ESL Party

When I realized that God was leading me to serve in the ESL (English as a Second Language) ministry at church, I was excited and nervous, because I've never taught ESL before. It was time for God to use and stretch me in Singapore to fulfill His purpose. I've been truly blessed to be a part of this special ministry. The ladies in my class are so sweet and eager to learn. There are about 17 of them. It was interesting to learn about their different cultures, and they enjoyed learning about American life. One of the first questions they asked me was did I ever meet any movie stars. I told them I met Kevin Kostner and some actors from a TV show called Hill Street Blues many years ago. Not much reaction. Then I told them that Renee Zellweger and George Clooney came to my town to film a movie. "Ohhhh.....GEORGE CLOONEY!!" Amazing. Women way over here in South East Asia also goes ga ga over George Clooney!

Ladies from my class

With the weekly lesson preparations I did, I quickly learned that it's one thing to speak my native language without giving it a second thought, but it's another thing trying to explain English grammar and other rules to someone learning the language. I had to teach the teacher so I could teach the students. I definitely learned some new things about English that I forgot years ago, or never learned in the first place. One thing I had to do in my lessons was translate certain American words that aren't used in Singapore, such as car park instead of parking lot, and lift instead of elevator. Since there is a strong British influence here, I had to change some American words into British words so they would understand. I had fun with that......

If I ever go to England again on holiday, I will rent a car with a large boot for all my luggage and drive to the countryside. I will have to stop somewhere and get a snack. Ummmm, maybe I will  fancy some bangers and mash or crisps and a biscuit. I will then throw my rubbish in the dust bin. After visiting the loo, I will be on my way. When I arrive at the Inn, I will park my car in the car park, check into my room, and watch some telly before bed.

Classes just ended for this term and concluded with an end of term party. What fun that was! It was an international celebration of all the students, teachers and staff together. Many students and a few teachers volunteered to show off their talents by singing, dancing and playing instruments. They proudly represented their countries, which were Japan, Malaysia, Korea, China and Myanmar. One of the American teachers represented India with an energetic and fun dance. She was dressed in full Indian attire. Everyone looked beautiful in all the colorful outfits!!

Japanese Drum

Myanmar Dance

Indian dance

Japanese ladies (my friend Keiko in center)

Creepy Fog

There are few things in life that really set my nerves on edge. I've encountered all kinds of new and unusual experiences that I've embraced while living here. I've seen huge spiders in Bali, large lizards lurking overhead on walls and little ones scurrying across our kitchen counter, an old man with both feet facing almost backwards, and reaching into my handbag and feeling goo. In case you're wondering, the goo was from a forgotten piece of Halls throat drop that melted in my handbag. It's so hot in Singapore, that throat drops and hard candies don't have a chance against the merciless heat and humidity. But one thing that sends me running for the hills....is the bug fogger!

Shortly after we moved to Singapore, I heard the sound of a weird motor. Curious, I looked outside from our 4th floor and noticed a greyish fog drifting upward into the trees and then dissipating into the sky. I saw a man walking around carrying something that looked like a strange leaf blower. This was the bug man. Mosquitoes and other insects are pretty bad here, so buildings are fumigated frequently. Exterminators walk around buildings, surprisingly without masks, blowing around this chemical fog, and it floats everywhere. I am thankful that when it's time for our building to be fumigated, that signs are posted in the lifts telling the tenants when to expect it.

(I'm so excited!! As I was typing this post, I heard the fogger outside. So I grabbed my camera and took these pictures. I didn't have any pictures to show until now. Trust me, this will be the only time I will show excitement over the foggers.)

When I hear that familiar sound now and I'm home in the apartment, I make sure the windows are closed and everything's good. But one day I was doing laundry and the back window was open with the dryer vent hanging out. I heard the fogger, saw the smoke approaching and then I remembered the window! I sprang up from my chair at the computer, ran down the hallway and threw myself at the window to slam it closed just before the poisonous gas drifted in and killed Gracie and me.

One time Kevin and I were in a gondola leaving Sentosa Island, and I spotted the fog below us. It was drifting up and our gondola was heading straight for it! The windows were open and couldn't be closed. We were trapped liked two caged rats. No where to go. We quickly covered our faces in our shirts, gagging on the stinky fumes infiltrating the gondola.

I thought about including some pictures of the lizards and humongous spiders, but that would have set my Mom's nerves on edge.

Beautiful Bali - Part 2

One afternoon we had tea at the cafe and watched girls make offerings made out of flowers, moss and some kind of leaves. They gave these to the guests. We have seen these offerings and other kinds all around the resort and in the town of Ubud. Since we don't share the same belief, I put them on the window sill in our villa to be admired only for their beauty.

Ubud is known for their hillside rice fields. So we chose to go on a walking tour led by the resort activities guide. It was a small group of about six people. He led us through a couple of small villages, remote country homesteads and vast rice fields. There should have been a waiver form for all of us to sign by stating that this walk was advanced, crazy level. Walking through the village roads was a breeze, but then we found ourselves traipsing through muddy, slippery, extremely narrow hillsides with steep drop offs and nothing to hang on to except the person in front. People in our group were working as a team to help everyone get over these hills. There was someone in front reaching a hand to help me up the hill and a hand pushing my rear from the back. (It was Kevin, so that's OK). Anyone else would have been thrown off the cliff! One guy in front of me started to slip on mud and slide down toward me. Great!! I was bracing myself for impact and being thrown off the hillside falling into thick brush and pigs. Thankfully, he caught his footing just in time.

Chicken peering at us from above

 Sure-footed villagers working on steep hill

Bravely walking across another bamboo bridge

Rice fields

 

There are dogs roaming all around Bali. These dogs are property dogs, not pets. They guard houses and property from intruders. They roam around freely, but stay close to the owner's property, while looking homeless and skinny. They tugged at my heart strings. It started to rain, just to make our walk even more wet and slippery, so we all ducked into a rice field shack for cover. A puppy was there and didn't know what to do about all of us invading his territory. He let out a howl-like, squeaky bark but quickly stopped when he discovered Kevin's shoes. He started licking his wet shoes over and over. This little guy had plenty of water, with all the puddles around, and a bowl of white rice to eat. It was time to move on before he got attached to Kevin, or vice versa.

There are scooters and motorcycles everywhere in Bali. That is the common form of transportation. Families of three or four people would ride on one scooter. Most of the houses we passed by on the road had a combination ramp and stairs in front. The ramp was for driving their scooters up and down from their property. Very clever.

We walked by what appeared to be a small school or group assembly of some kind. I noticed a few girls looking at us, and I waived to them. A bunch of them waived back. These people are very friendly. I noticed that most of the people have serious expressions on their faces until I caught the eye of someone and smiled at them. They would always flash a big smile right back.

Gated entrance to a residence or temple

We went into the touristy town of Ubud to look around and do some shopping. We made the mistake of bringing two large umbrellas with the resort's name on it. All the taxi drivers spotted us and bugged us continually about wanting to give us a ride back to the resort. How it works is that there are salesmen all over the streets offering, or actually harassing, passerbyes their taxi services. If you're interested, you tell them where your going and they give a price quote. These taxis are not metered. You agree on a set price, then they call for their taxi driver to come and pick you up where you stand. That's great if you want to go back to the resort. But we just wanted to walk around for a few hours and shop. They still aggressively approached us at every turn, especially with the Ubud Hanging Gardens umbrellas. That won't happen again.

Restaurant overlooking a temple

Since we arrived at Bali, we have been eating authentic Indonesian food, and really enjoying it. But when when came upon this Starbucks, we had to stop in and get a latte. Yum! I've never seen a Starbucks with a gong in front. Pretty cool!

There are some really nice handcrafted things available in Bali. Hand carved wood, jewelry, batik sarongs, Balinese puppet dolls, etc. There are also some serious bargains. The street market is rows upon rows on many streets of everything imaginable. We almost collapsed from heat stroke while wandering through these market stalls. Haggling is expected. I'm not all that comfortable with haggling, but I had to pick up on it quickly if I wanted to pay a fair price for something. 

One thing I did pick up in Ubud was a nasty stomach bug. I guess I ate or drank something contaminated. I got so sick that night, which was the night before we went back home, and was nauseated the whole day traveling home. Yuk! I'm glad it happened the last day instead of at the beginning of our trip. Lesson learned! I will never drink anything with ice or that doesn't come from a bottle while traveling out here. I was also told to stay away from salad and produce that is washed in tap water. It is safe to eat peelable fruits, but no fruits with the skin. It's also a good idea to brush your teeth and rinse using bottled water. No more iced tea for me on trips!

Hand carved Balinese dancer mask

We had a great trip in Bali and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, friendly people and delicious food. We even learned a few words in Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia. Terima kasih (thank you) for reading my blog post on Bali. Have blessed day!