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8/20/2016

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"Angelo! Where have you been?!"

It's been a while since my last update. The longer I'm here, the more normalized my daily events become, and it's hard to remember to share! Not to mention, the school year really got rolling, and I've been pretty busy. (Gosh, it feels good to be busy again.)

"Enough excuses, Ang! Updates!"

Selamat Hari Gawai

June 1st was the annual Gawai Dayak celebration. This celebration has a long history, that I did my darndest to try and understand. It's somewhat of a mixture of the American holidays of New Years and Thanksgiving. Though a vast majority of the Dayak people have converted to Christianity, this festival has its roots in the not so long ago practices of animism and paganism. (Christianity reaching Borneo in the early 1900's and established as widespread, organized religion in a post-WWII 50's/60's).

Traditionally, the festival is a harvest celebration in which offerings were made to the gods in preparation for a new season. Anymore, it's more of an admired tradition and excellent reason to celebrate the rich cultures of the different Dayak ethnic groups and eat and drink beyond your capacity. My totally awesome mentor took me and my roommate to his family's longhouse, where we were able to celebrate Gawai with some warm, welcoming people.

Gawai Highlights:

Tuak - rice wine. You don't get to say 'no' when offered. Just drink it, its delicious.
Langkao - rice liquor. Or as I like to call it "Borneo Moonshine." Could probably set my breath on fire.
Rice - there was rice. A lot of rice.
Python - I ate it. Don't tell the authorities.
Exotic animals - Plenty to see and pet. Also, don't tell the authorities.
Dancing with aunties - Nobody gets down like a fun Iban aunty.
Longhouses - Literally, a very long house. Each family as there own 'room', (which is basically an entire home) as part of a larger structure. It's like a row of townhouses that all share a common, enclosed front porch... only everyone is family and the walls are bamboo. (The more modern ones are made of bricks and cement.)
Quality time with fellow ETAs - thankful to have great humans along with me to reflect on being shuffled through longhouses together.
Seeing people of all ages celebrate their culture and traditions. So much pride!

The main room of a longhouse, and the main stage for Gawai celebrations. Along the right side is a series of doors (maybe about 10?). Each door opens into a family's personal home.

That's tuak (rice wine). This man was a bit too generous with how much he kept wanting to give it to the guests.

Jordan, Marcy, and myself alongside a very hospitable bunch. Sleeping is optional when these groovy aunties want to dance all night.

Just to be clear, that is an average sized aluminum can. Yes, that bottle is unreasonably massive.

The Bidayuh Gawai offering. As about 90% of my students are Bidayuh, learning about this was my favorite. The food offerings go on the shelf in the center, and under neath is where the spirits are kept when they arrive.

There was a pageant! Both boys and girls (ages 13-21) dressed up in traditional costumes, put on a bit of a show, and answered extremely difficult questions about preserving their culture. The top places won smart phones. (Jealous!)

With the quick spreading of Christianity, very few members of the community are knowledgable about the original traditions and dances to be done around the offering every few hours. This woman was one of 5 people brought into the village for the ceremony.

A beautiful display of the traditional tools used by the Bidayuh people before modernization.

Singapore

With what was left of my June break after all the Gawai fun, I went to Singapore for a few days! What an incredible city and country. I hope to be seeing more of this little utopia in the future :)

Looking out from within the Gardens by the Bay. Beautiful skyline.

A great crew to explore Singapore with.

Seriously, no shortage of beauty in this country.

A Piece of Home

I was very fortunate to share my one week off of school for Hari Raya (or Eid), with Lauren. I got to show her my home, my school, and my town. Then we explored a bit of Chiang Mai, Thailand together. It was so great that she able to make the trip halfway across the world, and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to share a bit of my Malaysian life.

We took too many photos to share, but I'll show a few highlights of our adventure!

Class 2E was thrilled to meet "Miss Lauren"

We gave elephants a bath!

Spent too much time in the Chiang Mai 3D museum.

Fancy drinks on a rooftop helipad.

Believe it or not, they have direct red carpet flights from Baltimore to Kuching.

Excitement doesn't stop

A few additional notable things:

Rainforest World Music Festival - an incredible 3 days with the world's best cultural music
Music Workshop with the students - delighted to have had last year's ETA and a special guest come bring a bit of American choral music to the students. They loved it!
Ran my first half marathon - would NOT recommend (w/out training). Just ask my knees.
English camps on English Camps. Constantly working towards programming with students and love having the opportunity to meet students from other schools.

It's difficult to update 2 entire months in one post (I'll try not to let it happen again). Surely I'm leaving out a whole slew of important events, but they'll have to wait for another day.

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ETAngelo: Adventures in Malaysia

"I just wanted you to know. . ."

Updates

"Angelo! Where have you been?!"

Selamat Hari Gawai

Singapore

A Piece of Home

Excitement doesn't stop

Angelo Sylvester

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