Before Hong Kong, Kirsty and I were invited along to the Sabah deaf celebration in the local deaf society venue. Celebrated all of the deaf student's birthdays from June to December 2005, as well as celebrating Chinese New Year. All of the children who celebrated their birthdays, went on stage and the audience sang Happy Birthday in sign language. Instead of clapping afterwards, the deaf children did what looked like 'Jazz Hands'. All of the children were given an orange and a small red packet to celebrate Chinese New Year. The host then invited all single and unmarried women onto the stage. Kirsty and I were obviously like "nope, we're not single", but they ushered us on stage anyway and we also received an orange and the red envelope, which contained RM2 (15p). Some of the deaf asrama kids did a Malay dance performance, relying on the instructions of the teacher who sat in front. On the way back to the school we crammed into the teeny school bus, was bonkers! We had to climb over numerous bodies to get to the teeniest seats I've ever seen, that wobbled precariously behind the driver's seat, each corner we took was a near death experience. The school was visited by Chinese Dragon Dancers and they gave an amazing performance at the front of the school. All of the students stood round in a circle or up on the balcony and watched as these guys in dragon suits did crazy acrobatics and danced. Kirsty and I were well and truly molested in the crowd. Was our own fault for sitting in the front row! The Dragons wouldn't leave us alone! Sounds daft but they are scary when they come up close as you don't know whether to move or whether to stand still like an idiot. There was also a percussion band, very impressive with symbols, earsplitting drums etc. Currently, arranging the programme for the deaf camp that will take place in April, no longer June as sports day is happening that month. Catherine gave me a timetable for the deaf camp and expected me to fill it out within a couple of hours to give to Puan Marie for approval, as it has to be shown 3 months before the camp goes ahead. I was like 'huh? I'm inexperienced!' but briefly and quickly brainstormed ideas. Will adjust the programme later on once I have solid ideas. It is problematic as they do not have the funding to do adventurous activities such as abseiling, caving, climbing so I have come up with: * Circle Games * Cooperative Games * Dramatic Games * High Activity Games * Nature Games * Water Games * Bonfire storytelling *Jungle trekking if possible *fingers crossed* If you have any ideas, please enlighten them as it would be a great help. Education is not easy for the deaf, especially when they have a language delay as they are expected to take PMR examinations, equivalent to the hearing students' examinations. The government is expecting compulsory subjects to be taught in English, so the deaf kids often get confused with the Bahasa and English language that even at one time, they asked Catherine 'Bahasa or English book?' to write down their work in. Various deaf students have to learn Islamic as a third language as they are Muslims. The teachers of the deaf are protesting to the government for the deaf to focus on one language to understand topics better and evidently. I attended to one lesson to see how the deaf kids are taught, Catherine asked for my help to explain the difference between health and healthy to fit into a sentence. Here is an example: Mountain climbing is a .................. sport. a) easy b) health c) enjoyable d) healthy It took a while getting it across, and they still did not fully understand. Time was up as the bell went, small things like that can be frustrating as the kids leave the lesson untaught and confused. To show you examples of other reasons why the English language is hard to learn: * We must polish the Polish furniture. * The solider decided to desert his dessert in the desert. * A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. * After a number of injections my jaw got number. * Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. * Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. The syllabus anticipates them to write paragraphs in English for the PMR examinations, it's tricky let alone a 10 word sentence. The deaf kids can comprehend read English but lack confidence in writing English. The same goes for the lower forms of each year with the hearing students. Catherine and I are working together to come up with ideas to push the deaf kids to write a sentence by themselves, getting some resources off the internet to help so we're getting somewhere. It doesn't help with the fact that my time is limited here. There is an excessive supply of teachers who have a certificate in LDC (learning disabled children I think) in Sabah. Some of the teachers in the deaf department who have a certificate in LDC were forced to come to DPM as there are shortages of teachers for the deaf, even though they are not qualified to teach the deaf. Armad is one of them who studied teaching the blind. So they are finding it intricate having to gain knowledge of sign language as well as educate at the same time. Discovered further stories about the deaf primary school. Catherine told me that some of the students come here from the primary school not knowing anything, even basic words like boy, girl, black etc. Datuk Peter Mojuntin (DPM) and the primary school do not have a good relationship with one another as their cultures differ and they hold opposing views about deaf education. The primaryschool feel that DPM is always finding any excuse to complain about the lack of their teaching skills. No wonder why they do as all the teachers ever seem to do is sleep, seeing that they live nearby the school. They get the deaf kids to clean their house, do the washing etc instead of learning. This makes it extremely hard for the teachers at DPM to start from scratch after wasting 8 years of education and faffing about at the primary school. They've filed a report on the school but not much seems to be done about it. The special education minister of special schools from Kuala Lumpur is coming here for the first time in years to analyse how the deaf department operates. So we're getting ourselves organized for the respected visit. That reminds me, the picture of the Malaysian Prime Minister and his wife must be displayed in every classroom and office in DPM. Every Thursday morning from 7.40am for two hours is a co-curriculum class and I am involved in the Sign Language club whereas Kirsty is with the choir. The hearing students are taught how to sign by the deaf students. Catherine mentioned that the hearing students are enthusiastic to learn signing to a song, so went with R.Kelly, I believe I can fly so I had the pleasure of teaching them. Was worried that the deaf would get bored stiff repeating the lyrics to help the hearing students learn. Last weekend, we met up with the Sabah working deaf through contact with Winnie, an ex-DPM student through Catherine. Kirsty popped along and interacted well. She even picked up Bahasa Sign Language faster than learning it from the Malaysian Sign Language (MSL) book which can a nuisance as you often get the signs wrong. Found ourselves signing away in the company of 20 deaf Malays. A few of them went to Rome deafolympics 2001. They enthusiastically invited me to join them to climb Mountain Kinabalu in July but unfortunately I won't be here. Malays used to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) but the government wants its own recognized deaf language, so they've had to convert it to MSL, which is similar as ASL but only few differences. Moderately a lot of people in Sabah are not that keen on West Malaysia, even though they are the same country. They seem to think or believe that Peninsula Malaysia is rich and powerful with a strong Islamic community, whereas the population of Sabah consists fewer Muslims, more Christians, Chinese and Buddhists. Surprisingly, I find myself adapting to their values which are being more open-minded and laid-back! In various areas in Peninsula Malaysia, if you are seen walking with the opposite sex, not even holding hands, the religious police report it to the authority and you can be taken to court. Which is why if married couples walk around jointly, it is required to prove their matrimony by carrying a marriage certificate around with them. One and all in Malaysia dream of being white, they do their best to prevent being in the sun to get 'whiter'. So if you ever explore the Far East and get ogled at by the locals, don't think it is rude as they are just admiring the beauty of your skin colour. The teachers are flabbergasted that we're completely the opposite as the British want to get suntanned as in darker and that on a rare scorching day in Britain, all and sundry go outside, the BBQ food stock is empty on the supermarket shelves and parks are buzzing. I find myself repeating to them, especially to the kids that they should be proud of their race and colour. Dad, living up to your motto - 'all different, all equal' *winks*. In our bathroom, the plaster from the ceiling keeps falling onto the bathroom floor and gets wet leaving a mud floor, charming(!) Yesterday, Kirsty and I cleaned our diminutive, nauseating bathroom spotless with a lavender all-purpose cleaner liquid, marigold gloves and a squeezy lemon sponge. Mum and Dad, I'd pay to spring clean our bathroom now! I sound like Aggie from 'How clean is your house?' here. Spent a good hour or so scrubbing away grime and believe me, it feels good that the strange lingering smell in our room seems to be slowly dying down now. Settled in really well, even starting to know the famous Korean, Malay and Thai actors and actresses that Liya (a teacher who lives with Rakema) has told us about. Used to attending to Sunday assemblies at 9pm for an hour. Picking up Bahasa sign language faster these days, I'm not joking but they all sign at the same speed at Abigail Palmer *giggles madly*. The kids are teaching me how to eat fish off the bones. That reminds me, I munched a fish's eye by accident *horrifically shrugs*. Got my first 'pay' *titters excitedly*, RM100 equivalent to 15 pounds per month. I know that seems like 'Pah, that's all?' to you but it is enough to get by every now and then. x