Hari Raya

On the 2nd to last night of Ramadan, I saw my sister and her boyfriend Dave off at the KL Sentral station. There, we said our goodbyes and I sent them on their way on the express train to the KUL airport. It was another hot and humid night in KL. I sweat through all my clothes as I wandered around the station with my huge Europe-backpacking bag. I was waiting for my friend Eena from work to pick me up, and from there we would drive 4 1/2 hours with her aunt Yati, (one of my supervisors at SIS) to Johor Bahru for the weeklong Raya celebration. I decided that it would definitely be wise to use the toilet before this long journey so I went to the public restroom, only to leave my cell in the stall. I went back 5 minutes later and it was gone. God dammit.

All was well once I got into the car. We arrived in the small village of Parit Raja at around 1 am. As we drove into a driveway of a huge, beautifully lit, Romanesque compound, I initially thought that we were just stopping by a hotel on the way. It turned out though, that that was just her house.


The next day was the last day of September, as well as the last day of Ramadan. I pretty much wandered around the house and cooked food all day. The village, or kampung, is all centered around one long street that comes off the larger highway. This is the road that runs through Paris Raja.



Daging Rendang, coconut curried beef. I will make it for you all someday.


Making ketupat, which are diamond shaped bamboo sacks filled with rice and boiled. It makes a solid square of rice that you eat with the various mind-blowing curries, vegetables and sauces.


Cuttin' open the ketupat. Ready to eat!



Wearing baju kurung, the traditional Malaysian dress.


There are actually two types of Hari Raya, Aidilfitri, the one which follows Ramadan, and the other one...which I forgot the name of, but is what is celebrated during Hajj or the time to go on the pilgrimage to Mecca. Hari Raya Aidilfitri pretty much consists of visiting everyone at their house. The holiday technically is a month long, but the first week is the most celebrated and sacred. This is when you visit all of your family and your neighbor's houses. In the kampung (or village), anyone can show up at your house at unannounced and you need to welcome them into your home, offer then drinks, snacks, or a meal (if its close to mealtime). All the village children will go from house to house to hang out, watch TV with you and chat it up, and when they leave you're required to give them a few bucks, err...ringgits, and have them kiss your hand.
Yati has 12 brothers and sisters between the ages of 38 and 60 so needless to say, there were A LOT of people to go visit. Every day I went to at least 5 different houses, where I was bombarded with home-cooked feasts at each and every one. Of course I had to eat everything they offered me...And no, I did not fit into my jeans by the end of that week.


Family house visits means lots of catching up/gossiping.



A beautiful traditional Malaysian kampung house next door.



Overload of cute children and babies.


The most important room in the house...



The living room where everyone talked, snacked, had photo shoots and watched Hari Raya TV specials.



This is the bigger city nearby called Batu Pahat.







More food.


Me eating with my hands.


As I mentioned earlier, one of Yati's brothers is an important politician in the village (as also evidenced by the huge photos of him plastered all over town) and for the purpose of tradition and politics, he has hosted a huge party in the garden of this house during Raya every year.


It was insanely crowded, with at least a thousand people coming and going all night. They had at least 7 whole roasted lambs over fire pits, with 20 different stalls giving away every Malaysian/Indian/Chinese dish you could imagine.
These kids really liked speaking english to me so they followed me around all night.


The entertainment for the night was a famous singer who was the Malaysian equivalent of Sting. He's the guy in the orange.

Then as all the guests had left by around 12, the Kaprawi's and I continued to dance outside til midnight to 80's Malaysian love song hits. It was an incredible night.

The next morning, Yati, Eena and I left for KL at 6 am to beat the holiday traffic, and by noon we were back in the city.

And two months later...

Yea, it's been a while. I've finally given myself time to sit down and do this because I got another cold. Since my last entry, I've done waay too much to be able to describe everything in detail so I'm just going to summarize with some photos...

So a couple days after SIS held its press conference on the government's sudden ban of one of their publications in mid-August, I went to a small conference of international GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersex and Queer or Questioning) activist leaders from Islamic countries, where being anything other than straight could land you in prison, or worse. It was really insane to hear people's stories from Lebanon, Nigeria, Indonesia, and other countries in which they have to fight a government that actively works to arrest and prosecute them. All the participants were so friendly and it was great to meet even more inspiring, passionate people.




Then a couple days later around August 26th, my friend Femi the other SIS intern from America, left to go back to Delaware to start classes again. She was really awesome to have there with me the first couple months, as she pretty much kept me grounded throughout the transition to Malaysia. Anyways, I really miss her. This was our goodbye party for her:



Then the week before Ramadan (in September), we threw a potluck party at the office to live it up before the month of fasting. After dancing the pocho-pocho (Malaysian line dancing) to the Pussycat Dolls for a while we all commended to stuff our faces until we couldn't move and have a pretty unproductive rest of the day.




I decided to go to Penang that weekend and visit my friend Damina who was entering the Malaysian bar that Friday. I got to spend my weekend with her and her friends from India and Iraq, both of whom were really sweet and extremely patient when it came down to my prodding questions about the meaning of the "Islamic state"...a concept I'm still trying to understand.

Anyways, Penang is about 4 hours north of Kuala Lumpur and is old colonial town from the times when the British were occupying Malaysia. It's said to have the best food in the country (which I can attest to) as well as the best architecture. Therefore, my whole weekend was pretty much spent sightseeing and eating the best curry puffs, shaved ice dessert and curries. It was amazing.















I also went parasailing~




Then when I got back to work on Tuesday, Ramadan had begun. It really wasn't that difficult or stressful for me to be here during the fasting month...except that I did feel inclined not to eat or drink in front of my coworkers who were all fasting. One thing I did learn however, is that women don't need to fast during their period. I was lucky to have at least one person with me to enjoy lunch with for 3 weeks of the month. After work, I would go break fast with some of the coworkers I've become closest to. We would wait just at the moment when the loud speakers would play the evening prayer and dig in. It was definitely more fun to stuff my face when I partly joined their fast by skipping my lunch too.



My housemate, Leonard threw a "buka puasa" (fast break) party at my house. This is a picture of my housemates and I.





Then midway through September, I took a trip to Singapore. I went to Singapore on a couple days' notice when I realized that my Malaysian visa was one week away from expiring. I guess I was a little bit too relaxed about it until someone told me that if I overextended my 90-day-automatic welcome in this country, I would not only be "removed" but also blacklisted so that I would never be able to come back here again. The next morning, I reserved a hostel and a one-way bus ticket to Singapore.


Singapore is only about 4 1/2 hours away from KL by bus. I got to the hostel at 1 am and, as quietly as I could, climbed onto one of the bunk beds in the room I shared with 12 Australian men. Waking up and getting ready in the gigantic, industrial co-ed bathrooms made me remember the good ol' days of living in the co-ed dorms, but overall it was a really nice hostel. It was a really clean place with free internet, free breakfast and a dozen free activities you could sign up for around the area. While these day activities were one of the main reasons I chose that hostel, I decided that all I wanted to do was walk around alone and get lost.

Photo of the hostel:


A Hindu temple, which was next to a mosque, next to a synagogue next to a Buddhist temple, next to a Church. God should throw a block party here!



Through the wisdom of my tattered, borrowed copy of the Lonely Planet Singapore, I was able to visit two great museums, see the Mid-Autumn festival, walk through the central shopping district where I saw the first sex shop I've seen in months (I'm pretty sure dildos aren't too halal) and generally get a good feel about the town.



View of Lower Clark Quay with all the fancy Western restaurants lining the river.


Here, I had a rest and a nice cold glass of beer and then continued onto the Asian Cilization Museum slightly buzzed.





Then I ate a durian ice cream sandwich (mm~) and later had an amazing vegetarian Indian lunch served on banana leaf.

After walking for about 7 hours that day, I was about ready to pass out to get ready to go back to KL the next morning. But when I was heading upstairs I decided I needed one more drink at the hostel bar to help me achieve comatose sleep. There, I met a brother and sister from northern Arizona on their Southeast Asia trip. After talking to them for a while they invited me to go out with them and their friend.

We ended up sharing a pitcher of Tiger beer at dinner (the local Malaysian beer which boasts that it won the "coolest" beer award in 2005) and heading to one of the biggest electronica clubs on Clark Quay, the Ministry of Sound.



The night as a whole was pretty good, though I think hanging out with this gang was a bit of a reverse culture shock. They kept telling me that they had heard all these bad things about Malaysia and how teeming it is with crime and rape cases, so that they were thinking of flying right over my third homeland and into Thailand. I tried to reassure them that I felt as safe here as I do anywhere else but for some reason they couldn't be convinced otherwise. I was little offended by the fact that they were saying to me that none of this place was worth visiting. Oh well. I guess it's their loss.

More buka puasa outings...


Then the last week of September, my parents, sister and my sister's boyfriend, Dave came to visit me. It was chaotic, busy, and really fun. I had no idea how much I'd learned about Malaysia or how well I've come to know my way around this place. For the most part, we walked around KL, ate good food, and stayed at my place. My family kept getting stomach sicknesses from the food or water here so we ended up not doing as much as I planned, but it was really nice to see them nonetheless. You can never plan for everything.

My family and I at the Batu Caves, a Hindu holy site.





This baby monkey's face is amazing.



My mom makes friends easily...


On the bus back home to KL.















Then we went to Redang Island, which lies on the northern east coast of Malaysia. We snorkeled, kayaked, karaoke'd, hammocked and ate. It was 3 days of heaven.











My parents exploring the low tides.



Leaving paradise...



Hanami and I, the day everyone flew home.




I'm just going to stop there for now. At least I caught up to October... woohoo~!!

I'll be posting on Hari Raya in the next couple days so check up again soon...

Peace.

"SIS Surprised by ban on 2005 book"

"Hey we're late!! Chepap!"

Bahasa Malaysia words of the day:
Berapa harganya ini? - How much does this cost?
kerang - cockles
ikan keli - catfish
biri-biri - mutton
babi - pork
chupat - hurry up!
chepap - pussy

Recent obsessions:
sentimental books
my new little houseplant and the worm inside the pot which keeps attempting a suicidal escape


The past week has pretty much been a euphoric celebration of having my health back again...more great food, impulsive purchases of dirt cheap pirated DVDs, drinking, birthday celebrations and in general, a new found sense of homeyness I have come to appreciate about KL. My sister has always said that it always takes a sickness to really feel at home with any new place you move to, and I think she's totally right.


Some SISters and I went to University Malaya (UM) on Thursday to eat lunch with an ex-coworker who just left to do research on Malaysian economic development. While we ate our noodles the sky instantaneously turned ominously gray and it started to pour. Really pour. This is a photo of us all completely drenched and very late for work.


Some of my lovely coworkers.


On Friday, I rushed home and got ready to go out again to meet a friend and quench a raging sushi craving, followed by a 30 minute foot dunk into a tank of flesh eating fish. [Oh the circle of life...] It felt like my feet where being poked by hundreds of dull pencil tips. For the first 10 minutes, I couldn't keep them in longer than a few seconds without wanting to piss myself, but I eventually got used to it. When they were done with their meal, my feet felt like satin sheets. Amazing. And weird. Mostly weird.



Photo of a decorated tree in Bukit Bintang, the KL equivalent of Sunset Blvd.



I started out my Saturday, lounging around at home, went swimming for a while and cleaned my house until I had to go to the Crown Princess Hotel in Ampang Park for a talk by Dr. John Esposito called "The Future of Islam: Reformation or Stagnation?" and hosted by SIS. The talk was mainly about the misrepresentation and assumptions made about Islam by non-Muslims and Muslims alike. One of the best points he made (which I hadn't even thought of before) was the fact that Islam is currently portrayed as a violent religion. Yet if you think about it, Christian nations (or Christianity itself), has probably caused much more insane amounts of violence and war over the centuries than Islam ever could at this point (think Spanish Crusades, WWII, and European colonialism ALL over the world...)

The fact of the matter is, the principles of Islam like Christianity, is based upon 2 fundamental things: Their holy text and the interpretations that are claimed to be grounded with it. The Qur'an has pretty much stayed the same since the 7th Century, but what has constantly and reliably changed is the social context in which it is read and understood by people. The main point about his talk was that Islam should never be simplified or consolidated to a series of assumptions or ideas. Not only is it constantly evolving throughout the ages, "it" really isn't any singular set of ideas or beliefs. Millions of Muslims interpret it in their own unique way to make it relevant for themselves, and therefore saying anything that begins with, "The Muslims think/believe/practice/claim that..." is in itself a fallacy.
Anyways, it was a great talk AND I got to take this great awkward picture with him after it was over.



After that, I went to a little mixer hosted by a new friend I met at Barcamp Malaysia a couple weeks ago. This guy, Khailee, I swear knows everyone and their Malaysian mommas. So needless to say it was a charming group of people, some of whom were journalists, photojournalists, Ruby developers, tech dudes, and entrepreneurs. There's nothing like having great conversations about everything from politics to tongue rings over a nice glass of wine.


That's all for now. I also made another blog for my other random thoughts, haikus and writings that don't necessarily have to do with life in Malaysia. If you're interested: www.mairasutton.blogspot.com

Until next time.

Before arriving here I had decided that getting horribly sick was going to be one inevitable step in adapting to life in Malaysia. 5 weeks later, it has finally come in the form of a brutal body cold that has temporarily robbed me of my voice, any interest in food or the will to do anything other than lie around my apartment and stare blankly into space.

I just came back from the university hospital. I got 7 different numbers just to get a fever medication. A number to check in, to give them my home address and phone number, to get my weight and temperature taken, to get my throat looked at, to get a prescription from the doctor, to give the pharmacy the note, then to buy the meds. In the waiting room, a small child vomited behind me and an old man next to me kept playing with his bag of urine. As I continued to wait and watch the red digital numbers incrementally increase, the only comforting thought I had was that as a foreigner I was getting much better treatment that I could get in the U.S., and the fact that I only paid RM 10 ($3.20) to see a doctor and get medication. Despite all of this, I'm glad they could tell me that I don't have strep throat and that it's just a very bad cold. I don't get sick that often but when I do, I lose my mind, panic and convince myself that I'm relapsing with mono. Oh well.


This blog entry is going to be ridiculously long since I've been feeling a little blog-constipated lately so...bear with me.

A summary of what I've been up to recently:

I spent two weekends ago at a beach resort town called Port Dickson where I was paid to take the minutes for an evaluation and planning meeting for the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG). It's a coalition of 5 womens' organizations that work together for a common agenda to end women's discrimination and fight government policies that purposefully make life more difficult for women. It was a little stressful, given that I was still making sense of Malaysian politics and that many of the acronyms sounded like actual words and vice versa. All in all, I learned alot about the Malaysian women's movement and realized how much I take for granted as a woman in the U.S. For example, the government isn't attempting to make high heels illegal for women on the basis that the "clicking" noise they make are too enticing for men.
The sound is too sexy...? so bizarre.

Then last Saturday, I went to a conference called Barcamp, which is part of a network of user generated events focused on early-stage web applications, relate open source technologies, social protocols, open data formats and entrepreneurship.

I found out about it online and it really turned out to be really fun and a great networking opportunity. I went to workshops on Entrepreneurship in Malaysia, increasing efficiency in the workplace, Ruby on Rails, as well as many others. The best part was meeting so many passionate, innovative entrepreneurs who were all there to share their knowledge and ideas about business and technology. I pitched GIIP and SIS to everyone I met and many people were interested in learning more about the program, helping me with my senior thesis research or just giving me travel tips in Southeast Asia.

Me with some guys I met at Barcamp.


Sunday, SIS had their first mobile legal clinic in Klang (40 minutes east of KL) where we gave a workshop on legal rights of married women and families on issues of divorce, labor, property, domestic abuse and polygamy. I'm planning on making a mini-documentary/promotional video about this event and the impact it's making on women's lives.

Some women registering for the clinic.


The participants.


Handing out our pamphlets and brochures.


Then Monday, I went to a workshop on Islam in Southeast Asia with a focus on civil society and the environmental movement. It was a workshop for various professors, journalists and researchers exploring various aspects of the emerging Islamic environmental movement, to share their individual papers and to brainstorm ideas for new areas of research. I finally got to meet the guy that got me connected with SIS because he spoke at the event, and thanked him for everything he did. Although I didn't get to talk to him very much, I think he was glad to know that my internship's working out.





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some more photo re-capping:




One of the women at SIS took us out to lunch last week at this restaurant that serves food from the Kelantan state, which lies at the border of Thailand and Malaysia.



This catfish was just...amazing. It was slow barbequed in a way that gave it a crispy skin on the outside with amazingly soft, juicy flesh on the inside. I also ate sliced coconut/ground up dried fish salad, some stewed vegetables, curried escargot and curried beef.



testing driving a burqa. it's pretty suffocating to wear one of those...I can't imagine what it's like to have to all the time.

That's it for now. Gonna go wash this hospital smell off of me and pass out for the rest of the day.

Peace.

Chapter 1

It's been a month since I've arrived in KL. Shit. Has it really been that long? Or that short...? When I meet someone new and I come to the point when I have to tell them how long I've been here, I just can't get myself to say that m-word...it always seems to get stuck in my throat and I end up telling them that its been 4 or 5 weeks. How long am I gonna keep this up? I'm not sure but I think I've come to understand why new parents count their baby's age in weeks ("He was born right before Christmas so it's been 32 weeks!" ...)

Anyways. A couple of exciting new developments in my now semi-new home:
- My roommate got a TV = Olympics and Malaysian soap operas. Woo!
- just realized that my washing machine sings a song when the laundry is done. I think it's the cutest thing ever. (especially since I grew up in a house with a dryer that made the most obscene honking noise in the middle of the night.)
- the new 7-11 which magically appeared on my block in a matter of days
- finally started cooking food at home! ...despite the fact that it's more expensive, more laborious and more time consuming than eating out. it's still awesome to be able to make miso soup at home.
- FINALLY got a gym card after going to the management office SIX TIMES (a long story which only makes me relive my frustration to the point that I pop a vein on my eyeball every time I retell it)
- have decided only to smile at female neighbors as I pass them by because too many guys have gotten the wrong idea by this minor friendly gesture



Right before seeing Dark Knight with my new hilarious friends from work. (Doesn't pertain to the rest of the post but whatev)


I'm not sure why I started off this post with the most mundane developments in my life, but now I'm sleepy and I realized I have to wake up early to go to a conference on "Islam in Southeast Asia" at University Malaya. One of the speakers is the professor/activist/blogger who got me connected to SIS so I'm pretty much required to go stalk him.

Preview for the next entries: JAG E&P meeting, new SIS projects, and most importantly, Barcamp...!


Cheers.

KL at night