Well month 7th Malaysia! We are by the southern border of Thailand and we work at a kindergarten. Well the women work at a kindergarten the men do manual labor. We have been attempted to go into the jungle and share our faith with Indian workers but with no cell phones it is hard to set up an appointment with them. This place is wildly different than the other countries we have been to so far because this country is closed.
It is a Muslim nation. Muslims are the people and they believe in Islam like Catholics to Catholicism. We do not pray outside. You do not show any faith in any obvious displays outside of indoor walls. The government has passed laws for a pseudo freedom of religion where you have freedom to practice your religion behind closed doors not in the open. It is illegal to convert a Muslim away from Islam or to any other faith and that Muslim and entire family will go to jail or go for reeducation and sometimes they break the family and will separate the entire family completely. You can talk about your faith in public but we are just extra careful. You can tell your story but do not make it look like you are trying to convert people or change their faith. On the flip side you can share your faith just fine with the Indian people here. The people that came from India are primarily Hindus and do not object to sharing faith. So you have the persecuted view and the welcoming view.
Cleanliness- the culture is very very clean! So to be better fitting into the community and to make the parents more at ease you must be clean. Clean clothes, clean hair, clean nails, be clean! Shower every day otherwise you will get rashes. We are a very clean people here and so you will have to be too. I know that world race culture sometimes you go for days without a shower but here we have showers so take advantage of it.
Clothing! They are a very prudent people. NEVER expose your knees! Shorts only knees length and below, dresses knee length and below, no v necked t-shirts. Keep covered up, no sleeveless t-shirts, (I cannot expose my tattoo.
Men stand up and protect the women…maybe this means going shopping because they want to go shopping and you are being a gentleman. The Islamic views on women are very different than our own in the USA. Women wear head dresses. The Islamic culture is male dominated and women are seen as less or are seen as property. The men do not work at home; the women are supposed to be servants to the men pleasing them in every way. This is primarily the Islamic religion, not so much the Hindu. There is a large population of immigrants that have settled here from India that are Hindu. Hindus have hundreds of gods and they like to talk about their gods. So we have two different cultures existing here and it makes it interesting.
This month we are just English teachers, we are from the United States, you can tell basics but not specifics, be careful of facebook. So anything more that is asked directed them to our contact. So we are running a kindergarten with them. And soon we will be teaching English classes after school too.
Days of the week in three states of the country run Sunday through Thursday with the weekend being Friday and Saturday. The other states are run like the United States M-F work week. So we work on Sundays and have off Friday and Sat.
Shoes off before entering a house hold. So you have a giant pile of shoes outside the door always. Don’t worry about them being stolen, (my shoes are the size of boats anyway so no one can wear them ha ha).
Life is interesting.
