September, a busy month

In September, we had all sorts of things going on...

My daughter Mati, had a Princess Tea Party, with 12 of her kindergarden friends coming over to play dress-up, put on makeup and jewelry, and then sit down to a grown up high tea, complete with scones, hot peach tea, and real tea cups. The party was a BIG HIT! With everyone, including me, having a great time. All my pictures are located in an album on facebook, but you can get the idea by the picture below:

While the girls stayed home for their Tea Party, the two Fernandos headed to Titi Huyan for a Boy Scout Campout. They spent 2 nights camping in the jungle, hiking, and swimming in the rivers. The scout's motto (printed on their T-Shirts) is "It's all fun & games until you get leached!" which is a minor inconvenience of camping in the equatorial jungle.

Then, Fernandito had Spiritual Emphasis Week at Dalat. They would have a retreat in the morning, and then the parents and kids were invited to come back to worship together at night. Pastor Frank, from Orlando, travelled to Dalat to provide a Revival style retreat for the Middle and High School students. He is a high energy, funny guy, who was much wiser and smarter than his former drug addict, inner city persona would lead you to believe. Since Dalat is an international school, not all students are Christian, and they were proud to have 20 kids turn their life over to Jesus this week. My faith was strengthened as well. I am so happy my kids are in such a great Christian environment. The evening sessions were tons of fun, with about 350 teenagers praying, but also jumping up and down, concert style singing songs like "One Way, Jesus!" Overall, it was a great experience for all of us. This is Pastor Frank:

Peggy & Dave, some collegues of ours from work, visited us from Chicago. We were able to show them around Penang, and among other things, took them up to Penang Hill. Since the cable car up the hill is not working, we took the jeep ride, which was something else! This is one of those "Only in Penang" stories.

First of all, why is the cable car not working? Simple, under the previous government, the cable car was closed for some maintenance work (should have taken about 3 weeks). Then, there was an election and the opposition government won. Since the earmarks for the cablecar maintenance was an agreement between the federal (UMNO Party) government, and the old (UMNO party) local government, it (along with all other turism related earmarks) was naturally cancelled when the opposition won. So, the cable car has been closed since the election (in March)!

Then, how to describe the jeep ride up the mountain??? So, there is only one road up the mountain, and it is very steep and very narrow in many places. The ride takes about 25 minutes, and the driver is constantly honking his horn along the winding road notifying the oncoming traffic, which can't see us, but can hopefully hear our horn, that we are speeding up the hill at about 45 miles an hour. There aren't many 4 wheel drive vehicles, so we had to ride in the bed of the truck, which was a beautiful view, of monkeys and scenic jungle... until half way into it, the driver, apparently feeling guilty, decided to inform us not to lean too much on the door of the truck, since it often opens !!!! He proceeded to tie us "securely" in with a rope. Note how "secure" the rope looks in the picture!

Once up the hill, we ate at a lovely old English Tea House, in a turn of the century Mansion, called David Brown's at Strawberry Hill. The views of Georgetown, and the Penang Bridge were breathtaking!

We finished the day off with dinner at the Mansion at 32. One of the nicer restaurants in Penang. It is also located inside an old Mansion from the turn of the century, and is all original inside. Just beautiful.

Finally, this is the rainy season, which has brought many mudslides, floods and road closures. Luckily, we haven't been effected. The one side benefit, is the heavy rains clear out all of the haze, and you can actually have a blue sky! Which I miss so much! Hear are some blue sky pictures from Dalat, Mati & Dito's school. This is the view from the PE field:

This "Seaside Cafe" (that's what the sign above the door says) is the school cafeteria!

Overall, a good month in Penang!

Typical Weekend

So I haven't posted in a while, thanks to Susan for egging me on...

This was a typical weekend for us.

Friday's I try to have an activity with the kids, since Dito doesn't have homework. This Friday while Dito stayed at Dalat playing with his friends, I went with Mati to my friend Anna's house. It was very nice and relaxed. I have made good friends with Mati's friends' moms. Anna is from the US, Christian and part of WY-WAM a Christian Missionary group here. Her daughter Abby is in Mati's class. Brandi is also American, although she lived several years in the Marshall islands before coming here. Her husband is the elementary principal at Dalat. She has 3 daughters, all blond and beautiful. Lydia, is Chinese-Malaysian, and one of my better friends. Her husband Poh is a business man who travels all of Asia to sell computers. Their daughter Rachel is a little China doll, and one of Mati's better friends. At the ripe age of 5, she takes tap, hip-hop, Math Monkeys, and violin classes! Jess, is from South Korea. So nice!, and the mother of two boys - Woo Jin -- Mati's first love, and a little baby who just started walking. Her husband works for Samsung, I think or Sanyo. Somehow, with our kids of every race and culture and nationality and religion, we really get along very nicely. I enjoyed my afternoon.



I didn't bring my camera with me to Anna's, but you can see some of the people in these pictures I took at Dalat. Anna is to my right, and Jess is on the end to my left, and Lydia is down left, hugging Rachel.

Saturday, we were up early, and headed for our favorite weekend breakfast spot -- Coffee Bean, the only place in Malaysia where you can get a bagel--one flavor, poppy seed. But, beggars can't be choosers, we eat there every weekend! I am addicted to the Caramel Ice Blended...similar to Starbucks Frapies, but better, IMO. Afterwards, Fernando & Dito headed for golf lessons, ...there is an indoor driving range on the 5th floor of the mall, while Mati & I had our nails done...what fun!

Then, we headed to another mall (almost everything is located in these two high rise Malls -- Island Plaza & Gurney Plaza) From weekly food shopping, to my hair salon & gym, to the book store, stationary store, movie theatre, Kid's Indoor Playground, coffee shops, restaurants, and even the Chili's, everything is located in the one mall. I sometimes go to the same mall 2 or 3 times in one day.

So at Gurney, they just opened one of the latest crazes... they call it Doctor Fish. This is where you go to a place that looks like a Japanese restaurant, where you sit on the floor. But rather than sitting cross legged, you actually dangle your bare feet into a fish aquarium, where these tiny little fish start nibbling away at the skin on the bottom of your feet. So the four of us sat at the table, and we ordered drinks, and for 30 minutes had our feet exfoliated by live fish. It was hilarious, and ticklish! They have another tank with larger fish (about 4 or 5 inches) that you can also use, but those made me feel like I was being eaten alive! It didn't hurt, but still, the fish were schooling around me.

Tomorrow we'll be up early since Fernando reads at 8:30 am Mass at Immaculate Conception Church and then we'll eat a local breakfast ... Roti Canai (pronounced Chanai). .. It is a delicious Indian bread (kinda a cross between a pita bread and a croissant) that you dip in yellow curry sauce and it is just DELICIOUS!

So that's a typical weekend for us ... Oh, I almost forgot, not so typical, last night we had a rat inside our house...well, my kids said it was a rat, but it looked more like a cross between a treeshrub squirrel and a little mouse. It was dark gray, with a pointed nose, about 5 inches long, with a 4 inch tail. It was low to the ground, and tiny ears, not big ears like a rat. At any rate, it was a rodent, and INSIDE our house. It obviously had gotten caught inside our house by accident, and was running back and forth trying to get out. Obviously, we have become quite accustomed to wild animals, because no one in our family paid it any attention whatsoever. When it ran towards the door, I was about to open the door for it to escape, when it easily slid under the closed door!!!! Obviously, there is a larger space there then we realized! This is particularly concerning as just last week we had a poisonous green pit viper snake coiled up on my son's bike, just outside that very same door. I think I'll be calling my landlord about that on Monday!

Perez's Come to Visit

So we just finished 2 weeks touring Asia with Jeanette, Rick and Jeanette Elyn. It was a great trip where we visited Singapore, Langkawi, Penang - including Jerejak Island, Kuala Lumpur, and Bali. On our way home we stopped by in Fraser Hill for jungle hike and some bird watching.

What a fantastic trip... come see pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cpaz1967

Just another normal day in Penang ....

April 27, 2008
Greetings from Penang … I was thinking, wow, its been a really long time since I write back home, but what am I going to write about? Life here is normal, just like back in the States. Then I was talking to a new family, and remembering what a shock it was to move here, and all the apparent differences, but, I thought, really they are minor, life here is just normal…I have nothing to write home about.

Then I was at home last Thursday night, Fernando was in India again, and I was on a conference call at 2am (OK, maybe not that normal, but still, you get used to it) and I noticed that there was a bug flying around, so I looked up, and actually there were hundreds, if not thousands, of bugs swarming inside my living room. And I remembered, “Oh, its that time of year again, Kanthi said I should turn off the lights and they’ll go away” So I turn off all the lights... working in the dark at 2am to avoid a swarm inside your living room... normal right???, and then all thousand bugs swarm towards me & the light of my computer screen. So, I’m adaptable, I turn the light on in the TV room to cause a distraction, and then I notice that millions of bugs are entering my house from under my front door. No problem… I quickly wet a towel; stuff it under the door, finish my conference call … just another normal night in Penang .

So the next day, I tell my friend (a more experienced expat) this story, and then she one ups me… Apparently that afternoon, she was alone in her bedroom (her husband is in Indonesia setting up an NGO) and saw a 9 inch long, 2 inch wide poisonous black centipede with bright orange legs crawling on the floor. She frantically calls her 12 year old son, who brings the bug spray, but this is no cock-a-roach and after 2 minutes of direct hits, the bug is only a little wobbly, and decides to make an escape up her curtain. At this point she is hysterical and drops the bug spray. Her fearless son, picks up the can and continues spraying… the bug is finally wet enough that he looses his grip an falls into a puddle of spray on the floor and starts convulsing… and squirms under her bed! She is now ready to move out of her house, but her brave 9 year old daughter grabs the broom and dustpan and scoops up the still convulsing poisonous bug.

Using logic that can only come from a mother, she tells the daughter not to throw the bug away in her yard because the birds will eat it and die. Instead they should walk down the street and toss the bug in the road, (Apparently dead birds down the street are not a problem for her.)

So her 3 kids proudly walk down the street with their half dead poisonous 9 inch centepede in a dustpan. And then, the 11 year old, who up to now had been silently watching, and thinking, mentions that bug spray is flammable! And since burning things in the middle of the road is quite common in Penang , they proceed to torch the bug!

Like I said, just another normal day in Penang … Nothing to write home about ;-)

NOTE: We saw one of these bugs on a hike... you can't tell in the picture but this thing is 9 inches long, it looks like this:

Thaipusam

January 31, 2008
Pues les mando saludos de Penang. Aunque todo lo que he visto desde que regrese han sido hospitales y medicos.

Los ninos estan bien felizes en la escuela. Mati empezo a leer su primer libro (Bob books) y ahorita cumple 5 anos..increible que grande esta! El tiempo muy lindo, caliente pero con cielos azules. Y yo, pues aprovechando el tiempo libre leiendo mucho, y descansando.

Oh! La semana pasada fue Thaipusam, el dia de los indios cuando se pinchan todos .. y como la "via dolorosa" es la calle principal de mi casa pude ver todo desde mi auto. Es muy lindo e interesante como arman kioskos decorado con arboles de platanos reales, y con musica altisima bailan y caminan hasia el templo cargando leche para hechar en sima de el estatua . Inmaginate que vimos una carosa enorme con una estatua de el dios en un chariot con dos caballos (estatuas) que fue jalado por un hombre real agarado por unos ganchos por la espalda! Se veia la piel del hombre estirado jalando esa carosa tan grande .. fue increible.

Pulmonary Embolism???

January 24 2008
When I was in Florida over the holidays, I wasn't feeling well, kind of down, with low energy, sleeping alot, and not very talkative or really wanting to see anyone... so sorry if I offended anyone, or seemed unfriendly...I attributed this to jet lag, and regular stress and being overtired.

On my flight from Miami to Denver (Jan 4), I fainted while in line for the restroom. I hit my head hard on the emergency door, and was going in and out of consciousness for then next 90 minutes until the airplane landed and the ambulence took me to the emergency room of U of CO medical center. After an EKG, blood tests, and basic neurological tests, etc they found nothing wrong other than a concussion from the fall, and again I attributed the fainting to dehydration, low blood pressure (which I've always had) etc...

After I returned to Penang, I continued to be very tired with low energy. Finally, last Monday I started having chest pains, and feeling worse. I went to the hospital, after a million tests that were all perfectly fine, they were ready to send me home. But the doctor thought better of it, and did an ECHO and found that I had an enlarged right ventrical and pulminonary artery ... a clear indication of having suffered a Pulmonary Embolism on one of my flights. In short, that is when blood clots that form most probably in the legs due to inactivity, travel up to the lungs, blocking the oxygen flow.

Thank God, they found it in time, and I am responding well to the blood thinning medication (heparin and warfarin). But, I'm still very tired, sleeping most of the day. The doctor says it will be 3-6 months until I'm off the medications ... I hope its not that long til I get my energy back!

So I'm just writing this note to let you all know that Thank God, I'm OK, and getting better. I'm sorry if I seemed out of sorts or didn't call or visit enough on my trip, but looking back I guess I really wasn't feeling well. I know many of you travel by air, and I just want to remind you to walk around and excercise your legs, and drink plenty of water especially if you are on a flight for more than 3 hours. Its my understanding that Pulmonary Embolisms are fatal in 30% of reported cases within 24 hours. So it is serious, so please take precautions.