Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. My wireless card somehow does not pick up the wifi here so I have to borrow my friend's computer to update you guys. Thanks Brian, Elle, and Char I am alive and well :). It has been an interesting few days but I am comfortably adjusting to life here in Malaysia. The food is awesome here :) but I don't want to turn this into a travel and food blog. The people in KL are quite nice and willing to help so that was a surprise for me especially when I contrast it to HK. The funny thing is that I have been mistaken for being Malay, Korean, Filipino and a Local chinese already. I guess I have gotten really tanned in the last week or so :). Kuala Lumpur is an extremely international city with visitors from all over the world. The main people groups here are the Malays, the Malaysian Chinese, and Indians. Yes there is a differences between the chinese and the Local Chinese here. Hahaha the local chinese add a "-lah or ah" to the end of everything when they speak in English. I hope I don't pick up this Asian way of speaking when I come back but it will be quite funny.
Okay now back to the work stuff haha. We have been running a HIV and AIDS education booth outside a train and bus station. By "booth" I mean it is just us the three interns walking around and approaching random strangers and asking them what they know about the virus and disease. It is quite interesting how the majority of people don't get weird out and uncomfortable by the topic. Of course it was so hot outside so we would have to find places with air conditioning to hide from the heat ;P. I am also a part of the Pink Triangle foundation and there I have been at the Voluntary Counselling, and Testing (VCT) department. At VCT patients will come and get tested for HIV and arrange for follow up counselling after. It is rather interesting working at this NGO as most of the employees are homosexual and/or HIV positive. I haven't been there for that long yet but will update you on what else is happening. The PT foundation have 5 major groups they work with: the transgender, sex workers, MSM (men who have sex with men), Positive Living (people living with HIV) and VCT.
I have met some really awesome interns!! A girl from Korea and another from the Philippines. We have explored and traveled KL so much that we pass out every time we get home. There is a world peace conference happening at the Petronus towers at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center with it is an awesome festival of lights. I will attach some pictures to let you guys see what's going on. Haha from my pictures this will seem like a travel blog but I seriously do WORK and I don't just have fun hahaha. I have also learned more Korean and Filipino than Malay. The church I am going to right now is also quite diverse like KL with people from many different countries. It is very interesting when I went for lunch with a Filipino group. They are such hospitable and welcoming becoming people but they also laughed that I have not had that most exposure to the locals here. I know this isn't a food blog but the indian, iranian, chinese, taiwanese, korean, malay food here is amazing. Hahaha I also went to a durian buffet for those who don't mind the smell (Pastor Karen your favourite ;) ). I will have to conduct a workshop at a local school next week so we will see how much of a language barrier we will have.
I will try to update you guys more often but seriously the lack of internet on my laptop is really bugging me haha so I will ask of your patience with my infrequent updates. Hope everyone is doing well but I can't believe that it has only been a week. I feel like I have been here for a very long time already. Nick and Debbie I hope wedding planning is coming along smoothly also.
Nelson
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