The flight was fine – we numbed our brains with mindless movies (numb minds to go with our numb derrieres!), mine including “All about Steve”, “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and “Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs.”
Introducing May Ling and Zaidee…May Ling and Zaidee met us at the airport to take us to Melaka. On the way we stopped at an outdoor food court where we tried some Mee Hun Sup, Mee Hun Goreng and Beef Korma. Iced Lemon Tea is a different experience, much less cordial-y. Delicious!
May Ling very graciously took us in on our first night. We met her husband Chris, sons Clement and Clarence, and nephew Marcus. It wasn’t until we reached her house that we felt immersed in a foreign country and culture. The streets and houses were a fantastic sight. A bed was a welcome sight… albeit for only 5 hours of use. A 5:30am start this morning was challenging.
Breakfast was (as Jess so graciously described) and flat square of dried roast meat slapped between bread… having said such, it was quite nice, with a much needed coffee at 6am. Food is certainly not in a short supply with recess being served at 10am at the school, consisting of rice squashed together to resemble potato and Mee Goreng. Lunch will be served shortly, although I’m not sure I could eat again yet. (We consequently skipped lunch)
This morning at the school began with assembly, where we were seated front and centre on the stage. Pointing and excited signing abounded from the children. We were given names in ‘sign’, mine being representative of my curly hair and the letter ‘K’, Jess’s being a combination of ‘J’ and ‘S’, after deciding a symbol of ‘pointy nose’ was not appropriate. The school is beautiful and extremely clean (the brooms are amazing) and our dorm room well exceeded our expectations.
Yes… I do realise it’s very bare, but we expected to be with the children as such…
We are going shopping tonight for some more appropriate clothes to wear in the classrooms. Jess had a shirt thrust upon her this morning at breakfast as her attempt at modesty was a failure (in a t-shirt). I am unsure whether I have hilarious feet or if my footwear was inappropriate as some children proceeded to point at my feet and laugh (I was in sandals). The school is quite nice, with the maximum class size being six children (this is number for all special schools in Malaysia) with mainstream schools having up to 50 children/class.
I am now the proud owner of a Baju Kurung (a.k.a. a Moo Moo) thanks to Awi (our housemate), Nani and Lin. It’s green of course.
(Lin, Awi, Me and Nani)
Note to anyone wanting to travel to Malaysia: Carry toilet paper with you! I have no idea what Malaysians do with respect to this matter, but I wish not to know…
Speech
While on our tour of the school with our trusty guide Zaidee, Oh May Ling was trying to elicit sounds from some of the children (who had conveniently left their hearing aids at home). She said “good morning” very slowly and over emphasised all of the mouth positions, resulting in nothing more than some very vague sounds, but it was an interesting attempt all the same.
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