i never thought i’d love malaysia, but here i am living my best life. here’s how it happened:
sooooooooo originally, my team was supposed to go to penang with two other teams and be close to the ocean and have cool ministries and i was just super excited and hype for that. then two days before we left chiang mai, my team was informed that we would be going to kuala lumpur (KL) to work with a sort-of school. i was not thrilled.
for those of you who don’t know, KL is the capital of malaysia so it’s ginormous. like dallas is an understatement. i’m overwhelmed. i’m afraid. it’s a lot.
anyways so i go about the next few days just praying for a better attitude, but it was hard because i was so annoyed at the fact that i had to be in a huge city. i don’t even like dallas that much so i mean, HELLO !!!
so this past saturday, some of us went out to the mall in the main part of the city and when i say this mall was like gucci paradise, i mean it was gucci paradise. super boujee. i mean i can barely get myself to go into a dillard’s at home… this place was about 6 or 7 stories and had like 4 sides and some of the most expensive things you’ve ever seen. quite an overwhelming experience which kind of explains how KL feels. overwhelming and HUGE.
now skip to last friday.
FIRST :::::: some background on ministry – ight so my team is all spread out so i’m with a bunch of 13-15/16 year olds, maeci is with the marketing department, anna and courtney are with registration in the office, cammy is with the 7-8 year olds, claire is with “mini adults” (toddlers; check out her blog for more on that because it’s crazy), and emma and braiden are with the cafe.
okay now it’s our first day of ministry, and i am working as a sort of “teacher’s assistant” to a bunch of 13-15/16 year olds which is INSANE!!!!!!!! so basically what my job is is to help the teachers with whatever they need during this end-of-year stress. i hangout with the kids and learn about them and let them ask lots of silly questions about texas and my tattoos and life and why i’m white. at the same time, i coordinate and organize events for the classes which is so much fun.
that being said, i always hated the idea of becoming a teacher and having to handle kids like me all the time, but it’s actually beautiful. i mean it’s obviously different here than in the states because these kids are refugees from all sorts of countries like pakistan, myanmar, saudi arabia, somalia, and some just less fortunate kids from malaysia. it’s a sad thing, but the joy that overflows in them for even having a chance at education, a chance at social lives, a chance and life in general is beautiful (brb crying in the club rn).
so yeah that’s my life in malaysia and it’s my favorite so far (lol i say so far and it’s only month 3, country 2). i can tell you, that i don’t want to leave. in a way i wish that thailand had been 1 month and malaysia was 2. i never wanna leave these kids.
ps: there’s a group of refugees from myanmar who are being sent back within the next year and my heart breaks for them. they came here for hope and are being sent back to be hopeless again. keep them in your prayers for God to just give them peace and protect them.
