Dear Family & Friends!
Merry Christmas from the equator! We are toasty warm hear all year long (translation: ITS HOT, LIKE AFRICA HOT!), but we are enjoying all the beautiful natural resources this country has to offer! I can’t believe our first year in Penang, Malaysia has gone by so quickly. There isn’t enough paper in the world to describe all the experiences we have had in this crazy, up-side-down, backwards, and inside-out wonderful paradise we now call home. But, I’ll try to give you the bird’s eye view from each of us…
Fernando… my wonderful husband! He is working, and working, and working, all hours of the night and day, traveling all over the world under a lot of stress and pressure. Motorola has had a bad year, with constant re-orgs, layoffs, consolidations, and plant closings. And in spite of the internal turmoil, they still have to deliver the products on time and with high quality. It’s been a rough year for him, and I am so proud of his dedication, resilience, and just overall good attitude, to come home in a good mood, and play with the kids and take me out dancing, and go explore the sites. I think his favorite part of Penang is the celebrity status that goes with being a “white, expat, MD” (MD = Managing Director as they call him here). For example, we went to a wedding for one of his employees of about 250 people, and of course we were late…and they waited for us to arrive before starting – 45 minutes! Another time we were standing in a buffet line and the hotel staff ran over and apologetically shuffled us out of the line and seated us in the air conditioned “VIP section” where they brought us a full gourmet spread. We have a chauffer, a live-in maid, and now also a cook. Our maid, Kanthi crushes fresh ginger root every night to make Fernando (“My Sir” as she calls him) his ginger tea for his midnight conference calls. Whether its at the coffee shop, or the supermarket, or the restaurants, people know us everywhere we go. For me it’s all a little embarrassing, but Fernando is thoroughly enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.
Fernandito,… at 10 and in 5th Grade is really starting to be his own person. He is funny, energetic, and non-stop. He is extremely social, making friends everywhere he goes. He loves DALAT, saying it’s his favorite school attended. His class is the largest in the school with 25 kids, from more than 10 different countries including South Africa, Taiwan, Australia, Korea, The Philippians, Malaysia, Canada and the US. He is getting good grades, but not enjoying the homework or the writing assignments AT ALL. He was on the Swim Team and won first place in the backstroke. He was also taking equestrian, and had his first job as a stable boy one afternoon each week. Recently, he was in a track and field event, and surprisingly won 4th place overall in the Javelin in the 10 through 14 year old division …. Go figure! Dito’s favorite part of Penang is the independence he feels at school. He rides the bus, and the school is a closed campus on the beach. They have dorms with about 80 students living on campus so there is a shop and plenty of after school activities. He is there on his own; making his own choices for which activities he will participate in, and is free to go around the campus after school with no supervision. Some after school activities he has chosen include Skits, Scrabble, and Bible Study.
Mati continues to be the princess of the house at age 4 going on 16!. She is such a big girl now, and using phrases like “Oh Pickles!” and “It just breaks my heart!” and “I can’t wait until I have a car so I can go wherever I want”. She is smarter than all of us, and I have to think in triplicate just to keep up with her. Mati is in Pre-K 4 at DALAT with 7 other students mostly from Korea and the US. She loves jewelry, especially earrings, and loves to paint her nails. She is not much into the dresses, preferring jeans … but always loves to wear her fancy princes high heal shoes! She started off the year by wanting to be a hairdresser… cutting off all of her hair almost to the scalp! Thank God it’s started to grow back again. Now she prefers cooking… when I came out of the shower the other day, she had taken tons of ingredients out of the refrigerator and had used all 12 eggs in her effort to “bake Mama cookies”… close supervision is required with this one! Mati’s favorite part of Penang is the Macaque monkeys. They come down from the mountain and into our backyard almost every day so we can see them from inside very closely. Each monkey has a role in the pack, we can identify the alpha male, the young males that get food, and the mothers with their babies hanging from their bellies. Mati also loves her pet hamster!
My mom has been staying with us on and off, and has been a great help with the kids. She loves it here, saying that it reminds her of Cuba. She is in good health, although getting older (aren’t we all?). My dad is also well, but hasn’t made the trek to come visit us yet, I’m still holding out hope!
Of all of us, I think I enjoy Penang the most. I’m still with Motorola, and my work schedule is a little crazy, since I mostly work with the people in the US. I normally put the kids to sleep by 8:30PM, and by 9PM I start my work day until about 2am, but sometimes have to set the alarm at 3 or 4 am to participate in conference calls. The benefit of this is I have my days free to be with the kids and explore the island. I’ve kept myself very busy as I was the co-secretary for the International Woman’s Association (IWA) and I am also volunteering teaching math and English to 4 local high school boys. I love to hike in the jungle, or go to the beach, or visit Little India or the fishing villages. I read that Malaysia is the country with the highest density of different species of animals and plants in the world. There are 17 different kinds of bananas here (literally) and every time I go out hiking I’ll see a different kind of insect, or crab, or bird, or mammal. But, my favorite part of Penang has to be the food. With the mix of spice savvy cultures here (Muslim, Indian and Chinese) along with the ample supply of fresh sea food and the close proximity of the fruit and vegetable plantations, the Penangites take pride in merging all the different spices and fresh foods into the most delicious cuisine I have ever had, anywhere in the world. (Certainly not the most appetizing to look at, but if you can ignore the way it looks and get the food into your mouth, you will never be disappointed!) The other thing I love are the people who are just so friendly. It is very common to meet a person on the street one day, and have them call you the next, and before you know it you are eating dinner or going on site seeing tours with them. We have made many friends both local and expat, and are growing in our understanding of different cultures.
But of course, we miss home, and we miss you all so much! Things I never thought would be significant, have real emotional meaning…When I first arrived, I almost went into shock when I realized there were no frozen waffles (they have them now) and I missed bagels so much, I almost threw a party when the first coffee shop got them in; for Halloween, I just had to have a real orange pumpkin so we could make a jack-o-lantern, and I miss pine cone decorations for Christmas and real Christmas trees that smell. I miss the crystal blue skies from South Florida and the beautiful blue oceans (its pretty polluted here) and there is really no concept of hygiene, all the bathrooms are wet, and you have to take your shoes off everywhere you go so that is pretty disgusting! The places we miss the most are Miami, Key West, Colorado, and of course, Disney World!
We thank God for the blessings he has bestowed on us this year! Our lives have been full of activity and adventure, but we are ever mindful that everything we do is in His service. May His grace & peace be with you at Christmas and may He bless & keep you close in 2008.
We continue to extend an open invitation to have you come stay with us on your next holiday so we can explore Asia together!
With all of our Love, Besitos,
Carmen, for the Paz’s
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