Nature’s Vampires

   So we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 1^st. Honestly I’m not sure exactly what day it was, but around the 1^st. The months all seem to be running together lately. My team rode an overnight bus from Thailand to Malaysia with three other teams from my squad. We all discovered our visas were expired by two days at the border and had to pay a fine. On WR budget this didn’t seem good and this also took up a lot of time. We thanked God it all worked out with only some money and time.

   In KL we stayed at a restaurant/church. The bottom floor was a restaurant where we got some good food. It’s owned by a Pastor and his wife and the upstairs is the church. We slept on the floor and I took a bucket shower in the bathroom. Little did I know this was preparing me for the next location. Our team was told we would be working on an organic farm a little over an hour outside the big city. At this point we are used to being in the middle of nowhere on a farm. We also had some cultural briefing about the Islam religion. This is the main religion here and the first closed country we have been to. I was excited to learn more about Islam.

   Off to the farm we go! The drive through the highlands of Malaysia was beyond beautiful. So green and just mountains and jungle everywhere. I thanked God once again that I don’t get motion sickness. Our squad should buy stock in Dramamine. I have never seen people pop so many, but I don’t blame them on the rough, long rides since leaving America.

   We arrive at the farm in the early evening just to have a look around.

  All I really see is what looks like a large garden. The only thing I can identify is lettuce at this point. We next head to the house we will be staying in. Words wont do this house justice, so here are pictures.

 

   I sleep on a mat on the floor and use my sleeping bag. I just tell myself it’s camping to sound fun.

The toilet is what we are getting used to, a hole in the floor.

 

The “shower” is what looks like a concrete horse’s trough.

 

You just throw some cold water on you with a small bucket to bathe and wonder if you are any cleaner. When it rains the water looks pretty murky. This may also be a blessing as I probably don’t want to see what’s on the bottom. I once saw a leech in here clinging to the side and this is only the beginning of the little blood suckers. There are also ants everywhere and no kitchen. We do have a water boiler so that was pretty exciting. When you see a water boiler on the WR you think two things. If you are a coffee drinker that happened to bring your own French press with you (like every girl on my team except me is), you think COFFEE! Everyone also thinks, “Yes, at least I can eat Raman.”

 

   I noticed that my ankles were bleeding and it looked like something had bit it. There were many ants, but these seemed different then ant bites and they never bleed that much. I didn’t even think about it being a leech bite until someone else saw one on them. This was only the first of several leech bites as they seem to like me as much as the mosquitoes like Christy. Well the next day I was prepared with higher socks. That didn’t prevent them from getting me.

   There is also no way to really wash our clothes. So any dirt and blood pretty much stays. You can hand wash things, but it takes forever for anything to dry because it is so damp and rains often. Your clothes end up looking a little cleaner, but smelling worse.

 

   I do believe you can find something to be thankful for in any situation. I am so thankful for the other members of my team. Talking while working helped me stay sane. The women on my team are amazing and I have gotten to know them better while carrying bamboo. Just having great conversations (when we are not too out of breath to talk) was a blessing. The women on my team are strong! This work has also made me even more thankful for the fact that I’m a nurse and I don’t have to do work like this just to feed my family.

   The men that work on this farm are mostly from Bangladesh. Many have been gone from their homeland and family for more then two years. They come here to work and make money that they send home to their families. Many do not see their wives or children for years at a time. Carrying bamboo has taught me once again that I don’t have a right to anything. I don’t have a right to even be able to find work and live in the same country as my family. I don’t have a right to running water. I don’t have a right to food whenever I’m hungry. I don’t have a right to a bed. If everyone in the world does not have these things, then why would I have a right to them? All that I have is a blessing that I don’t deserve. All that I am and all that I have is from God and it’s so easy to take credit for some of those things and so wrong.