Recording Artist, Tour Guide and White-water rafter!

White water rafting on Kiulu River

       Last weekend started with a white-water rafting expedition organised by our new Project Manager as a team spirit exercise. Not very many mentors turned up, however I really enjoyed myself and will definitely be bringing my visitors down the Kiulu River . The CD/ Songbook has started to sell in Tambunan and next week I am hoping that it will sell like hot cakes in Ranau. My only problem is that I can't find any blank CD's to copy the songs onto.( Does Adele still spend her free time copying her CD's I wonder?)  Deliveries up the mountain are very sporadic - we will be without yoghurts for two weeks and then suddenly they appear in both supermarkets; the same sarongs are seen for months and then last week all the shops had some new ones. So I'm hoping that the blank CD lorry will deliver in time or else I will have a two hour drive down the mountain to the nearest shop.

     My latest role as a mentor, since yesterday, is being a tourist guide. One of my headmistresses said as she was leaving for a meeting. "Fiona, we have some orang putihs visiting the school - could you show them round please". What?! Who? When? Why?  I asked but it was too late she had gone. I arrived at the school ahead of time and they were already there waiting in their very nice air-conditioned bus. They being  a group of ladies, over a certain age, from the UK on a Saga Holiday in Sabah and somehow through the tour guide they had expressed a wish of visiting a school in the area. I'm sure they were very disappointed to see another orang putih greeting them which I imagine ruined the charm and authenticity of a primary school in the mountains of Borneo. However, they were very interested and fascinated by the children who posed for their photographs continuously (with the V sign of course!) The school grinded to a halt and there were about thirty children following after them, ripping flowers from the flower beds and presenting them to the ladies. The ladies were charmed  and when the Year 1's spontaneously burst into 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" like it was the British National Anthem, their hearts were won forever. " Are they all your sisters?" the children asked me. "No" I replied in horror but thinking about it, the children here will have as many as fourteen brothers and sisters and according to the children, we orang putihs all look the same! Again I am amazed by the trusting, welcoming nature of the Sabahans. Would we in the West equally welcome them into a school I wonder?

My sisters!

A strappy top and micro shorts. Where did our  cultural sensitivity go to?

  Trying to get books, reading corners and  a more stimulating environment for the pupils is my main aim at the moment. The delightful Masinin ,who is the school handyman, went out to the jungle and chopped down some bamboo and has constructed a lovely, perhaps rather wobbly. reading corner for the Year 1's. We have painted it and there is going to be a carpet and now all we need is some nice books that the children have access to. I launched my appeal to the Saga ladies and they promised that they would send some books to the school and so now I'm going for a wider audience. If you have any ideas of how we could try and get some nice colourful reading books for the children I would love to hear from you. If all of you sent one book, ( it can be second hand ), that would be enough for one class. In some of the village schools, the children will have never seen a book before they go to school and have to be taught how to hold it and look inside. I think giving these young children a chance to enjoy reading could open many doors that have been closed to them before. Your ideas and generosity will be gratefully received.

 

A Day in the life of a Mentor in Ranau

Gen leaving Ranau

   "All by myself..." again. Gen is safely back in Glasgow and hopefully advising Andrew on colours to paint the walls of the flat. It was so lovely for her to share a little of my life here in Ranau and get to know some of my friends and what I do but it is rather limiting when you have no transport and waiting for your mother to come home from work! Work I hear you say - yes I do actually work! Now let me take a typical day, for example like last Tuesday. I received an email last weekend telling me about the launch of the the 100 Day  Countdown to the Olympics in London. Where might be the most likely place for it to be launched in Malaysia? - well of course Ranau! It was sponsored by the British Council (and others) and the head of the British Council of Malaysia along with the Director of Education and other VIP's were present and the mentors in the region were asked to put in an appearance. So Emily and I turned up and saw the 100 balloons going off and the Olympic torch being lit and the parades, local dancing and music and we even got to climb over the barrier and shake hands with the VIP's. The final icing on the cake is that I  now own a bright red t-shirt saying "Olympic Countdown Ranau 2012"!

Ranau Sports Komplex

Bamboo Recording Studio, Tambunan

  As soon as we had finished there we went to collect Gen and three of our teachers and headed off down the bumpy, potholed road to Tambunan, a small town about an hour's drive from Ranau. We were heading for "The Bamboo Recording Studio" (surely you've heard of it) and there we met up with two other mentors and some more teachers. The reason for the venue was to record the songs in Year 1 and 2 in order that we can sell (for a loss) the CD and songbook to the parents which in turn will hopefully encourage the children to listen and sing English at home. The one hour booked turned into three hours very quickly. None of us had ever sung together and despite the simplicity of the songs we've managed to end up with an interesting mix of Sabah/Irish accents and odd harmonies! It is certainly not the best, however we are hoping that the parents and children won't mind too much. We all had a good time together and afterwards we ate and had a hilarious drive home arriving back in Ranau about 8 pm. So there you have a typical day at work - no wonder I'm so tired la!

A note from Gen

Hello Everyone,

Mum has asked me to write her blog this week. I'm not a good writer but I have time on my hands so here it goes. As you may know I arrived in Borneo on the 24th of March, just before Mum's birthday and we had a great celebration with her teacher friends from Ranau. The next weekend we went to Kudat, which is where the Tip of Borneo is. I got sunburned - I wonder will I ever learn from my mistakes!? During that weekend we met up with other mentors of the project, and ate lots of lovely seafood. The following week, Mum had a conference in KK and the hotel room was paid for so I tagged along! Managed to have a very relaxing time, maybe too relaxing as all I had to do was have breakfast, sit by the pool, have lunch, sit by the pool and so it went on. Still I'm getting lots of reading done which is nice since I never seem to have/make time for it. After our few days in KK, we were off to the Kinabatangang Jungle Camp for 2 nights. We had 3 boat trips along the Kinabatangang River and saw many animals: 3 crocodiles, 4 orang utans, 25 or so pygmy elephants, loads of hornbills, proboscis monkeys, macaques, bearded pigs, 1 fresh-water turtle, 1 snake, 1 civet cat, 1 silverleaf monkey. After our stay at the jungle we went off to Sandakan and took a boat out to Turtle Island where we saw a Green Turtle lay her eggs and then we went to the hatchery to watch the ranger bury them. After we watched some newly hatched green turtles being let out to the sea which was very cute! We've been back in Ranau since and today we went to Mount Kinabalu Park and had a wander and a short walk but it got very cloudy and rainy, as it seems to do daily here up in Ranau! I'm leaving on Wednesday and will be back to normal life in Glasgow. Dad will actually be there so I'm going from one parent to another! He is going to be renovating/decorating our new flat that I'll be living in next year so that's exciting. It has been nice to see with my own eyes what Mum has been talking about for so long, putting names to faces and places mostly! Hopefully I will be back but in the meanwhile I'm sure all her future visitors will have a great time, just I like I have!

Gen x

Jellyfish , Beaches and Gen

Sunset driving up the mountains

 I feel like I've missed the deadline for an assignment but since Gen has arrived we've been very busy and I just haven't sat down at my computer for long enough, so excuse my tardiness this week. As you can imagine it is really lovely having Gen here and she creates whirls of excitement where ever she goes! The white skin and blonde hair are fascinating for everyone and one wonders what it must have been like for the first "white" people arriving off their boats in the nineteenth century.

 Since Gen has been here I have celebrated my birthday and had a lovely party with my friends from Ranau. We have been to the idyllic resort of Manana but both got stung by jellyfish. We then continued on to visit Kudat and the Tip of Borneo and see some more amazing beaches. I have been working too and Gen has come in to wander around the schools and look at the various rehearsals going on and cause great excitment amongst the pupils. We are now staying at a 5 star hotel in Kota Kinabalu while I attend a conference on Inclusive Education and Gen can enjoy the swimming pool. Our adventures will continue but I hope you enjoy the photos.

Another week over!

  The Primary school calendar in Sabah I'm sure does hold some more surprises for me but I'm beginning to be very accepting when yet another approaching event is declared. Last week was the chess tournament and February seemed to be athletics and sports. This week has been the start of fervent rehearsals for the zone competitions at the beginning of April. The pupils that are chosen to represent the schools are allowed, with the teachers responsible for the event, to practise for 2 hours after recess, until the competition. The other pupils seem to just drift around and no one appears to be in any trouble or bothered by the lack of supervision. The rehearsals that so far that I've seen have been for; choir, karaoke style singing, Dusun dancing, Action songs in English, Choral speaking in English ( a very strange chanting with a conductor) storytelling, traditional gongs and I expect there are more that I haven't seen yet. It seems that everywhere around the school there are little groups of pupils  rehearsing with music, gongs, singing, chanting all competing with one another! This week I managed to press gang some trainee teachers who were observing for a week, to help me start to paint and decorate a Year 1's classroom. My aim is to try and brighten up the Year 1's classrooms to start with and introduce a reading corner with books that they can touch!



Painting in satin!



Action song rehearsal

  The rice harvest has begun! Some of the rice plants have really started to ripen and turn an amber colour and just in the last week some of the people have been out starting to harvest. The rice is cut into bundles and then carried to a sort of makeshift tent made out of bamboo and tarpaulins. It is there that someone threshes the bundles to separate the grains. As to what happens with the dried stems I'm not sure yet but will continue to watch with interest.



Gen is in the air as I write and tomorrow I will meet her at Kota Kinabalu airport!!

Simpang Mengayau



The Tip of Borneo

    Yesterday was the patron saint's day of our son and of my homeland and I'm quite sure that Saint Patrick would be astounded to think that it was celebrated so worldwide and in ways that he could never have imagined. After leaving Andrew at the airport yesterday I stayed on in KK and went out with a few friends.We called in briefly towards the end of the evening to the big Saint Patrick celebration and by that time there were many tourists and locals wearing those tall green hats, that I have yet to see in Ireland, and having a very "merry" time. We were in time to see the Irish dancing which was performed by local Sabahans called- guess? - yes River Dance -wearing green costumes and doing a very good attempt, apart from some odd angled twists to the legs. The next item was "traditional" music again played by local musicians playing the clarinet, electric guitar and piano. At this stage I decided to go home! All I can remember when I was growing up in Northern Ireland was having a day off school and going to watch the School's Rugby Cup Final. I have a vague recollection of someone making green jelly once but not much else. In the collection of  war letters written mostly by my father there are some that were written by my mother and were returned to sender and never opened or read. I have read a few and in one dated 17th March 1942, only a month after the Fall of Singapore, I found a little dried bunch of shamrocks that my mother had worn all day just praying and hoping that my father was still alive. It was many months before she knew that he had been captured and to read it is heart wrenching. Does the tradition of wearing shamrocks continue I wonder or has green dye, tall hats and beer taken over?

The green crested lizard  in my garden.

   Andrew and I had a lovely few days this week at the Tip of Borneo, Simpang Mengayau,and the beach there was absolutely beautiful and nearly deserted. There are many islands just off the Tip that have caused much strife historically often between Sabah and the Philippines, not to mention the Dutch, Spanish, British and just plain old pirates. In 1881 the chief of the Rungus tribe asked for help from the British against marauding pirates and then in 1882 the British North Company was established on Pulau Banggi which gave the British the foothold to claim North Borneo as theirs in 1888. The Rungus tribe are famous for their bead work and living in longhouses which are still evident today. As we looked out from the Tip where the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea merge, we were saying that we could not have predicted in a million years that we would have been sitting doing this, this time last March.

 Andrew has now left for Mongolia and has left a small pile of his shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops while cramming his suitcase full of snow boots and a very thick coat ready for minus temperatures! What or where next I wonder?

Ranau's Got Talent!

A man who did participate!

    This has been a busy week for Emily and I as we were the J.U 's, (don't know what it means in Malay but it means presenters) at the Ranau District Year 1 training for the new English curriculum. I was phoned on Sunday and told that I had been put down for a 2 hour slot on Monday on pronunciation ( being a native speaker!) Not exactly a very light subject to engage 74 teachers in with less than 12 hours notice on the first morning! I did cause a stir about the pronunciation of /a/ [ae] and came armed with a video from the BBC Learning English Site but I'm not sure anyone was convinced! Anyway, all of us were thrown together for 4 days from 8 a.m until 5 pm and despite the attendance being less in the afternoons on the whole most of the teachers stayed and it was good fun and gave us an opportunity of meeting some great teachers. The social interaction was interesting - the men all sat at the back and were very loathe to join up with any of the ladies. When we forced the men into groups with the ladies they literally left all the work to them and then took the microphone when it was time to do a presentation. So I asked everyone " Is it always like this - the women do the work and men do nothing?" Apparently that was quite a bold thing to say but the women were pleased and the men just thought I was a bossy orang putih and continued to do as little as possible!
  It was held in the new District Offices which are very smart with marble floors, doormen in uniform and red berets who greeted us.The course was held in a huge conference room with an oval table and microphones that lit up when you spoke with very comfortable swivel chairs. We were all provided with a snack at 10.30 and then lunch at 12.30 and being the J.U's we were served ours in a separate room! The most surreal time for me was on the last afternoon when we were asked to comment and evaluate the lessons and lesson plans of each group.(I know the irony of it struck me too!) I felt I was on Britain's got Talent and everyone seemed to hang on our words and clapped if we thought it was good! I tried to say something nice about them all but sometimes it was very difficult and then there were moments where I just couldn't praise the teachers enough - they were fantastic.

 So you and I know that I'm no V.I.P. and I keep thinking I'm going to be found out as a fraud. Andrew also

has been having some strange VIP moments in Myanmar and in KL last week . When he told one of his colleagues that he used to be a cleaner and gardener for 9 years they just didn't believe him. Do V.I.P.'s really think they are important or are we all just pretending?