Where have the teachers gone?

Urai came home from school this afternoon extremely excited. I wondered if she had been thrilled doing another chemistry experiment or cutting open a frog. But no, she told us that there weren't any teachers whatsoever in any of their classes today! Can you believe it?! No-one knew where the teachers were or why they hadn't arrived to teach the class. So they all just played around with someone's camera, snapping pictures for fun all morning! No headmistresses came to check on the class. What's going wrong with schools here? Can anyone help me out with this?

I wait with excitement to see all the pictures these girls managed to take while the teachers were nowhere to be seen!

But What If...

I love the stunning sunrises and sunsets which we are so blessed with in Malaysia. It's a joy waking up before the crack of dawn and watch the sun come up, camera in hand, ready to snap some heavenly shots. This morning I captured this shot:

I have accumulated quite a collection of photos of the beautiful skies in the morning as well as in the evening, where pinks, purples and oranges are prevalent. In the morning, it's yellows and golds, mixed with a silver shimmer from the clouds.

However, this particular morning, as I watched my sister-in-law gallop down the stairs and stride to the awaiting school bus at the end of the block, a different vision passed through my mind. A memory from the storage banks of a rather different beginning to the day.

Each and every morning here in Malaysia is roughly the same: the sun is still rising over the Philippines and it's mythological ancestral home, Japan, 'the land of the rising sun,' at 6am. As thousands of children scurry to school to begin early morning classes, there lingers a cool, refreshing zephyr, a pleasant atmosphere compared to the sweltering heat of the later day.

As the hour ticks by the sun slowly rises and the temperature gradually increases until it reaches it's general pinnacle of 32 degrees C (36 degrees C on a really hot day) at the lunch hour.

And so I arrive at the alternative vision which flashed my brain receptors early this morning while many people were yet fast asleep. What if, by some freak of nature, some horrendous side-effect of global warming, we woke up to observe a blanket of thick, brilliant white snow covering the ground. I remember it well from back in England.

What if these school children could see the beauty of a white world, with millions of unique snowflakes softly, silently, floating their way downwards to the ground.

What if our school children could experience the delightful crumpling sound of stepping on ground snow. The trail of footprints they would leave behind.

They could even make 'snow angels' in the snow (by lying flat on the back and moving the arms and legs as though doing a star jump). Imagine the glee if our school children could just once wrap up in a thick, warm coat, a scarf, gloves and a bobble hat, and feel the ice-cold, pinching air on their noses and fingertips.

What if our school children could scoop up a pile of this white stuff, and fashion it into a snowball and experience the thrill of a snowball fight. What if our school children could make a snowball and roll it up like a carpet in the snow, eagerly watching it get bigger and bigger and bigger until it's too heavy to push and has grown to the height of the children themselves. What if they could then roll up another ball, a smaller one, and place it on top, creating a snowman. Then they could use the giant snowman as a target for their snowballs.

What if our school children could experience an early-morning journey to school like no other before. The school bus would drive slowly in the snow, leaving deep treadmarks, tracing it's path to the destination.

Imagine the chatter and sheer excitement on their faces. Imagine if the school bus had frozen out, the engine couldn't get started, and so the children could just play in the snow all morning until their hands and feet became too numb to continue!

What if our school children could look out at the snow glistening brightly as the sun comes up and sheds it's magnificent light over this new white world.

These young eyes may never get the chance to behold such scenes.

But what if...

Sports Injuries

Yesterday evening Urai and I were playing badminton along with Sharon, (Urai's friend who lives just opposite us) and while Urai was retrieving my backhand passing shot, she fell down a small step, twisted her ankle, cut her toe and crumpled in a heap on the hard floor. We rushed over to help her and Fie took her upstairs to wash down her cuts and bruises. She moved a little gingerly for the rest of the night. Here is her slightly swollen ankle...

Her right big toe sustained a deep cut which stung badly as she hit it against the stone step. The skin was still clinging on as we got her upstairs...

As you can see, or as you will see in the following picture, her cut exposed some raw flesh which watered as the remarkable human body began it's natural defence against injury. After cutting off the flap of skin, her toe looked like this...

But Urai is a fighter and was later that night studying with Sharon in the living room for a while.

Urai won't be playing badminton again for a while, but she valiantly hobbled to the school bus this morning and made it through the day. Well done Urai, you're a true champion!!!

School shock!

I experienced my first fling inside a Malaysian school this morning and had the shock of my life. I left with a bad, bad taste in my mouth.

It was my sister-in-law's (Florina) first day at her new school, SMK Methodist All Girls, here in Kuantan. We met one of the assistant headmistresses, and right from the offset she was like an insolent, erupting volcano. She spoke in a very intimidating way to Florina even while my wife and I, as guardians, were there beside her. She seemed happy to delve into family history problems oblivious to how her on-the-spot questions were extremely sensitive and inappropriate, reducing poor Florina to tears.

Her attitude was brim with arrogance and rudeness. I felt very much like an abandoned piece of excrement on the street, left to slowly decay and waste away into nothing.

It was quite a shock to my system so I verbally challenged her when Florina wasn't quite sure how to answer this impertinent pedagogue. She mentioned how students nowadays can pass exams with straight A's yet still can't talk, and I wondered if she had ever considered that it might be impudent people like herself, who are the cause of this.

And then there was the commotion about a diminutive hair clip which was the right colour, but after listening to a laughable example of a woman's questionable eligibility for a job if she was wearing ten such accessories, we were told that she couldn't wear just that one hair clip! She then proceeded to put the offending hair clip in her own crop of frizzy hair to which I remarked, "That looks quite nice!" That was the one funny moment, well, for me at least! The answer was still 'No.'

I'm not opposed to setting rules or being strict, but there's a certain dignity and respect to which they can be presented, and to which the lawgiver is respected in turn.

There was a sense of deep injustice as my wife and I left the school premises and drove back home. And injustice only breeds contempt.

East Coast Mall, Kuantan

East Coast Mall Saturday was buzzing with excitement as the 'Sunshine' Academy thrilled us with their nifty dance moves and songs for 3 action-packed hours. Well, maybe that dramatic introduction is a little over-exaggerated, but it was an easy way to spend some time on a hot and lazy Saturday afternoon, where the air-con ruled and the entertainment pleased.

Girls of various ages performed numerous dance routines throughout the near three-hour presentation in a variety of eye-catching costumes. For the sake of preserving modesty, I didn't take any pictures of the 'sexiest' act of the afternoon where teenage girls danced around provocatively in hot-pants and skimpy t-shirts, attracting a whole host of men of varied ages.

All in all, it was an entertaining programme, my baby daughter was silenced while the loud music was playing, and she even got herself two balloons to her delight! Following are pictures of some of the highlights of the afternoon...