Community Service Report: Ecoteer on Pulau Perhentian
9:18 PM
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 anI
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.
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| Teresa and I snorkelling |
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| One of the kids with his artwork |
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| The village |
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| Teaching Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes |
3 comments
wow! i envy you...ive never snorkeling before...this is way too cool!
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah! I recently came across your blog and have had such a great time reading about your adventures! What an amazing and wonderful experience. When do you get back to The States? When you do come visit - I want to hear all about your trip. ~Mrs. Hooke :-)
ReplyDeletelucky you, I'm a Malaysian but I've never been to Perhentian before, let alone snorkeling. Have fun Miss. :D
ReplyDelete