Where were you? Georgetown, on the island of Penang, Malaysia.
How did you get there? Short flight from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After debrief, we took a bus, then a ferry to the island of Penang.
What did you do there? We helped with a ministry called Door of Hope, which was a behavior-focused after school/daycare. We had kids between 3 and 11 years old that came every day and practiced English. We also helped them rehearse for their Christmas recital on the 19th.
Accommodations? We stayed in the Door of Hope classroom, slept on the floors with our sleeping pads, had a small upstairs to store our stuff (even I couldn’t stand up there!), a small kitchen with one stove, and a room with a small hose where we squatted for our showers and peed on the floor then rinsed it down the drain. For “big business” we rented a public squatty down the street.
Currency? Ringgit, $1 US = RM 3.2
Anything you miss from America? Beds. And, believe it or not, snow. As much as I love the heat, Christmas is weird if it’s mid-90s.
What was the best moment? One weekend we took a trip to a national park on the island. We hiked (with 25-pound packs on) 2 hours through the Malaysian jungle an ended up at the most amazing beach where we tented for the night. The next day we packed up and hiked another 3 hours to a different beach where we relaxed for a bit before boating back to our starting point. It was one of the most physically challenging things I’ve ever done, but it was so worth it!!
What was the hardest moment? The ministry this month was really hard. A lot of miscommunication and poor cross-cultural understanding from both sides.
Top 3 foods? There was a “waffle man” who we visited at least every other day and got amazing waffles. I fell in love with capati, which is Pakistani bread with soup-y dip. And Tandoori Chicken with butter naan.
Bottom 3 foods? Fish ball soup. Some pickled pepper/fish thing one of the moms force-fed me. And a fish/turnip/carrot soup. I don’t like fish…
Language(s) spoken/learned? Most everyone here speaks a variety of English, Indian, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Hoekken Chinese (native to Penang apparently), and Malay.
Biggest time you saw God show up? We took the kids to a “camp” for a weekend. We were each in charge of a kid or two, and I had a very hyperactive 5-year-old. He actually listened to me and we had a great time together. We also got to see all the kids relax and have fun in the pool which was a good change.
Anything else? This month was really hard, but it taught me a lot about myself. Our team also was by ourselves for the first time and it was really cool to see us grow an become closer as teammates and friends.
