Pause.

I have exactly one week left in Pukak. Does that baffle you?? It baffles me. But let's not think about that. For now, here are some lessons I've learned from village life. (For Court's awesome stories, check out her blog.)

THINGS I'VE LEARNED TEACHING IN A VILLAGE SCHOOL:
1. Girls really are generally more well-behaved than boys.

2. Hold on to your answer key and watch, or else a rascally boy will steal them. But, if stolen, your things will always be returned. Except for that whiteboard marker.

3. No need for worksheets. Just have the kids copy off the board. This occupies them well and saves ink/paper.

4. Learn to ignore disturbances. Like kids not paying any attention at all in the back of the classroom. Or boys playing with caterpillars in their cocoons. Or frogs. Or baby birds. As long as one kid is doing work, your being there is not a waste of time.

5. If you have to play a game instead of doing your planned lesson, it’s quite alright because at least you are still talking to them in English.

6. Classes might be disrupted due to heavy rains which will make it very hard to hear, since the classroom is not completely enclosed (wire grills for windows).

7. If you have kids read their work out loud in order to give them public speaking practice and to boost their self-confidence, the other kids probably won’t listen.

8. It’s better for the kids to work together in groups because their English skill levels will vary widely.

9. If some of your kids are absent from your class, don’t worry because they probably decided to go to Courtney’s class instead. Probably to play bingo or get candy. On the same note, don’t worry if kids randomly decide to leave the classroom. They’ll come back eventually.

10. Things will get better. In the beginning, you might end each class feeling exhausted, frustrated, defeated. By the end, you will be chilled out, amused, and will enjoy the kids immensely, as crazy as they are. Sure Brandon and co. are running amuck, but at least he is singing “You are my aiskrim” (ice cream) at the top of his lungs to the tune of Backstreet Boys.

THINGS I USED TO TAKE FOR GRANTED, BUT NOW MAKE MY WORLD LIGHT UP:
1. Hooks in bathrooms – public, hostel, home, or otherwise. Useful for purses, towels, clothes, loofahs. Court and I haven’t lived anywhere here with a counter in the bathrooms. So hooks are necessary.

2. Toilet paper in bathrooms. Public bathrooms in Malaysia don’t generally have toilet paper, though you can usually buy a tissue pack when you pay to use. In case you’re interested, the toilet of preference is the squat toilet, which I have come to appreciate! (One pro is that you don’t have to ever use toilet seat covers, which saves resources. Also, squatting over a squat toilet is less work on the thighs than squatting over a toilet bowl, which I sometimes do anyway in public restrooms. I could go on and on but then this would turn into a blog about toilets.)

3. Electricity. No electricity means that fans go out and heat and bugs come in. There have been a couple weeks here in the village, where the electricity, like clockwork, will go out in the evening. Usually it comes back on within a couple minutes, but sometimes it will go out the entire night. Keeps us on our toes. 

4. Brand-spanking new mops and brooms. And mop buckets! Without a proper mop bucket, you have to wring out the mop with your hands which takes more energy.

5. Washing machines. In our first placement here in Sabah, Court and I did laundry by hand exclusively. In our second placement, we started out doing our laundry by hand. But since we were in the city, I ended up just taking my clothes to the local dry cleaners where they would launder, DRY, and fold my clothes for a minimal price. Now, we have a washing machine in our home! It’s awesome. We don’t have a dryer but there’s a spin dryer which really decreases time on the clothesline.

6. Rice, veggies, and egg (fried or scrambled). Such a simple meal but always delicious here. I can eat platefuls. The kids certainly do.

7. Steady phone service. Whenever Court and I go to the city, we always have to think twice about the fact that our phone has full bars wherever we are. While in the village, we have to find certain spots to get service. My fave spots are on the porch at the training center where we work. And also on the porch at our house.

8. Showers. I now shower twice a day because it really helps with sweatiness, which helps with not getting bit so badly by mosquitoes. We also have an electronic water pump and heater at our house now so it’s fabulous. At the hostel, there’s no showerhead, just a bucket. But I still really enjoy this shower, because I usually heat water on the stove which makes it the hottest bath I’ve had at any of our placements.

9. Rain. No rain means heat heat heat. Heat during the day. Heat during the night. No rain also means no beautiful rice paddies and farms, which means no source of income or food for many families.

10. Just sitting. Court and I do a lot of sitting here. Sometimes there’s nothing else better to do than just sit and stare at each other. But really, it’s more than that (and also don’t misread that – there’s never a boring moment here). It’s part of the culture here. I remember back in October, we took a field trip with the teenage girls we were living and working with, and we were waiting for our bus back home so we were just sitting at the place we were staying. The girls weren’t really doing anything. Some were looking at old newspapers, some were chatting quietly. But most were just sitting. My American brain was going a million miles a minute, I remember. I was trying to think of a game or conversation or something fun. But finally I just told myself to relax and enjoy being in their company. Even if we weren’t actively doing anything. So I did. And that’s what we do a lot here. We sit and enjoy each other’s company. Whether it’s just me and Courtney, or us and staff during tea breaks, or us and our host family at dinner. It’s good to pause like that.