We be Chiffin'

This is Cif.
Cif is wonderful!
"C"'s are pronounced with a "Ch" sound here.
So when you say "Cif," it should sound like "Chif"

Cif is like my wonderful Clorox brand "Soft-scrub with Bleach"
but with a milder, fresher lemony smell.
Except here, Soft-Scrub costs about RM15.00 and Cif is RM2.00.
RM2.00 is like .58 cents.
$0.58 and it gives you these kinds of results...
That's no shadow on the floor in the upper part of the picture.
This is not a doctored photo.
This is a chiffed photo.
This week we and Justin and Daniela have been cleaning our office/guesthouse.
Justin and Daniela were the ones that revealed Cif to us.
Thanks guys.
The Off-House gets cleaned... but it was in need of a deep clean.
A Cif clean.

Here's a light switch crying out to be chiffed.
Incredible. Took off layers of paint and grime.
I have no idea if they sell this in the states.
But if you see some, buy it.
The we can all be chiffin'!

Kraf Day...

We decided to take a field trip to the "Institut Kraf Negara" (the National Craft Institute) the other day. We were hoping to buy some batik cloth pieces- for cheap! Turns out they only sell the items the students learn to make in November at their graduation...but it's sold "at cost" so we've marked our calendars to go back then...

The students are there for 3 years studying a particular traditional handi-craft. The school was amazing and the things the students make are incredible. Take a look!
That's a REAL anvil...like a "Coyote and Roadrunner Acme Anvil" anvil...cool...She weaved all of that, thread by thread...This is how they apply the wax to make "batik"... how cool!And here's an almost finished batik piece...We call 'dibs' on this one come November!!These girls from the "Rattan School" made me a little souvenir butterfly! Yay what a fun day at the Kraf Institut...

Waiting for the dinner bell...

These pictures were taken on a couple different nights. The fasting month of Ramadan has begun . Kakak and Abang (and their older daughters) will fast from food and water from sunrise to sunset everyday. The sun sets around 7:15 here so about an hour before folks just ride their motorbikes around waiting for the 'tone' (from the TV or the local mosque) to indicate when they can eat.

Here's Kakak and Abang's kids waiting at their grandparents house for the dinner bell (the kid in the orange shirt is Kakak's youngest brother).
Even though we don't fast, Kakak and Abang still invite us over to eat or "open the fast" with them. We don't mind at all...we've decided that Kakak is one of the best cooks in the country. Abang LOVES good food and so his wife's cooking reflects his taste for the best. Here are Kakak and I with a salmon that she broiled all day... (Kakak looks a little rough, but that's actually the face she likes to make in pictures...I call it her 'supermodel' face...that and she was a bit hungry in the picture)

If you're an avid "Anthony and Sharon Blog" reader then you may remember last year we played with fireworks and sparklers every night after eating. (And one night I made a trip to the clinic after a mishap with one of the sparklers).

Well this year there are no fireworks or sparklers. So what do we do after eating without them?
Fireworks are illegal here (like they're illegal in Florida but everyone ends up with a bag-full from Tennessee one way or another). Turns out the 'fireworks guy' Abang always buys them from got caught by the police. Oh well...the food is good and we love hanging out with our friends!

Cultural Lesson #82

Many times here we miss home...we miss the familiar. New cultures can be frustrating when we don't know exactly how to act, or why people do things the way they do. We think "Grrr. If they would just do it this way or like that it would be so much easier!"

But sometimes things come up, like a question from our host out in the village this week, that make us realize just because something from home is familiar, doesn't mean it's easy to understand.

We were asked this question:
"In America do you really walk inside a house with your shoes on?"

American Culture: The Rules of Footwear in a Home

1. If you are visiting someone’s house for the first time and are not friends with the person, do not remove your shoes unless the owner insists. This is usually done inside the home or at the doorway.

2. If you are visiting a friend or relative’s house, you may take your shoes off if you are staying for a while, but its not necessary if the visit is only a few minutes.

3. If you own the home, you can do whatever you want. You can wear shoes anywhere in the house and take them off anywhere: in the garage, your bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, wherever you like (but wives usually appreciate them being stored neatly in the closet).

4. Children may wear shoes inside or leave them outside. Some parents allow their kids to leave their shoes anywhere. Normally, shoes must be put in a closet. If a toddler is wearing the shoes (and so requires help with them) parents may leave the toddler’s shoes on as it’s more convenient for a quick trip to the grocery store or if the kid decides he/she wants to play outside.

5. If your shoes are messy then it is understood that you would have the decency to remove them before entering.

6. Flip-flops, easily removable sandals or shoes that slide on without laces have a set of rules all their own. You may take these off in any person’s house, provided you are sitting down. If you get up, the flip-flop/sandal/slide is usually put back on. If your feet or flip-flops/sandals/slides are emitting an odor, leave them on at all times. If you are at a friend’s house, you can take them off wherever and put them back on when you leave...but it's still understood that leaving them at the door is the best place.

7. Of course, there are some people who wish for everyone (family and all visitors) to take off their shoes before entering - only by experience can you know who these people are. Good luck with that.

What is implied:
* Taking off shoes indicates familiarity with the owner of the house. If you are not on familiar terms, you do not take your shoes off. Included in the instructions “Make yourself at home” is the act of taking off your shoes. A good friend wouldn’t think twice about whether or not he could take off his shoes while visiting, but an Avon Saleswoman would.

* The floor is dirty (even if it’s been vacuumed or mopped twice) and is used for walking on. The floor in the living room is usually open for sitting on while watching TV, but a sofa or recliner is preferred, and the possibility of having to sit on the floor increases if there are a lot of people watching TV. Also, if you are a sweaty kid your mom may instruct you to not sit on the couch because you are dirty…you belong on the floor.

Note: Some of you may be thinking..."wait, that's not how I grew up." Which just proves our point even more...this part of our culture doesn't follow an EXACT rule and many of them are just picked up on the way...outsiders would go 'Grrr!" trying to understand it.

Asian Culture: The Rules of Footwear in a Home

1. Always take your shoes off before entering any home.

What is implied:
* The floor is clean and is a place to sit, eat, and lay on. Shoes are dirty. You have no idea what you’ve stepped in and by taking them off you are showing respect to the owner of the house (and his wife who cleans it).

Village People for another week...

So we decided to visit our friends again in the village about 3 hours from the city.
The village is next to Mt. Smile. We talked about "Mt. Smile" in the previous posts, but we figured we'd post a picture so you could try and see why it's named that...
Look carefully... it's like a man is laying down and you can see the profile of his face. The nose is obvious (big part right in the middle)...but you may have to click on it to see it better. OR better yet, come visit us and you can see it in person!It's kinda like the man in the moon...I think everybody sees the face a bit differently.

We also visited a wooden-craft school where students learn to make things out of wood. Very cool! (the guy's mullet is pretty sweet too)Even though we're staying in a village way out of town, the family we're staying with has got a gorgeous home. Complete with a Coi Pond!

Fireworks!

Sunday evening was the conclusion of an International Fireworks Competition. Several countries had been competing for the last couple weeks and Sunday was the culmination (and I think combination) of the countries' efforts (Australia, Japan, and a couple other countries)We went with Justin and Daniela and got great seats. It was fun and a perfect way to conclude the Independence Day weekend (or celebrate the Labor Day weekend...depending on what way you look at it!) ...sorry they're not the greatest pictures...it was fun nonetheless!

Happy 31st of August!!!

Here, that's like saying, 'Happy 4th of July!"
It's Independence Day...and not just ANY Independence Day...
today marked 50 Years of Independence!

So that meant a parade.
There's lots of fun colorful pictures, so just click to make the ones bigger that you want to see.

We woke up early to make it downtown for the BIG parade. (by "BIG" we don't mean Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade Big, we mean, um, well, less big than that, but better than say Wauchula's Annual Homecoming Parade...)

The super cool things (for us anyway) were all the foreign dignitaries that showed up and the aircraft. The foreign representatives cars were all parked along a main street...we tried to find flags of some of the countries we knew (Cara this is why I told you to look here)


If you look on the screen, you'll see a tall white guy... That's Prince Andrew of England! The Sultan of Brunei was also there (his entourage was proof that he is worthy of his, "More money than the Sultan of Brunei" saying...if you can come up with more pomp than that man, then you must have money...sorry no pictures..we were too mesmerized!). The Prime Ministers from Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as the President of the Philippines were all in attendance. There were other important people there, but some were more important than others.

We had planned on watching fireworks that night, but apparently the baby decided to have a growth spurt and (so I've been told) the ligaments in my hips hurt. But there's a huge fireworks display this weekend, so maybe we'll make it to that.
As always...stay tuned....

Riang? I don't think so...

Here's another post from our 2 week stay in a village about 3 hours from the city...

This is a "Riang" bug.



Riang means "happy" or "fun"
It's basically a cross between a Palmetto bug (in Florida...very noisy bugs in trees that make noise at dusk) and a cockroach. It flies around very crazy-like, like its having fun.

You must know that, thanks to a combination of the fact that roaches are gross and my mom is scared to death of them and instilled a healthy dose of fear in me for roaches, the "Riang" wasn't what I called fun.

Between our host holding it (and subsequently taking it outside and releasing it instead of killing it which was my recommendation) the Riang bug flew back inside and into my hair. Needless to say the family we were staying with got a good show of a white lady freaking out!

Then my wonderful husband lost his mind...

"To the bat cave!"

Mt. Smile is actually a mountain that has a very extensive cave system within it. Part of it is accessible without equipment (a nice boardwalk on the inside).The mountain is so cool as it literally just shoots up out of the ground...it's flat until you get to the entrance of the caves. Like any cave there are bats inside, but they were all asleep when we went in...ya just gotta be careful and not touch the rocks too much- there's only one place bat poo goes- down.

Here's us inside the caves (sorry, this was the best our camera could do)
It got pretty dark inside. Here's from the inside looking out:
It was a great place to look around and explore.Back down at the campgrounds (where we had been taken the day before in our banana suits) the festivities were still going on. Dressed in normal clothes hardly anyone noticed us - it was so fun! These ladies were playing "Tolak Tali" or "Rope Push." They also had "Tarik Tali," which is "Rope Pull," what we Americans know as "Tug O War," but this particular version you have to turn around the other way and 'push' the rope. Only the ladies did it this way. It was interesting - way more people fell down "pushing" the rope than "pulling" it. Lots of fun.
We hope you enjoyed this post... it's proof that we really do enjoy the culture when we're not thrust to the front in situations that get us stared at. It was a very pleasant experience exploring the caves and watching the field events from the sidelines in relative anonymity.

20 minutes and banana suits

So when we set out at 9am for the wedding with the ginormous pots, (read post before this one) we were only supposed to stay for 20 minutes.

Our host said, "Oh, I just need to go by and say hi and you guys can greet the family. They're preparing right now for the wedding so it's real casual. Then we'll go up to Mt. Smile. It'll only take about 20 minutes."

20 minutes?

Yeah right.
When white people show up things change. But we had no idea just how out of control it was gonna get.

Mt. Smile was having a huge carnival type thing and we were looking forward to it.

Keep up with the math...we got there at 9am...

At 11:10 or so we finally left the wedding site with 2 borrowed traditional outfits (Both yellow, mine looked a lot like the surface of the sun) and instructions that we were to go put them on, I was to put on make-up, a lady would then come and assist us with a few of the details of the outfits and we were to return to the wedding at 12 to be the Best Man and Maid of Honor for the bride and groom.

We already felt weird as people looked and talked about us like we were dolls to be dressed up, but then to find out we were taking the place of the best friends of the bride and groom and we didn't even know them made us feel horrible! But all the women in charge were insisting and they wouldn't take no for an answer.

So back at the house we put on the basics of the outfits.
Anthony's boxers showed through his pants, and the waist of the skirt I had to wear could have fit a 3 year old snuggly.

Then the lady showed up to help us.
And things got worse. (You must remember it's 1000 degrees outside)

She got out the head covering for me.
But it wasn't a regular one (like what she's wearing)
It was the kind a BRIDE wears...and ONLY a bride.

You can see the excitement all over my face.
Then luckily she brought out a waist covering for Anthony, so it hid his boxers. But men only wear the waist thing at their weddings and on the first day after Ramadan. They wear jeans and shirts to weddings. They also brought a traditional Muslim hat for Anthony to wear, except they couldn't find one to fit him so it sat funny on top of his head. He also didn't have any shoes to wear but flip-flops so several men asked him straight up with a disgusted tone in their voice, "Why are you wearing slippers?"
While we were getting dressed, the village leader came over.
Here was the short dialogue which insured we'd have one of the most awkward and frustrating afternoons since we got here (we're laughing about it now, but weren't then)

Village Leader- "Where are the white people? They need to come up to Mt. Smile and get interviewed right now."
Our Host- "Oh, they can't come right now. They're dressing up right now in traditional outfits and have to go to a wedding first."
Village Leader- "Oh really?! Then just bring them up to Mt. Smile wearing the outfits!"

Nice.

So off to the wedding we went.
EVERYONE was pointing to us in our banana outfits and saying, "Pegantin! HAHA!" (Which means "BRIDE!" or "GROOM"...it was so humiliating. We've been to several weddings and this was definitely out of the norm which is why we were so embarrassed)

Check out the hat and the "slippers"... (it would do no good to try and explain they are from JCrew)
And this us eating at the seats of honor.
By this point Anthony's back was completely soaked through with sweat.

Then it was off to Mt. Smile.
Here's some of the crowd at Mt. Smile.
There were a couple hundred people there.
And we experienced another dose of "PEGANTIN! LOOK! PEGANTIN!"
Since we're taller than 90% of the population here and were wearing the brightest outfits in the history of the world, everyone was staring at us.

The supposed interview that we were to have (because they wanted to interview white people who could speak Bahasa) was slow in coming. Then our Host finally found out after another hour or so that it was a newspaper interview and that the reporter wasn't even there yet.
So we left.

Safe to say it was the longest 20 minutes of our lives!