As some of you know my team and I went to Cameron Highlands, which is a place in the middle of Malaysia that is a destination filled with tea plantations and amazing hiking views and I have to say that it was an adventure. I hope this blog will help you all see what my daily life was like there and how I grew my life there and also how I met some awesome people God gave me there. Hope you enjoy it and it teaches you something about also finding joy in the moments when you might not be wanting to have that.
I’ll start by mentioning that when my team and I were in Penang, Malaysia for two weeks we were sitting still with God and discerning as a group what we felt the “next step” for our team was. However, during the time we were there, none of us were getting anything from God about that place or thing we were supposed to do and go to. It was a time when other teams were figuring out what their “next steps” were as well and it felt to me like some of them were knowing what that place was. So after a long time of waiting eventually told Jacob on the team about a work-away in Cameron Highlands. When he shared it on WhatsApp it seemed like something that looked like it could be fun and something I would like to go, so we all decided to create an account so that we could talk to the hostel. However, during that time of waiting we realized that we didn’t even get a response back from the hostel that we interested in and that led me to doubting if it was the right place for our team. However, after trusting God with everything and feeling confident about going there we all decided to go there anyways even though we didn’t think we had the work-away opportunity. We knew that God was going to have to do something really cool for us to stay there.
So as we were arriving, Jacob thought about looking back on the work-away website and when he looked on it he saw that many of the travelers had written that “When I went to get a work-away I just went to the hostel and the people working there allowed me to volunteer there and almost everyone got into and it was the easiest way to get into it.” So this is what happened.
I’ll start by saying that on the first day that we arrived to Cameron Highlands, we bought a hostel for 3 nights. I felt like it could be a nice hostel for a couple of nights but not a long term one. It was also a time when my team chose to have a Bible study at a local coffee place and I really enjoyed my time and felt it was really cool to be there. We also noticed that there was a good looking Chinese food restaurant and saw that it was really cheap so we ate there because some people had told us that it was supposed to taste amazing, so I was excited for that. We then decided to look at the work-away website and realized that it was right across the street from the coffee shop and right next to the Chinese place, which I felt was amazing that we hadn’t even though it was even that close to us. Then after we all talked it through, we felt like we were supposed to go into the hostel and ask them if we could work and stay with them. So then as we went inside, we met with money manager/owners girl friend Reina and all of the others there too and said to them, “Hey we have a group of four, can we work for you all because we saw your work-away and wanted to experience how being a volunteer in a hostel works.” They then asked us, “How long are you thinking about volunteering here?”, and then we replied to them, “We were hoping to stay around two weeks if that’s okay with you.” Then after thinking about it a lot they eventually said, “Yes you all stay and work here, but don’t just come here for the free housing, come to serve us.” Then we said to them, “Okay we definitely will work really hard and enjoy our time here.” When that time was over, I felt really excited.
Something else that we got after they accepted us into the hostel was that we got told our working roles in it. Reina then told Jacob that he was the event planner, Matt was the cleaner and she said that Tanner and I were going to be the receptionist at the hostel. Our job was to be the volunteers who were supposed to make sure the travelers knew about the different half day and full day hiking tours, ordered bus tickets for them, signed them into the hostel, sold some snacks and beers and we had to do a lot of other stuff like doing their laundry and making coffee for them. After hearing all of the things that I had to do, I felt like it was going to be a challenging experience and hard tasked work journey and now I’ll share how it went.
I’ll first mention that when I started working as the receptionist, there were a lot of times when I felt like leaving the work-away because the tasks were so difficult and it just wasn’t fun for me. It was a time when I was telling myself, “I’m not sure I can do this, I love people and all, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do all of the things that are required for this job.” However, it was during those moments that God would say to me, “No Daniel you’re going to do good work and help a lot of people in that job and you’ll make a lot of divine connections, so you’ll be very happy in the end.” Then I would say to Him, “Okay God if you say so I guess it’ll happen.” I knew that He was going to do something after He said that to me.
In fact, the next day something amazing happened for me, the owner whose name is Aaron, who I enjoyed being around, told me that I could work in the other reception area on the second floor and I was happy because that one was a lot quieter and not as hard, which led me to thinking that I could potentially enjoy the work-away and I truly felt like it could now be a good time. I was excited for that.
I also thought that there could be many times while I was up there where I could get to meet some really cool travelers from all over the world and I help them out by telling them about all of the different hiking paths that Cameron Highlands had. It was going to be a cool time of also getting to know some of the other workers/volunteers that were there as well and I was excited about that too.
An example of one of them is a friend that I met whose name is Sophie. She is a girl who is from Malaysia and she is someone who I worked with everyday I was there, which was pretty awesome. She was someone who I enjoyed hanging out with because we both had things in common and could help each other with different things as well. An example of something we did together was that we ate some roti late at night, which was fun. She was also very helpful for me when I needed help with things on the job like doing someone’s laundry or other different things that helped me out as well it was great. There also was one time where she joined me for a trivia night, which was an event that the hostel has once a week and there actually was a question that was about some Malay food thing and she knew it, which was really cool. I’m so glad for our friendship.
Another friendship that I made was when I met this guy who wanted to play soccer on my day off from work. He was a guy who was looking for a soccer ball and luckily my teammate Tanner had a ball, so we both went to the soccer field, which was for everyone in the area. It was a time when I got to connect with the new guy and we even decided to stay for a couple hours with each other. Then I felt like he was thinking about going back to the hostel, but I told him “Hey man let’s wait a second and maybe we can play a soccer game with some of the kids here since the field is near a school.” He then agreed with me and so we waited for them and for some time we just passed and shot the ball with each other, which was fun a good way to warm up and remind me of playing it. Then after the kids got out of school we played a soccer match and he said, “Wow this was this was the funnest thing I’ve done in all of my travels so far and I’ve done a lot of fun things.” Then I also agreed with him with that because I had also really enjoyed it and hopefully I’ll be able to do it again in the future with those kids and see the joy grow in all of our lives in it too.
I’ll now end it by saying that these type of encounters can happen in your lives as well and even when you sometimes do things that you don’t like, good things will come out of it and you’ll be okay in the end. I also hope that you learned of things about all of growth I experienced I had in the Travelers Bunker hostel and I hope you find joy in the small things as well. In the end, stay blessed and may you turn to your Father God when you also need that joy.
