopping mall. My audience was very varied and I had a few children, a group of teenage boys and every other age group up including an elderly lady. I ended up the talk with a reading of “Itut-Itut” which was unplanned but seemed  to be a success. So it was over and everyone seemed to be happy and bought some of the books. I was then taken out to dinner by the publishers and came back to a much quieter hotel.

Bidayuh

Iban

This morning I was able to enjoy a very lovely breakfast and was tempted to take a photograph of my salmon and asparagus but thought it would show me up as the fraud I am. I even ended up talking to a gentleman who was involved in the Australian racing team which seemed rather strange too as I know nothing about car racing. I had a quick call into the  KL British Council office which was full of an amazing mixture of people from all races all striving to learn English I suppose - there was even a buddhist monk on his way to class in his orange robes. The one thing that I have really noticed in KL is how many women are wearing full burkas. No one wears full burkas in Sabah and I never noticed it in KL before - a sign of the times. So I am waiting at the new terminal 2 in Kuala Lumpur airport writing my blog and people watching and feel that I ought to give a plug for Air Asia. They won the world’s best low cost airline for the 7^th year running (flight magazine!) and I really do think that they are one of the best airlines I have travelled on. The Allstars as Tony Fernandes calls them, are always so nice and helpful, the planes are new and they run on time and have enabled me to travel, and millions of others to many interesting destinations. Continue the great work! So on Wednesday I am off to yet another 5 star hotel in KK for the final End of Year meeting which in many ways is sad but all good things do come to an end and the end is getting nearer!

Part of the leaflet as proof that it was me!

Rungus girls holding the books