Things I Have Observed - July - Keep Checking Back

Saturday, July 28

-  bumper sticker:  Allah loves you
-  senior citizens being called 'golden citizens'
-  male washroom cleaners going in to ladies' washrooms at any odd time and without closing down the washroom as they would in Canada to clean and mop.  If feels very awkward to go into a stall and have a man cleaning the stall across from you.
-  singing a Brian Derksen (Abbotsford singer and songwriter) song in Malaysia
-  a guy on a motorcycle driving along carrying an 8 foot stepladder in one hand
-  a family of four (including two children aged about 4 and 6 years) on one motorcycle
-  a typical cow here is very gaunt, ribs sticking out
-  chickens have extraordinary long skinny legs (and taste chewier here; more about food in another blog)

Monday, July 30

-  while looking for cleaning products at the grocery store I came across a bright yellow bottle of cleaning liquid used not only for cleaning statues (idols?) but also brings, it says, good luck.  I will write down the name of it . . . check back
-  at the food court tonight at about 6:00 there were pretty much only Caucasians eating there, perhaps 3 or 4 families.  We passed by later at about 7:45, right as the sun was going down, and it was the busiest we have ever seen it with no Caucasians in sight.  It is the "celebration" of Ramadan right now and faithful Muslims are only allowed to eat before the sun comes up and after the sun goes down.  Correlation?
-  met Mariana today - looks like she will be our amah (house helper).  More later.
-  bought a van today.  More later.
-  no "pennies" here.  All totals are rounded either up or down to the nearest 5 "sen" increment.  There is also no country tax, except one place I have found:  A hotel resort where I bought lunch and a Coke one day.  On that meal there was also a 'tourist tax'.

Tuesday, July 31

-  at the church on Sunday I noticed that while the songs were in English, there was a distinct pronunciation difference with words like "is" that end in an "s".  We make the "s" sound like a "z" at times so it is quaint (best way to put it?) to hear "is" pronounced "isss" very consistently
-  men seem to walk around outside their home in their boxers, or at least that is what their "shorts" look exactly like
-  people throw their garbage (or is it an offering to their god??) in the river which is on our way to school.  We have seen this happen twice now and looking down at the bend of the river we can see all these little garbage bags, smaller than a shopping bag but brightly coloured like pink, collecting there