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.

A Happy and Healthy 2015 from Normandie !

A Wright family selfie!

Well "La Ferme des Vallots" suddenly seems very quiet with all four girls leaving yesterday and leaving Patrick, Andrew, Phoebe (the dog) and me on our own. It has been a wonderful three weeks of being with the family in Glasgow, London, Winchester and then two weeks at our lovely farm in Normandie as usual. It all seems a blur of eating in lovely restaurants or delicious homemade meals and I have managed to catch up with lots of family and friends as well as going to the musical Wicked, visiting "Winter Wonderland" in Hydepark  and generally indulging myself far too much !

Tanya's surprise birthday celebration

It is 25 years since we bought "La Ferme des Vallots" and since then every Christmas has been spent here and I can't imagine spending it anywhere else. I won't bore you with all the details as each family has their own traditions and ways of enjoying their family days together but it is suffice to say that it was as lovely as ever with the family evolving and welcoming partners as the years go by. The exciting news that broke just before Christmas is that Naomi and Neil are engaged and the wedding plans are still being decided. So it looks like 2015 is going to be another exciting year for the Wrights.

 I return to Malaysia on Friday and sadly they are having their share of terrible flooding and another aircraft disaster in Indonesia. This week I have been making the most of catching up with friends. It was -5 this morning and it is tempting to stay snug at home by the fire but the sun has been out and I've enjoyed a few walks in the lovely countryside and a little bit of gardening. Anyway I'm sorry that my blogging has been slowing down and I admire anyone that finds time to blog with their family around - I know that I would much rather spend time with them than a computer. So a very happy, healthy 2015 to all of you who are still reading my ramblings !

Phoebe

The Tea Ceremony and warm welcome to the Mah Family

Yes I know it has been weeks since I've written my blog but I have no computer with me and to be honest not many spare minutes to write it. Anyway this evening is my last chance before Christmas as the family arrive early tomorrow morning. What seems like a month ago, but in reality is just over two weeks ago Andrew and I met in Kuala Lumpur ready for the banquet and Tanya and Anthony's engagement party.

 The first event was to meet at Anthony's grandmother house where we met his parents, grandmother and uncle and aunt who had just flown in for the occasion. I believe the tea ceremony is traditionally before the wedding but this was more for the grandmother as she won't be attending the actual wedding. We each took turns in sitting in the same beautifully carved chairs that had been used by the Mahs for several generations, while Tanya and Anthony served us very sweet tea. We were supposed to give them a red envelope with money or jewelry but of course we didn't have one ready! No one seemed to mind and the next venue was the restaurant where we were to have the 7 course banquet and meet the rest of the family.

 There was about 35 of us in all and we had a lovely meal and were charmed with all the extended family who included uncles, aunts and cousins and we are hoping that some of them will be able to come to the wedding.

  The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying Kuala Lumpur and visiting the sites and spending more time with Tanya, Anthony and his family. By Sunday evening everyone had departed on their way back to Europe and I was left on my own until I set off on Tuesday evening heading for Paris....to be continued!

The End of Year has arrived!!

A view from Gaya Island

   It has been a busy two weeks with the arrival of Tanya and Anthony and the the End of Year meeting but it finally seems to have calmed down and I'm spending today catching up on washing, blogging and even packing as it will only be in a few days that I leave for KL. Anyway it has been lovely having Tanya and Anthony here. Even though for such a short time they seemed to have done lots of things such as -  7 dives; visit the sights of Tuaran and KK; witness a turtle laying her eggs and help launch a hundred newly hatched turtles; visit the orang-utan and sun bear sanctuaries and then on their last day we had a very wet hike up at Poring Hot Springs to Lanayan waterfall that was plagued with leeches! They left yesterday morning to KL where they will be staying with Anthony's grandmother.

Tanya and Anthony on their first day diving

   The End of Year meeting from last Monday to Wednesday at the Palace hotel was a gathering of 60 mentors - most of them who had never met before because everyone is in such rural locations and many of them have arrived at different times during the year. It was an occasion to network and share different experiences and get to know each other and I think it was very successful. We had a variety of presentations and Tuesday afternoon was an "Apprentice" like challenge where people were put in teams and then had to pitch their Level 1 resource in front of the Directors of the project and the expert judge of a 7 year old. It was great to see how good people were at playing the salesmen role of "selling" their product! Wednesday afternoon was the time to say farewell and had a definite end of school year atmosphere. Everyone is off on their travels for 5 weeks all over the world. The mentors in my zone were going to most of the continents - Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, South America and North America and will return at the beginning of January to start the last 9 months of the project.

Coconut time

  As for my arm, well it has been great having Tanya here to give me advice on physio for the future. I went to see the orthopedic specialist last week and he has taken the cast off which seems rather soon but he is going away and won't be back until I have left so he seems to think if I keep it immobile it will heal ok. It is 30 % healed at the moment and of course I forget about trying not to use it and probably am doing too much - for example,  hikes up  mountain tracks! Anyway the plus side of not having a cast is that I can shower and put on clothes that don't need to be cut at the shoulder. Time will tell and I must try and be patient. My next blog will be about the engagement party and the gathering of the Wrights and the Mahs.

Crabs, prawns and fish at the local restaurant

Coping Single-handedly!!

Well it is over a week now since the fall and I have been very blessed with lots of offers of help and kindness and fortunately last week I was staying at a hotel and had lots of people around to pour me coffee, open water bottles and carry things which are little challenges to overcome. I have more or less worked out what I can wear now and have a selection of elastic waisted skirts and trousers, t-shirts and scarves to cover the gaps! Apart from depending on lifts and feeling rather dependent I seem to have managed the first week without any problems.

Mengkabong  water village

 

  There were 20 of us attending the  Media Training last week which was run by a lady who has her own PR (sort of have more of an idea what that means now!) company and was formally a journalist and editor of a Malaysian newspaper. It was interesting for a number of reasons . Firstly she was very outspoken about the political system in Malaysia which is quite rare. She belongs to a group of people who promote objectivity and impartiality of the media in Malaysia but of course since most of the media is owned by the ruling government party that is very difficult to do. Secondly she was very honest and blunt about our attempts of trying to do press releases with photos and most of us felt very inadequate and realised how thick skinned and good you have to be in order to succeed in journalism! Many of us were glad that Education was our chosen profession!

Pom poms are traditional on the hats in Kota Belud

 On Tuesday evening we all went out for a meal together and some of us decided to return to the hotel about 10 ish. We walked across the car park towards the taxi rank and suddenly Anna disappeared down a storm drain. She just didn't see it and was stone cold sober too! My colleagues carried her to the taxi and then at the hotel we applied ice and looked at her swollen foot until someone decided that the hospital should be the next port of call. Where is the hospital in KK? Well of course I knew now! So off we went in a mentor's car with me giving directions. To cut a long story short Anna has a hair-line fracture and has torn ligaments and is now in a plaster and hobbling around on crutches. The North Sabah zone are definitely going to be looking rather odd next week at the End of Year Meeting!

The partnership of egrets and water-buffaloes 

 Tanya and Anthony arrive on Friday which is very exciting and they will be over a week in Sabah and then another week in peninsula Malaysia with Anthony's family. Amazingly both Andrew and I will be present for their engagement dinner in KL with Anthony's parents, grandparents and family. Andrew is in East Timor at the moment and will fly into KL en route to Europe and then I will fly over from Sabah to be there too. I'm sure we weren't expected to be there but how lovely it will be!