Malaysia update!

ell, unfortunately, the gentleman that had invited us to lunch had to cancel - at his age, his health is frail and he wasn't feeling good. So, we got to eat the Apple pie that Allya's mother had prepared for him, and it was amazingly good. We are going to send him a gift for a quick healing.

In the meantime, I got to visit the school in which Allya and her brother went to school. It is a catholic private school and we visited with one of her old teachers. He is from Ireland and has been in Malaysia since 1951. He and I spoke on politics and life in general, but overall had a great conversation on many things.

Allya's mother is feverishly working on the gathering we are to have. Apparently, traditional malay weddings call for anyone and everyone to come - on the scale of 3-500 people. However, ours is going to be very small.. ONLY 167. Of the people coming, family and friends. This plans to be a cultural ceremony, encompassing the traditional malay dress - you can research that on google or wait for my pictures. To my astonishment, the outfit that I will be wearing is going to cost over 12,000 ringgit, with about 1 dollar to 3 ringgit, it's over $3,000 worth. I am humbled by the fact that they are providing this for me, and don't know how to conduct myself, but as such - I think my natural response of humbleness is the right one.

Today, I got to meet my father-in-law. His family, or rather my family, is very loving, open, and embracing of me. We were treated to a tremendous feast of various local fruits, all of which I tried to my liking, and an assortment of fish - apparently mackeral - and 100 year old egg, and a delecacy of jellyfish. I stayed away from the latter two, but was open to try it... I just waited too long to try it and it was gone by the time I was ready to eat it. Pearl took her first real crawling 'steps' at this time while we were there, and since then - she has been crawling like a real baby, as opposed to her soldier crawl as she's been doing. I give her another month or so before walking...

More and more family is arriving by the day. They are some of the warmest people I've ever met and they embrace the fact that I open and interested by the culture, religion, and respect their views - and as such - they respect mine.

I realize that I write more about the people than anything else. I am really taken back by them. Not just the family, but everyone in general. This culture is much different than the states, but in every way a good different. The family is placed in the highest regard, along with the community. Respect for the elders is very much prevalent, as is seen with the simple greetings with the oldest first.

Overall, the weather is no different than Miami during the summer - It's hot, humid, and rains nearly every afternoon/evening. The food is a cultural blend of Chinese, Indian, and Malay traditional foods (Durien). So, with that - my hopes of losing weight on this trip because I don't eat sea food have been squashed... The food here is amazing, and the new foods I am trying are very tasty - seadop, as is the malay word for delicious.

I hope to speak to everyone for the new year, tomorrow - and will try and call. Phone calls are very cheap here. We spent 12 minutes on the phone with my mother and it cost us just over 2 ringgit. Or, about 5-10 cents a minute. The only problem is the time zone thing, as it is anywhere from 9-12 hours difference. When I wake up, you are going to bed... and when I go to bed, you all are waking up!!