June 7-8: Penang, Malaysia plus work at CAMSA

I bought a card reader. I can post pictures now.

I've been listening to this: Songs from a Secret Garden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPl1ZnKfWA0&feature=related

Life in Malaysia. Humid and hot. It's not as modernized as I thought it would be. I forgot how great traveling was. It's one thing to travel within the US, but when you travel outside the US, it's a CHALLENGE. Free housing is ALWAYS a plus. Everyday is a new learning and growing experience, and everytime you don't understand what is said or what is happening, you ask and you grow and you learn a little more about the people of the world. I've really enjoyed hanging out with his friends and just talking to them. They are Vietnamese students who are going to school here in Penang. Only 3 Vietnamese students in the whole school. They all speak the Northern accent. It's funny because we'll think of hard words for each other in English and Vietnamese and then laugh at the language barriers and how poorly we can pronounce it. haha.
I was talking to HaTuyen yesterday and she said that now she feels like if she doesn't volunteer or help out in some way when she's traveling, it's kinda a waste...that's a thought.


I noticed that they really try to save energy here...that's a lot more than I could say for the States. The longer plugs I've seen have switches for on and off, so you could be using one out of five of them and only one of them will be turned on instead of all 5 (In the US, we only have one switch for the whole thing). Another thing about this house in particular is that one light will light up two places, like one light lights up the shower and the bathroom (cuz they are outdoors). Like Vietnam, there is a heater switch to heat up your water so you don't have to waste energy heating it up all the time when how many hours are you actually using the water. Little things like that...save energy A LOT, especially when you multiply it by numbers of days and hours.

His place doesn't have a washer machine, but he says everyone else in this neighborhood does. The company should buy them one. We hand washed our clothes yesterday. Pain in the back. How much we take for granted.

Also, something interesting to me is that...well in Vietnamese and some other Asian languages, we address people by their relation to us. In Malaysia, the main languages are English and Bahasa Melayu (Malaysian language). I hear James talk to people (and others do it too)- "Hi Uncle," "Hi Auntie," "Hi Brother ___." I thought it was kinda funny. It reminds me of when I used to watch the kung fu movies with English subtitles...always didn't seem right haha.

Yesterday, I was introduced to working in the CAMSA (Coalition to abolish modern day slavery) office in Malaysia, which is just the bottom of James's place (his bedroom is on the 2nd floor). Here in Malaysia, there are a significant number of Malaysian locals, Chinese (who helped expand the economy here), Vietnamese (who are usually laborers), and South Asians. Although the goal of this CAMSA office is human trafficking, most of their cases are labor-related cases because it's easier for laborers to contact the office, and also sex trafficking is organized crime and it gets complicated. Right now, I'm working on a slideshow on human trafficking and CAMSA. It's a lot smaller than I thought it was: 3 people, 3 desks. They told me how their duties are split up and what kind of cases they work on. I'm going to get to interview workers tomorrow. Yay.


I'm also trying to speak more Vietnamese while I'm here.

So, James told me to go out to the taxi driver to tell him to wait, and I went outside and said "Chu, cho mot ti" (Please wait a little bit in Vietnamese), and James started cracking up and he yelled out, "In English!" I forgot their main languages are English and Bahasa Melayu, not Vietnamese. Silly me. It's so weird because a lot of this place reminds me of Vietnam.