What a crazy experience here in the jungle (well not really
jungle but small town), Gua Musang, Kelantan, Malaysia. We 
travelled on a ten hour train
ride, which I was so excited to go on (I love new experiences), Well we walked
onto the train and I said out loud “well this is not what I expected” and
busted out in laughter. It was rows of bunk beds, an aisle in between the rows
and a washroom (which was a toilet with a whole that went stair down to the
railway). We laid in our narrow beds
(which were all top bunks) and then rocked back and forth all night (we had
seatbelts hanging from the ceiling to the side of our beds, to keep us in when
we rock back and forth). After a ten hour experience of motion sickness and
holding our bladders because the washrooms were that gross we made it to our
destination. What an experience that was.
Getting off the train we all ran to the nearest washroom, we
realized we had to pay to use a squatter potty (if you do not know what that
is, it is a urinal in the ground which you squat over) ok it was only 12 cents
but who pays to use a washroom? We then were all greeted by our contact (Kumar) at the
train station (at this point it was 7 am) . Our contact- Kumar has been a huge blessing
to us all; He has really given us the true Malay experience. 
ordered for us and we ate. We had “Nasi Lemark”, which is rice and sugared
coconut wrapped in a banana leaf. We had “Pataya” which is rice with chicken,
shrimp and squid wrapped in egg (like an omelette) with chilli sauce drizzled
on top. I also drank coconut juice from
a coconut shell (no one told me real coconut is not sweet, so needless to say
not what I expected). We got served noodles with chicken feet (ok was not
daring enough to try that-ha), we have tried blue rice, chapatti (fried
batter), Roti (Indian pancakes), pork and chicken (done Chinese style), Kaya (b
lacksugar and an egg mixture)on toast, and many other spicy dishes. This month has been
challenging yet adventurous for food. I really love seeing and experiencing
what other cultures eat. I have many more months of unfamiliar food, which
gives me the opportunity to learn to love ethnic food, to be thankful
and enjoythe experience! It is funny how excited people get when you try the food they
eat, it means the world to them and is very respectful.
We have had the lovely privilege of teaching and running
English classes. A little nervous at first because we have never done this
before but at the end we loved it and came out wanting to do it again. We made cheesy but very helpful video for our
contact to use in the future (the ones where you talk really slow and pronunciate
every word)
Once again after a very short time we came to know and love our
contact and his family (we were only there for five days). I always love how in
the Christian family, you have family members all over the world- uniting together
because of our God.
and taking a hose (which are in all washrooms) and spraying ourselves- it was not that bad actually.
