Community Service Report: Ecoteer on Pulau Perhentian

I can honestly say my week on perhentian with the other YES Abroad students, volunteers, and villagers was among the most tiring, hottest, busiest, amazing and above all rewarding week in Malaysia.

Before our trip, we were given only a little information about exactly what we would be doing. We knew there would be teaching English, cleaning up the community and interacting with the locals, but that was about it. I'd say planning was pretty minimal, but somehow the few conversations we had sufficed.

Sunday morning, after a rough taxi ride from kuala Terengganu to kuala besut, where the jetty was located, I met up with Ari, James, Teresa and Ben. It was a sweet reunion, as Ben was the volunteer that met us when we first landed at Kuala Lumpur airport and he was with us our first few days in the country. 

Our first day on perhentian was a lot of sleepiness.y We went in a sweltering tour of the island, met the other volunteers that would be at the ecoteer house with us for the week, and listened to some presentations about ecoteer's work on the island and the coral and turtles there. 

The rest of the week was honestly a blur- but in a good way. The days and nights more or less fused together into one sweaty, challenging but ultimately worth it week. 

With the children, we ran two school slums, English club and ecoteer environmental club. At English club we taught the children the body parts using pictures, a song and a few games. The children were certainly energetic and although keeping them under control was difficult, I think the students and us as the teachers enjoyed the experience.

At the environmental club, we taught a bit about endangered species. The children used arts and crafts, more pictures, and of course a game to learn about the threats these animals face. The kids were honestly sweethearts and they loved hanging around me because I could speak Malay with them. I even managed to pick up some of the island slang. As part of this club, we also went with the kids to clean up the beach. The beach was strewn with rubbish, and even the rubbish we collected was just left on the beach to be either burned or transported away from the island. It's a bit of a vicious cycle. However the kids were very passionate about helping is to clear up the litter and I think they definitely appreciate the value of a clean beach. 

One of the projects ecoteer is trying to implement on perhentian. At around six o'clock everyday three volunteers go around asking the food stalls and the home owners if there's any food waste there. A lot of the places don't bother to separate the food waste and the paper products, which is a shame, because composting is effective and fairly simple. It seems like as time has gone on, more and more people are separating their trash, so hopefully this project will be a success in the future. 

We also helped out painting a mural in the school library, a menu board for one of the restaurants and cleared the community garden. All the volunteers were also responsible for chores, so we all ended up clearing the table, cooking dinner and clearing the garden at least once. It gave the ecoteer house a really community feel. 

Hands down, the most rewarding experience for me was teaching English to some of the Malay ladies that operate a bakery/ restaurant on the island. They were a group of fun, funny, and really eager to learn aunties. We taught them basic phrases only, like greetings, questions about the meals, if someone is a vegetarian, but even those tidbits of language can be helpful when dealing with a tourist that speaks no Malay whatsoever. Knowing that we gave them the tools they needed to further their business and interact with their customers is such a fantastic feeling. An impact like that can last forever. With weekly lessons from ecoteer volunteers, The women hopefully will continue to practice and learn English. Although a few phrases don't seem like a lot, I feel like we've opened a door to more social interactions for them. 

I'll never forget my time in perhentian. I know that our time there was short, but so well spent. I hope that the children will remember what we taught, the housewives will remember to separate their food waste, and the boatmen will think twice before tossing their petrol cans carelessly on the beach. What I loved was that for a week, we were seen as part of the island. We were teachers, big sisters/ brothers, children and friends. Perhentian is blessed to have such a beautiful community there and I would love to see it flourish and become an environmentally friendly place. Perhentian brought me closer with the other YES Abroad students and also with myself.
(Credit for these photos go to Graziella, one of the other volunteers staying with us for the week)

Drawing for the endangered species poster

After English Club

Collecting food waste for composting

The  village where we stayed

Teaching English to the Malay ladies

Snorkeling!

You Know You're Becoming Malaysian When...

After nearly 11 months in the country, I consider myself pretty Malaysian. Here's some of the habits/ ticks/ words I and other exchange students have picked up that have made us "Malaysianized"

You know you've been Malaysianized when...

• You know when to use lah, leh, lo, lor, meh, and ma all correctly
• You know the pros and cons of using DiGi, Maxis and Celcom
• Why do like this meh? is a completely okay question to ask
• You don't go out if it rains. Or even the day after it rains if it's a bad storm. Actually the rain stops all plans, and who wants to deal with the jam anyways??
• You think of KL people as city folk
• "We see how first" are words to live by
• You know the words for eat and tea in Tamil, Malay, and a few dialects of Chinese
• Complaining about how hot it is while soaking in the aircon/ fan is a completely justifiable way to spend a day
• As is going on facebook, twitter, and 9gag for 7 hours straight
• School holiday? Sleep until noon
• You know you should be studying but instead go on to twitter to complain about how much homework you have to do
• Shaving is optional
• You know at least 1 Malay and Tamil song
• You know whether to call someone "anne" or "abang"
• You'd rather call a women that looks slightly older kakak than deal with the consequences of calling an older looking woman that's young mak cik
• Arguing with the taxi drivers to use the metre isn't so difficult
• Crossing a busy street? No problem, use the hand
• You know how to use chopsticks and eat with your hands
• You've slowly forgotten how to eat with a knife...
• You get scolded by the prefects for not buttoning your baju kurung 
• You know what food stall at the canteen has the best food on what days
• There are people in your class that speak better English than you
• You know exactly what drama went down on twitter last night
• You always take a Chinese friend with you to eat dimsum because the dimsum women always try and rip you off
• People back in the US don't understand your English
• It's really hard to understand a non-Malaysian accent
• It's really difficult to form an English sentence without using a Malay or Chinese word
• You've used the phrase "special discount untuk mat salleh boleh cakap bahasa melayu" countless times
• You get really angry when someone thinks you're a tourist
• Hearing someone talking about you in Malay and approaching them and saying saya boleh faham bm is the best. thing. ever.
• You've never watched a Korean drama but still know what's going on in at least 3 of them from your talkative classmates
• It's second nature to bring tissue with you everywhere
• You've learned to not be offended when a Chinese or a Malay auntie tells you how fat you've gotten
• Whatsapp is crucial to survival
• You can't go more than one week without eating roti canai or nasi lemak...
• ... or one day without eating some form of nasi
• You can tell how sweet the teh o ais is going to be based on the race of the pak cik or mak cik that makes it
• You know what night market is open when and where
• You feel vaguely uncomfortable when you're in a new place and the call to prayer goes off and it's not the one you're used to
• You can tell what app someone is using on their phone based on the azan it plays
• You know what the call to prayer sounds like on at least 3 different radio stations
• You start to spell things the British way
• You know and taste the difference between Malay and Chinese char kuey teow
• You know which way to fold and your banana leaf and what it means after eating banana leaf rice
• Everyone goes to you with their problems because they know you don't know the names of anyone in school still
• Life without roti scares the crap out of you
• The GE is all you can talk about
• You laugh at the amount of political flags hanging up
• You still don't know the name of two girls in your class
• You know the LRT and Monorail system better than your host family
• The Starbucks baristas know you by name because you hang out there so often
• Malaysians know more about American pop culture than you
• You still can't recognize school people when they're not wearing their uniform
• People start ridiculous rumors about you (I DID NOT MOVE TO CHINA FOR 2 WEEKS)
• It doesn't phase you when you find out it was your English teacher that started the rumor
• You're tired and lazy all the time
• Going on a run is literally a joke
• People keep telling you the rainy season sudah pass but it still rains everyday
• There is no such thing as too much milo
• You started saying going back to America instead of going home, because Malaysia is home
• You don't know if you have friends/ who your friends are back home, but that's okay
• The thought of leaving Malaysia makes you cry. Really, really hard.
• You know that you'll be back one day!!

Short Term Exchange: Dua Minggu Di Terengganu!

AFS Malaysia offers a program called Short Term Exchange, STE from here on out, to experience a different part of Malaysia. This year the locations offered were Melaka, Perlis, Terengganu, the Orang Asli settlement, and Sabah. Originally, I was one of eight students selected to go to Sabah, but due to the conflict in Lahad Datu, our trip was cancelled last minute and the eight of us were frantically shuffled around last minute to different STE locations. And that's how I ended up on a 13 hour bus ride from Ipoh to Kuala Terengganu.
My host family in Kuala Terengganu was Chinese and fabulous in all ways known to mankind. My host dad was a swim coach, English teacher, tae kwan do instructor and golfer, my host mom worked at a bank. I had two host sisters, Joceline, 19, my best friend, student and Jacqueline who works in KL. I also had a host brother who works in KL as well, but I didn't get to meet him.
The 2 weeks were really busy. The AFS Terengganu Chapter, led by Madame Lucy, had so many activities planned for us. On Sunday, we attended the 7 million women purple walk, which let us see the city, but it was during the hottest part of the day which was not so nice.
I also attended school for 3 days in Terengganu. SMK Sultan Sulaiman hosted me, Svenja and Emannuele in Form 4, classes A, B, and C respectively. The school was extremely Malay compared to Convent, there were only 2 Chinese in my class and no Indians! Everyone was super friendly and we made so many friends so quickly. Over 3 days, I swear we must have taken at least 200 photos with the students. That's another different thing, although techinically not allowed, even the prefects brought their phones to school. Such a difference than the military style discipline of Ipoh. Schools in Terengganu (along with Kelantan and Kedah, the other two Islamic states) run from Sunday to Thursday, that is, the weekend is Friday and Saturday to observe the Muslim holy day instead of the Christian. Goodbyes were surprisingly hard to say after only 3 days, but Svenja and I did go out with friends from school a few times after we officially stopped attending school.
One of the activities AFS organized was jungle trekking. I'm not a huge fan, but the first day of jungle trekking we also learned survival skills. After an hour hike we found ourselves on a riverbed where we learned how to build a fire and cook instant noodles, chicken and bread over fire. The noodles were cooked in a bamboo shoot, the bread twisted around a stick, and the chicken speared and rotated over the fire. There's something super satisfying about eating food that you cooked yourself, especially using just nature.
The eight of us hosted in Terengganu also traveled to Pulau Redang! Redang was incredibyl beautiful, everything you'd expect from a tropical island. Crystal clear turquoise water, powder white soft sand, lazy hammocks strung along palm trees under the beach, it was heaven. An utterly relaxing 3 days were spent on the island, tanning, jumping off the jetty, snorkelling. The staff at our resort were very friendly and we all left the island relaxed, but very reluctant to go back to "city life." Although I don't know how much of a city Kuala Terengganu is considered... It doesn't have a movie theatre.
When I wasn't island hopping or trekking, I was spending time with my lovely host family. I grew extremely close with my host sister, bonding over our love of glee and John Green novels (If you don't know who he is, look it up). I went with my host dad to swimming practice, hung out with my sister;s friends, and made the most of my time there. I really miss Terengganu and saying goodbye was truly a saddening experience.

Clowning around in school

Beach across the street from my host house

Pulau Redang sunrise

Pulau Redang 

The Terengganu crazies aww <3

Mabul Island, Sabah

Paradise... My first island in Malaysia! In Borneo nonetheless
Another picture-y post. If I wrote about Mabul you'd be reading a post about the joys of tanning and sleeping on the beach.
Photos 1-4 were taken by the wonderful Giulia Rovera
All photos edited by yours truly

Actually, there were no beaches on our side of the island, but we "borrowed" the beach at a resort.

Blue starfish just lying on the beach

In front of our hotel which was more like a backpacker's lodge, there were a group of sea gypsies. The little children would come and swim with us, but also beg for food. They live on these little boats and make their money through begging and selling whatever meager fish they can catch.

Orang putih no longer.... Becoming brown.

The water in Mabul was super clear. The snorkelling there was hands down the best snorkelling I've experienced. Although litter is a serious problem at many of the beaches, the coral population is rich and Mabul is home to many endangered species indigenous to the are. Sipadan, a neighbor island, is one of the best diving sites in the world.

A lot of oil drilling offshore... Thankfully we didn't see any residue on the beaches. Although I got a bad sting off a jellyfish!