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Little Kirsty Ventures to Pastures New
New mattresses!! Wooo! Well not exactly new, we kinda nicked them off the beds in the unused dorms. After one nights sleep I've already managed to make a human shaped imprint in the mattress- I'm thinking we're a lot heavier than the Malaysians.
Anyyway. Last night was quite banterous. There were about 15 people there- mostly couples- 1 from Scotland, 1 from England, 2 from Sabah. There were a young newly wed couple, who showed us their wedding pics- looked fab. Have to say tho, the typical white wedding dress isn't as beautiful as the dresses I have seen in most Malaysian wedding pictures.
The Scottish man that hosted the Bible study is an Engineer but he and his wife run a business where they promote the retirement of people in Sabah. I.e, if people from the U.K come over to Sabah looking to retire, they will help them find a place to live, sort out the immigration work etc.
I felt a teeny bit stupid not knowing my way around the bible and being constantly told and shown which page to turn to- don't think they really understood how I am Christian but don't know the layout of the bible :-S.
Was really nice meeting everyone and although I didn't have much of a Scooby about the bible, I could easily join in the discussion. The topics were divorce, and if you are rich, you should give your money to the poor (or something related to that). They also mentioned a group of families they help every year. The families are those of prison inmates and live in what they call a "Half way house", which is supposedly an absolute tip. So every year they try to clean the place up- paint the walls etc. However this year, as they are all feeling slightly older in their age, they decided to do something less physically demanding. So they are thinking about taking the children out for a meal and to the cinema. Aman and I offered to help so we should be visiting the children in a couple of weeks.
The couple who were hosting the study were Scottish and have lived in Sabah for 16 years. They left Scotland after they were married and had kids and traveled the world twice. Anyway- was soo cool- turns out the husband worked in South Queensferry for 3 years and they both lived in Strontian in the 60s. So we were trying to suss out if we knew certain people. Was so weird for them to be talking about the "Hawes Inn" and they even know where Ardtoe is!! Legends!
So they've invited us to church on Sundays- its held in a 5 star hotel near the beach and sounds really gospel and young so I might pop in for a wee look when we're free in a couple of weeks. Also gona try to meet some of the men from Sabah's Rotary Club cos they supposedly all go to the same church.
But oh my!! The shortbread!! Seriously- the best shortbread ever! The Scottish woman makes loads of it so she gave us an entire tub to take home and I really couldn't thank her enough- beats living on toast with no butter! We also had loads more yummy things to eat before we left their house. Like typically Malaysian, we ate loads of fruit (pineapple is quite popular in meals here).
By the time we got back to the school, the gates were locked, so we had to holler for the security guard, who was thankfully still awake. Got back at about 11.30pm to find that some of the hostel students had migraines and colds. Joyce was asking if I had anything with me to cure a cold but unfortunately I don't cos I never thought catching a cold would be an issue in Sabah! But to be honest, Aman and I did notice a slight drop in the temperature here, so for us it was still hot but slightly more comfortable. Whereas for the kids, they have actually been finding it cold. I think the monsoon season is going to set in soon. We've had quite a lot of rain this week- so it may mean postponing our island trips at the weekends.
Should mean that white water rafting is gona be oober crazy next weekend though, cos the rivers will be high! Wooo!
Last night Meeza and Joyce nabbed us some mattresses from an empty dorm room- so I got a good sleep at last! Unfortunately our shower has been bust for the last 3 days so we are using a tap and bucket. Hopefully Johnston is on the case to get it fixed. He also got us some cutlery.
I put forward some of the ideas the children had given to see what he thought. As I expected, he said it would be very difficult to take the kids out of the school cause I have to give 3 months notice and lots of paper work needs to be signed by lots of people. I wanted to give them a BBQ on the beach and take them to the local museum but instead I've decided to have a BBQ and a bonfire with ghost stories, held at the back of the school. I also have to see if the school will provide me with money to buy ingredients to cook with the classes.
Johnston said I could hold a "camp" in the school where the kids could stay in the Asrama for a few days and I could have activities in the day time- need to look into that.
This morning my class was called off cause the kids are making flower decorations in the hall. I was starting to panic that I didn't have a lesson plan for today but as usual- Mummy saved the day :-D. I received books in the post from her that are perfect for basing a drama on. So I am going to use them with form 3A this afternoon.
The teacher's have seriously nabbed the magazines Susy sent me. Like that are enthralled by "Heat" and I'm getting constant requests for "Hello" and "OK" magazines from them. The female staff love U.K mags. The kids love them too but are more into music and football mags. Although they love the celebrity fashion stuff as well.
Penelope came to the school to pick up our passports last night (so that she can get our Visas sorted) and she told us that Edward and Peter are having a pretty rough time. They've both got food poisoning from a local Malay/Indian restaurant in KK. She strongly advised we all stay away from it, so Mum, Gran, Rosie and Dave- I better get the name of it so I can tell you to stay clear too.
Aman and I are now eating with the Hostel students in the evenings and we are always given a huge bunch of bananas between us. There's supposedly 6 different types of bananas in Sabah- there's a fact for you. We're def getting used to the food cos I'm usually starving anyway and will eat pretty much anything (like last night I genuinely ate a fish's head- like I wasn't given the body, just the head- so I pretty much had no option- was actually alright). Aman accidentally ate the eye the other day- highly amusing).
The fish here reminds me of that huuuge BBQ I had with the lads in Ardtoe last summer-best BBQ- lasted like 10 hrs.
Tonight Aman and I are meeting with the deaf group, then tomorrow morning we have an early start cause we're starting the Padi diving course in KK. We're just doing our theory tomorrow but it takes all day. We will hopefully do our first dive in a couple of weeks.
Sorry for the essay- but my lesson was cancelled and I had nothing better to do (Although I really should be doing next weeks lesson plans!)
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