Month Eight: Gua Musang, Malaysia
April 2016
In Malaysia, we lived in a suburb right outside of the jungle in Gua Musang. Gua Musang is situated in a fundamentalist Islamic state. We lived right off a highway with beautiful views of mountains over the suburb. We were within walking distance to anything we could possibly need. The grocery store, police station, park, caves to adventure in, fast food, and takeout Chinese. 
We partnered with Pastor Khmer, his wife Josephine, and their four children Judith, Kendrick, Joash, and Johanna. With the help of a few friends, they started a learning center for the community. Their learning center teaches preschool, gives English lessons to all ages, and even has music classes.
In the mornings, I would help teacher Ruth teach preschool to two three year olds. We would teach science, English, language, math, play games, teach morals, and art. A couple of nights a week I taught violin to Judith.
Top Eleven Moments from Malaysia
1. Making friends with the people at our favorite restaurant Family Mamok.
Ari Feen, a man who has moved from Pakistan to find a job. The only jobs available where he lives is in the police or military. He works 14 hours a day in with only a couple of days off a month. He is one of the sweetest, most respectful, honest, loving, caring, detail oriented, will take care of you, polite human beings I have ever met. He always has a smile on his face, and when he sees you, he will throw his hand in the air to wave with a smile on his face and say, “Hello Miss!”.
Rosmini, my sweet, sweet friend. This woman lets nothing stand in her way. She is so animated, funny, loving, affectionate, and you cannot forget sassy. She loves to chat and to hug, she cannot speak and only sign language. So to communicate with me, it’s mostly using charades, or if all else fails, she uses Ari Fern to communicate. If she saw one of my teammates before she saw me she would point to her nose, that was what she called me because I am the only person on my team with a hoop nose ring. I absolutely love this woman.
2. One of our first nights we invited Judith(a 17 year old girl) over for a girls movie night. It was one of our first times ever really interacting with us. After the movie was over, we all began talking about what we can do, instruments we play, you know small talk. I had mentioned that I played violin, her face lot up, and said “I’ve been praying that God would send someone who can teach me how to play violin!!” When I had been praying for a violin to play!! That began the start of our friendship, where we would laugh talk about life, and learn together. She is already an amazing woman!
3. Going to through the abandoned train station, through the village of indigenous Malaysians, and a 15 minute hike up, we ended up at the crack of a cave. You climb inside going sideways and end up in a huge open room. Fifteenth of us spent the afternoon exploring beauty of this cave. Three of us ended up following a path on top of the cave. We were so high up that we could see the entire town on one side, and nothing but forest on the other side.
4. Going to Mary Brown, for alone time, WiFi, good food, to escape the heat, or to get coke floats. Mary Brown is similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The people who worked there were quickly our friends and knew what we would order as we walked in. 
5. Every Thursday and Friday mornings there was a market where you could buy your food, clothes, household necessitates, really anything. I spent my last Thursday night wandering around the market. I ran into one of the women who works at Mary Brown, we spent the rest of the evening walking looking for her friend and talking about life. She asked if we knew anything about Islam, we talked a lot about Islam, and she even asked if we were Christians. (That is like a woo! Throwing hands up, while screaming finally I can say yes!) She was so sweet, kind, shy, intelligent, and curious.
6. Every Tuesday night, Pastor Khmer hosted a church at his house. We would eat delicious Indian food, (praise the Lord!) worship by singing songs, and dig into the bible. We would go over stories, and with a new perspective, we would see them in a completely new way.
7. Having a worship session inside of the cave.
8. The roof of the center and hostel. This month I slept on a mattress on the roof, sitting on the roof for alone time, watching sunrises or sunsets, having a sparkler party on the roof, and giving Kendrick a piggyback ride, all on the roof.
9. Cicadas the side of a bird. The process of killing that creepy sounding bird. One night the boys were away, two of us were on the roof, one girl was in her room, and one was getting ready for bed. We hear a murderous sounding scream. We all come rushing to see what’s going on. My teammate Gabe is in tears having a panic attack because of this terrifying sounding huge bug. It’s not what you would imagine a big bug. It’s the size of a styrofoam cup. Imagine two and a half girls, (Carson’s consoling Gabe) trying to catch this big old bug high on the wall. It was honestly pretty comical. Long story short, when I attempted to catch the bug, it flew, hit the fan. It’s body went two rooms over, and one wing attached to its face into the next room. Why yes, yes we did leave it for the boys to see what we killed when they were gone.
10. The night my purse was stolen, by some dude on a motorcycle. Thankfully I had taken my passport, bible, journal, team money bag, and cell phone out of my purse and left them at or hostel that night. After it happened, a bunch of people tried to help, my teammates Derek, John, and Brooks, all goofy danced on the busy city sidewalk. They all just stood there laughing with me, I appreciate that whole night, and everyone who didn’t let that ruin my whole great night.
11. Spending time in Kuala Lumpur with my friend Rose and her boyfriend Danny. They showed me around KL, taking me to see giant pyramids at a mall, the Patrone towers, taking me to a carnival, light shows, taking me to get delicious dinner, it was truly a wonderful unforgettable, and a great way to spend my last night in Malaysia.
tThank you John Horton for letting me steal your awesome photos!
