Week 2 & 3: Workshop at Maxwell school, CERiA, Inhye leaving, KL Krash Pad

Hi everyone,

Sorry again for the SUPER DUPER LATE update. A lot and by a lot I mean A LOT of things happened this week! It has been an exciting yet extremely long and tough week for me. I actually typed up part of this blog a many days ago but didn't have time to complete it so hopefully it won't be too disconnected. Thank you to my AWESOME cell group for all your prayers and support! And thank you to everyone else for your support and prayers (I can't name all of you guys but I am extremely grateful and appreciative of you). I miss you guys lots although the pictures might not indicated that... hahahaha but SERIOUSLY I DO. I asked myself the question "what am I doing here in Malaysia?" and "how did I get here and what did I get myself into?" a couple of days ago funny enough. My fellow intern told me that she went through similar "homesickness" around the two week mark of her stay. Hahaha Tim and Janessa I do have a SOUL Hahaha!  Thankfully God provided me with a very welcoming church Central Christian Church of Malaysia. They had a father's day service and it was so cool how they showed a powerpoint of all the dads with their kids. BTW Happy belated Father's Day everyone!

My fellow Korean intern Inhye just left. I am quite sad because she has been like a sister to me in Malaysia. She helped me get acquainted with Kuala Lumpur and introduced me to awesome new friends and connections. With her help I was able to meet Sayle and he connected me with an organization called CERiA (Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS). In just two short weeks, I am blessed to have built a friendship and share many wonderful memories. Hopefully when/if I travel to Korea we can catch up and meet up again. As fast as time is passing by here in KL, I realized that my three months stay will be quite challenging. The internships at Aiesec are normally only 6 weeks in duration so I understand that friends/fellow interns will be coming and leaving at separate times while I continue my stay. On top of that, other friends I have met from Aiesec University of Malaya will be leaving also as their school term comes to an end late June. It is not easy to build up friendships and have to say goodbye shortly after. However, I am thankful for the opportunity to build connections all over the world.

Now back to work and the internship. The opportunity at CERiA was quite sudden and I believe it will be the toughest challenge I will face. I literally meet them on Thursday and then I had a project meeting on Friday and now I have a deadline due by Tuesday/Wednesday. The assignment or the part of  project we are working on is a proposal for a Methadone Clinic (for narcotic drug user treatment). This organization consist of a team of doctors, researchers and other social workers. I honestly do not feel qualified nor prepared to intern at this organization, but if God gave me this opportunity I will try my best. Please keep me in your prayers as there are many more reasons why this will be quite challenging. The current project is to establish a one stop healthcare centre for injection drug users. The project leader assigned me the portion of writing up the needs and services to be provided. I am busying reading up books and other sources for injection drug users. This is a completely new field to me as I have to learn everything about injection drug use from the basics and apply it to provide services that would be offered in the clinic. I am completely overwhelmed but know that God equips us to take part in his work so no more worries. I guess this is what you would call "baptism by fire". I am working with PhD students from Yale and man these guys think so fast so that is pretty cool!      

We also conducted a HIV and AIDS awareness workshop at a local all boys highschool called Maxwell. It was a very neat experience as I discovered that being a Korean or Japanese gave you a somewhat "celebrity" status here in Malaysia. So it was super funny to watch the boys being shy and nervous around our Korean friend. Facilitating the workshop was fun and the reception to the material was also very good. It wasn't a taboo subject for them as I thought and they actually participated actively throughout our presentation and activities. The cool thing here is after each workshop they will prepare for you a certificate of completion unfortunately they will have to give that to us later so don't have it now. 

We also visited a youth drop-in centre at a district not too safe in KL. Here kids and teens of sex workers and people living in this community come and hang out. They provide meals, programs, classes, and activities for the youth. It is kind of like our Hazelton Ministry :)! We conducted a cultural sharing program with them where we played games and presented them about Canada and the Philippines. We also brought treats from our own country and they LOVED and I mean LOVED the soft almond nougat with maple syrup. Shamefully enough that was my first time trying it and it was really good! LOL I need to try more "canadian" things when I get back hahahaha. I just love the energy and joy the kids have at this centre despite all the situations they might be facing at home and elsewhere. Sorry but we weren't allow to take pictures at the drop in centre due confidentiality and protection policies working with minors.

Lastly an aiesecer brought me to an IKEA here and it is exactly the same as the one in Richmond. She was so excited to show us around. The food is a billigon times cheaper here though so we all had like 20 swedish meatballs!! Never would I have thought I would sharing about my experiences in Ikea but it was really fun as we explore room to room.

Despite all the fun, God is really showing me the many needs in this community. The spiritual and physical poverty is evident and I am thankful for the many opportunities to take part in His work. I am extra appreciative of many laws, healthcare system, and government policies we have in Canada that give people equal opportunities to proper and pursue a high quality of life. On a side note, I almost forgot to share with you THE VERY FIRST THING I learned here is Malaysia. It is how to J-walk! They rarely if ever have crosswalks here so we really have to learn how to bolt across the road safely. That's all for now :) take care everyone!