Meh… Malaysia

After a week of debrief in Kuala Lumpur with the whole squad, my team and I arrived at our ministry location about a week ago. I can't give out too many specifics in order to protect our contacts and their work here, but we are in a small town in a district called Pahang. Our job this month is to teach English at a learning center, where we also happen to live.

It's been a strange month to say the least. Many of the students are on holiday, so our work has been very limited, causing many of us to question our purpose here. But I have been able to see glimpses of good come from our time here so far, which has been reassuring.

So yeah, we live in a learning center, which resembles a small warehouse. We have three classrooms, two of which transform into our bedrooms in the evenings, and one of which becomes our laundry room. We also have a kitchen-closet-pantry room where all of our belongings have to remain during class times. It's actually good that we only have class four days a week, because moving my sleeping pad every day gets annoying fast. It's been hard for me to not have my own space this month. Not really being able to unpack anything or have a corner to call my own. But despite sleeping on cement floors and moving our beds everyday, we do have a few amenities that we appreciate – a refrigerator, a freezer, a microwave, and a shower head. It's funny the types of things that are considered bonus items after a few months on the race.

A few days ago, our small town lost water, which apparently happens often. But despite the frequency, no plans have been put in place to resolve it. A few teammates and I had to walk down the hill to the old town to fill up water buckets in the sink at KFC and carry them back up to our place just so we could flush the toilet. Luckily, it rained last night so we were able to get a few more buckets worth. And even better, it rained again tonight so a few of us were able to shower under the rain gutters outside. Not kidding! Even though we smell better now, our bathroom still smells pretty bad, considering we only have enough water to flush when someone has to poop. Pee sits in the toilet for hours. It's pretty disgusting. But according to the locals, the water should come back on tomorrow. *fingers crossed*

With as much free time as we have this month, my team has been diligent about spending time in scripture and in prayer, and of course we have had plenty of time to rest. But all the free time has caused me to feel more homesick than I had anticipated. I'm trying to find joy and purpose here, but more times than not, I wish this month would just hurry and end so we could be in Japan and the holidays could be behind us.

But like I told my friend, I view the race as a gift, and Christmas is a part of the race so I have to view this time as part of the gift as well. I know that I will learn to appreciate my family and my hometown more through this distance.

Anyway, Happy Holidays from Malaysia. No need to worry about me. Despite my homesickness, I am still happy. My team and I are joining Team Uniquely Knit for Christmas. They have an oven and air conditioning and wifi, so Merry Christmas to us! 🙂