Choir Practice for Dedication Meeting

Saturday, 18 March 2006
Tomorrow (19 March 2006) will see the dedication of our new chapel. Not all the youth turned up for the practice this afternoon, but nevertheless the practice still goes on. Together with Elder Rowley, Elder Gibbons, Elder Glass and Sister Chung, the youth sang "A Marvelous Work".

Sister Serrao will play the piano and Brother Kevin will conduct tomorrow as well.

Sister Helen, Chung and me took the opportunity to practise "As Sisters in Zion" as the Relief Society will be presenting that in the dedication meeting.

Tattooed Legs

The legs of a Kayan woman. The feet are tattooed and 3 quarter of the legs are tattooed too (until the inner thighs). The younger generation prefer their legs spotless, no more tattooing!

The Making of Belacan (Shrimp Paste)

Wednesday, 15 March 2006
I could smell dried shrimps in the air. My neighbours had laid out shrimps to dry in the sun. See the pink stuff around Ubong, a grandmother. She is a Kayan, one of the indigenous people in Sarawak, Malaysia. She is wearing a hat that she made herself also.

I was told that there were plenty of shrimps and people are catching them everyday for the past few days. At the time of their purchase, it cost 10MYR for every 6 kgs.

After washing/cleaning, the shrimps were mixed with salt and then laid out to dry in the sun. It has been shining hot for the past week as well as today, just perfect for the purpose.

Two days ago, I had the opportunity to catch Ubong's daughter-in-law, Purai, pounding previous load of dried shrimps.

Today's dried shrimps were pounded as well. I could hear her and another neighbour pounding.

The pounder are carved from some kind of tree trunk.

Thursday, 16 March 2006

Today saw the drying of pounded shrimps. The rectangular blocks are the finished product, which are also laid out to dry before they are stored. They can keep for more than 1 year without refrigeration and longer if refrigerated.

One block of that finished product would cost at least 15MYR at the market! Some of the townfolks, like my neighbour, Purai, would bring that back to their villages and exchange them for rice.

A very simple, cheap, nutritious and popular dish in Malaysia - Fried Water Convolvulus (Kangkon Tumis Belacan). Just add 1 teaspoon belacan (toasted and pounded) to 400g (14 oz) of water convolvulus (kangkong) that is stir-fried with pounded garlic, sliced chillies, sliced onion, sugar, water and oil, covered and briskly cooked for only 5 minutes!

I wanted to take a picture of people catching shrimps at the sea this afternoon but there was nobody there except for one woman, resting. If only I knew I would be there last Friday afternoon. She said she has never seen such a big crowd before " like ants on the seashore".

What a appropriate time to make belacan? The government schools are having their semester break this week! The children can help to pound the shrimps.


Saturday, 18 March 2006
A good friend of mine found a picture of shrimps (garagau) catching by Encik Nazeri Abghani. I like this picture very much and I hope he doesn't mind me displaying it here. Thank you very much, Mr. Nazeri Abghani, wherever you are, for that lovely picture.

Relief Society's 164th Birthday Celebration

Saturday, 11 March 2006
I enjoyed the video on the history of Relief Society, organized on 17 March 1842.

I love Relief Society! When I joined the church in May 1998, I served in the Relief Society until I was called and set apart as counselor in the Young Women on 1 May 2005. Nevertheless, I am and will be a member of the Relief Society - the biggest women organisation in the world - until I die.

Because of time constraint, we could not have any dances (I was supposed to teach 2 dances). That was not important. What really matters was that we had an enjoyable time together as Sisters in Zion. There were 23 of us attending tonight.

We had a delicious cheese cake and there were plenty of food, brought by the Sisters. We also exchange gifts.

Young Women's 137th Birthday Celebration

Saturday, 11 March 2006
The turn out was good.

8 (Gloria G, Penny, Gloria N, Catherine, Fadelia, Chloe, Maria & Jessie) girls turned up! I know why the remaining 5 (Hilda, Christine, Priscilla, Sylviana & Bernadine) could not attend. We had 1 (Sheryl) visiting from the Kuching Branch 2.

Sadly to say, Sister Priscilla and Sylviana could not come, due to an unforeseen circumstance. We would have love to see both of them performing the "Thai Love Song" dance, that I taught them.

They had been practising for the last 2 weeks and were also looking forward to this occasion.

Practice Makes Perfect

Wednesday, 8 March 2006
What dance should I teach the girls to present at the Young Women 137th Birthday celebration on the 11 March?

Sister Priscilla and Sister Sylviana tried the ngajat (Iban-Sarawak) and the Sumajau (Kadazan-Sabah) dance but in the end they decided to perform a Thai dance that I taught them.

To make sure that they are doing the steps correctly, we agreed that I come and see them today. As usual, I am very satisfied when I see any of my students able to dance by themselves to the music, without me leading them in front.

Anyone care for a piece of kuih?

Friday, 3 March 2006
If you want to eat kuih kuih, visit Sister Encha. She operates a stall at Tudan in the afternoon/evening.

I had this opportunity when I accompanied Sister Chung and Sister Serrao to visit Sister Encha at her stall.

There were doughnuts, banana fritters, pancakes, etc. She made them there, assisted by Brother Endah and son Edisen and his wife.

You can't buy this card!

23 February 2006
I woke up this morning with the strong desire to help the sister missionaries and I am glad I phoned them. We visited an investigator at the government general hospital. He is only 18 years old and his left leg was broken. His mother, also an investigator, was looking after him. I got to know where a newly baptised sister stay and got to visit/teach her friends. When I dropped the sister missionaries back at their apartment, Sister Serrao (from Hawaii) handed me a card and I want to share it with you. It is simple but it is very special to me because Sister Serrao and Sister Chung had made it with their hands and I am touched by their gesture.

Young Women - New Beginning "Arise and Shine Forth"

18 February 2006
The number 13 is an unlucky number for the Europeans, especially Friday, the 13th, yes? Not tonight in the Miri chapel! Tonight was Friday and there were 13 Young Women (100% of active YW) present, in this annual event that was held at the beginning of each year. Plus the leaders from the YW organisation and the guests, there were about 31 (13 turned around) people attending the function.

Guests (who made up of the girls' parents and friends) were able to view and learn what the YW organisation does from a table that displayed the pictures of the YW activities and their achievements.

Penny played the organ. Hilda was the master of ceremony; Gloria N and Jessica did the opening and closing prayer; Marina - the spiritual thought; YW theme and motto by Priscilla; talks by Chloe and Gloria G; Catherine, Christine, Penny & Fadelia did the skit. Sylviana and Bernadine join the rest in the special musical presentation (the pic did not turn out well, sigh!)

Sister Bray, our YW President, expressed her love for Sister Ivy and Sister Gloria G, the 2 girls that have blossomed into beautiful Young Women and are now in the Relief Society and Primary presidency. They would soon be completing their YW personal progress and therefore completed the requirements necessary to receive the Young Womanhood Recognition in the form of a medallion. One enters the Young Women organisation at 12 and leaves at 18 years.

It was a successful evening. Gloria G gave an excellent talk that touches my heart and brought some tears to my eyes. The skit made us laugh. We had a big delicious rectangular carrot cake to end the wonderful evening - I had 3 pieces! So nice!
I

Valentine's Night

14 February 2006
I don't care about Valentine's Day or Valentine's Night!

Everyday should be Valentine! But since it is set apart for this day people could remember by, I decided to invite the missionaries and some of my 'single' and 'unattached' friends for dinner.

None of us remembered to take pictures before we started eating. Only after the 2 brother missionaries had left for their appointment, the table almost cleared and almost time to disperse, did we took out our cameras.

My Valentine's friends: Elder/Sister Ott, Sister Chung, Sister Serrau, June, Priscilla, Amy, Elisha and Esther

Sleeping Beauties

Monday, 6 February 2006
The afternoon was hot outside, the fan was blowing in their direction while they slept. So peaceful and oblivious of what was going on in the room.

21 months old Doris was sleeping in a 'sarong' or the 'sarung'. 6 years old Agnes, who was also sleeping, had unknowingly rolled underneath the 'sarong'. And 8 years old Ellis, was also sleeping (not in the picture) not far away.

First Baptisms in the Miri Chapel

5 February 2006
We saw 2 baptisms after the block meetings. The baptismal meeting room was packed!

Little Sister Ashley was baptised by his father, Brother Vicente.

Brother Ruddy was baptised by Elder Rowley

First Sunday Meetings in the Miri Chapel

5 February 2006
Another history in the making! Our very first Sunday in our own Church building, the first in East Malaysia! So many people turned up - members, non-members.

Brother Kevin, Elder Gibbons, Brother Clever, Sister Boston and Sister Chung. We are going to miss Sister Boston. She will be leaving us the next day.

Another Brother Kevin with his family and yours truly!

Brother Vincente with his family and yours truly!

It was indeed a Beautiful Sunday! I am so happy to be part of it!

More Pictures of the Miri Chapel

4 February 2006
More pictures of the new chapel, from inside and outside of the fence.

Moving to the New Chapel

4 February 2006
Time to move to the new chapel and clear the existing meeting-house. There was a good turn-up of members to help. Too busy myself, until I forgot to take pictures of the first truck loading/unloading to the new chapel.


Elder Rowley on top of the truck!